RHetoric

Today McChrystal resigned – a PR disaster. What I don’t mean is Children’s and Infant’s Tylenol pulled from shelves, Lenovo computer batteries exploding on planes and Wal-Mart fake blog controversies – PR nightmares for the companies and their PR firms: Burson-Marstellar, Ogilvy and Edelman. What I do mean literally is that poor PR in this case has generated life altering consequences for McChrystal and his team of media-naïve cronies. The lesson here: even the worst PR people can teach us something. Or, at least serve as good reminders for best practices (based on what *not* to do).  

From the beginning this plan had crisis written all over it. Ill-fated access to high level executives with no clear and strategic objective = a mess.

Then what have we learned?

• Have an idea of what you’d like to accomplish. Rolling Stone says we’d like to interview you – sexy no doubt. But if you can’t answer the question: what’s in it for me and for the U.S. Army, maybe you have no business pursuing the opportunity. What was the goal of this meeting if not suicide?
• Know your spokesperon. Perhaps better attention to McChrystal’s general tone and tenor could have helped. Someone loaded with personality problems may not be the best interviewee. Just sayin’.
• Don’t overwhelm an interview. The last thing anyone and in this case the U.S. Army needs is fraternizing and a load of testosterone to encourage foul play and take you off message. Jay-Z said it best people: “Stick 2 the Script!”
• Understand reporters have an agenda too. They aren’t your friends. They’re doing their job – and in this particular case, doing it well. Who’s a hero at Rolling Stone?  Michael Hastings.

If Duncan Boothby’s (PR representative for McChrystal) objective of this fiasco was anything other than to help Rolling Stone sell millions of copies of its magazines… it is unclear.  

BP’s PR problem isn’t a PR problem… it’s an unstoppable gushing well problem. However that hasn’t stopped some crisis PR “experts” from rushing to the media to offer their opinions on what BP should be doing differently to enhance its image. Hey, it’s good exposure for the PR experts, I’ll give them that.

But frankly the image problem is the effect; while the cause is the non-stop, gusher under the Gulf. Until that hole is plugged, no amount of PR advice can really plug BP’s PR nightmare.

PR professionals commenting on this crisis should first acknowledge this is the underlying cause of BP’s PR problem, then dispense advice in this context.  If they did, they would be doing a much needed service for the entire PR industry, which sometimes gets a bad rap for vacuous spin.

So now for the two-bit PR advice to BP.  First, plug the well - obviously.  But in the meantime, have a script.  Sending the CEO or chairman in front of the cameras in the middle of a crisis without a carefully prepared and vetted script is madness.  Had the CEO said, “I want my life back” in a media training session first, the comment would have never made it to prime time.  Likewise, BP’s chairman should have memorized a carefully crafted script before walking out of a White House meeting and talking to the press corps - a script that would not have referred to Gulf residents as “small.”

It’s a good lesson for anyone in corporate America.  When a crisis hits, it is absolutely critical to prepare before stepping in front of the camera.  A single unintentional comment can throw off all good intentions.  And all good intentions are meaningless if the underlying problem - in this case the blown well - are unresolved.

Twisted Pair Solutions - wiring you ask? Actually, maker of WAVE software - the industry's leading Radio-over-IP (RoIP) platform for integrating disparate radio systems and other communications technologies and applications into a single, manageable standards-based solution. What does this mean? Let me tell you.

When all of the world is dependent upon communications interoperability - unfortunately too much emphasis is placed on what you can "see" and "touch" - hardware!

And so disparate technologies have forced different cultures. Teams have settled to work within their own jurisdictions, operating on their own islands of operability.

But nine years after 911 and billions of dollars spent bridging the communications divide, how is it so that neighbors are still incapable of interoperating with each others' older, newer or different technology? The fact is three fold:

1. It's hard to teach an old dog, new tricks. New communications budgets are set - and decision makers grab a radio catalog and get to work. It's not fun to buy software. It's outside of a comfort zone. And, it doesn't pump up a work force the way a shiny new radio will. However, it is the future - it works in ways hardware can't.

2. There is a general lack of understanding - even education - about the software over hardware message. Put simply, regardless of how many new radios you add to your legacy arsenal - no matter how many upgrades you make, it won't all work together seamlessly. Software is the missing link. Software unifies communications.

3. No one likes to plan. Buyers get money - and it burns their leg. Pressure is put on them to address any litany of issues and disasters - through new products, upgrades etc. Money is spent instead on "what" people communicate with instead of "how" communications barriers are broken. The result is a big box of bandaids - instead of an investment in the advancement of better communication.

So keep this in mind, while you may not get warm fuzzies about software, it is peace of mind for those heading into a building when everyone's running out - that they are indeed receiving every message that matters. And, as new decision makers replace old - and digital natives replace digital immigrants, software will be an obvious choice (and hey may even BE the plan - after all, with software that unifies communications, you have to worry less about what hardware works together or doesn’t - right?).

So I ask you to follow us: @TalkwithWAVE, spread the word and until next time, stay tuned (like a Mobile Communicator for BlackBerry*)!

*Mobile Communicator for BlackBerry is Twisted Pair Solutions’ newest upgrade to WAVE - a first-of-its-kind carrier agnostic push-to-talk application that turns ordinary smartphones into two-way radios!