- Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared in March 2014, while flying from Malaysia to China, with 12 Malaysian crew members and 227 passengers from 15 nations aboard.Lessons learned: Tell the truth and tell what you know when you know it. Communications were fraught with confusion and contradictions. The government didn’t release data and searchers were in the wrong location for days. In any crisis, but especially in matters of life and death, it’s important to provide accurate information so that you are a trusted, credible source.
- Texas Presbyterian Hospital diagnosed the first U.S. case of Ebola after Thomas Duncan showed up in the emergency department. Duncan is at first misdiagnosed and sent home, then admitted two days later. Two nurses are later diagnosed with Ebola.Lessons learned: When lives are at stake, you must communicate as quickly and as transparently as possible, and provide clear guidance on what to do. And, if something goes wrong, you must apologize and reassure your stakeholders that you are taking steps to make sure it doesn’t happen again. It took much too long (11 days) for a hospital spokesperson to apologize. Let’s hope the hospital can recover its reputation just as the two nurses recovered from Ebola.
- Target’s data breach occurred during the 2013 holiday shopping season – affecting 40 million customers – and the aftermath continues. Target apparently did not take action when it received alerts from its security system before the data was stolen. Both the chief information officer and CEO later resigned.Lessons learned: Tell it first. No one wants to share bad news, but Target didn’t tell its customers until after a blogger revealed the breach weeks later. Had Target informed its customers, as Home Depot did under similar circumstances, they might have preserved customer loyalty. Home Depot actually had a larger breach but communicated much more effectively, focusing on the “fix” and steps it was taking to protect its customers.
- Ed FitzGerald tried to portray himself as a “victim” when news reports reveal the Democratic candidate for governor of Ohio was in a car with another woman in the middle of the night and, worse yet, drove without a valid driver’s license for decades.Lessons learned: FitzGerald should have accepted responsibility and apologized. Instead, he sent an email saying his family was focused on his son’s health issues, not on “gutter politics.” (A diagnosis of non-Hodgkin lymphoma had previously been “off limits” during the campaign.) FitzGerald’s efforts to portray himself as a “victim” made a bad situation even worse. Using a child’s illness to distract from your own wrongdoing is offensive to anyone smart enough to see through the tactic.
- The NFL’s botched handling of domestic violence cases, especially that of Ravens running back Ray Rice. To recap, after TMZ released video of Ray Rice dragging his unconscious fiancé (now his wife) out of an elevator, Rice was suspended for two games. At a news conference, his wife apologized for her part – and the Ravens tweeted HER apology! Eventually, we saw the videotape of Rice punching his wife inside the elevator and the NFL suspended Rice indefinitely – a decision that is now on appeal.Lessons learned: Never blame the victim. In this case, the only reason for the NFL to discipline Rice before reviewing the videotape from inside the elevator was to keep a talented player on the field. They showed more concern for winning a football game than they showed for a victim of domestic violence – forgetting, along the way, their female fan base and everyone else who reacts with horror to a 200-pound athlete assaulting a female.
- Colleges and universities struggle to address sexual violence on campus in response to numerous media reports and the Department of Education’s investigations for possible Title IX violations. Big-name schools from throughout the country – most recently the University of Virginia – have been spotlighted in news reports and most college administrations have struggled to respond.Lessons learned: First, do the right thing; then you will have a good story to tell. Historically, crimes of sexual violence have been veiled in secrecy. Victims are finally speaking out publicly – and that’s a good thing. Bringing these crimes out of the shadows will encourage other victims to come forward and result in more criminal prosecutions. Colleges and universities must do a better job of dealing with these cases and communicating transparently, rather than counting on victims to remain quiet.
- Ferguson, Missouri, has been the site of protests since a police officer fatally shot 18-year-old Michael Brown on August 9. It’s hard to find another case where so much was mishandled – from leaving Brown’s body in the street for several hours, to police showing up at peaceful protests in riot gear, to arresting journalists who were there to report about the unrest. And for some mysterious reason, the prosecutor announced the grand jury’s decision not to indict at 9 p.m., leading to another night of intense rioting, looting, burning and mayhem.Lessons learned: So many lessons to be learned from this case. Certainly, do the right thing. But it’s also important to admit mistakes quickly and apologize. And then say what you will do to correct your mistakes. It took six weeks for Police Chief Thomas Jackson to apologize, and it was at best an awkward apology. Visuals matter, especially in these days of social media. Photos of police blocking the entrance to the Justice Center say far more about access to justice than all the statements from elected officials. I don’t pretend to know why Michael Brown was shot, but a display of compassion and concern might have reduced the anger.
- It took GM more than a decade to correct a faulty ignition switch traced to at least 30 deaths and 31 serious injuries. A jostling of or too much weight on the faulty switch caused the ignition to slip from “on” to “accessory” so that air bags and electric steering were deactivated. At last count, more than 30 million cars have been recalled because, apparently, no one within the organization took the problem seriously enough to do something about it.Lessons learned: By all counts, GM’s new CEO Mary Barra has done a good job of communicating. Just as the crisis communications rule book dictates, she has admitted mistakes, apologized and said what she will do to make sure it never happens again. But this is not just about crisis communications; it’s also about changing the culture within GM so that whistleblowers are not ignored. Employees must feel comfortable coming forward when there’s a problem. Barra says she wants GM to be “the most valued automotive company” and the “safest in the industry.” She has a lot of work to do to make that happen.