On Crisis Management

Today, we'll be covering crisis policies in the SID class. Having a plan and working on media relationships before the crisis are the big keys to success. Consider last night's national championship -- did Kansas win it in overtime, or back in October when they were working on conditioning and free throws?

There's quite a shift in the approach by colleges toward the media, and a lot of resistance to change in being open during a crisis. Christine Syme of Montana State had an excellent piece in the NCAA News a month or so ago about "aggressive disclosure." The text for our class has an absolutely golden quote about the old-school duck-and-cover mentality:

"The silent organization sets itself up for a public flogging in the media."

I'd only add, that it won't be the three newspapers, four TV stations and a couple of radio hosts warming up the cat-o'nine-tails. It's more like the classic scene in Airplane as the entire cabin lines up to take a slap at the program as the average anonymous fan on the message board, the citizen media bloggers and the established media bloggers will join into the fun.