crisis

How NOT to Manage a Crisis

April 12, 2017 by Tony Retrosi Leave a Comment

How NOT to Manage a Crisis.

Yesterday I wrote, “A lesson learned from United Airline” someone sent me a link to an editorial by PJ Crowley in THE HILL, I do my best to have my own ideas and not continue to write about the same subject but I also continue to learn. After the editing process I am truthfully not sure where his original thoughts end and my begin.

From a rolling start at the end of a runway, passenger aircraft reach their cruising altitude within 10 or 15 minutes. That’s about how long it took for United Airlines to transform an everyday problem and inconvenience into a major corporate crisis. Thanks to multiple cellphone videos this is more in the news than bombings in Syria or a possible war with North Korea.

Everyone screws up once and a while. As the owner of 2 gyms and a ropes course OF COURSE I HAVE MADE MISTAKES. Corporations, government officials, USA Gymnastics, other NGBs and sports leagues make mistakes all the time. Whether you experience a public relations problem or a major crisis depends on how you respond.

How did you define the crisis?
What did you say about it?
Were your actions consistent with your overall philosophy?
Did your reaction (or lack of action) make the situation better or worse?
What do you need to do to recover and how long will it take?

For the foreseeable future, mention United Airlines and the reaction will be instantaneous — what were they thinking?

Mention USA Gymnastics, what will the reaction be?

That’s a good question. While every crisis is different, the United Airlines debacle presents a good checklist of what not to do.

Was the crisis was avoidable?

The airline had four employees who needed to travel from Chicago to Louisville; overbooking happens routinely. United’s customer service personnel offered vouchers, first for $400 and then $800, as an incentive to find four volunteers to give up their seats. They should have continued to offer higher values until they solved the problem. By haggling over hundreds of dollars, they placed United’s billion dollar brand in jeopardy.

Had they identified the non-volunteers while still in the terminal area, explained why they were selected, and offered compensation including flights, rooms and meals, they would have lost four customers but maintained their global goodwill.

Because United began the boarding process, allowing the non-volunteers to board the aircraft. This fundamentally changed the dynamic of the situation. United’s relationship with its customers turned from cooperation to confrontation.

In crisis management and communication, control is essential. But as United’s problems compounded, it turned resolution of the evolving situation over to local law enforcement. BECAUSE THAT ALWAYS GOES SO WELL.

Did the officers not realize that in 2017 EVERYONE who wasn’t being dragged from the plane was recording their action on their cell phone? Nothing stays in Vegas anymore.

In the aftermath, corporate spokespeople resorted to an overly legalistic response — airline employees followed proper procedures. Then, of course, they blamed the victim.

Rather than quickly acknowledging mistakes and working aggressively to limit the damage, United hid behind an ongoing internal and law enforcement investigation.

The responses from United fell well short of what was needed. Congressional hearings are inevitable. Before coming to Washington, Munoz needs to take ownership of United’s crisis.

A good starting point is a more heartfelt apology. The passengers on Flight 3411 did nothing wrong. Their rights were violated.

When he confronts justifiably angry members of Congress, he needs to acknowledge that responsibility flows from top to bottom, not the other way around. This was not a case of bad apples or over-aggressive policing. United placed the imperatives of the company ahead of the interests of their customers.

A Lesson Learned from United Airlines

April 11, 2017 by Tony Retrosi 1 Comment

By now we have all seen the passenger physically removed from an overbooked United Airlines flight. This was a crisis that through better policies could have been avoided and certainly the aftermath could have been handled better.

I think we need to discuss something that way too many of us ignore.

During my time as a Coach, Club owner and Administrator, I have learned that there is one important skill every leader must internalize. And that is – Empathy.

Empathy: The ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

As USA Gymnastics found out. PR disasters can happen at any time. There’s only so much you can do to control the actions of everyone within the organization. But how you RESPOND to the crisis is completely under your control.

After the passenger was dragged off the plane, the CEO decided to point the finger at the customer (the passenger). CEO Oscar Muñoz offered that this was “an upsetting event to all of us here at United.” It’s bad enough when you’ve dragged and bloodied a customer. It’s worse when the reported cause was that you wanted to accommodate some of your own employees.

Muñoz wasn’t done. “I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers,” he said.

What? The customer wasn’t re-accommodated. He was treated like an animal.

