Public Information Officer: Systems, Role, and Learning with author Doug Levy | The Communications Golden Hour® Book

Author Doug Levy, of The Communications Golden Hour® Book, joins host Tim Conrad, APR, for the first of three episodes to discuss the roles of public information officers and crisis communications in emergencies and crises/issues.

Listen For:
01:15 - From Practitioner to Author
11:27 - The Role, Skills and Practice of a Public Information Officer
20:30 - Communications is Two-way or It's Not Communications
28:04 - Evolving as a PIO

Connect with Doug Levy
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Connect with Tim Conrad
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Chapters

• 1:15 From Practitioner to Author
• 11:27 The Role, Skills and Practice of a Public Information Officer
• 20:30 Communications is Two-way or It's Not Communications
• 28:04 Evolving as a PIO

Transcript

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:37:21


00:00:37:21 - 00:00:57:22
Tim Conrad
Well. Hello, Doug. It's, great to have you joining me here. And, I'm going to jump right in and and talk about your books. Right off the go. So, you, put out the communications Golden hour book. This is the, first edition here. We'll show the size of it, because I think there's an important thing to show off here, and, you didn't update, so.

00:00:57:22 - 00:01:21:04
Tim Conrad
So this one came out in 2018, and then you did an update last year, and this one came out, and now we'll turn it sideways so people can see that they have a little bigger, got a little bigger, loaded with more content. And obviously, you've been busy. I've been staying in touch with you and, you're working on some unabridged versions as well.

00:01:21:06 - 00:01:26:12
Tim Conrad
So I'm curious, first off, what got you into writing on this topic? And, and we'll go from there.

00:01:26:17 - 00:02:00:03
Doug Levy
Well, for about ten years, I led communications at two different universities, one in San Francisco. And then I moved to New York and, particularly in New York, there was a crisis of some sort almost every week, including some big, some really big ones. And I was part of the emergency management team for the university, did a lot of coordination, cross training and so on with the police and fire departments and literally every potential response agency.

00:02:00:05 - 00:02:29:07
Doug Levy
And those trainings of course, came in handy because when real things happened, you know as well as anybody how important it is to already know who the other people and to have a plan in place. When I stepped back from that position, several of my colleagues said, you really should write a book, because even people who did like me said, if there's an emergency, we want Doug in the room for whatever reason.

00:02:29:07 - 00:02:56:04
Doug Levy
Maybe it was because I was a firefighter years ago. When things are going crazy, that's when I kind of just know what to do, at least as a communicator. Yeah. So I tried very hard to kind of follow that up and put it into some practical terms, mostly so that other people don't have to make the mistakes that I made as I was learning.

00:02:56:06 - 00:03:18:15
Tim Conrad
Yeah. And thanks for doing that. I mean, that's it's, you know, we've been, colleagues and back and forth for many years, chatting and, and, I've, I've really appreciated your, your insights. I was, you know, in touch with you before you came up with the, the first version. And, it, you know, you've done some great work.

00:03:18:16 - 00:03:37:21
Tim Conrad
This this book, I can tell you, goes with me to every disaster I go to. And it's it's there with me. It's it's getting kind of beat up now. It's been through a little bit of a little bit of a war, and, yeah, you've done some, some great work in, in compiling information, and, and, I'm thankful.

00:03:37:21 - 00:03:45:10
Tim Conrad
I also want to say thank you for including me in the latest version. So, you know, you find me, as a guest, contributor on this.

00:03:45:11 - 00:03:46:09
Doug Levy
Which I really appreciate.

00:03:46:09 - 00:03:47:12
Tim Conrad
Because you have.

00:03:47:12 - 00:04:04:00
Doug Levy
Been in some situations that are unlike the ones that most of us ever could confront. Yet many of the things that you've had to prove are absolutely applicable in other settings. Yeah.

00:04:04:05 - 00:04:25:15
Tim Conrad
Yeah, absolutely. It's, yeah, you can certainly take a lot of things from, you know, large and urgent emergencies and disasters and apply them to to other things that, you experience in crisis. So, yeah. So, as you're, working on these unabridged versions, tell us what a unabridged version is and, you know, a little bit more about what you're going to be.

00:04:25:15 - 00:04:29:01
Tim Conrad
What were we what people will be seeing in those unabridged. So these, when they come.

