communications for, I don't know, 35 years, mostly crisis communications. I spent a number of years in the White House in the, working with the council's office in the Clinton administration, and so unfortunately I spent a lot of time in the council's office working on some legal issues. I've also worked with non-profits, companies, CEOs that get themselves in trouble, companies who are sued for a myriad of reasons, and have learned a lot about what to do and what not to do. I know I have 15 minutes to talk about crisis communications, so I will try to speak fast. So I found this cartoon, and you know, you've got Smokey the Bear who is on fire. You know, his whole job is to keep fires from happening, but sometimes things are out of your control and you can't keep the fires from happening. So what can you do to try to mitigate the situation? You should have a plan before there's a fire. So you should have your own personal emergency action plan, thinking about what's your insurance plan if something bad happens? You buy an insurance plan before you have a fire at your house, before you get in a car crash, so you should have your own personal insurance plan. Thinking about if something does happen and you're in the news, what is your plan of action? Think of your phone tree. Who are you going to call? Who are your spokespeople? Who is going to speak out on your behalf? I would think about that as who do you want to speak at your funeral? So who are those people? Make up a list of those people that you would call on to speak about your character and who you are as an individual, as a physician, and can really help you during a time of crisis. Also mapping out your key audiences. Who are the constituencies that you would need to reach if something happened? Your patients, your employees, your sports clubs, your affiliated organizations, your hospital system. They will all want to tell you how to handle your crisis, but you should have, you should put together your own team, a lawyer, communications person who can help you. You should also think about doing a social media audit. And what does that mean? First of all, Google yourself. See what's out there about you now before something happens. And if there are stories about you that are untrue, if there are posts that have your name attached or things that you have posted that you don't want out there, for example, there's a picture of you smoking a cigar on a yacht. Okay, there's nothing wrong with that, but imagine if that picture ended up on the front page of the New York Post because you did something really stupid. So think about what pictures are out there and try to pull things down. So when the fire hits, what can you do to try to contain it? Sometimes there's nothing. Sometimes it's going to go out of control and you're just going to try to handle it as best as you can. But there are a few things you can do to try to make the fire from getting worse. So making sure there's only one spokesperson speaking to the press and knowing who that person is. One of the things that people love to do is they get a press call and they want to immediately say what happened. Well, make sure you have all the facts together before you tell the press what the story is. You're going to have a lawyer, most likely, if it's a really big situation. And you want to make sure that you're not going to do more harm to yourself by getting out there too soon. Also, looking at the situation and knowing when to react and when not to overreact and not to underreact. And having somebody who can help you through the situation and is emotionally not involved in the situation can give you really solid advice about what to do and when to do it. And also thinking about video. So video gives a lot of weight to a story. And if you go out to the cameras and defend yourself, sometimes that's the right call and other times it adds too much oxygen to the fire. So sometimes it's much better to put a statement out to the press rather than putting a person out to the press. So engaging with the press is always a decision that you'll need to make during a high profile incident. Knowing what the request is from the reporter. Understanding the privacy concerns, how much you can say, you know, is there a sports betting component, is this a high profile individual who is, you know, caught, you know, has sued you for some reason. And again, working with legal and communications counsel can help you navigate those waters so you first do no harm by engaging with the press. You should also know that the cover up is always worse than the crime. So knowing what information to put out and getting out ahead of it before somebody else tells your story. You know, a lot of times with clients that I have, we know a story is going to break. And we have a reporter who's going to write a really nasty, horrible story. But you have a reporter that you've worked with before, you trust, you know that reporter is going to write the story straight. And so you give that story to that reporter ahead of time in order to get out a better story. It might not be great, but it might be better than the story that's going to come out later. Knowing who the reporter is, getting your message down, knowing what you want the headline to be. It's not going to be the headline, right? So you are going to talk to a reporter, you've already prepped for the reporter, you know what your talking points are going to be. But knowing sort of what you want the arc of the story to be is really important. And having facts to back up your story is also really important. And having ground rules. Are you talking to the reporter on the record? Are you talking on background? Are you talking to a source close to Dr. Smith? And there's lots of different ways to do that. And again, a communications person can help you with those ground rules. So the story has now sort of died down. And you think you're out of the woods. But make sure that somebody who is not emotionally involved is reading the stories for you and giving you feedback on things that need to be fixed. Is there another round of stories that's going to come out? And who are you going to put out to speak on your behalf? And then being able to assess, is this a 24-hour flu or is it metastatic cancer? So you will sort of know that within 24, 48, 72 hours after a story breaks. So I'm going to show you two videos. One is an example of people who were not prepared for the tough questions. And then the second video is somebody who was prepared for the tough question and answered it with humor and good grace. But I'll let the video speak for themselves. I do have to ask you, when you heard about Aaron Hernandez, what you thought, what your reaction was? Next question. It had to be shock for all your teammates. Next question. All right. Then I'll ask you. It seems to me that these two men played on opposite sides of the line, but they had more than that in terms of being opposites. And truthfully, I'm not going to go. Yeah, I'm not going to go there. Don't walk off. I'll change the subject. And these were the headlines after that interview. Clearly not what they imagined. And so this is an example of somebody who's answered them well. It was heartbreaking and it was sad. And we've been advised, as I'm sure you all have heard a bunch of times, not to comment on the ongoing legal investigation. And so I'm not going to comment further. But it's just heartbreaking and sad. And all my thoughts and prayers go out to all the families that were involved. Were you shocked just knowing him? I mean, just knowing the guy and having gone to college with him and everything else? Yeah, I understand why you have to ask all the questions as part of doing your job. And part of mine is listening to instruction. We've been told not to talk about it. So two very different ways of handling the same questions. And clearly, when you go into an interview, you need to be able to answer the tough questions with a pivot, as we like to call it, and then bridging to what you want to be talking about. Obviously, there's press everywhere when you're in a situation like this. If you're at an NFL stadium and something's just happened, press can come up to you and ask you questions. So knowing how to handle that situation, making sure that your communications person knows what's going on, and having him or her help you through the scrum and being able to be ready to answer questions, not running away, not running away from the camera, because it looks like you have something to hide. And at the end of the day, all you have is your reputation. So figuring out, again, how to handle it with the press, being transparent, being honest, and making sure that you have your facts straight before you put anything out to the media. The second or the third video I'm going to show is when the CDC was under fire during COVID, they kept putting up mixed messages. But clearly, the CDC director went into this interview with a clear understanding of what she wanted the headline to be, and no matter what question she was going to be asked, she was going to put out a specific message. Finally, all of this mixed messages or new messages has led to a meme on social media poking fun at the CDC's advice. Tweets like, CDC now recommends eating straight off the floor at Waffle House. The CDC now says it's in fact okay to eat Tide Pods. The CDC says go ahead and get bangs. It's amusing, people letting off steam, of course, but is there a larger credibility problem with your agency right now? And how significant is that in the midst of a pandemic? We at the CDC are 12,000 people who are working 24-7 following the science with its ever-evolving nature in the midst of a really fast-moving pandemic. And we are doing so, putting our head down to keep America safe. We will continue to update. We will continue to improve how we communicate to the American public. This is fast-moving science. All right, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, thank you. Should I get bangs? I'm sorry? I'm just kidding. You know, I think you look great how you are. All right. Dr. Walensky, thank you so much for your... So there's lots of ways to handle crisis situations. It's really important to get people you trust to help you through the crisis. And they do end, so just know that. The patient does eventually stop bleeding. Thank you.

crisis communications

handling crises

emergency action plans

social media audit

engaging with the press