“Be careful, my son, the hole you dig may be one you have to crawl out of in the end.”
- Grandfather T.D. Gunther
When you are “managing” a crisis, openness and transparency are essential.
Distorting and withholding information to change a story, or as the mainstream media likes to say, the “narrative” that is more conducive to your messaging will eventually be discovered.
The consequences are inevitably a loss of trust and integrity. Leaders must always be aware of the need to continually build trust and integrity with those they lead and serve by continually and consistently informing and educating before engaging the stakeholders (taxpayers) if you are ever to reach collaborative informed consent.
Many crises are avoidable when leaders have taken the time to inform and educate those impacted by their decisions.
L. Darryl Armstrong Ph.D. 