Loss of Private Files Is Smoldering Crisis

Medical and mental health clearly is a private matter. But Our Lady of Peace psychiatric hospital in Louisville, Kentucky, lost a flash drive with information about 24,600 patients. The drive included names, room numbers, insurance, and admission and discharge dates. Even information about those not admitted were on the missing flash drive.

Hospital officials aren't saying how the files went missing. However, a statement said Our Lady of Peace is re-educating employees on how to safeguard information and promising to take "appropriate disciplinary action." The hospital declined to elaborate.

The website for Our Lady of Peace, which includes other hospitals in the chain, claims, "JHSMH is required by law to protect the privacy of your health information that can identify you, inform you about our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to your health information, and follow the terms of this Notice. This Notice applies to all of your health information held by JHSMH." (http://www.jhsmh.org/privacy.html)

Our Lady of Peace knew about the breach on April 1. Letters to affected patients are just going out in late April/early May. Sounds like a class action suit waiting to happen. The hospital's communications sound apologetic in tone. But if confidential data isn't well protected, you have yourself a smoldering crisis, and "I'm sorry" isn't good enough. Show this story to your IT people and make sure your bits and bites are protected.

Coal Mine Owners Try Using the Silent Treatment

Compare my post below, praising Transocean and BP, with the owners of a coal mine in western Kentucky where two workers died this week. "The Dotiki Mine is operated by Webster County Coal LLC and owned by Alliance Resource Partners LP of Tulsa, Okla. Company officials did not respond to requests for comment." (http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20104290325)

The Tulsa World did print a statement from the company's subsidiary: "Alliance officials could not reached for comment after the accident but the Webster County Coal subsidiary put out a statement Thursday.

"'We ask that your thoughts and prayers be with the families of these two dedicated young men, and with their fellow coal miners, all of whom are deeply mourning their loss," the statement read.' (http://www.tulsaworld.com/business/article.aspx?subjectid=49&articleid=20100430_49_E1_Kentuc45016)

A check of the websites for Alliance Resource Partners and Webster County Coal show no mention of the accident. Perhaps an explanation for these anemic communications about this crisis is found in Tulsa World: "MSHA records show the mine was cited 840 times by federal inspectors for safety violations since January 2009, and 11 times closure orders were issued. The records show 214 of the citations were issued in the first four months of this year, and twice inspectors issued closure orders this year.... At least six times since January, state inspectors ordered portions of the mine closed because roof bolts were too far apart.... Roof bolts are metal rods drilled into overhead rock layers to help prevent roof falls. According to the citations, inspectors allowed the mine sections to reopen after additional roof bolts were inserted in each of the locations. Some of the roof bolts had been placed some 6 feet apart, in violation of a roof control plan MSHA had approved for the mine."

The fatalities occurred when the mine's roof collapsed. Are Alliance and Webster County Coal hiding from its stakeholders? It sure looks like it. Make sure your organization communicates like Transocean, not like these characters. And no communications will be effective if the organization's record is poor.

Transocean, BP Shine in Human and Environmental Crisis

When the President, the Interior Department, Homeland Security, and the Environmental Protection Agency all are involved in your crisis, you know you have a mess on your hands.

This mess comes in the form of oil. I'm referring, of course, to the Deepwater Horizon well 41 miles off the coast of Louisiana. I blogged below about the explosion and fire, which left 11 dead, and I praised operator Transocean Ltd. for its crisis communications efforts. My view hasn't changed, but I can add owner BP to my good-job list.

BP, without whimpering based on what I can find, has agreed to pay clean-up costs, as 5,000 barrels of oil are leaking from the sunken oil platform each day. That's at a cost of $6 million a day, contributing to a 6.5% drop in BP stock. (www.businessweek.comnews/2010-04-29/bp-will-pay-spill-costs-as-u-s-agencies-mobilize-update.html). "Coast Guard Rear Admiral Sally Brice O'Hare said BP has been responsive to the need to contain the spill and coordinated with federal officials. 'They are doing what they should be doing,' she said."

