Swine Flu Is A Real Crisis

You hear an "ah-choo" from across the depths of office cubicles. Do you think "Gesundheit" or "Oh no, we have a crisis?"

According to CBS, children in a New York school are being stigmatized if they show symptoms of the H1N1 virus, commonly known as the Swine Flu.

"People are being treated differently by everyone else because one person is sick and the other one is just normal. And because that person is sick they make fun of them," a student said.

Parents involved with Little League teams have tried to postpone games or even tell kids "not to touch the ball after the other team had touched it ... and at the end of the game not to shake hands with the opposing team," said Steven Crimando, a Crisis Management Specialist.

In the workplace, swine flu is also a new and scary face on a familiar problem.

Businesses and school have dealt with flu season for decades; wash hands, drink plenty of liquids, and ask the sick person to stay home until it passes.

The family of the assistant principal who was New York City's first swine flu victim filed a $40 million wrongful death lawsuit, claiming the city failed to quickly report the outbreak and to warn him that he'd been exposed to the virus. It also claims the city didn't do its best to control the outbreak.

According to federal experts the H1N1 flu virus could cause as many as 30,000 to 90,000 deaths in the U.S., and "poses a serious health threat." The deaths would mainly be concentrated among children and young adults. In contrast, the regular seasonal flu kills some 36,000 each year, mostly among those over 65.

Most people sickened from the swine flu, or the H1N1 virus, have complained of mild, seasonal flu-like symptoms such as fever, cough, sore throat, body aches and fatigue. Does this sound different from the flu that comes around every winter with various mutations? Is it now an employer's job to protect employees (and customers) from the flu?

It's the ignorance and fear that is creating the crisis. Just the name has caused in the pork industry. Also the fact that younger people are being affected, a more noticeable population than the elderly.

What should business and government do to protect itself from the fallout of swine flu?

The first step in any crisis situation is to review your crisis plan and make it specific to swine flu. (If you don't have a plan, now is the time to start one.)

Your crisis plan should include:

Planning - Gather your management team with the mandate that there must be a coordinated response to this real threat to productivity, employee morale and reputation. Set specific sick leave policy, travel policy and closure guidelines. Keep working - Develop teleworking policies and alternate ways for employees to keep in touch with the office even if they are recovering.

Communicate - Let your employees and stakeholders know that you are concerned and taking action. Provide training in prevention and put tips and information on your company website.

Develop a sick leave policy with specific emphasis on H1N1 - It may be indistinguishable to other influenza and colds, but the fear factor makes it more threatening. Your staff will not be as productive while worrying about this new threat.

Take it seriously - Despite deadlines, reports and quotas managers must take action to send an employee home if they are sick. Allowing a sick person to infect an entire office is an opening to civil liability.

Educate the leadership -- Learn more about swine flu at the CDC website www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/ or Flu.gov www.pandemicflu.gov/. Offer wellness workshops and staff immunizations.

Whether it's the regular annual flu or H1N1, take the disease seriously in your crisis communication strategy.

Know What to Do About the Flu

Cover your cough

Wash your hands frequently

If you have a fever, stay home for at least 24 hrs after that fever has ended

Get a vaccine when it becomes available

Timing Is Everything

In the political world Friday is known as "Take Out The Trash Day" because most politicos know better than to say or do anything important just prior to the weekend.

(SC Gov. Mark Sanford might have fared better if he waited until Friday to come back from his "hiking trip" and bare his infidelity. He would have done a whole lot better if he had just waited a day and had been overshadowed by Michael Jackson's demise.)

News coverage is a 24-hour continuous cycle and in politics you learn to "feed the beast" with information that you want showcased and learn to hide the tidbits you'd rather not see on page one. In Episode 13 of "The West Wing" we learn about "Take Out The Trash Day." The title refers to the Friday press briefing wherein the White House releases information about several sensitive stories, thereby preventing discussion and reducing any probable impact in the media.

