Remember SAPP? Security, Accuracy, Propriety and Policy? The Accuracy part is based on the facts … seem obvious? In practice, people sometimes lose sight of this.
This is about the truth! The facts. The real deal. This isn’t a post about bias or the lack thereof. We already wrote about bias.
Once upon a time, I received a breathless call from a subordinate unit. We were asked to provide input to a statement another government agency was going to make. The statement seemed fair enough, it was well written, made sense and we were pressed for time. The statement protected our organization’s equities and protected future operations. We were in a rush, so if the statement looked good we needed to ship it, right? Not so fast … did anyone check the actual facts? The statement looked great and we were in a hurry, but we still needed to check in with our old friend, The Truth.
We spend a lot of time determining the message, the forever lines. Often we spend time word-smithing an RTQ. We build contingencies into public affairs guidance based on fictional, contingency events. This is all good, right and worth your time. These exercises are only useful when you’ve used the true facts as your baseline.
Leaders will tell you, “Hey PAO, we’ll need to be prepared to talk about this publicly.” Sure we will. Since you are connected with operations and understand what your organization is doing, and did, you will be prepared to talk publicly based on the actual, real situation. Blindly parroting your pre-approved public affairs guidance is foolish and dangerous. Just as an operation’s progression deviates from the CONOP, your final statement will reflect the ground truth in a way your PAG logically cannot.
Even in the public relations industry where fake news, lying and deceit is a known tactic, the true pros tell you to start with the facts. The celebrated PR guy, Michael Sitrick, “The Wizard of Spin” has 10 rules of engagement. Rule #1? “First, get the facts.”
We’ve said it before: if you are slow, you lose the opportunity to be right. Here’s a secret: you also lose the opportunity to be right when you are wrong.
Now go and do likewise.