00:04:29:01 - 00:04:52:10
Doug Levy
Unabridged version is the one you're holding in your hand. That's 400 plus pages. The abridged versions are going to be much more like the other one. I've heard loud and clear that nobody wants to put the 400 page book in there. Go back. I certainly do. So, I'm I'm trying to parse it by sector. So it'll be much more like the first book.

00:04:52:10 - 00:05:17:04
Doug Levy
I'm happy to say the contents in the first book is still valid. What's changed is the case studies, and to some extent, the scale of the emergencies. We're also starting to see some changes to some of the tools that we use, as well as some of the media consumption habits. There needs to be some direct information on those things.

00:05:17:04 - 00:05:30:15
Doug Levy
So for example, if anybody purchased the book this year, since June, the chapter on AI is entirely different from what I included about AI in the book that you have in your hand.

00:05:30:17 - 00:05:31:03
Tim Conrad
But what I.

00:05:31:03 - 00:06:05:02
Doug Levy
Wrote six months ago about AI, it's already outdated, so I'm probably going to do a small book specifically about AI for strategic communications. Because that's incredibly important. Now, I'm almost finished with the public Safety abridged version, which is going to be, you know, all the same tactics, but it's going to be more specific to if you're a police chief, if you're a police Pio, if you're a fire department CIO.

00:06:05:04 - 00:06:37:19
Doug Levy
Here's the here's the things you need to do every time. And that's really the premise of the communications golden hour method. There's certain things. When I was at Columbia University, one of the things that I did that I'm really proud of is that I trained my team to think about emergencies based on scale, not specific. Is it a all hands on deck emergency or is it something small?

00:06:37:21 - 00:07:05:11
Doug Levy
How much is this going to interrupt routine operations? And by approaching an emergency response based on the scale of the emergency, not the nature of the emergency, you can call in the appropriate staff and then use the skills that you need to adapt to the specific circumstances. But there are some things that are going to have to happen no matter what the situation is.

00:07:05:13 - 00:07:21:07
Doug Levy
Somebody has got to have social media passwords. Somebody has to know how to craft the messages. Somebody has to know what the approval process is and so on. Those are all things that can be done ahead of time and makes a world of difference. Yeah.

00:07:21:09 - 00:07:55:13
Tim Conrad
Yeah, absolutely. Those things are, all things that I've been talking to a lot of people about over the last year, based upon my experiences in last summer's disasters here in British Columbia, we came up with some, came up against some really big walls with a lot of different things around processes and systems and, really slowed us down, like by days, in some case, just simply getting a YouTube video online because we couldn't get the password and get access and get that pass the authentication authentication that was there, because they didn't have a process in place to be able to trace it back.

00:07:55:13 - 00:07:56:12
Doug Levy
And that is a find.

00:07:56:12 - 00:07:59:21
Tim Conrad
Out very what was that was how did I start to get that.

00:07:59:21 - 00:08:30:01
Doug Levy
Right. And that's a very common situation. I have been brought in to multiple, organizations that have had a crisis, something they didn't plan for if they didn't have a plan. And the crisis is already underway, it's challenging to figure out those processes. And it's a it's a lot riskier. It's less likely to succeed. I'm happy to say that the last couple that I've been brought into, we were able to do it.

00:08:30:01 - 00:09:03:12
Doug Levy
But, you know, there was happened on Fridays and I, I'm actually vividly remembering two, two Friday phone calls this, this spring, from different organizations. Both had CEOs that were kind of freaking out because they had something potentially bad happening and were not prepared for the communications piece. And in both situations, the legal stuff was fine.

00:09:03:14 - 00:09:30:06
Doug Levy
They absolutely knew what to do. The problem is that lawyers are thinking about winning in court and sometimes winning in court does not mean keeping your customers, your constituents, the people you answer to happy. So, you know, we were scrambling to figure out, okay, who's in charge of the social media? Are there ads running for the organization you've PSA scheduled?

00:09:30:09 - 00:10:07:06
Doug Levy
Are there any events coming up where people might show up? This is the stuff that we have to be able to jump in and address very rapidly. You know, that's for an organizational emergency or a corporate emergency, but it's the same thing if it's, huge fire or violent crime, God forbid, or any of the things that could happen, you've got to have the basics locked down and planned so that nobody is questioning what to do or who's going to do it.

