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We're closely watching proceedings of the Royal Commission into misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry. Our focus is on the reputations of the people and brands in the spotlight, and on trust in the whole industry.
In light of the Royal Commission we've recently completed a review of some 20 perceptual crises in the finance sector that our senior team have personally worked on over the last two decades. From this analysis we've identified nine communication strategies used by leadership teams to slow, halt or reverse a perceptual crisis.
We're sharing these in short videos. In this episode, we will discuss strategy #2, 'Contestability'.
To learn more about 'Contestability' and for tips on how to implement this strategy, read our blog.
Carden Calder: Thanks for joining us. I'm Carden Calder, the Managing Director and founder of BlueChip Communication. I'm here with Jacqui Maddock, who is our Head of Media.
Jacqui Maddock: That's right. We're here today to discuss the next strategy in our Nine Strategies to Fight a Perceptual Crisis in Financial Services Issues Crisis Management. Carden, you've had more than 20 years in-house, in corporate affairs and obviously as a consultant to some of Australia's largest brands here in Australia. What would you define contestability as?
Carden Calder: Put simply, as an issues management strategy, it's disputing things that are substantially damaging or are wrong. It's that simple.
Jacqui Maddock: How's it work?
Carden Calder: Right. The simplest mechanic is make sure that you're absolutely sure of the facts when allegations are made about your brand or your people, and replay them in a way that puts to bed any speculation that's damaging the brand. The reason, it sounds really simple but, in actual fact, we have seen brands and, in fact, some of our clients stay silent either for too long or stay silent completely. When there is damaging speculation and you don't deny it, silence is assumed as guilt.
Jacqui Maddock: Absolutely. I'm thinking that to get all the facts or a chronology statement of facts together inside an enormous organization, that's going to take time. I'm also guessing, as a former journalist, I know that silence is a sign of guilt. You need to be out there and you need to be timing on the front foot. How do you manage that within a large organisation?
Carden Calder: Ideally, your issues management process would have most of the probable issues on the radar already.
Jacqui Maddock: Yes.
Carden Calder: There are certainly times that doesn't happen. I always advise clients to start with a statement of fact, that's simply to prepare a chronology or a set of facts about the particular situation which you can use as the basis for messages, for decisions about strategy and which are verifiable.
Jacqui Maddock: Okay. Now, are you trying to get a story off the front page? Are you trying to protect somebody's individual reputation? Or what is the absolute best outcome, would you say, of contestability?
Carden Calder: The best outcome is there is no story at all. In fact, our best work and the best work of most crisis and issues management practitioners never sees the light of day, because the story doesn't get going. We're able to issue such a firm denial from the beginning with such conviction that a journalist is actually quite clear that the claim they're making isn't true.
Jacqui Maddock: Right.
Carden Calder: There are other times when it's not quite that simple. An allegation or perhaps a misreading of a set of facts has substantially damaged a client. It might have given rise to a series of media stories, and we might find ourselves almost in the middle of an issue where there's a lot of coverage. There's social media commentary, stakeholders are starting to ask questions that are potentially seriously quite damaging if we don't have good answers.
In those cases, a statement of facts becomes absolutely critical in order to be able to respond with conviction and in order to be able to do so quite quickly. Being sure of your ground, understanding what's true and not true about the situation and then moving forward with confidence can really help halt that kind of immediate furore or public outcry that's building.
On the other side, if you don't do that, it will continue to play. Everybody will believe that all the claims made about you are true. You're in a bit of a no-win if you do nothing.
Jacqui Maddock: So, to recap, the three critical success factors for contestability are:
Carden Calder: Ideally, you're fast, quick into a story, fast to respond to anything that's damaging or inaccurate. Once it has a head of steam, it's much harder to reach the original people who are exposed to it. It's harder to stop the natural momentum of the story or the public outcry.
Second thing I would say that responding with conviction is absolutely key. We judge believability from the passion that someone delivers a message with, or the level of conviction as they deliver it. Speed is one thing that leads people to believe that you're actually strong in your response. The speed with which you enter the debate, the strength of your rebuttal, in terms of your personal delivery, or the strength of the language and, finally, also the fact that you're able to be authoritative about an issue and actually lay out the facts either as you see them or as they are simply.
It might be a particular take on the facts, but if you own the fact base, then you can respond with conviction. That really leads to that foundation for a really effective execution of the contestability strategy, which is that what you say in response to damaging or inaccurate claims must be true and provable.
Jacqui Maddock: Thanks so much for watching today our contestability strategy. If you like what you have heard and what you've seen, let us know. Share feedback with us. You can also obviously subscribe to our blog and to all of our content at www.bluechipcommunication.com.au.
Carden Calder: In fact, I think you'll find a panel on the right hand of this screen where you can put your email address in to receive these blogs, the video version or the written version, direct to your inbox. Thanks for watching.
Jacqui Maddock: Thank you.
