Covid 19: Who should tell us when it's right to go back to normal?

How long? That’s the question we all seem to be asking at the moment. How long will it be until we can get back to normal? The pragmatists are leaning towards the 4-6 months mark; the optimists, sadly, not much less. 

Fundamentally, we don’t know, but what appears to be consensual is that a vaccine is some way off. So, what are we to do as PRs? We are in the middle of a public information program, which reiterates the need for the right collective and individual behaviours, which usually comes in the shape of stopping us from doing the stuff we used to do.

However, people and markets can only take so much in the way of inertia. We can only ‘not do’ for so long, which brings me back to the role played by public relations as this sobering situation continues. A crisis, as we know, tends to drag out – there isn’t a finishing line. It typically goes from the ‘big bang’, to a prolonged process of introspection, lower productivity and distrust. People and markets won’t wait until we’ve got to a point of zero activity with coronavirus; there will be an overwhelming urge to get back to normal when that curve has started to move in the right direction. Governments and businesses will, undoubtedly, be led by science and economics – the first tends to have far more patience than the second in these situations – but who’s to say when the time is right to do normal again? This is when PR should jump at the opportunity to play ‘corporate conscience’. It’s a thankless role, but one we are as suitably qualified as anyone else within the organisation, if not better, to carry out. To be clear, this is not about showing bravado and yelling it’s ‘business as usual’ before we’re ready; no, this is about recognizing that the actions compelled by having a conscience could also mean that we are confident enough to say, ‘we’re still not ready’.

The time spent in enforced exile away from the office is good for us as PRs; it’s at this time that we’ll get the opportunity to immerse ourselves in the ‘public’ of public relations (albeit at a distance). Former US General and CIA Head, David Petraeus once said that decision making during times of uncertainty, needs to be far less top-down, and “pushed outwards and downwards” towards where new information is originating.  This immersion is critical if we’re to get a sense if this information and how people are feeling. It’s only then can we make those right conscience calls.

Would a crisis by any other name make you click?

Being someone who supports organisations in terms of their respective reputations, I’m acutely aware that I have a rather slavish relationship with crises. To clarify, it’s in my professional interest to keep abreast of business mishaps, cynical misdeeds and product failings the world over. I gauge the context and privately evaluate the response. I tell you this as I feel I’m moderately qualified to say that crisis is getting too big.

That last point needs some explanation. Crisis, as a concept, has grown exponentially in recent years. For a simple illustration, check out the Google Books Ngram Viewer, which shows use of the term has virtually doubled since the end of the Second World War. The irony that crisis was less talked during the turbulence of D-Day and the Third Reich than it is today, can’t be lost on us.

To be clear, crises sadly happen, but not at the rate at which the crisis circus – namely the media, insurance firms and some aspects of the public relations industry would let us believe. Crisis has been industrialised as it can be inordinately profitable for those who purport to have the credentials to help. Crisis – as is the case with terrorism – is increasingly being applied with indiscriminate flair to a range of events and situations. In recent weeks, we’ve had the media refer to the crisis in Syria, the crisis afflicting German football, the Thai cave crisis and crisis talks in regards to the NEG – that’s the National Energy Guarantee to the unitiated. My concerns with the broad-brush approach primarily relates to the inherent associations with the word, crisis. Our understanding of the world is shaped by the way the world is labelled. We perceive crisis to be big, calamitous events, and subsequently, we expect big repercussions if they are not managed effectively, such as the loss of senior people and a plummeting share price. It’s a short step indeed from ‘crisis’ to that other favourite media omen, ‘embattled’. Crises call for accountability. The English language is fantastically accommodating in its breadth, and to that end, to read about the Thai Cave Accident, or the Plight of the Thai Cave Boys would have been as accurate a reading of the situation as we had, but I guess they’re not as exciting, nor are they as exacting in their demands if things go wrong.

This article first appeared on the Mumbrella website