What would Max do?

The author of an opinion piece in the Health Service Journal last week ponders how public organisations should handle the media onslaught when things go wrong.  “My first question”, she writes, “is ‘What would Max Clifford do?’”.

Of course.  And when I’m faced with a tricky HR issue, my first thought is always “Well, I’ve never met the man, but he seems to do a lot of hiring and firing; what would Alan Sugar do?” 

Actually, I’m being a bit unfair to the column’s author, Jenny Rodgers, an organisational development consultant and coach.  She does go on to make the point that NHS organisations need professional PR support when things go wrong.  And that professional means just that, not someone whose corporate governance portfolio has sprawled to include comms along with facilities and HR.

She’s absolutely right about that.  But still misses the point, along with too many NHS boards, that you need senior-level professional comms support before things go wrong.  It is crucial to build and manage the reputation, to look out for risks, and to build the trust of the chief executive so that effective action can be taken to head problems off, not to just manage the mess, when the proverbial hits the fan.

Over the years working in NHS communications I’ve seen some of the best and the worst of crisis management.  The worst tend to be where there is no professional communications or it is at such a junior level it is excluded from the important decisions and discussions, unable to have its professional advice heard at the right levels.   And the very best, even where the chief executive is a natural communicator, tend to have solid, professional communications support with direct access to the board.