00:10:07:06 - 00:10:08:11
Doug Levy
Yeah.

00:10:08:13 - 00:10:26:18
Tim Conrad
And, you know, to go back to the title of your book, it's the Communications Golden Hour. And probably a little bit of a play upon a golden hour that used to be used in the fire service, which, in the fire service when you're doing an extrication. So that's when you're using Jaws of Life to get somebody out of a vehicle.

00:10:26:20 - 00:10:47:01
Tim Conrad
There's a thing called the Golden Hour. And, it's the idea is, is there's 20 minutes for, police, 20 minutes for ambulance, 20 minutes for fire. And you should have that patient out and off to the hospital. So when it comes to communications, though, getting a really strong start is is really important. And it sets the stage.

00:10:47:01 - 00:10:56:20
Tim Conrad
It sets the foundation. In my experience, as to how the rest of the crisis will go for you, that first hour is big. It's a very, very big one.

00:10:56:20 - 00:10:58:09
Doug Levy
And in fact, and.

00:10:58:10 - 00:11:02:18
Tim Conrad
So good. Good for you to to targeted on that I.

00:11:02:20 - 00:11:38:12
Doug Levy
I drew on my experience training as a firefighter, an EMT. I had the fortune of being trained in Maryland where the golden hour for emergency medical response was developed, literally. So all of our training was about having the right resources, responding so that whatever the situation, we could get those patients to the trauma center within that 60 minutes and we got to see the results.

00:11:38:12 - 00:12:13:03
Doug Levy
In fact, you know, at the time, we would see the outcomes of the patients that we extricated from car crashes and so on, versus other jurisdictions. And literally if you had the same injury in Maryland versus the same injury in the next jurisdiction, your odds of survival were dramatically different. And it's all about pre-planning for the known needs and not wasting any time.

00:12:13:08 - 00:12:25:14
Doug Levy
And we need to be doing that for communications the same way. The only other thing is that, you know, I think an hour was probably reasonable when I first wrote the book. It's now more like 20 minutes. Yeah.

00:12:25:15 - 00:12:41:23
Tim Conrad
Yeah. That's right. Exactly. So. So, while we, finish off chatting about the books here, I'm curious, what you learned with the first and second editions. Like what? What were some of the lessons you learned through the, the, the development of those books?

00:12:42:01 - 00:13:16:22
Doug Levy
I've evolved a fair amount myself. I, I've never been a fan of the thick binders that, you know, we sometimes see for communications plans and I, I mean, heck, I, I saw one communications plan that had a template, a preplan for some of the most far fetched scenarios imaginable. And I am sure that somebody, somewhere, probably years ago, had a lot of money for somebody or spent a lot of staff time to develop those.

00:13:17:00 - 00:13:42:21
Doug Levy
And, you know, those just collect dust. That's not particularly useful. So when I wrote the first book, I pretty much discount the value of templates. I do think you need to have a template. You know, you need to have a pre-planned message for that initial response. But beyond that, don't don't waste time doing templates. Focus on making sure that you've got the right skills and tools in place.

00:13:42:21 - 00:14:16:21
Doug Levy
And the people. Of course, I've come around. I now believe that, especially with some of the tools that we have to help us write faster and better, there are more opportunities to rewrite the predictable things. And if we follow the same principle of doing what is known, preparing for what you know is going to have to happen, why not have a preplan for if there's a report of a wildfire in a certain jurisdiction, have a fill in the blank sheet that you can just have ready?

00:14:16:23 - 00:14:18:03
Doug Levy
There is value to that.

00:14:18:03 - 00:14:37:23
Tim Conrad
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And that's a I, I am a, a big believer in systems and processes and templates and guides and all those sorts of things being there. But they are a tool. They are not the the end solution for you. You're going to have to do something else to get them across the line and get them out to people and working for them.

00:14:37:23 - 00:14:41:17
Doug Levy
And that's really where the, the brainpower has to be put.

00:14:41:17 - 00:14:50:20
Tim Conrad
Yeah, exactly. So so what's the biggest gap that you've seen in, skills, style, knowledge? When you're meeting people through training and coaching.

