— Musings —04.11.2017 11:08 AM
This is how you do crisis comms, United Airlines (updated)
From the York Region District School Board trustees, facing a bit of a challenge of their own.
- Be proactive
- Be clear
- No jargon
- Take responsibility
- Say what you are going to do to fix the problem…
- Then fix it
UPDATE: Being proactive and taking full responsibility is working for them, looks like. Just saw the Minister of Education on TV, saying: “I am very pleased to see that trustees are moving forward and wanting to take action in a positive direction. They understand the urgent need to restore the confidence in the York Region School Board.”
You’re the veteran, not me, but the two issues are pretty different. York responded to a months-long report. They knew it was coming, and would be aware of the results. I wouldn’t be surprised if they board was given a draft report in order to prepare a response before its public release. So while I too agree the board’s response is to be commended (in that they followed pretty standard comms best practices), I don’t see the parallel to the absolute gong show of a PR nightmare that hit United in an instant, and played out in real time with millions of viewers.