So Ottawa had an earthquake the other day. I've lived in Ottawa most of my life and have never felt an earthquake before. For many in Ottawa this was a first.
I was working at the computer in my apartment on the fifth floor at the time of the earthquake. Suddenly everything started to rumble - and it was more of a rumbling than a shaking if you ask me.
So what did I do? I did exactly what you shouldn't do. I bolted from my chair in bare feet and zipped down five flights of stairs and went outside. I'd say from the moment of the rumbling it probably took me 15 seconds to get outside.
Lots of other folks did exactly the same thing I did. The funniest story I heard was a lawyer who was in the middle of changing in preparation for court, who ran outside in his underwear.
What should I (we) have done? Apparently, you should go and stand under a doorway frame. It's the safest place during an earthquake.
The most dangerous place to be during an earthquake is standing outside beside a building, because falling glass and brick will pretty much kill you if it hits you.
So what did I take from the quake? I say this tongue and cheek, but in many ways humans are pretty dumb (myself included). When faced with a crisis we tend to react instinctively - and often times, our instincts are wrong. They tell us to do the exact thing that we shouldn't do.
Which in a way puts in to perspective the value of public relations.
When organizations have someone taking care of their communications they stay calm, cool and collected when confronted with all kinds of communication situations. They know how to react because they've thought through various scenarios. Even if they haven't actually created a crisis communications plan, a good PR person (in my opinion) is always thinking about different stakeholders, their concerns and how to speak to those concerns if needed. They are always looking for gaps and trying to shore those gaps up, so that they never get blind-sided and end up reacting instinctively instead of in a prepared manner.
But for many organizations that don't have communications folks, when a crisis hits their natural tendency is to react instinctively (which most often, like me running out of my building, is to try and get away from the situation). Which while seeming reasonable, is probably the worse thing you can do generally speaking.
I've done a lot of interviews with a lot of different types of people and I'm always a bit surprised at how anxious many people are prior to an interview. A lot of them mask it, but you can tell nonetheless. It's a (rare) treat when you get folks who are relaxed and actually enjoy doing interviews.
Perhaps I tend to forget that for me, I've thought through any given interview prior to engaging in it. As a result, for me it's fun. But for someone whose job is not communications, I expect their anxiety is tied to the fear that something might happen that they can't anticipate and they will react instinctively and shoot their foot off.
So the lesson I took from the quake was just how important it is to be prepared. Not only to be concerning yourself with communications in the moment, but always thinking about different situations your organization might find itself in and have some strategies in mind for how to react. Because not doing so will probably mean that if that day comes, you'll react instinctively, which will probably the wrong thing to do.
I was working at the computer in my apartment on the fifth floor at the time of the earthquake. Suddenly everything started to rumble - and it was more of a rumbling than a shaking if you ask me.
So what did I do? I did exactly what you shouldn't do. I bolted from my chair in bare feet and zipped down five flights of stairs and went outside. I'd say from the moment of the rumbling it probably took me 15 seconds to get outside.
Lots of other folks did exactly the same thing I did. The funniest story I heard was a lawyer who was in the middle of changing in preparation for court, who ran outside in his underwear.
What should I (we) have done? Apparently, you should go and stand under a doorway frame. It's the safest place during an earthquake.
The most dangerous place to be during an earthquake is standing outside beside a building, because falling glass and brick will pretty much kill you if it hits you.
So what did I take from the quake? I say this tongue and cheek, but in many ways humans are pretty dumb (myself included). When faced with a crisis we tend to react instinctively - and often times, our instincts are wrong. They tell us to do the exact thing that we shouldn't do.
Which in a way puts in to perspective the value of public relations.
When organizations have someone taking care of their communications they stay calm, cool and collected when confronted with all kinds of communication situations. They know how to react because they've thought through various scenarios. Even if they haven't actually created a crisis communications plan, a good PR person (in my opinion) is always thinking about different stakeholders, their concerns and how to speak to those concerns if needed. They are always looking for gaps and trying to shore those gaps up, so that they never get blind-sided and end up reacting instinctively instead of in a prepared manner.
But for many organizations that don't have communications folks, when a crisis hits their natural tendency is to react instinctively (which most often, like me running out of my building, is to try and get away from the situation). Which while seeming reasonable, is probably the worse thing you can do generally speaking.
I've done a lot of interviews with a lot of different types of people and I'm always a bit surprised at how anxious many people are prior to an interview. A lot of them mask it, but you can tell nonetheless. It's a (rare) treat when you get folks who are relaxed and actually enjoy doing interviews.
Perhaps I tend to forget that for me, I've thought through any given interview prior to engaging in it. As a result, for me it's fun. But for someone whose job is not communications, I expect their anxiety is tied to the fear that something might happen that they can't anticipate and they will react instinctively and shoot their foot off.
So the lesson I took from the quake was just how important it is to be prepared. Not only to be concerning yourself with communications in the moment, but always thinking about different situations your organization might find itself in and have some strategies in mind for how to react. Because not doing so will probably mean that if that day comes, you'll react instinctively, which will probably the wrong thing to do.
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