Please write what the answer to each of the 10 lessons is in light of VW’s recent crisis. I attached a paper I wrote on this.
This is not a paper assignment. Use my notes and write an analysis answer to each for how each lesson applies to VW.
Below are the lecture notes. Look for each lesson, It is marked lesson, 10 for each chapter 3. Like Lesson 1: Determine your goals for crisis communication. Then apply to VW crisis.
Write out the lesson question, then write a response applying that lesson to VW. You may refer to my paper. This is not an actual essay, just applying the 10 lessons to VW.
Chapter 3
Lessons of Effective Crisis Communication
LESSON #1
Lesson 1: Determine your goals for crisis communication.
CDC: “Be first, be right, be credible.”
Target: Restore consumer confidence.
Lufthansa?
Sea World?
LESSON #2
Lesson 2: Before a crisis, develop true equal partnerships with organizations and groups that are important to the organization.
What does this do for an organization?
LESSON #3
Lesson 3: Acknowledge your stakeholders, including the media, as partners when managing a crisis.
Why?
LESSON #4
Lesson 4: Organizations need to develop strong, positive primary and secondary stakeholder relationships.
Primary – those groups defined by an organization as critical to its success
Secondary – groups that do not play an active role, but are still important to its overall success.
LESSON #4
Organizations need to develop strong, positive primary and secondary stakeholder relationships.
Questions:
How often do you communicate with stakeholders?
How often do stakeholders communicate with you?
Do you listen to the concerns of these groups?
Stakeholder Relationships
LESSON #5
Lesson 5: Effective crisis communication involves listening to your stakeholders.
How would you convince management to do this on a regular basis?
LESSON #6
Lesson 6: Communicate early about the crisis, acknowledge uncertainty, and assure the public that you will maintain contact with them about current and future risk. (But don’t oversell what you don’t know for sure.)
LESSON #7
Lesson 7: Avoid certain or absolute answers to the public and media until sufficient information is available.
LESSON #8
Lesson 8: Do not over-assure stakeholders about the impact the crisis will have on them.
Can you think of examples of this?
LESSON #9
Lesson 9: The public needs useful and practical statements of self-efficacy during a crisis.
Why is that your responsibility?
LESSON #10
Lesson 10: Effective crisis communicators acknowledge that positive factors can arise from organizational crises.
Heroes are born
Change is accelerated
Latent problems are faced
People are changed
New strategies evolve
Early warning systems develop
New competitive advantages appear.
SUMMARY OF RESEARCH AND PRACTICE IN CRISIS MGMT.
Pre-crisis communications strategies should include:
Strong positive leadership values and goals
Open and honest communication with stakeholders
Commitment to stakeholders
Developing reservoir of goodwill before crisis
SUMMARY OF RESEARCH AND PRACTICE IN CRISIS MGMT.
Counterproductive crisis communications strategies:
Poor communication relationships with stakeholders
Maintaining distance from aggravated stakeholders
Failure to listen to stakeholder needs
Failure to plan for a crisis
SUMMARY OF RESEARCH AND PRACTICE IN CRISIS MGMT.
Strategies proven to reduce affects of crisis-induced uncertainty and ambiguity:
Use organizational core values and crisis communication goals developed pre-crisis to guide responses
Provide consistent, honest updates
Communicate openly, honestly and ethically
SUMMARY OF RESEARCH AND PRACTICE IN CRISIS MGMT.
Strategies proven to minimize crisis communication effectiveness following a crisis:
Say “no comment”
Not knowing whom to call or having established values to base responses on
Over reassure stakeholders about effects of the crisis
Communicate with certainty about the crisis when you shouldn’t
SUMMARY OF RESEARCH AND PRACTICE IN CRISIS MGMT.
Post-crisis communication strategies proven to be ineffective:
Spinning responsibility for the crisis
Deflecting blame
Lying
Deliberately obfuscating the truth
Playing “hide the peanut”
SOCIAL MEDIA AND EFFECTIVE CRISIS COMMUNICATION
Consistently monitor what is being said about your organization
Anticipate potential crises
Communicate to stakeholders during a crisis
SOCIAL MEDIA AND EFFECTIVE CRISIS COMMUNICATION
Acknowledge the issue and apologize
Publicly explain that issue will be fixed immediately
State that everyone will be notified
Privately message people (if possible) to reassure them
Public address all who cannot be reached privately