Meanwhile, on the Transocean website, is this update: "Following suspension of U.S. Coast Guard search-and-rescue efforts to find 11 persons missing in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, Steven L. Newman, president and chief executive officer of Transocean Ltd., on the ground in New Orleans, expressed his deepest sympathies on behalf of the company to the family members of those lost.... 'As the nation and everyone in the Transocean family mourns the tragic loss of these people, our deepest sympathies are with their families and friends today.... Transocean is doing everything we can to meet their needs during this difficult time, and our family response team members are in close contact to provide all the necessary support. I would once again like to express our gratitude to the U.S. Coast Guard, BP, and everyone involved for their exhaustive search-and-rescue efforts, despite this very sad outcome.'" (http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.ztml?c=113031&p=irol-newsArticle_print&id=1417426&highlight=)

I can't verify yet if Transocean is treating people as well as it indicates in its communications. Nevertheless, it seems like it should be common sense to make a statement like this following a workplace tragedy. But there are far too many who don't have enough sense to express grief at the loss of employees' lives. When communicating during a crisis, show that you have a heart, express your remorse and sympathy, be at or near the scene, and thank the agencies involved for their help. Don't you have a better feeling about Transocean than if the article had said, "Officials from Transocean didn't return phone calls."? Man, how many times have you seen reporters say and write that?

Preventing Crises Must Be Rocket Science Because It Goes Over So Many's Heads

A family near Philadelphia says it had no choice but to sue the Lower Merion School District. Holly Robbins says it's not about the money, and I feel like I should believe her. Instead, she says, it's because of a lack of communications, which can lead to smoldering crises like this one.

Robbins learned last November that her 15-year-old son's school-issued laptop computer was taking pictures in their home (www.kentucky.com/2010/04/28/1243076/family-in-spycam-case-says-they.html). That's because the school district purchased the LANrev system to provide updates on the 2,300 laptops it issues to high school students. A part of this system is a tracking device, which has now been deactivated, to locate lost laptops. But before deactivation, the school district had access to hundreds of pictures of Robbins' son, Blake, on his computer, sleeping, and shirtless just out of the shower. Since the Robbins filed suit in February, according to their attorney, the district had access to at least 56,000 images of students in their homes.

As if that wasn't bad enough, the district compounded the problem. According to McClatchy News Service, "...she (Robbins) couldn't get any answers. 'Nobody called me back.... Nobody responded to me.'"

Because of the lawsuit, there's been an FBI investigation, new federal wiretapping legislation, and a segment on "Dr. Phil." If you can believe this woman, the only reason the family sued was because school officials were unresponsive to her concerns. A returned phone call and an immediate disconnection of the tracking device would have kept the school district out of negative national publicity and probably would have saved a civil suit -- and perhaps as many as 2,300 civil suits.

Smoldering crises should be easy to avoid, but too many organizations think that if they ignore the problem, the resulting crisis will go away. It doesn't work like that. Be sure to red-flag potential crises to your management, and then don't relent. Make sure there is a productive response.

Communications of Oil Platform Explosion: So Far, So Effective

An explosion and fire at an exploratory drilling rig 41 miles off the coast of Louisiana has left 11 people missing. Deepwater Horizon is owned by Transocean Ltd. in Switzerland. Despite an AP report that showed a family member accusing the company of not telling them anything, it appears from this distance that the company has done a fine job of communications and emergency response.

One hundred fifteen survivors made it to rescue boats where they were rescued by Coast Guard helicopters and flown to a New Orleans hotel where they met family members. (See AP video at http://www.google.com/search?q=deepwater+drilling+news&hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-US&rlz=1I7GGLL_en&source=univ&tbs=nws:1&tbo=u&ei=-JLQS-TeFIyK8wTL5KQm&sa=X&oi=news_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CAsQsQQwAA)

I found two versions of Transocean's news release online. I assume the longer version is the more recent one, although both are dated April 21. (http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=113031&p=irol-newsArticle_print&ID=1416100&highlight=) The explosion occurred at 11 p.m. Eastern Time on April 20.

