While her New York Times colleagues try to link this week-end’s violence to everything from Globalization to climate change to 9-11, in my opinion Roxane Gay captures the visceral sense of hopelessness felt by black Americans. Something is seriously wrong, and “no one is coming to save us”.

There’s a question a lot of people are asking themselves in May and June of 2020–could it get any worse? A global pandemic, economic collapse, record unemployment–and now, to the south, an apparent collapse in law and order as rogue police officers take innocent lives and civil unrest, perhaps inevitably, follows suit.

The answer to this question is, of course: yes. It can get worse. Noted American author James Follows provides some important historical context.

The most traumatic year in recent American history—1968—offers some disquieting lessons for the present.

Source: 1968 and 2020: Lessons From America’s Worst Year – The Atlantic

What you want to do in any kind of political crisis is get out in front of the story by being the first one responding, being utterly transparent with the most complete and accurate message you can muster and then try to move on. What you want to avoid is having unanswered questions left to linger, which promotes other actors taking further steps that may not be in alignment with your goals.

The problem with the political crisis now engulfing the UK government is that they broke all those rules. It was a holiday long week-end and they delayed answering until  Monday night after the story broke on Friday.

The answers, when they did come, failed to appear completely transparent. Those delivering the message  were left with a very small piece of real estate to stand on:  I did what I did, I acknowledge others may have responded differently but I’m not going to apologize. Thin gruel for citizens

who obeyed the lock down rules, missing important family events like a parent’s funeral.

And, now you have other ministers resigning.

It will keep going, because they’ve lost control and new events beyond their control will keep the story alive:

Minister for Scotland Douglas Ross quits as MPs press PM’s adviser to consider his position

Source: Tory revolt grows as minister resigns over Dominic Cummings’ lockdown trip | Politics | The Guardian

So, you’re the Prime Minister. Your chief advisor is under attack for ignoring travel restrictions during a global pandemic. Thousands are calling for a resignation to prove there is not one set of rules for the powerful, and another set for the rest. What do you do?

Hold a news conference, express your continued support for your advisor and push ahead with a controversial plan to re-open schools in a matter of days.

Change the channel, turn up the volume.

This is my new website. You can come here for random musings on matters that I have found interesting through-out my eclectic career. This includes politics, journalism, communications, message development, speech-writing and crisis communications.

I’m called on at times to deliver media training workshops and sessions on writing in government. You can find notes from these sessions in the Presentations section.

All views are my own.

Ian

If there’s one thing a global pandemic can teach you is the need for good, clear messaging. This past week, Boris Johnson’s UK government ran into criticism when some of its messaging on what they wanted people to do was less than precise. Here’s the original government messaging:

The initial public messaging was exceptionally clear. People knew exactly what to do: nothing. Stay at home. Then came the desire to loosen restrictions on activity and get some parts of the British economy back in business.

The message was changed to something that was arguably far less clear.

It always strikes me as odd that some of the world’s most brilliant people are also some of the most tone deaf when it comes to dealing with the world. I’m sure they understand there are rules. I suspect they don’t think those rules apply to them.

A source close to Dominic Cummings confirms he travelled from London to Durham to self-isolate with coronavirus symptons.

Source: Coronavirus: Dominic Cummings visited parents’ home while he had symptoms – BBC News

Back in January 2020 (which seems like many years ago) I made a presentation to a conference on corporate governance. They asked for a “tactical toolkit” to help board members navigate through difficult times of transition.

Here’s what I came up with:

One of the most useful books I’ve read on the subject of corporate communications is Sidney Dekker’s Drift Into Failure (CRC Press, 2011). The book explores how large corporations responsible for managing complex systems frequently fail in the same, predictable ways. One of Dekker’s central conclusions is that often, these organizations are victims of their own success.

“Success narrows perceptions, changes attitudes, reinforces a single way of doing business, breeds overconfidence in the adequacy of current practices and reduces the acceptance of opposing points of view.”

Dekker, Drift Into Failure, Pg. 96.

Dekker digs deep into organizational failures, like the Challenger and Columbia accidents at NASA. He believes a lack of deference to expertise contributes to a certain organizational brittleness.

He says organizational systems which don’t embrace diversity of opinion and expertise will cease to explore new things and learn new things.

To avoid the brittleness that comes with success, I suggest the following:

• Listen more than you talk;
• Break down complex tasks into simple parts;
• Promote autonomy;
• Adopt a non-hierarchical structure–allow anyone to stop the assembly line;
• Always be a teacher and a student.