Political Scandals, Professionalism, and Public Relations: Best Practices & Lessons Learned Political Scandals, Professionalism, and Public Relations: Best Practices & Lessons Learned Dr. Hollie Smith, URI AASHTO Annual Meeting 2017 Mystic, CT May 8, 2017
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Political Scandals, Professionalism, and Public Relations:
Best Practices & Lessons Learned
Political Scandals, Professionalism, and Public Relations:
“This is an upsetting event to all of us here at United. I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers. Our team is moving with a sense of urgency to work with the authorities and conduct our own detailed review of what happened. We are also reaching out to this passenger to talk directly to him and further address and resolve this situation.”
– Oscar Munoz, CEO, United Airlines
PR Response 2Monday Evening: Internal Emails go Public
PR Response 2Monday Evening: Internal Emails go Public
“As you will read, this situation was unfortunately compounded when one of the passengers we politely asked to deplane refused and it became necessary to contact Chicago Aviation Security Officers to help. Our employees followed established procedures for dealing with situations like this. While I deeply regret this situation arose, I also emphatically stand behind all of you, and I want to commend you for continuing to go above and beyond to ensure we fly right.”
PR Response 3Tuesday Morning: It’s Never Too Late
PR Response 3Tuesday Morning: It’s Never Too Late
“I want you to know that we take full responsibility and we will work to make it
right…. It’s never too late to do the right thing.”
CEO Oscar MunozCEO Oscar Munoz
• PR Week Communicator of the Year 2016
• Stepping down
Public ResponsePublic Response
What do we learn?Internal & external communication is important
What do we learn?Internal & external communication is important
• Slow and insufficient public response
• Internal response denied responsibility
• Third response came after increased public outcry at lack of action taken
What else do we learn?Everyone is a journalistWhat else do we learn?Everyone is a journalist
• Social media culture
• Requires a heightened understanding of the complexity of audiences and interaction
• Advances the news cycle more quickly
Key LessonsKey Lessons
• Internal / External communication must match
• It doesn’t matter if it is your fault / take responsibility to fix it
• Address why the issue happened in the first place
• Respond directly the first time
Where the work happensWhere the work happens
Real physical risk
Public response
Planning & PracticingPlanning & Practicing
InternalReactive:• Who calls who• Who can make decisions• When to reach out to
other agencies
Proactive:• Building corporate
ExternalReactive:• Who is a spokesperson• Content guidelines for all
forms of media• What are the guidelines
for actionProactive:• Preparing statements and
communicators
Internal: Focus on Organizational CultureInternal: Focus on Organizational Culture
• Day-to-day decision making and habits– What is acceptable?– What is the process when someone makes a
mistake?– Collaborative, hostile, or neither?– Do people identify with their work?