Senior executives get a lesson in crisis management

A good offense is the best defense when it comes to managing a major agency crisis, according to three top career executives who have spent some quality time in the pressure cooker. Although the urge to hunker down can be overwhelming when a crisis erupts, communicating openly from the start with the media, Congress and agency employees is crucial to successfully weathering a storm of criticism, federal managers said Tuesday at the Senior Executives Association's annual leadership conference. "Even if you know you are not going to get a fair shake, you still need to provide access to the media, as painful as that may be," said Bob Wallis, the central regional director for the Immigration and Naturalization Service and an INS crisis manager in Florida during the Elian Gonzalez case. Nora Egan, chief of staff at the Veterans Affairs Department, said her agency made an effort during the late 1990s to improve its fractured relationship with the media, Congress, and veterans' groups who had criticized VA for its poor claims processing system. By talking openly with the press and meeting regularly with administration officials and staffers from congressional committees, the agency slowly won positive feedback from its critics, Egan said. Egan said the more open, proactive attitude toward disseminating information helped the agency when it was plagued by embezzlement and fraud scandals. "We called in the inspector general to conduct an investigation, briefed everyone involved and testified before Congress," Egan said. Egan said the agency should have taken a less defensive approach with the press and some lawmakers, but that overall its strategy was on target. "The urge to hunker down was there, but everything we did was right," she said. "We could have done a better job, obviously, but we acknowledged we were wrong and we supported our employees." Effective crisis management is more than just keeping the media informed and maintaining damage control, panel participants said. Protecting the agency's integrity and the morale of the workforce during and after a crisis should also be top priorities. Egan said VA not only worked hard to improve its relationship with outside groups, but also tried to keep employee morale intact. "Some employees took it [the criticism] so personally, and were really upset that all the good things the agency had been doing to improve its operations didn't get any attention," said Egan. John Fraser, former deputy administrator for the Wage and Hour Division at the Labor Department, said communicating with agency staff is critical during a crisis. "Communicating with your bosses helps maintain confidence and a certain control over the situation, while communicating with your employees ensures consistency throughout the organization and helps maintain organizational loyalty and confidence," said Fraser. Wallis, Egan, and Fraser told senior executives to keep some other bits of advice in mind when crisis hits:

• Evaluate how a crisis affects your employees.
• Surround yourself with a team of smart, savvy people.
• Launch and sustain a massive public relations campaign from the beginning to defuse tensions.
• Know your own strengths and weaknesses.
• Don't try to face the crisis alone.
• Do the right thing, even if some people don't like it or appreciate it.