Muñoz said that United would conduct a review. He said it would reach out to the passenger.

His remarks were accusatory and defensive:

“He was disruptive and belligerent”
“He refused to comply”
“We decided to re-accommodate him”

Furthermore, the former CEO of the parent company responded by claiming “immaturity” on part of the passenger. Regardless of protocol, context etc etc … when the outcome is as horrifying as a customer bleeding profusely – you simply MUST summon your empathy.

I believe CEO Oscar Munez may have been trying to put on a strong show of leadership by standing behind his employees. That’s great. As a business owner, I stand by my employees too, however, he failed to realize that he is not only responsible for his employees but also his customers. It has been reported that the passenger had a criminal record. That doesn’t matter. That is victim shaming.

Had Oscar Munez empathized with the man – who was subjugated by being dragged out of his seat and getting his face rammed into the handrest (through no fault of his own,) – I’m sure his response would have been different. If he had wanted to put on a show of leadership while empathizing with the customer, he could have said something like this.

The United Airlines employees followed protocol as advised, but the result was horrifying. We are investigating the matter with seriousness and looking into revising the protocols to ensure that an incident like this never happens again”

I’m no PR expert – but I put that together in about 90 seconds. This would have at the very least allowed customers to feel somewhat safe in traveling United Airlines again. Instead, CEO Munez decided victim blaming is the way to go. The PR backlash has been severe. With social media and influencers calling for the boycott of United Airlines. (Sound familiar?)

Share prices for United Airlines dropped by 3.3% – making them the worst performed in the S&P 500. And I have a feeling like there is more to come. Perhaps a lawsuit? Time will tell how events shall unfold.

If you were the CEO of United– how would you respond?

If you were the CEO of USAG how would you have responded?

I really want to know. I think we can learn from each other.

We can learn from each other to deal with these situations better when they arise.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y8HdeHtOJs

HANDLING A CRISIS IN YOUR GYM

April 6, 2017 by Tony Retrosi Leave a Comment

USA Gymnastics has recently found itself in crisis. It’s like they got hit by a truck and while they staggered to the curb they got struck by lightening.

Coaching and owning a gym can be filled with crises, large and small. Crises have no respect for your personal life or whether it is the weekend of Regional or National Championship. While we can never be truly prepared for a crisis, we can do our best to anticipate categories of crises that arise and have a game plan for responding.

In my experience, those who overcome the gym’s inevitable crises have three basic principles in place.

First, they have a strong and varied network of trusted advisors.
Second, they avoid panic and instead break the necessary responses down into component parts.
Third, they maintain flexibility, knowing that even the best plans are going to run off the rails.

In the many years I spent owning my gyms and coaching, I’d like to think I’ve seen it all. From the “normal” crisis of someone getting sick in the gym or the cake for a birthday party does not come out right to the more exciting time when someone robbed the bank near the gym and left their get-a-way car in our parking lot (ask me about that sometime). One of the parents at the gym is a lawyer and she has worked with a client whose businesses experienced sudden chemical spill. Another inherited a piece of property only to find out it was contaminated on polluted and unstable land and they are now responsible for the clean up. That makes even some of the worst things in the gym seem pretty benign. Few gyms could ever be fully prepared for that type of problem!

When you order a cake for a birthday party at your gym and ask for the Olympic Rings on it

The gyms I have seen who fared the best in a crisis had in place relationships with trustworthy professionals and a willingness to view their potentially long-term crisis as a series of small steps to be addressed one at a time. They also sought the support of people outside of gymnastics. Using friends and family to help keep them from becoming overwhelmed.

I probably do 30 clinics, camps, congresses in a year. I see crises differently now. Sometimes unnecessary situations arise because problems are ignored for too long. The slow trickle of attrition turns into a steady flow of frustration as gymnasts who cannot advance or are not encouraged seek a more hospitable environment. Younger gymnasts whose parents see a gym uncomfortable with change leave as well. These gyms are not unlike a business faced with an environmental crisis. Talent management is as important to the sustainability of a gym as is weathering the effects of a chemical spill or underground pollution. Any crisis requires a thoughtful and appropriate response. Sometimes the problem needs steady attention, while other times you will find yourself having to respond quickly to an emergency.