To quote an excerpt from the release: "The ongoing search and rescue effort is being coordinated among Transocean's Emergency and Family Response Team, the lease operator, BP Exploration & Production, Inc., and the U.S. Coast Guard. The rig continues to burn and Transocean, BP and the U.S. Coast Guard are actively pursuing various methods to stem the flow of hydrocarbons that appear to be fueling the fire. The rig is being monitored continually for stability. The U.S. Coast Guard has contingency plans in the event environmental risk escalates. The cause of the fire and explosion is unknown at this time. An investigation into the cause of the incident and assessment of the damage will be ongoing in the days or weeks to come.

"Crew members and their families may contact Transocean's Emergency and Family Response Team at 832-587-5110 for assistance."

The mesage here is that several teams of experts have everything pretty much under control. An investigation will be launched. And here's a number where victims and their families can call for help.

If I have a criticism it is that, as I am writing this at 2:40 p.m. EDT, the release hasn't been updated since yesterday, hours after the explosion. Even if there's no new information, Transocean could at least say "Nothing more is known about the 11 missing workers..." and "Crews continue to ...." It's been daylight for some time in Switzerland. Give us an update.

Another thing Transocean might consider in the future is a dark site. This would be helpful to reporters, crew members and their families, and curious onlookers like me. It's not a big deal because I found the release at the top of the company's website anyway. (http://www.deepwater.com/fw/main/Home-1.html)

We should watch to see how Transocean deals with its crisis in the coming days and weeks. I think it's a pretty good start.

Ben Roethlisberger Teaches Our Organizations How Not to Deal With Problems

When you grow up near Pittsburgh, you're always a Pittsburgh fan, even after you've been gone for 30 years as I have been. Pittsburgh people are amazingly loyal. That's what makes it hard for me to follow the behavior and aftershocks of Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. In case you don't follow sports, Big Ben has been sued by a hotel worker in Colorado who claims he raped her last year. A drunken 20-year-old in Georgia since has accused Ben of taking advantage of her. No charges have been filed in either incident. But NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on April 21 imposed a six-game suspension for "conduct detrimental to the NFL in violation of the league’s Personal Conduct Policy." (http://www.steelers.com/news/article-1/Roethlisberger-suspended-for-six-games/c1df3307-a405-4208-93d2-9cd4d20e9bbe) Rumors are that the Steelers are trying to strike a deal to trade Roethlisberger, just as they traded Super Bowl hero Santonio Holmes a few weeks ago because of his admitted drug issues and an assault against a woman. (Personal editorial comment -- You have to love the Steelers organization for both its integrity and long-term success on the field. The Rooneys are a class family no matter what team you root for.)

I can't find any response by Roethlisberger. Like Tiger did for four months, he has disappeared from the public's eye. Perhaps his attorney is advising him to lay low because of the pending civil suit in Colorado. Whatever. When a celebrity messes up, or an organization messes up, I believe some sort of statement is appropriate. Fans -- and stakeholders -- deserve some morsel of remorse.

The Ben mess -- which has cost him at least one endorsement loss so far (It was for beef jerky, which seems like a perfect fit for someone acting like a jerk) -- reminds me of another NFL situation long ago. Joe Namath was another controversial quarterback off the field. He grew up in Beaver Falls, my home town, and preceded me by 10 years or so through Beaver Falls High School. My dad, a Beaver Falls teacher, used to tell me about run-ins he had with the troubled football hero. They were nothing like the run-in he had with NFL Commissioner Pete Roselle in 1969. The first AFL quarterback to win a Super Bowl (Super Bowl III against Baltimore) owned a bar in New York known as Bachelors III. It was a reputed hangout for gamblers and mafia members. Roselle told him he had to sell the bar or face suspension. Joe Willie said he would retire first. After hours of meetings with Roselle, Namath announced he would sell the bar and rejoin the Jets.