00:14:50:20 - 00:15:38:04
Doug Levy
We've had so many huge emergencies in the last five years, including the pandemic. So we've seen many, many examples of both good and bad communication. Unfortunately, we've also had some really bad events in certain places with similar, similar really bad events in other places. So we've had some side by side comparison opportunities. And what really strikes me is the difference between a place that has anticipated that bad stuff happens versus the ones that really didn't know what to do, or didn't have anybody in charge, or maybe the authority was ambiguous.

00:15:38:08 - 00:16:12:10
Doug Levy
For example, there was a mass shooting in a in a retail facility, a retail store. I can't remember how many, how many, deaths there were, but it was a it was one of the bad ones. And it was more than three hours before there was any official communication. And when the authorities held their news conference, the first 12 minutes or so, at least many minutes, was thanking the governor and thanking the city council and so on.

00:16:12:10 - 00:16:41:14
Doug Levy
It was all this throat clearing stuff when people needed to know, are we okay? Is there somebody on the loose with a gun? Important things. We also have had some really outstanding examples, that we can learn from. I mean, the Uvalde, a Texas school shooting, you know, the police tactics, of course, were the most significant and horrifying, dismal failure.

00:16:41:16 - 00:17:11:06
Doug Levy
But the communications there also was a failure. And in fact, the very poor communications vastly amplified the pain for the families. We've heard that directly from them. And in fact, I was talking to one of the reporters who spent a lot of time there, ran into him at a conference about a week ago, and the tragedy already was as bad as it could be.

00:17:11:08 - 00:17:38:22
Doug Levy
But then to have misinformation coming directly from the authorities or in some cases, no communications from the people who were really in charge makes it worse. About a week later, there was a shooting in Illinois. Also terrible. I believe it was seven fatalities in that one. However, the multiple police departments that were responding had been training together. They all knew each other.

00:17:39:00 - 00:18:05:01
Doug Levy
The person who wound up being the Pio for that event wasn't even from that city's department. But he got the alert, hightailed it to the location of the emergency, and said, I'm here. And the local department didn't have their own Pio. So he became the Pio for that incident and did it so well. His message, his name is Chris Cavalli.

00:18:05:02 - 00:18:24:12
Doug Levy
You've got to focus on why you are communicating. What does the audience need to know. And in that situation, they had a gunman on the loose. People needed to know how to stay safe. Anything else was not important.

00:18:24:15 - 00:18:39:09
Tim Conrad
Yeah, right. And that's, so, you know, as we keep going, I you've worked a lot of these crisis communicators, training and coaching, leading them. What makes a great one? What makes somebody a great crisis communicator?

00:18:39:09 - 00:19:14:18
Doug Levy
Number one is understanding why you are communicating. I think that's where we see people go astray. I remember one, police executive that I worked with who was unable to really understand the audience. He could not get himself out of cop speak and was not very receptive to any suggestions from folks that actually know communications. And as a result, in in a few instances, he would be communicating about something that was truly good news.

00:19:14:20 - 00:19:41:11
Doug Levy
But because he was using jargon that the community didn't understand or he wasn't framing it in a way that was relevant to the community, it would either just pass over everybody's heads or I remember there was one case where the community actually thought he was communicating something that and it was a shame because his team should have gotten, you know, cheered for some really good work.

00:19:41:11 - 00:20:11:05
Doug Levy
They did, but it wasn't communicated well. And you have to know your audience. There's no way to get through to people if you have no understanding of what their frame of reference is. And that's that's a skill that requires some humility. And it also requires listening to people. And yeah, communications is not a one way activity. It has to be two ways.

00:20:11:07 - 00:20:16:11
Doug Levy
And an effective communicator really understands that. Yeah.

00:20:16:13 - 00:20:40:02
Tim Conrad
Yeah, I even, I'll throw in one thing that I've learned over the years is even how you address is a really important factor. And, yeah. So I'll give you an example. I, I worked with a person who, who came in and, they, they come from, a background in broadcasting, and they showed up and they were, you know, dressed very, very nicely.

00:20:40:04 - 00:21:02:22
Tim Conrad
And we were dealing with a disaster that was really ugly and nasty. And nobody was clean. Let's just put it that way. And nor were they dressed up in nice, clean clothes and nice, nice clothes, because a lot of them have lost their clothes. And, it was interesting going into the community and hearing how the community saw that person.

