The McDonnell Group

3 Things to Do Now to Increase Readiness
by Nancy Broe

The energy industry routinely and effectively deals with emergency situations and the power outages and public relations crises they can generate.  Despite this competency, some of the worst public relations disasters in U.S. history have come from the energy sector.

Remember Three Mile Island?  Exxon’s Valdez oil spill?  Enron’s collapse?  BP’s Deepwater Horizon accident?  Fukushima Daiichi’s nuclear meltdown?  The smart grid era has not yet experienced a major disaster, but examining the public relations lessons of disasters past can help build trust and reduce consumer anxiety about new technology during ordinary times and improve responsiveness if and when catastrophic events occur.

Three Public Relations Moves to Make Now to Increase Disaster Readiness

1.  Develop PR-Savvy Leaders
In the midst of an emergency is not the time to begin public relations efforts.  Begin to educate your organization at the highest level about public relations’ role in business strategy.

Go beyond media training.  All key executives need basic media training (a skill rarely taught in business schools).  Learning how to know your message and stay on track with it is an important basic skill that takes practice.  Media training is useful, but without broader understanding of the role of public relations in business, it can devolve into slick politic-speak and clever dodges.  In a disaster scenario, such an approach can come across as downright offensive.

Public relations is two-way communication; actively listening and engaging publics, not just foisting messaging on them.  Surely BP’s Tony Heyward had media training, yet his remarks showed little evidence of it and worsened a bad situation.  Somehow at the highest level of this international corporation leaders had little real understanding of the community or culture around it.  Did they not invest in listening or did they not heed what they heard?

In the April 21 NPR broadcast “BP: A Textbook Example of How Not to Handle PR,” journalist Elizabeth Shogren revealed that in the years prior to the event, PR budgets had been slashed.  If energy leadership at the highest levels does not grasp the value of PR counsel, they make decisions that cut them off from vital information they need to anticipate, manage, and ameliorate disasters.

When things are going well, disasters can seem unlikely and communications expenses unnecessary; but building a solid communications strategy is smart insurance for when challenges arise.  Bring an energy PR specialist into your planning sessions to incorporate the perspective PR can bring.  Give public relations a place at the table.

2.  Surround Yourself with Gutsy, Ethical PR Advisors; then Listen to Them
Sound PR Counsel can save you a world of hurt.  The public relations practitioner’s frame of reference is your business plan and your mission, vision, and values.  They help you test that the choices you make reflect that and communicate that.  Sometimes that is going to mean challenging proposed corporate strategies.  To be disaster ready, organizations must have PR counselors who can and will challenge you and make you aware of the implications of communications choices.

In the ENRON debacle, a professional, in-house PR counselor was complicit in withholding the truth and in misleading stockholders.  His was one of the first cases of an accredited PR practitioner being stripped of their certification by the Public Relations Society of America.  Reliable energy PR professionals know public relations’ code of ethics, take ongoing education that can help managers avoid sliding into gray areas, inform your organization on best practices, and provide guidance on tricky issues.

When you have a reliable public relations advisor, listen to them.  According to the NPR story, within hours of the accident, Glenn DaGian, a recently retired public relations expert with 30 years experience working with BP and Amoco, was on the phone offering his help, watching from the sidelines as gaffe after gaffe worsened the PR disaster that accompanies the physical disaster.

At a recent gathering of local PR professionals, I met a former PR advisor to the big three auto makers.  Regarding the auto execs decision to fly private jets to Washington to plead for bailout money, she noted: “We told them not to take the jets; they didn’t listen.” Good advice doesn’t help if you don’t take it.
 
3.  Commit to Transparency and Build Trust before Disaster Strikes
In the Fukushima nuclear disaster, many people disbelieved industry communications, reacting based on previous incidents that many saw as dodgy obfuscation.  The bad will built from poor handling of a series of issues can impact even non-disaster energy public relations.   As in personal relationships, a good reputation is built over time.  Trust is a fragile commodity that cannot be inserted as an afterthought into a business strategy.  By including public relations strategy as an integral part of business strategy, energy organizations will be demonstrably committing to ethical, successful long-term reputation management.  A trustworthy reputation will be vital in times of disaster when consumer confidence is most needed.
 
Before disaster strikes, energy communicators need to engage in frank discussions about risk/reward scenarios – including the costs/benefits that smart grid technologies bring.  Addressing consumer concerns about security, privacy, and health impacts in an approachable and forthright way helps build credibility before disasters.
 
There will be disasters in the smart grid era; the energy industry needs to be ready.  Public relations cannot prevent disasters, but it can play a vital role in ensuring that if and when trouble comes, the energy industry has taken the steps to build reliable communications and trusted relationships that can play a vital role in readiness and recovery.