'"When I said Namath and I had reached full accord and understanding," Rozelle carefully explained, "it was a sweeping thing, covering all aspects of the case. We reached total accord on the matter of his associations as well as on the sale of his interest in Bachelors III. You can assume from this statement that in the future he will be sure he knows the background of anyone with whom he becomes friendly, and he will duck anyone he knows to be undesirable. We have a clear understanding on this; he will know about people before he gets close to them."

'At the press conference in the pro football offices Namath had stoutly upheld his blamelessness. Sitting next to the commissioner behind a long mahogany table, Namath—in sports shirt, bell-bottoms and sneakers—could not help but break into a grin when Rozelle said flatly: "Joe has agreed to sell his interest in Bachelors III."' (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1082646/1/index.htm)

Larry Smith, president of the Institute for Crisis Management, often says you will never have a crisis someone else hasn't experienced. If you study crises, through the news, through this blog, and through Larry's blog (http://www.crisisconsultants.blogspot.com/), you will see how to deal with crises and how not to deal with crises. Namath handled his Bachelors III crisis fairly well: He communicated, he cooperated, and he accepted the league's condition so he could continue to play football and make, what in those days, was a lot of money. We'll see how Ben responds. Tiger waited too long to make a statement. Roethlisberger has yet to tell his story or apologize to teammates and fans. Remember, the sooner your organization comes clean following a mistake, the sooner the bad news will go away. News is all about conflict. Remove the conflict and you remove the news value.

Unpaid Internships Could Haunt You Later for Using Free Labor Today

When I was communications manager for a large chemical plant, I hired two interns during consecutive summers. They both were wonderful. The next year, my budget was cut and I decided I needed to spend money on internal and external comunications instead of on interns' pay. I suggested to the HR manager that I could bring in an unpaid intern who would be working for college credit. He said I couldn't. He claimed there was a case in Philadelphia or someplace when an intern sued the company where he worked because he added value to the organization without being compensated. He won his case. I never heard of such a case before or since. I figured the HR guy made it up or was simply mistaken. Lots of companies have interns working for the experience without pay.

I found out this week that Mike was right! And if you don't heed his warning, it could create a crisis for your organization.

Harold Wasserman wrote a column in the Miami Herald saying that use of interns as a source of free labor is illegal and just plain wrong (http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/04/12/1574963/cost-of-unpaid-labor.html). His column deals mainly with newspapers, which he claims are notorious for taking advantage of inexperienced reporters who want something substantive on their resumes. He cites the New York Times as saying 83% of college graduates had an internship in 2008 and estimated that between a quarter and a half weren't paid. The same thing is happening in Britain and other countries.

"Technically, ever since the 13th Amendment outlawed slavery in 1865, employees are supposed to be paid for their labor," Wasserman wrote. "...They (unpaid interns)can't displace real employees and their employers aren't supposed to benefit directly from their efforts. If the employer does benefit -- say, by publishing their work -- the intern is supposed to get paid."

Here's the part of Wasserman's warning where your organization needs to take note:
"Regulators in several states and the U.S. Labor Department have begun tapping on employers' windows, according to The Times, but so far the response to the newspaper's report has been muted. One exception is Atlantic Media, which publishes The Atlantic magazine and The National Journal, and which decided in light of The Times article not only to pay its interns in the future, but to send back-pay to last summer's class."

With the current economic environment, it is tempting to use paid interns to avoid hiring people. Doing so becomes a smoldering crisis. If you are a union shop, eventually the unions will catch on to what you are doing. Unpaid interns can turn around and sue you because you benefited from their free labor.

Talk to HR. See what your policy is regarding unpaid interns. Then pull out this blog and Wasserman's column and encourage the organization to pay its interns.

WHO Should Be Thanked, Not Criticized

Larry Smith, president of the Institute for Crisis Management, got it right on his blog (http://www.crisisconsultants.blogspot.com/). He writes that a small group of scientists are criticizing the World Health Organization regarding the H1N1 pandemic. They say WHO told the world the sky is about to fall, leading to panic and stockpiling unneeded vaccines in some countries.

