How to not make it worse — Kelford Labs Weekly

“No matter how bad a situation is, you can always make it worse.”

— Chris Hadfield, An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth

About a decade ago, I was asleep in an apartment in SoHo, having traveled to New York City for an advertising awards ceremony.

The work my team and I had done for our clients that year was feted with a handful of the highest honors, and I was sleeping off a night of celebration. It just happened to also be my birthday, so I was planning to take the next day off of work.

But then, around 5am, my phone rang. And rang. And rang.

I picked it up to hear my client’s urgent plea.

There’d been a small accident (no one was harmed), a cruise ship would be delayed picking up its passengers, and guests onboard and off were panicking. But the company didn’t have a fixed plan yet for what was going to happen next, so guests couldn’t be given clear instructions.

“So, what should we say?” I was asked.

I’d spent a decent chunk of my career up to that point in crisis communications. Working with energy companies, manufacturers, and government bodies to make sure their messages didn’t make things worse.

Upbringing, experience, and expertise have turned me into the person you call when you need to know what to say to get someone to feel a certain way, like to stop being angry.

And so I’ve learned a few lessons that I always remind my clients of, starting with Rule Number One of communicating in a crisis:

Don’t make things worse.

It’s not always easy to do, because our instincts are often completely wrong.

We rush to tell people to calm down, which enrages them.

We bombard them with comforting facts, which dismisses them.

Or we get defensive, and accuse others of attacking us or misunderstanding our motives.

And all of these things make the problem worse.

Instead, when we start to feel our blood boil, or when we get that sensation that our stomach is rising up into our throats, or when we suddenly feel that we’ve got to say something, now, we actually have to slow down.

Dr. Dan Dworkis, in my interview with him last year, talked about the importance of Reflex Packages, or preparing ahead of time for what you’ll do when you get thrust into a crisis.

As he said, “Sometimes it’s running through things ahead of time in your mind about likely scenarios. And sometimes it is building more of an internal reflex package about, okay, when I get called, these will be the first three things I will do. And then my brain will catch up to me as I do it.”

Slowing down helps us think things through, and game out the likely reactions and reverberations of our actions and statements.

“If I do this, what’s likely to happen next? And what will happen after that?”

“If I say this, what are people likely to say back? And what will happen once they do?”

Because, in all communication, but especially in crises, it’s not about what you want to say or do.

It’s what others see you do, and it’s about what others say back.

I say all this because you might be getting a lot of questions from your clients and customers right now. How will tariffs affect your prices? Are you exiting the U.S., Canadian, or Mexican markets? Are you going to stop importing from China?

Customers want certainty, they want stability, and they want clear answers, right now.

But you probably don’t have them yet.

So what did I tell that client to do about their passengers panicking? What did I tell them to say before they could provide clearer answers?

I told them to:

• Acknowledge the emergency from the passengers’ perspective
• Sincerely apologize for the disruption and inconvenience
• Explain what they’re doing to resolve it
• And provide a timeline for the next update

Your customers might be asking you about how your prices will be changing, or why they already have. Or they might be asking to know what you’re going to do in response to economic threats. Or they might just be worried about you.

So here’s my advice for the moment, while everything is still swirling and changing:

Don’t make it worse.

Don’t promise that nothing will change, if you actually can’t guarantee it.

Don’t tell them there’s nothing to worry about.

Don’t tell them to calm down, or ignore their feelings.

And don’t try to comfort or distract them with a million facts and figures.

As Peter Sandman put it in Responding to Community Outrage, “Nobody pays a lot of attention to your charts and graphs when they are busy collecting rocks to throw at your car.”

Instead, I recommend doing this:

• Acknowledge and appreciate their concern and worries, because they’re real
• Apologize for not having all the answers right away
• Explain what you’re doing to get the answers as fast as you can
• And provide a timeline for your next update

So how did that cruise ship problem work out? Well, they ended up doing what their corporate affairs department recommended instead:

Which was to say nothing until they had a clear answer.

In the meantime, the crisis grew and their reputation suffered. Everything got worse.

A while later, my client confided in me that they’d made a mistake.

“Next time,” they said, “we’ll do it your way.”

So if you’re wondering what to say to get your clients and customers to be less worried about how your business will be changing, or less panicked about the changes you’re being forced to make, remember:

Rule Number One is “Don’t make it worse.”

So acknowledge their concern without dismissing or diminishing it.

Explain what you’re doing to provide a resolution.

And give them an accurate timeline for when you’ll have more information.

That may be all anyone can do right now, but it’s better than nothing.

And much better than saying the wrong thing.

Kelford Inc. shows entrepreneurs the way to always knowing what to say.