00:21:03:00 - 00:21:25:03
Tim Conrad
And they actually, like, brought them up in conversation and said that they did not trust that person because they were clearly out of touch with the community they were talking to. And that happened quite a few times with me and my team that were working on that one. And it was just I was really taken aback by how, strong people felt about that.

00:21:25:05 - 00:21:40:00
Tim Conrad
And that's not something I'd ever know. We've always felt that that exists, that you have to kind of match your audience in how you look. But I've never, had people walk up and say, who is that person? And how do we not have them here?

00:21:40:00 - 00:21:41:13
Doug Levy
I've, I've seen that.

00:21:41:15 - 00:21:43:19
Tim Conrad
And so that was like, pretty, pretty. Well, I've.

00:21:43:19 - 00:21:44:09
Doug Levy
Seen that.

00:21:44:11 - 00:21:48:20
Tim Conrad
To their experience because they were, they were good at their job. Well, they were really good at their job. You know.

00:21:48:20 - 00:21:57:18
Doug Levy
If, if the audience is going to be skeptical of your credibility based on how you're, how you look, that doesn't sound so good to me. I mean.

00:21:57:23 - 00:22:03:13
Tim Conrad
And I like that you came right back and took those words right out of my mouth. And you're right.

00:22:03:15 - 00:22:34:21
Doug Levy
I recall one of the, when I was in New York, the, New York City has 77 police precincts. It's a big city. There's 35,000 police officers across the, the five boroughs. And, the precinct commanders change every couple of years. It's a normal thing. And it often happens without much notice. And I remember one time when, a new precinct commander was coming into my local precinct, I was,

00:22:34:23 - 00:23:03:16
Doug Levy
Yeah, but I was a member of the community. Not had no official role. And I remember him walking into a community meeting for, you know, to be introduced for the first time. And he was wearing his class dress uniform. This was a neighborhood that was mostly not real well off. You know, a lot of people working 2 or 3 jobs, barely getting by, a lot of first generation immigrants, and even the people that had good jobs for, like, schoolteachers and stuff.

00:23:03:19 - 00:23:28:21
Doug Levy
You know, nobody dresses up like that for a community meeting. It was it was a power play. He was not trying to relate to the audience. He wasn't trying to connect to the audience. He was trying to be in charge, essentially. And it was such a dramatic contrast to his predecessor and also his successor, who both would show up to these meetings wearing their red jacket.

00:23:28:21 - 00:23:34:14
Doug Levy
I tell people to dress the way you would if you were actually responding to whatever the emergency is. Yeah.

00:23:34:15 - 00:23:59:04
Tim Conrad
Yeah, absolutely. And it's also though, like I want to point out something else that's happened up here. We had an incident in Canada this, this past year where, elected officials and some other people came in and then they put on firefighter's uniforms and went on camera y, and that got picked on quite heavily as well, because, you know, I remember people saying, what is this cosplay now?

00:23:59:04 - 00:24:29:20
Tim Conrad
Right? It's like every other idea. We had a Comic-Con and these people are dressing up pretending to be firefighters now. So they lost a ton of credibility when they did that. And, so it is, you know, it's finding that fine balance, in between you, you address to fit the setting. But don't overdress, as you've said, in a class A uniform or, in a spot like you, there is a time and a space for somebody to be an authority, but you have to be very sensitive as to when that time and space is.

00:24:29:22 - 00:24:50:13
Doug Levy
Absolutely. And the uniform has to make sense. If you're a hospital president and you're a doctor, if you're attending in the hospital, you're going to wear a white coat. Absolutely. But if you're a day to day job is sitting in an office, then you're not. You shouldn't be putting on a white coat to do in this country. Yeah.

00:24:50:15 - 00:25:01:03
Tim Conrad
Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. No. Excellent. So when we, when we jump to large emergencies and disasters, what makes somebody great in those events? Do you have any other thoughts?

00:25:01:05 - 00:25:30:09
Doug Levy
Experience helps a lot. You know, one of the things that, you know, I guess my gray hair or what hair I've got left, does pay some dividends because, I mean, I'm sure there's plenty of things that I've not seen, but there's a lot of stuff that is like something I've already been involved. And in some way, either as a journalist covering an event or on the consulting side.

