Mark Blevis

Last week, as my life took on new responsibilities for Andrea’s medical appointments, a steady flow of information on surgery, treatment and medications, and a rush of support from family and friends, I made two realizations:

• I will probably blog more about this than I had originally planned to
• I’m the project manager of Survivor Cancer: The Andrea Project

When it comes to this project management role, I realized that there’s a lot that corporate and government communications folks can learn, particularly in crisis situations, from people in my situation.

Communications

Andrea and I didn’t wait to tell people. Indeed, many of the people we told about Andrea’s diagnosis seemed taken aback at how transparent we were. One person told me she had always thought the best policy was to keep serious illness secret from as much family, and especially from friends, as possible.

There are three reasons we didn’t wait. First, our situation will definitely affect our normal routines, many of which involve family and friends. Second, we may need help. Finally, other people may benefit from our knowledge and experience.

We shared our news in appropriate ways, and didn’t gloss over it for any audience. That is, we didn’t do a soft delivery, leading people along as we went. We came out with it – like pulling a band aid off. There’s only one way to say “it’s cancer”. It stings for a moment and it avoids a prolonged build up to the news.

To relate all of this to the “business” world, Andrea and I were direct with our internal stakeholders (immediate family, our daughters in particular) from day one. They knew there was a concern and we answered all of their questions as they came up. We didn’t spin anything. We shared the good possibilities and the not-s0-good possibilities and told them we’d update them with each new development — which we did.

With the exception of a very select few people we consider to be trusted confidantes who are in a position to help us out, we didn’t share our situation with “external stakeholders” until we had a diagnosis. When we did make the announcement, we used all of possible channels to make it swift and clear.

Support

Our network of family and friends kicked in right away with offers of support and help. More surprisingly, many of my clients offered support and flexibility with projects. One client responded right away with an offer of regular meals delivered to our home. Members of our online communities started emailing, postal mailing and phoning from around the world with good wishes. Friends who have been through, or are going through, similar situations offered to get together with us to share experiences and strategies. We’ve also received many offers of help with our children.

As first timers with this kind of situation, we’ve suddenly found ourselves better equipped to deal with the dynamic and unpredictability of treatments, and energized to face the rocky roads ahead. More importantly, we’re able to better filter and process the information we receive from reliable resources — I recommend staying away from Internet-based information as much as possible since you can become easily overwhelmed and even frightened.

The Fringes

Tylenol shocked the corporate world when they were decisive, swift and transparent in the wake of the cyanide contamination. Everyone thought the company would fail if not because of the crisis, because of their response. Then, they shocked the corporate world a second time by coming out stronger having invented tamper-proof packaging. It’s a model that’s been followed and rejected with a full spectrum of results.

When iSTAR (Canada’s first national-scale ISP) was being sold to PSInet in the 1997, my co-workers and I found it very hard to stay motivated and supportive of the transition because it was painfully obvious that the information we were being fed was disingenuous and incomplete. Even some senior executives told me, personally, that they felt the town hall meetings were ill-conceived attempts to keep staff on board by simply telling everyone to soldier on with no rationale other than “we’re telling you to”. To paraphrase Andy Nulman, management was selling “soldier on”, not establishing an argument to buy it.

The Internet has created a global village, blurring the lines between the providers and consumers of products and services. Companies and governments have taken on personalities. People understand that crisis happens and have demonstrated that they’re willing to be patient and even help out when necessary. The delicate thread that helps organizations — and families — succeed, is communications.