A Lesson in Public Relations Continues

What a case study for healthcare!

The Chicago Bears just can't get it right. This has been a continuing comedy of PR errors that only leaves you scratching your head.

Damage control.....

Day after the press conference, the President of the team goes on the media tour to clarify statements on what the organization meant. (See my previous post) Damage control pure and simple.

It gets even better......

Then it turns out the press release about the firings was wrong and that really two of the assistants weren't fired, but were more like employee-at-will kind of relationships with no contracts. The offensive coordinator and his position coaches had contracts and will be paid. Probably some legal issues now because of that.

PR lesson continued.....

Look. For your own PR efforts, you control the message and the day when you decide to go public. Winning or losing a PR battle is not controlled by the media, it is your responsibility. You, through your actions or inaction's will determine whether you are successful or not. There was no reason in the world for the Chicago Bears to lose the media and message battle. All they did by this comedy of errors is further reinforce to the fan base, local media and national audiences that management is clueless about what to do. The Bears have lost any benefit of the doubt that remained. If this goes south when the 2010 season starts, the fire storm will be unrelenting. Sports fans have long memories.

What you can do to avoid this......

First, admit (and your ego will get bruised) that you may not have a clue about what to do.

Next, listen to your PR staff if you have any, and I am assuming at this point they know what they are doing.

Develop the right messages and practice, practice, practice with whomever you are sending out there to represent the organization. Limit the CEO or president's exposure.

Make sure the press release is right the first time.

If you have never been in a crisis communication situation before, bring in outside expertise. You can not handle it by yourself. This is no time to learn by doing, too much is at stake.

Physicians, patients and the media in your community will remember what you did or did not do for a very long time.

If you don't do it right on a day that you can control the outcome through right planning, thought and action, then you have no one to blame but yourself.

I can be reached at 815-293-1471 or by email to themichaeljgroup@aol.com

>>> A Lesson in Public Relations Continues >>>

A Lesson in Public Relations

The Chicago Bears held a press conference on January 5, 2010, after a dismal at best season long performance by management, the coaching staff and players. No need to go into the gory details; the lesson here is how not to handle public relations.

For weeks now, the media and public has been in an uproar over team performance. This was exacerbated by a perceived lack of indifference and arrogance by the team leadership. Clearly a crisis communications situation if anyone in the PR department at Halas Hall was paying attention.

The Press Conference

A press conference is held, they trot out the team President, General Manger and Head Coach all in that order. The President speaks, apologizes and was contradictory in his remarks about the situation being unacceptable, change is needed, mistakes were made, but things are going to stay essentially the same. He spoke for 20 minutes which was 15 minutes too long.

The GM gets up apologizes, says mistakes were made, change is needed, but things are going to stay essentially the same and I would make the same decisions the same way again. He also has a different message than the team president. Q and A ensures.

Head Coach gets up, has a different message than the other two, is arrogant and testy that he is being questioned about any of this and never admits to making any mistakes. Change is needed but things are going to be the same. He fires his entire offensive staff, demotes himself from being the defensive coordinator and life goes on.

The PR department for the Chicago Bears should be fired in mass for that performance. As a marketing and PR professional this was an embarrassment.

What Went Right?

Virtually nothing.

What Went Wrong?

Virtually everything.

Let Me Count the Ways

Lack of organizational understanding of the need to handle this as a crisis communication situation
Different, conflicting senior management messages
Testy responses to questions
Lack of preparation by speakers in understanding the seriousness of the communication
Poor speaker body language
No overriding organizational message
Organizational arrogance
Lost messaging opportunity
Appearance of offense to blame for the season
All three senior managers appearing not to be accountable
The organization furthering to anger the media and fan base

What struck me about was the similarity to how I have seen hospitals and healthcare systems handle crisis communication situations and public relations.

Is it not true that any press is good press! And the Bears are getting a lot of bad press locally, regionally and nationally.

PR Lessons for Hospitals and Healthcare Systems

Understand the nature of the situation
Be transparent
Be proactive in how you intend to address the situation
Limit the amount of time senior leaders i.e. the CEO or president speak
Make sure everyone has the same message and is on board
Develop strong organizational messaging of care and concern
Don’t scapegoat
Don’t blame others or give the appearance of blaming others
Don’t tell people things will change when things are not changing
Practice, practice, practice
Anticipate hard questions and do a strong Q&A document
Bring in an outside PR firm for another viewpoint
Understand that your reputation is built up over a long time and can be destroyed in a few short minutes
Remember that it is not just a three day story
Watch your body language
Know your facts about past performance, reporters will be prepared

I can reached at 815-293-1471 for marketing and PR consulting, or via email at the themichaeljgroup@aol.com

>>> A Lesson in Public Relations >>>

HIPAA and the Press

The Chicago Bears, Brian Urlacher and HIPAA

No, this is not a joke. It has been most interesting reading sports columnists and broadcasters lament to a great common chorus that no one knows about the extent of Urlacher’s injury and his neck surgery. The Bears aren’t talking, the doctors aren’t talking and nobody else is talking. It is as if some serious plot has developed to keep the real story from the media. Hogwash…..

As a 20 year healthcare executive life changed a few years ago when HIPAA became the law of the land. Simply put, if an individual does not want anything released about their medical condition, treatment, so forth and so on, that was that. No press leaks, no briefings from the Bears, no info from the hospital, doctor’s or anybody else. The federal government has clamped down really hard on the privacy issue and this falls into that. Urlacher is the only person, who can make the decision on who does or does not receive any information about his medical condition or treatments. Who he designates as being able to receive information is prohibited from releasing any content. If you want to know you have to speak to Urlacher.

What you simply have here is that he decided not to allow for the release of medical information. The Bears won’t say anything, the hospital won’t say anything, and the doctors won’t say anything. Why, simply put they are prohibited by Federal law. Big fines, imprisonment, law-suits, malpractice judgments and loss of professional license will result if found violating HIPPA. That’s all it is, nothing more than that.

Gone are the days when tips would be called in. Staff will get fired for that. As a healthcare marketing executive, HIPAA makes life a lot easier for me and not having to deal with the press. Privacy is privacy and the law make no distinction whether you are Joe average or a superstar. Everybody is this same. It does make the media job harder.

So everyone please stop with the grand conspiracy theories and keeping things quite because the Bears don’t want others to know. It’s all about privacy and his wanting some. Everybody is pulling the media chain, you guys give free press and the Bears and NFL are laughing all the way to the bank.

Frankly, as a Bears PSL and season ticket holder, at this point could care less. They will be bad next year and the year after that. I have no confidence in an arrogant coaching and administrative staff, that can’t change and adapt to different situations. They are self delusional in thinking that and believing that they are better than they are. Their window slammed shut and is closed tight for at least another three years.

>>> HIPAA and the Press >>>