As a parent, life is full of crises large and small. Coming home to a notice stuck in my son’s backpack inviting parents to a school event the next morning (don’t they know I have morning workout?!), or a last-minute request to bake for a class party, can leave even the most organized parent in a panic. But these pale in comparison to a sudden illness or more serious medical crisis, which can throw any household into complete pandemonium. When I face these work-life crises, I recall that having the proverbial village to help me through eased every roadblock. A spouse who shares the load while extended family (or our amazing neighbor Mrs Eighmy!) can be called upon to provide all the necessary backup, including the emergency care of one child while the other is at the doctor, or the offer of a sympathetic ear and wise counsel to navigate the challenge.

In your gym, the key is to anticipate where trouble spots are likely to arise and develop plans for avoiding them if possible. Your core staff needs to be a crisis management team. Who does what and when? These teams should include in the gym staff and office staff. Consult with other gyms AND other industries to get some ideas. Large crises may require all hands on deck. It is always important to remember that each crisis helps build a reservoir of resilience. So even as we rely on our network of support, we can also look within for the strength we need to weather our storms.

Editorial Part 2 (and the last one)

December 15, 2012 by Tony Retrosi Leave a Comment

Extreme apologies for the diversion from gymnastics. There are number of gymnastics clubs and YMCAs in the Newtown Connecticut area. All the coaches and owners at these gyms are great people and the lives of their clients have been forever changed.

It was so painful, you could not watch.

It was so heartbreaking, you could not listen.

The president wiped away tears, but what parent didn’t, as we stared at the television screen and saw the looks on the faces of the children who got away?

On this horrific Friday, we went to an awful place even this blood-soaked society has never been. And what you wonder is how we ever find our way back. When enough will finally be enough, or if we are too far gone to know.

It was all there again; senseless carnage in a culture that lives and dies with violence. A culture that is entertained by it, profits from it, talks it, glorifies it, swims in it. And every so often, when the day is bad enough, gets shocked and sickened by it.

Virginia Tech and Colorado. Wisconsin and Connecticut. On and on and on. Bullet after bullet, body after body.

Much of the discussion in response to all the dead kindergartners in Newtown, Conn., will focus on guns, and rightfully so. If little girls gunned down at their desks don’t force the issue, what will?

But it is so much more. What is it about us, that so many pull triggers? This was the act of a disturbed man, but why so many acts, and why so many killers? No new gun control law can answer that.

The psychologists will eventually tell us their theories about this individual and why he picked up weapons one morning and decided to shoot 5-year-olds. If only it was as simple as one madman. Only as infrequent as one grim Friday.

But it’s not. You wonder if we have created too fertile a breeding ground for violence. You wonder why the predominant emotion among so many of us so often is rage.

And then you look around, and the way we communicate with one another.

You look at our talk shows that once fostered thoughtful discussion and meaningful debate. Now they value one word only. Attack. Attack. Attack. The more vicious the better, because it sells.

You look at our Internet, and its vast promise of an interchange of ideas. And then see how that promise has been perverted, to where assault is made all the easier by anonymity, and even the media no longer has use for beauty or perspective, because scandal and conflict and heated rhetoric get so many more computer hits.

You look at our entertainment, and note the high body count, where we are numb to bloodshed and blind to its consequences. Where the winner is often the one who kills best.

I look at my own pitifully trivial world of sport. Where proposals for safer football rules are hooted down, because the game might be less violent, and the crowds might stay away. Where the fig is asking gymnasts to risk it all for a medal.

I look at some of the mail I get. Abusive, brutal language from those furious about an article I wrote or didn’t write. If gymnastics provokes such fury, one can only imagine what the real world must do.

If rage and rancor are so much a part of our daily lives, it should not be a shock that gunfire breaks out. It has happened so often, that now when the first reports come, we ask the same questions, dulled as we are by mayhem.

Where? How many? How young?

What terrible questions for a society to have to keep asking itself.

No, our violence-rich culture does not make murderers of us all. But cigarettes don’t give everyone lung cancer. That does not make them non-lethal.

The haunting memory from Friday will be of young voices, shrieking in fear. Of parents thrust into their worst nightmare. Of Christmas stockings that will never be filled.

Have we finally had enough? It must not start with just gun control. It must start with us. We’ve surrendered common civility because something else makes more money, or gets more attention. The result? Many simply live angrier lives.

But a few pick up guns, and go off to kill children who still believed in Santa Claus.

Tony