Crisis communications blogging has come of age with the decision by John Mackey, chief executive of Whole Foods Market, the world's leading natural and organic foods supermarket which recently opened a store in London, to use his company blog to correct misinformation being repeated in the press.

His 14,000 word posting accuses the Federal Trade Commission of acting in a "a biased, adversarial and arrogant manner" and of using bullying and unethical tactics to thwart his company’s proposed acquisition of another company.

It is probably the first time a chief executive from such a prominent company has used social media to take on a government agency.

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Pick your ‘Crisis Dream Team’

What’s the difference between an average team and Dream Team for crisis communications?

Veteran Canadian crisis communications specialist Garth Rowan says: “An average team understands their role, has an adequate briefing structure, is somewhat motivated and has an understanding of the big picture,”

“A Dream Team takes the team to a whole new level with each member being familiar with all team roles. A strong leader and very tight briefing structure make a Dream Team much more motivated and effective than an average team. The members are all flexible, aware of the needs of the other team members and are self-critical so are always looking for ways to improve.”

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Pepi’s Pizza Crisis

The Phoenix Business Journal recently published a story that proves it doesn't take a full-blown disaster to paralyze or destroy a business. Every business -- big or small -- is susceptible to potentially damaging or fatal problems, if for example, if:

1. Computer security is breached.
2. The Parent company declares bankruptcy.
3. A customer is seriously injured.
4. A key employee dies.
5. A competitor's crisis puts your industry under the microscope.

A case in point, says the paper, Pepi’s Pizza, which became “a victim of a miscommunication and subsequent inaccurate news coverage, causing the small business a near fatal blow earlier….

Read the full story here:

Face to face communications

Communication challenges are exacerbated during a crisis when time is short, decisions are urgent, information limited, and opportunities for the rich interaction of when we can see each other are constrained says a recent paper published by Tandberg, the Norwegian visual technologies consultancy.

The paper, written by Dr Robert C. Chandler, professor at the Centre for Communications and Business at Pepperdine University, US and Dr J.S. Wallace, associate professor of communications at Lubbock Christian University, US, says that human communication is at its most natural when we are in immediate proximity, talking and listening to one another face to face.

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Crisis Briefs

• An example of how romance blooms even in the most unlikely places. A couple who met while on jury duty during a New York murder trial are to be married next month by the judge who presided over the case. Juror number three Traci Nagy was encouraged by fellow jurors to go out for lunch with juror number six Jonathan Cinkay during a break in the trial. Supreme Court Justice Daniel Lewis said: "Some juries are serious, some are sombre, but this jury seemed like it was full of beaming, happy people. I didn't imagine they were all playing matchmaker."
  

• And finally.. a story of a personal crisis we will all sympathise with. A German man who startled his neighbours when he hurled his computer out of the window in the middle of the night, was let off for disturbing the peace by police who sympathised with his technical frustrations. Police in the northern city of Hanover said they would not press charges after responding to calls made by residents in an apartment block who were woken by a loud crash in the early hours of Saturday. Officers found the street and pavement covered in electronic parts and discovered who the culprit was. Asked what had driven him to the night-time outburst, the 51-year-old man said he had simply got annoyed with his computer.