00:25:30:11 - 00:26:08:00
Doug Levy
So if I'm able to say, you know, hey, this is how we handled it five years ago or in this other place, here's what we would do differently. That's always helpful. So experience absolutely helps. But I think more than anything else it's credibility. Are you somebody that is trusted within the organization and within the community, within and across the audiences that you've got to be communicating and trust and credibility don't happen overnight.

00:26:08:02 - 00:26:39:08
Doug Levy
So ideally, you're already familiar with the audience and they're already familiar with you, so that if you're competing for share a voice with others who may not be the real experts, they're going to trust you because I already know you. That's huge. And that also goes with being good at it. You know, I, I've worked with many, many, many leaders who are great communicators.

00:26:39:10 - 00:27:17:17
Doug Levy
I've worked with quite a few who are not as good as they ought to be or could be. One of the things that has impressed me about the ones who are the best is that the ones who are really good take the communications piece seriously and are willing to go through the practice and training. Some of the top executives in the world have media training or presentation coaching just on their calendar every month, just as a fixed thing, because there's always something they are presenting, and having somebody to give them feedback always makes them better.

00:27:17:19 - 00:27:27:19
Doug Levy
And also, I mean, you know, this even if we've been doing presentations on camera for 30 years, if you don't hear, it's going to look rough.

00:27:27:19 - 00:27:50:08
Tim Conrad
Absolutely right. And it yeah, great. I'm so glad you brought up the point of sitting down like some executives are sitting down once a month to go over and and make improvements. I had a cabinet minister a bunch of years ago that every single week, sat down with them on Friday and went over the week with how everything went.

00:27:50:09 - 00:28:14:18
Tim Conrad
And, and he it was amazing that he would take any feedback that I would give him. You know, I would break down, you know, how you were presenting himself, his, his visual appearance, his how he was saying words, all sorts of things. And it was really, a great experience for, for me, to, to go through that with him because he had been a politician for decades.

00:28:14:20 - 00:28:44:20
Tim Conrad
So and it's kind of showed me and he was very well respected and I was like, I now I now I get it because I worked I had prior to that, I worked with other cabinet ministers that were not at all that way. And they didn't improve. Often they were seen negatively by the public and, and, they saw a lot of challenges and they, they but yeah, this minister was just spectacular to, to work with and, and you know, so I think that's a really important is it is a skill you have to work on all the time.

00:28:44:20 - 00:28:51:14
Tim Conrad
It's something I work on all the time. And and I'm always looking for feedback from people as well.

00:28:51:14 - 00:29:15:02
Doug Levy
So I've learned a lot of different ways to give that feedback because as you said, not everybody is open to it. I had one executive who was rather resistant to that kind of feedback, but I my job is to give it. So I didn't stop, but I mostly framed it in terms of missed opportunities because his messages were very good.

00:29:15:03 - 00:29:52:08
Doug Levy
The visuals on his slides were very good. However, he was so accustomed to communicating with people that were experts in the field just like him, that he would put the emphasis on some of the secondary points so that a member of the general public probably wouldn't even hear the part that was relevant for them. And I, I mean, I finally got through to him by literally pulling some video clips of one of his big presentations and showing out and yeah, yeah, I wasn't saying it's like you did a lousy job.

00:29:52:08 - 00:30:05:14
Doug Levy
It was like, you know, this was a really important point. Look at where your eyes were as you delivered it, and think about how much more effective it would have been if you were looking straight at the audience instead.

00:30:05:14 - 00:30:27:22
Tim Conrad
Yeah, yeah. I mean, for me, probably one of the biggest improvements, for my speech and, and improving how I'm talking. And hopefully I'll do okay today as I say this, but this podcast has been an incredible thing because when I put the podcast together, I have to watch myself and listen to myself and yeah, it's it's allowed me to to really ratchet up.

00:30:27:22 - 00:30:44:23
Tim Conrad
And I'm constantly picking out all those little things. And I know everybody hates watching themselves or hearing themselves, but it's worth it, to do it. You don't, you know, obviously you don't have to do it every single thing that you do. But, there's definitely opportunities for improvement. And you can always just watch a couple minutes here and there and, and get caught.

00:30:44:23 - 00:30:56:22
Doug Levy
That was something I was taught when I was a rookie radio reporter. At the end of every week, I would listen back to everything that I did and hopefully do better than next week.