Does the Royal Family get it?
Television held together a grieving world but where was the Queen?
Five days after the tragic death of Diana, Princess of Wales, Geoffrey Crawford, the Queen's press secretary, was forced to issue a public statement saying that the Royal Family "was hurt" by the mounting public criticism that it was indifferent to the country's sorrow and Di's death.
This extraordinary statement was released as I was preparing this inaugural column on strategic communications. What better example could be served up by a firm (as the Royal Family is known in Britain) failing to understand some of the basic lessons of communicating effectively following a tragedy. How could Her Majesty and Buckingham Palace have so badly misread the public mood, and in so doing, fail to provide the leadership so required of heads of state or of CEOs today?
Rule #1: Stay in touch with your people. Buckingham Palace clearly underestimated the depth and breadth of public sentiment for Diana. As with any organization which fails to truly understand their customers, employees, media or shareholders, the Palace was left looking churlish, at best, as it tried to downplay the public aspects of Diana's funeral.
Rule #2: In the television age, if you're not there, you don't care. Just as savvy politicians have learned in the television age, when there has been a domestic disaster - flood, explosion, strike etc., stop everything and go immediately to the scene or to where the public is.
When no public statement emanated from the Queen and it was announced that Her Majesty would only arrive in London on the morning of the funeral, the stage was set for a revolt by the public. This outrage was fueled by front-page headlines from newspapers such as the usually monarchist tabloid, The Mirror which read: "Your People are Suffering. Speak to us, ma'am." Eventually, the Queen, under pressure by Prince Charles and Prime Minister Tony Blair, agreed to speak six days after the tragedy!
This was sadly ironic as Prince Charles had done absolutely the right thing in the early days following the tragedy by taking quick, decisive and compassionate action in going to Paris so soon to retrieve his ex-wife's body.
Rule # 3: Doing the right thing eventually is never as good as doing it right away.
The Queen, under pressure to speak up, finally gave in and made a last minute televised address to a grieving nation. When Her Majesty left Buckingham Palace on the morning of the funeral, the Union Jack, in a break from centuries of tradition, was raised on top of Buckingham Palace and then lowered to half-mast in honor of the Princess of Wales during the sad funeral march. For many observers of the public relations debacle of the previous week, it represented the white flag of surrender by a monarchy which seemed so out of touch with the television age's feel-your-pain demands of leadership.
Rule # 4: Manage the perception of caring. According to risk communications specialist Vince Covello, 50% of why the public thinks a person is trustworthy and credible on "risk" issues, is based on caring. Think back to the public role that President Clinton played in leading a grieving nation in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing. Or think of President Reagan, as he was there to welcome home the bodies of all those young U.S. marines who were killed in a bomb attack on the U.S. Embassy in Beirut. Both Presidents knew that the role of the leader is not to hide, but to publicly lead the nation as it lives, via television, through its grief.
Rule #5: Be considerate about the little things.
During the week of mourning, the crowds were waiting up to 14 hours to sign one of the five books of condolences set out at St. James Palace - where Diana's body lay in a chapel. It wasn't until Richard Branson, the CEO of the Virgin Group, and a friend of Diana, expressed his exasperation through the media, did Buckingham Palace respond with nine additional books. No doubt an oversight, but it served to give more ammunition to the public who were becoming convinced that the Monarchy was out of touch with ordinary people.
Rule #6: When a major tragedy occurs, be proactive, not reactive.
The initial stunned disbelief by the public in the first few days turned to anger at the paparazzi, then to anger at the Royal Family, and finally to more profound questions about the future of the Monarchy and Prince Charles, in particular. For organizations of any kind facing fundamental questions of credibility, it is essential to anticipate these shifts in issues, and try to get out ahead of them. Whether or not the criticism of the Royal Family was unfair, and certainly some of it was ludicrous and way off base, it does demonstrate the importance of managing perceptions in the television spotlight and reaching out when a tragedy occurs.
Barry J. McLoughlin is the President of Barry McLoughlin Associates Inc., a communications training and publishing firm in Washington D.C., Princeton, New Jersey and Ottawa, Canada,, communicate@ mclomedia.com., 800/663-3899