I would rather be criticized for being well prepared than for not warning people about the pandemic. The same holds true for any crisis. Would you rather have a good crisis plan that you practice regularly but never use, or no plan that designates responsibilities, audiences, and key messages when a crisis strikes? My philosophy is to plan for the worst and expect the best.

I believe that's the only thing WHO is guilty of.

We Should Learn From the Toyota Example of How Not To Run a Business

I'm having a hard time dealing with the Toyota crises. It was bad enough that a product I believed in was defective, but it's even worse that the company apparently knew about the defects for years and didn't react. But wait, it gets worse. The Associated Press reports(http://www.chem.info/News/Feeds/2010/04/manufacturing.net-news-ap-in-toyota-lawsuits-evasion-becomes-tactic/):

"Toyota has routinely engaged in questionable, evasive and deceptive legal tactics when sued, frequently claiming it does not have information it is required to turn over and sometimes even ignoring court orders to produce key documents, an Associated Press investigation shows.

"In a review of lawsuits filed around the country involving a wide range of complaints -- not just the sudden acceleration problems that have led to millions of Toyotas being recalled -- the automaker has hidden the existence of tests that would be harmful to its legal position and claimed key material was difficult to get at its headquarters in Japan. It has withheld potentially damaging documents and refused to release data stored electronically in its vehicles."

Here is a smoldering crisis -- or crises, plural -- that could have and should have been dealt with before ruining a company's reputation. The founder of the Institute for Crisis Management, Bob Irvine, used to talk to CEOs about reputation. He said they glazed over and only came to life when he talked about balance sheets. From the Toyota fiasco we should learn that reputation does matter and directly affects the bottom line. CEOs out there: take note. Communicators, do what you have to do to deliver the message that messing up, and particularly covering up, will be expensive in the long run. For years you will be able to bring up the Toyota example to improve your own organization.

There also may be some cultural differences at work here, but you can't let them happen if you are owned by a foreign corporation. Japanese executives do business differently than U.S. executives. We need to be sure that European and Asian managers understand how things -- like civil suits -- work in the States.

Larry Smith, president of the Institute for Crisis Management, has some good perspectives on the whole Toyota crisis. Check him out at http://www.crisisconsultants.blogspot.com/.

Watch This Crisis Play Out Where the Right Words Don't Match the Reality

Massey Energy is the company that operates Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia, where 29 employees died last week in the worst coal mining disaster in 40 years. The company should know all too well how to deal with crises like this, and it does. The problem arises when the company's statements don't match the facts. There is something to learn from this: You can't talk the walk if you don't walk the talk.

This is from Massey's web site on April 9 (http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/statement-from-massey-energy-regarding-mine-safety-90362794.html):

"•The safety of our members has been and will continue to be our top priority every day. As we have always done in the past, we will conduct extensive reviews of the Upper Big Branch (UBB) accident and work in every way possible to ensure that a similar incident doesn't happen again.
"•We do not condone any violation of Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) regulations, and we strive to be in compliance with all regulations at all times.
"•Since January 2009, UBB has had less than one violation per day of inspection by MSHA, a rate consistent with national averages. Most of the citations issued by MSHA to UBB in the last year were resolved on the same day they were issued.
"•Since the passage of the Miner Act in 2006, we have worked hard to implement its requirements, including the usage of tracking devices and shelters.
"•Massey continues to invest in the development of safety innovations that exceed industry and regulatory standards. Our lost-time incident rate has been better than the industry average for 17 of the past 19 years and has been improving significantly. These improvements have been achieved through concerted effort and significant investment."

Okay. This is from an NPR web site (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125788709): "In the past year, MSHA (Mine Safety and Health Administration) inspectors wrote up 68 instances of what they called 'high negligence' at the mine and three cases of reckless disregard.... If the violations were egregious enough, MSHA could have gone to a federal court and asked a judge to shut down the mine at least temporarily. MSHA has yet to do that: Not with Upper Big Branch South and not with any other mine."

