Singapore. (23 July 2010. 1950 hrs). It is now Day 6 and media and stakeholder interest in the incident has faded for now. It is therefore timely for us to pause and reflect on the key lessons that we can learn from this incident:
a. The Importance of Open, Timely, Broadly Communicated and Internet Presence. In my opinion, this incident could have been contained and isolated if the MHA PR Dept had adopted a Crisis Communication plan that had the above 4 characteristics. Their failure to be open and provide timely updates, led to speculations of police cover-up, while their failure (or decision) not to communicate the facts using their MHA website (internet presence) further stoked stakeholder anger over the incident.
b. Need to do a Stakeholder Analysis. The inability of the press statement and comment by the Minister for the Environment to stem the anger, showed that the MHA PR Dept had misunderstood stakeholders' concerns. A thorough Stakeholder Analysis would have revealed that the main issue was one of "abuse of authority". A simple statement of fact that there are "measures in place to prevent an abuse of authority" would have, in my opinion, stopped the crisis from building up. While I do not have empirical evidence, I feel that the incident would have affected the morale of the police force. A proper internal communication plan to internal stakeholders would therefore have been essential to ensure that the police continue to carry out their duties professionally.
c. Framing the Incident. The manner in which the incident spiralled out of control shows the importance of using the initial press statement to frame the crisis. Without a proper "frame" the incident went in many tangents including political ones.
a. The Importance of Open, Timely, Broadly Communicated and Internet Presence. In my opinion, this incident could have been contained and isolated if the MHA PR Dept had adopted a Crisis Communication plan that had the above 4 characteristics. Their failure to be open and provide timely updates, led to speculations of police cover-up, while their failure (or decision) not to communicate the facts using their MHA website (internet presence) further stoked stakeholder anger over the incident.
b. Need to do a Stakeholder Analysis. The inability of the press statement and comment by the Minister for the Environment to stem the anger, showed that the MHA PR Dept had misunderstood stakeholders' concerns. A thorough Stakeholder Analysis would have revealed that the main issue was one of "abuse of authority". A simple statement of fact that there are "measures in place to prevent an abuse of authority" would have, in my opinion, stopped the crisis from building up. While I do not have empirical evidence, I feel that the incident would have affected the morale of the police force. A proper internal communication plan to internal stakeholders would therefore have been essential to ensure that the police continue to carry out their duties professionally.
c. Framing the Incident. The manner in which the incident spiralled out of control shows the importance of using the initial press statement to frame the crisis. Without a proper "frame" the incident went in many tangents including political ones.
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