Donna: What's take out the trash day?
Josh: Friday.
Donna: I mean, what is it?
Josh: Any stories we have to give the press that we're not wild about, we give all in a lump on Friday.
Donna: Why do you do it in a lump?
Josh: Instead of one at a time?
Donna: I'd think you'd want to spread them out.
Josh: They've got X column inches to fill, right? They're going to fill them no matter what.
Donna: Yes.
Josh: So if we give them one story, that story's X column inches.
Donna: And if we give them five stories ...
Josh: They're a fifth the size.
Donna: Why do you do it on Friday?
Josh: Because no one reads the paper on Saturday.
Donna: You guys are real populists, aren't you?

There are exceptions to the rule.

It irked the press no end when Sarah Palin, presumptive presidential candidate announced - on a Friday - that she would step down as Governor of Alaska. The talking heads questioned her motives and reran her press conference throughout the weekend while providing background that you never make such an announcement on Friday because it would not be noticed. They were even saying this on Tuesday of the next week as they continued to ponder the motives of Gov. Palin.

You can't predict the time of your crisis, but you can adjust and refine your message depending on what part of the news cycle you are in:

· Morning - What is said at a morning press briefing will be reported all day long.

· Noon - If the story is big enough or ongoing, a press availability during the lunch hour might be aired live.

· 4 p.m. - The deadest time of day for a news story. Print reporters are writing their main story and TV reporters have footage packaged for the evening broadcast.

· 6 p.m. - This is the time that journalism does rewrites. New information and comments get added to the story either in print or on-air by the TV anchor.

Nothing in here suggests that there is a best time of day for a crisis to happen. As Murphy's Law states -- if anything can go wrong, it will -- a crisis will occur at the worst possible time. Be prepared and have a plan.

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Don't Step On Your Story

Timing also means that you learn not to step on your own stories. Like cycles in nature, news coverage sometimes needs a chance to ripen and bloom before harvest.

If you are making a major announcement, keep it to one a day and try to stay away from muddying you own waters.

As Mike Memoli in Real Clear Politics Blog writes on July 15:

Hillary Clinton's foreign policy speech today is being seen as an attempt by the Secretary of State to reassert herself, "to retake center stage as the administration's top foreign policy voice," as the AP described it.

If that's the case, the White House isn't doing her any favors by scheduling President Obama's remarks on health care in the Rose Garden at the same time as her speech. Both are set for 1 pm.

Make your announcement, take questions, and let it ripen and bloom, then wait for the coverage. In the cycle of news there's the news coverage and the next day there is the follow-up and the commentary.

Be patient and let it happen. Don't step on the toes of your own story.

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Make sure you are ready to respond. Call Lipsett & Associates, Inc. at 770-426-9388.

Marketing Is The Key

I was invited to sit on a panel of three journalists at the Vinings Business Association discussing the top business stories of 2008 and economic outlook for the coming year. The editor on my right, from a regional business monthly, listed stories that highlighted the economy – bankruptcy, foreclosure and suicide. On my left was an editor from the local daily. He noted that the top stories all involved the housing slowdown. Since we don’t even cover those kinds of stories, I took The Bright Side of the news. To paraphrase the TV theme from many years ago: "That was The Year That Was." But remember the second line: "It's Over Let it Go." The Election year Debate of last year was whether there was a recession. The GOP lost that argument when presented with the facts late in the year, and lost the election. But while there people losing jobs, and homes being foreclosed, there were also lines around the block to purchase I-phones and Wii, and the malls were still full of shoppers. If you are going to be in a recession, Cobb County is the best place to be. While Cobb County is not immune to the effects of recession, but Cobb has a cold, not the flu and definitely not pneumonia as the national media would make you think. Homes are still selling here – albeit slowly if you can get a loan – and there's only a 6 month backlog of housing compared to 2 years in some other counties. People still have jobs; they are still eating out, buying clothes and seeking services. Unfortunately they are lacking in consumer confidence. This means less splurging, and more practical purchases. So, what do we do to make it through the coming months or year of this downturn? Marketing is the key to Survival. Don't hide from your customers and continue to communicate with your customers. The last thing you want to do in a slow economy is to ignore the customers who provide your income and profits.

