What You Can Learn About HR Communication from FEMA's Fake News Conference

Nov 1

Last week, FEMA held a “news conference” to answer questions about the California wildfires. Amazingly, all the questions by “reporters” were softballs that allowed FEMA to present a story of unparalleled success in its handling of the crisis. The only problem? Those weren’t reporters. They were FEMA employees.

Now there’s massive fallout. The head of FEMA’s public affairs group was fired. Darned right.

Here’s a lesson for HR communicators: Employees’ BS Radar is on high alert. They can tell when they’re being managed and manipulated. They know softballs when they see them. And they can tell the difference between PR and authenticity.

If you think you’re fooling anyone by “managing the message,” the only one you’re fooling is yourself. Talk to people like grownups. In case you haven’t noticed, they are.

About the Author

Frank Roche

Frank started IFRACTAL over 7 years ago with Sarah Chambers. Together, they've created HR communications and HR software for some of the world's leading companies. Frank is also studying Flamenco guitar and origami.

Share this post

Comments

JT says:

November 1, 2007 at 12:10 pm

Is the fortune cookie version of the lesson learned here – “Always engage in communication; never give a performance.”

Reply
Frank Roche says:

November 1, 2007 at 7:11 pm

My next blog is going to be KnowHR: The Distillation. It will feature the succinct and crystal clear JT summaries. Yep, that’s it. Leave the thespianism to Jon Lovitz on SNL.

Reply
Dan Schwartz says:

November 4, 2007 at 9:20 pm

Just catching up on my blogs this week and had to chuckle at your posting. What the FEMA case shows is that there will always be people who — when pressed to make a decision — will consistently choose the wrong one. How no one thought this was wrong at the time is also amazing. While the head was properly denied a head PR job, there were still plenty of others who participated in this charade.

Reply