And this from an article today in Louisville's The Courier-Journal by James R. Carroll (http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20104110313): "Since 2006 the West Virginia mine where 29 miners were killed last week has been fined more than $1.7 million for safety violations — yet more than $1.1million of that has gone unpaid because of appeals by mine owner Massey Energy, a Courier-Journal analysis has found. In addition, the Upper Big Branch Mine has been delinquent in paying more than $264,000 in outstanding fines, records show.

"Massey’s appeals are part of a growing industry backlog of approximately 16,000 cases that some safety advocates contend could be allowing unsafe mines to continue operating.

"Massey Energy appealed more Mine Safety and Health Administration citations against its mines in 2009 than any other coal company, according to a separate analysis prepared earlier this year for the House Education and Labor Committee and obtained by The Courier-Journal.

"Massey contested 3,741 violations last year, accounting for 8 percent of all contested violations among the 40 companies with the largest numbers of appeals, the House data showed."

The point I want to make is that public records don't support the claim by Massey that "The safety of our members has been and will continue to be our top priority every day.... We do not condone any violation of Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) regulations, and we strive to be in compliance with all regulations at all times."

Massey is saying all the right things in its releases and sound bites. Make sure, however, that your organization is living up to the claims you make during a crisis.

Tesoro Corp. Was Prepared With a Crisis Plan

I can picture the peaceful town of Anacortes, Washington. My family boarded a ferry there to camp in the San Juan Islands, where we watched killer whales from our campsite. My memories of quiet and solitude are far from what happened there early on Good Friday morning.

That community was rocked just after midnight by an explosion and fire at the Tesoro Corp. refinery. Five people died and two are in critical condition with severe burns. "The explosion and fire occurred in a bank of boilers that had been cleaned and had undergone routine maintenance and were being started up, said Michael Silverstein, assistant director of the state Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) Division of Occupational Safety and Health," according to the Seattle Times (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2011508577_refineryblast03m.html).

"At a Friday news conference in the department's Tumwater headquarters, Silverstein said the boilers heat fluids to high temperatures under great pressure and are 'inherently vulnerable to events like this unless they are maintained and operated in a safe manner.'"

Do I detect some innuendo in that statement? What is Tesoro doing to reach its stakeholders? Apparently, quite a bit. This is from the company's web site (http://www.tsocorp.com/tsocorp/ProductsandServices/Refining/Anacorteswashingtonrefinery/AnacortesWashRefinery):

"It is with a sense of the most profound sadness that Tesoro must report the loss of four of our friends and co-workers as a result of this tragedy. Our losses were:

Daniel Aldridge
Matt Bowen
Darrin Hoines
Kathryn Powell

(A fifth died later in a hospital.) "To the families of Daniel, Matt, Darrin, and Katy our hearts share your loss and our prayers are with you at this time of grief. We also continue to monitor the progress of 3 other co-workers who were injured and are being treated at the Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. We are providing grief counseling and support to all our co-workers and their families.

"We have not yet been able to enter the area to begin an investigation, but are expected to do so by the end of the day. As more details become available about the incident we will share them. Several government agencies have been contacted, including OSHA and the Chemical Safety Board and we will fully cooperate with their investigations.

"We intend to have another media conference scheduled for 6 p.m. PT. In the meantime, media who cannot attend the news conference should contact Lynn Westfall at 210-626-4697. Future Tesoro Corporation (NYSE:TSO) media releases will be posted online at www.tesoroalert.com."

If I were a betting man, I would bet my house that Tesora has a crisis communications plan, practices it, and uses it. The initial news release shows sympathy and remorse, a commitment to work with government agencies to identify a cause, and a system to keep reporters up to date using three different methods.

Tesoro anticipated and was ready for the worst. Are you? One place to seek help is the Institute for Crisis Management, http://www.crisisexperts.com/. Don't wait until something blows up in your face.