Staying Calm in Crisis

It's hard, but sometimes the best response to a crisis is to remain very calm as you tell the public that the world is crumbling around you. Take for example this first paragraph from a press release from the City of Atlanta and its rapid transit system, MARTA:

"There is a non-emergency operation being conducted on Forsyth Street by personnel of the City of Atlanta. It will involve the excavation of a significant portion of the east northbound lane of the street for purposes of determining why the street is caving in.”

That sounds bad, right. But if you say it very calmly, perhaps it doesn't hurt so much.

Yes, Disaster Will Happen

Denise O’Berry runs the Minding Your Own Business network on Ryze and writes a “Just for Small Business” blog. She offers some good tips on crisis preparedness in a recent blog entitled: “Yes, A Disaster Can (Will?) Happen to Your Business.” It’s good advice for anyone: small or large business or even personally. Read it here.

Wishing you could un-say a word

Elephants never forget.

By that standard, neither do wives, reporters or politicians. (Putting it into a political context -- Donkeys don’t forget either.)

My friend Rich Galen, a political strategist and three-times a week blogger at mullings.com, reminded me of a point counterpoint to current events.

Sen. Hillary Clinton is being taken to task for referring to the U.S. House as a “plantation.” While the presidential candida…. er, Senator was using the word to make political points at a MLK Day rally, she has a point. From the viewpoint of the political party in the minority, the House has always been run in a top down, heavy handed manner. It had been like that for 40 years of Democrat control before the Republican Revolution in 1994. A decade later the Dems are just noticing.

But the same language was used by revolution leader and later Speaker Newt Gingrich in a Washington Post article Oct. 20, 1994. As Galen notes:

That was “a couple of weeks ahead of the Republican tsunami in the US House in the mid-term election of that year). “Newt was still House Republican Whip and, talking to a reporter about how differently House Democrats looked at him as opposed to how they viewed House Republican Leader, Bob Michel, said:

"’I'm much more intense, much more persistent, much more willing to take risks to get it done. Since they think it is their job to run the plantation, it shocks them that I'm actually willing to lead the slave rebellion.’"

It was also in that same mid-January week that New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagen vowed to remake his town “a Chocolate City.”

While both comments drew cheers and applause from those in attendance, the reaction from observers, commentators and news coverage was critical – with some saying that together they again lost the South for the Democrats.

Both speakers tried mitigation, trying to explain what they meant. That’s a classic strategy, but in doing this you have to repeat the mistake and extend the coverage by another day or more.

Better than trying to un-say a word is, of course, leaving it unsaid. You address a variety of audiences – friends, family, customers, coworkers, competitors, supporters and critics. Comments made in the locker room, the board room or away from the office don’t always translate well when they are quoted on the evening news.

We know you can’t un-say a word. But you can think twice about saying something that will – or can be – overheard by other people.

It can’t hurt to wait, can it?

How often, in the middle of a crisis situation has someone in your organization said: “Let’s wait a little longer before we respond?” There are numerous good reasons, of course – we need more information, we have to get in touch with the attorney, etc. Yet each minute you delay means more potential for trouble. And, it’s not the kind of trouble that will build up layer by layer. Instead, this is the type of problem that increases exponentially – doubling at each turn. Take for example the recent situation of the West Virginia mining company. They sent a team into the site of mine explosion, found one miner alive and a dozen others nearby. The reports filtered back to the families – and mixed with some wishful thinking – and new reports went out that all were alive. It took three hours for the full story to get back to the families waiting at the church. By then the newspaper deadlines had come and gone and the families of the miners had been celebrating their relief of news of a miracle for hours. Don’t hid bad news. Sometimes the lack of attribution creates its own news story, as in this case. Unfortunately this whole story, which up to that point showed a compassionate mining company working hard to save the lives of its workers, became one of fear, violations and distrust. This was not because of the tragedy, but because of the way the mining company (and the media) handled the situation. Tell the truth. Tell it in a timely fashion.