Xenophon Strategies

Penn State: The Three Things Every Business Should Learn

Jay Silverberg

Over the next few days Xenophon staffers will be sharing their thoughts on some of the top stories of 2011.  Keep checking our blog, Facebook and Twitter for more.  

When the multiple investigations into the crises at Penn State, Syracuse and now Florida A&M become public at some point in 2012, they will most assuredly conclude that their schools suffered from one, if not all, of the following:

• Institutional indifference: None of the administrators directly involved in the management of the football team at Penn State, basketball team at Syracuse and band at Florida A&M were sufficiently interested, nor took the steps necessary to address on-going concerns about the manner in which their respective programs were affecting people directly, or indirectly involved with them, despite having either an awareness or being given a full briefing of the sordid, situational details that would be their undoing.
• Cultural insensitivity: Those very same administrators fostered a culture of indifference for anyone who challenged what they viewed as their untouchable positions as overseers of programs they believed held dominance even over the very schools themselves. When they were told about specific incidents, they reacted poorly, or not at all, creating an environment in which fear dominated those around them, effectively ending any opportunity to address the problems before they worsened.
• Procedural ineffectiveness: While it’s become increasingly evident that leadership at the schools ignored and/or suppressed the warnings about the transgressions that have ripped apart their reputations, the schools also failed to heed the basic rule of risk management – expect it, plan for it and have the procedures, policies and people in place who can be trusted to respond appropriately. What we see in our business is all too common – people fail to manage the risk and the issue quickly deteriorates into a crisis.

I also think the written record will be an important part of the findings. It’s a basic rule of journalism that I have carried with me from 20 years in newsrooms to 20 years of crisis counsel with clients – what have those involved said previously about the issue, to whom, when and how was it said?  James Murdoch was told about the telephone hacking in an email, and despite his denials, there’s proof now that he was told by a colleague, responded to the email message and now says he did not read the entirety of the message. A defense based on lack of knowledge or pretending something didn’t happen generally won’t make the issue disappear or lessen in intensity.

Unfortunately, with every crisis born “story of the year”, just as those in 2011, the proof of institutional indifference, cultural insensitivity and procedural ineffectiveness are there for the finding. They always are. Virginia Tech had an out-of-date crisis response plan that slowed the response to the shooting several years ago; BP had a crisis plan written for drilling in cold weather climates, not the Gulf of Mexico.

The investigatory process in these cases will run their course. We can hope to learn from each and improve the process the next time. Sadly, it seems that’s a lesson hard to learn.

Tweet this link

« return to blog | Dec 22, 2011 | Penn State