Part Two: You Are Too Close to the Situation
By Kevin Curry

Author’s Note: This is Part Two in a series on crisis communication lessons I learned while assisting my friends during the recent Haiti earthquake. Read the background on the story in Part One here.

When a story personally effects you, reach out for help, even if you know what to do. You are too close to the situation and will benefit from someone with some distance.

Jill knows about communicating a message and knows how to work with the media.  But she was also deeply and emotionally involved in the situation at hand. This was about her and Joe’s son and his safety. As such, that really should be her number one concern. My hope was that I could take as much as possible off her plate, and frankly as much as she was willing to give me. Her passion for the message was an invaluable resource, so I didn’t swoop in and just take over and tell her what to do. I acted in a support role while continually telling her to feel free to give me anything.

When I had ideas for additional media coverage or messaging, I presented them when appropriate. She was already overwhelmed with a variety of tasks, from fundraising to messaging to media coordination to just worrying about her son’s safety. I didn’t want to add more to that list by bombarding her with new ideas.

This approach required constraint and patience. Normally, I’m an idea guy coming up with creative approaches, new messages, and new ways to reach people. While I didn’t turn that part of my personality off, I did pick and choose carefully which ideas to present and, just as important, when to present them.

One key role I played was being a sounding board for Jill to bounce ideas off and give honest feedback. This required a level of trust on her part, for which I am honored to have been given, and a level of tact on my part when presenting feedback. Jill and Joe were in a very stressful situation, they were getting little sleep and inconsiderate feedback from me was the last thing they needed!

I remember very specific times where I needed to give feedback but was concerned about how it would come across. So I turned to my own communication adviser, my wife Katie, to make sure I was using the right words and right approach. As a communication expert in her own right and a mom as well, she was the perfect filter during these situations.

The role also required patience when waiting to hear back from Jill and Joe. With everything they were involved in it could be minutes or hours before I got an answer. If it was urgent enough, I would make multiple inquiries. But if I judged my inquiry to be less important, I would just wait. This required judgment calls on my part to determine when to push and when to let it lie.

It is important for those who are asked to be outside counsel to remember your proper place and be cognizant of what the person (or business) you are helping is going through emotionally and physically. (One thing I kept reminding Jill is to eat! We all get so busy we can forget the basics.) This means relying on your own analysis of situation and using proper discretion.

The bottom line in a crisis situation is don’t be afraid to ask for help from people you can trust. This advice applies to individuals, like Jill and Joe, as well as to businesses who might be facing a difficult situation. Outside counsel and support is valuable and will make the situation much easier to handle.

Next week – Managing Media v. Generating Media

Learn more about the Wilkins adoption effort by reading their great blog.

Here’s Joe’s blog about his trip to Haiti and work with God’s Littlest Angels Orphanage.

More on God’s Littlest Angels Orphanage here and here.

By Kevin Curry

It all started with a simple email response to a friend: “If I can help out in some way, let me know.”

I’ve known my friends Joe and Jill Wilkins since our days at Linfield College. Today, my wife Katie and I have season tickets with the Wilkins for Linfield Wildcat football. So, offering to help with their current situation was a no-brainer.

Jill and Joe had been working for two years to adopt a son from Haiti. They were just 6-9 months away from being able to fly to Haiti and pick up their son, Samuel Chancelet. The earthquake on January 12th changed all of that. Suddenly, the safety of their son and the over 150 other children and staff at God’s Littlest Angels Orphanage south of Port au Prince became paramount. What also became paramount was finding a way to get those children, who already had adoptive families in the United States and were simply waiting to clear government red tape in the U.S. and Haiti, safely out of a country that had literally fallen apart.

Jill works in corporate communications for LSI Logic and Joe is a 3rd grade teacher, so both are smart and articulate. It was little surprise that local TV and newspapers picked up on their story as a way to localize the Haiti earthquake. Jill’s experience in communication also made her a natural to help other adoptive parents with children at God’s Littlest Angels connect with their local media and begin bringing attention to the needs of the children there. Just one day after the earthquake, nine media hits had already been made regarding the orphanage and the need to raise money to support it with food, water and supplies.

That was when I sent my email to Jill: “Great work on the media. If I can help out in some way, let me know.”

My phone range minutes later and I began my two week volunteer effort to do what little I could to help Jill and Joe get their son, help them and other volunteers get supplies to the orphanage, and help those same volunteers bring 81 adopted children safely to the United States. During that time, Joe would end up flying to Haiti with other volunteers to deliver supplies and eventually help bring the children home, Jill would end up in Miami to help coordinate efforts from the U.S., and they would make regular appearances on CNN with Larry King Live.

The lessons I learned about crisis communication were invaluable and so I want to share them with you over the next several weeks.

Next Week: You are too close to the situation, you need someone with some distance. Even if you know what to do.

Learn more about the Wilkins adoption effort by reading their great blog.

Here’s Joe’s blog about his trip to Haiti and work with God’s Littlest Angels Orphanage.

More on God’s Littlest Angels Orphanage here and here.