The horrendous towering inferno in London, the callous bombing of the Manchester pop concert and those unspeakably sinister terrorist assaults around London Bridge and Westminster Bridge have thrown up an endless series of tough questions for those in authority in Britain.
Alas it’s fair to say that those at the top have generally been less than impressive in how they’ve answered many of these tough questions.
They’ve particularly been found wanting as the latest tough questions on the tower block fire in West London have mounted along with the death toll over the past few difficult days.
Leaders of the Council in the Royal Kensington and Chelsea Borough and the British Prime Minister, Theresa May, have been singled out for particular criticism as they’ve failed to provide impressive actions and great answers to tough questions such as:
+ When there was so much prior concern about the fire safety risk in residential tower blocks, why wasn’t there a properly functioning sprinkler system in the now burnt-out Grenfell Tower?
+ Was the advice to tower residents to remain in their flats during the fire and put a wet towel under the front door really wise?
+ Has the cladding installed to upgrade the London tower block – and so many others around the country – increased the fire risk?
+ Why have the impressive and generous amateur efforts of volunteers, religious groups and sports clubs to help the victims of the fire seem to have been more rapid and better organised than those of local and central government?
+ Why did the Prime Minister – before the latest damage limitation exercise involving inviting tower residents in Ten Downing Street – only meet the emergency professionals when she visited the disaster zone rather than connect with the grieving, distraught and understandably angry surviving residents?
CRISIS LESSONS FOR US ALL
Here’s three of the lessons which have already become apparent and may be useful to anyone in an organisation that could – God forbid – be hit by terrorism, fire or some other disaster:
+ When speaking about such crises, those in authority need to talk to our hearts before they talk to our heads – and they need to make sure that those words to the hearts are acted upon quickly. Saying the right thing on its own isn’t enough. At such crisis moments, the right actions must be in line with your words
+ Dealing effectively with unexpected disasters requires planning, preparation and practice as it’s hard to get it right in the heat of the moment without this
+ When you can’t answer a particular tough question you need to say WHY you can’t answer and then say what you are doing about finding the answer BEFORE you get across your wider message on the topic. For example, the police chiefs have given more credible answers about why they can’t give the exact death toll in the tower block fire (currently at least 58 and, sadly, still likely to rise) when they’ve first explained the difficulties encountered by those seeking to recover bodies inside the wreckage
TRAINING IN ADVANCE CAN HELP WITH PREVENTION
The added benefit of planning, preparing and practicing for the worst, including what to say to the media, stakeholders and the public, is that it focuses minds on how to actually avoid the worst.
When leaders are focusing on what to say while planning to deal with a potential tragedy, it provides extra incentive to make sure their teams are doing everything they possibly can to prevent such disasters in the first place.
One of the fascinating things about the sessions I and my colleagues who run on dealing with the media and other audiences in a crisis, is that when those you are training focus on reacting to unfolding nightmare scenarios – often in the form of mock news bulletins we make for them – participants come to realise just how emotional they will feel amidst a real crisis.
They then learn how they need to deal with their own emotions and simultaneously react to other people’s emotions as they do and say what needs to be done.
There’s more about giving great answers to tough questions here:
Give Great Answer To Tough Questions
It’s too early to properly assess the authorities response to the latest terrorist attack near to mosques in London’s Finsbury Park.
Nothing can totally prepare a leader for what to do and say in an aftermath of a massive fire or a terrorist outrage, but doing the training in advance helps you perform so much better on those awful days when you really are put to the test.
Performing well under pressure at such critical times is part of what great leadership and great communication is about.