Q: Is there really a need for another crisis management book?
Q: Who’s the audience?
Q: What’s with the title?
Q: So what insights will this book give me?
Q: Is there really a need for another crisis management book?
A: Yes.
When I began teaching crisis management at Northwestern University’s Integrated Marketing Communications graduate program I initiated a five-month hunt for a textbook.
To my chagrin, the books I reviewed all had the same drawback: They were almost exclusively philosophy with scant practical guidance for responding to a crisis. So, I wrote a book for an already crowded field, but a book with a distinct difference.
When the Balloon Goes Up: The Communicator’s Guide to Crisis Response contains specific crisis-tested strategies and tactics I learned in my 20 years in the crisis response business.
When a crisis strikes, one of the first questions asked of communicators is, “What should we do?” This book prepares you to answer that question.
That’s what makes Balloon unique.
Q: Who’s the audience?
A: When the Balloon Goes Up is written for communications and public relations professionals and students. It can be used as a manual or a text book.
Q: What’s with the title?
A: When I reported for duty to a U.S. Army tank battalion in what was West Germany as a second lieutenant, I was at the bottom of the vertical learning curve.
Not only did I have to master the care and feeding of 19 soldiers and five 52-ton behemoths while becoming proficient at tactics and gunnery, I also needed to learn a new language filled with perplexing acronyms, arcane technical terms and odd expressions.
One of the latter was, “When the balloon goes up.”
According to Army folklore, the phrase originated in the American Civil War, referring to observation balloons that either side would send up prior to an engagement. In Cold War parlance, the expression referred to “the first battle of the next war,” when Soviet-led Warsaw Pact forces would invade Western Europe, precipitating World War III.
At first I thought it was curious, if not fatalistic, that the expression began with “when” and not “if.” However, as I became familiar with the planning and preparation for that cataclysmic event, I came to appreciate the sense of urgency “when” gave to the process.
It worked then and, for professional communicators and communications students today, it just might be the right perspective from which to view crisis preparedness.
Q: So what insights will this book give me?
A: Balloon contains specific guidance about how to create an effective crisis response capability.
This isn’t about putting a “spin” on the truth, turning coverage of a negative event or situation into a glowing puff piece, how to “get out of this as quickly and cheaply as possible,” or tips on how to avoid interacting with the media. The book shows you how to develop essential crisis response instincts and gives you crisis-tested tactics to help defend your organization’s reputation.
