80: Crisis Leadership—Mastering Communication and Resilience, with Kjell Brataas

What are the unique decision-making challenges leaders face during crises?

In episode two of our Crisis Leadership series, unlock the secrets of crisis leadership and communication. Norwegian crisis specialist Kjell Brataas discusses why it's crucial to prepare for the unexpected and how leaders' critical choices impact employees, customers, vendors, and the general public. He gives us insight into the importance of delivering the right message and how communication shapes the long-term experiences of survivors and victims' families.

Explore essential strategies for effective crisis communication and leadership under pressure--including the need for advance preparation and the personal qualities vital for leading in tumultuous times. Kjell emphasizes the power of genuine, unscripted communication to build trust, especially in societies with varying levels of confidence in authority.

We also draw lessons from Norway's 2011 attacks and the country’s COVID-19 response, underlining the importance of openness and timely updates. Kjell’s experience in managing spontaneous memorials, family assistance centers, support groups, and memorial services illustrates crucial elements in disaster response planning.

Kjell Brataas is a Norwegian crisis specialist and author who has worked with crisis management, crisis communication and victim support on some of the biggest crises hitting Norway. His crisis work includes the tsunami in Asia in 2004, the terrorism attacks in Oslo and on Utøya on July 22nd 2011, and COVID-19.  He is a member of an expert group organized by Interpol which focused on crisis communication at large sporting events (Project Stadia) and the Humanitarian Assistance & Psychosocial Support Subgroup of the Counter Terrorism Preparedness Network (CTPN). He is also a National Expert at NATO. He now works as a Security Specialist for Group Security in DNB, Norway’s largest financial institution.

He is the author of Managing the Human Dimension of Disasters – Caring for the Bereaved, Survivors and First Responders (March 2021), and Crisis Communication – Case Studies and Lessons Learned from International Disasters (2018). You can learn more about Kjell on LinkedIn.

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Chapters

• 1:14 Notes on Crisis Leadership and Communication
• 6:47 Essential Strategies for Crisis Communication
• 13:42 Lessons in Crisis Communication and Memorialization
• 26:05 Creating Resilient, Compassionate Leaders

Transcript

Kjell Brataas: 1:15

I would like your listeners to think that something can happen any day, that you really need to appreciate the life that you have and if you are in a position where you will have to deal with large prices, you need to prepare in advance to, like I said, think about scenarios, think about how are we going to communicate and, most importantly, how are we going to take care of those who have been affected.

Manya Chylinski: 1:43

Hello and welcome to Notes on Resilience. I'm your host, Manya Chylinski, and today we have another episode in our crisis leadership series and I had a chance to speak with Kjell Brataas, who is a Norwegian crisis specialist and an author who has worked with crisis management, crisis communication and victim support on some of the biggest crises that have hit Norway. We talked about communicating in a crisis, the role of leadership in a crisis, and all the way from how to plan to memorializing after a tragedy. We covered a lot of ground in a short amount of time and I think you're going to find this very interesting. Welcome, KJell. I am so excited that you and I are finally doing this episode of the podcast.

Kjell Brataas: 2:32

Me too, it's really nice to meet you digitally, and I really enjoyed meeting you in Boston last year.

Manya Chylinski: 2:38

Yes, I'm so glad we got a chance to meet in person and I really enjoyed meeting you in Boston last year. Yes, I'm so glad we got a chance to meet in person, and I remember at the time I said I need to get you on the podcast, and now I have done that. Before we dig into our topics of crisis leadership and crisis communications, the question I start with everyone is if you could have dinner with a historical figure, who would it be and why?

Kjell Brataas: 3:01

That's a very good question, I think, and I've thought about it for a while and I might have to cheat a little bit, if that's OK. Yes, Because there are many people I admire, and one of them is the conductor and composer John Williams.

Kjell Brataas: 3:18

Yes, the conductor and composer John Williams Ooh, yes, has made all the music for the Steven Spielberg movies and the George Lucas movies and he's still alive, cheating a little bit, but he's, I think, 92 years old now, and I actually went to a concert that he gave in Vienna a couple of years ago when he was 90. And he made such an impression on me that I would really like to have dinner with him, which I realize will probably not happen, but that's my answer.

Manya Chylinski: 3:44

Okay, I love that answer. I love his music and so I'm with you on that, and if there's a way we can figure out how to make it happen, let's do that. Shel, thank you again. We are talking about crisis leadership, and your specialty here is talking about crisis communications, and just as you're thinking about leadership during a crisis and thinking about communication, what are the most important steps that an organization needs to be thinking about to prepare for a crisis?

Kjell Brataas: 4:23

Well, I think one of the basic things they need to think about is that they will need to make decisions that differ from normal leadership, and that is because they will have to make decisions based on less information. There might be a very rushed situation where they have to make decisions within a few hours, or even a few minutes, and there's also the point that the decisions they make might have bigger consequences than what the consequences are in the normal running of a company, for example, and the decisions they make will probably affect a larger kind of audience, what is usually the case, because in a crisis, the decisions they make will have an effect, maybe on their employees, their customers, maybe their vendors, maybe the general public, and, in some cases that I'm sure we'll talk more about survivors and victims' families.

Manya Chylinski: 5:24

That sounds terrifying to think, as a leader, decisions that you make can have such a wide-ranging impact.

Kjell Brataas: 5:33

Yes, I'm sure we will get back to that too. But not just the decisions, but also what they are saying, what they are communicating, what they are putting out in writing will also have an effect, and that can, in some cases, be something that people remember for many, many years afterwards if it doesn't come out right or if it doesn't sound right, or if the right person is not being used for giving this kind of information.

Manya Chylinski: 5:59

Yes, and that is in fact how you and I got connected, which is the message after the Boston Marathon bombing was the message that it was and it was not inclusive of survivors like me, and that is something I have absolutely remembered over these last 11 years. I don't remember much else about the communication, but I remember what I was looking for that I didn't find.

Kjell Brataas: 6:27

And that is very often the case in all the cases that I have researched. That is a very big question and challenge.

Manya Chylinski: 6:35

Yes, so you have done a lot of research into communicating after crisis and even get to it in a moment, the book that you have written on memorials after disasters. But what are some of the considerations about communication during a crisis? What are some of the methods or techniques somebody should be thinking about?

Kjell Brataas: 6:57

I think one way of thinking about it is to try to be as prepared as possible, and there are, of course, many ways you can prepare yourself and prepare your company. But in my opinion and in my experience, one pretty basic way of doing it is to think about the scenarios, to think about, have a short discussion, maybe with yourself or with your management team or with a group of employees, just to discuss the basic question what could happen here and what could happen here? That would be surprising to us or would be a big challenge for our normal routine way of working. And I think I've seen many examples of thinking of scenario and when you actually find that you need to do something differently or you need to plan something differently than you have thought was the case before you had that exercise.

Manya Chylinski: 7:51

Yes, so it sounds like I'm not surprised at this, but crisis leadership involves a lot of work before there's ever any crisis that you have to deal with.

Kjell Brataas: 8:03

Yes, and I think we see time and time again that those who communicate well, they do it for a number of reasons, but one of them is that they have prepared, that they have thought about these various scenarios, that they have made a plan in advance and that in many cases, they have taken a plan in advance and that in many cases, they have taken, you know, a basic media training course, which I think is an excellent way of just preparing the CEO or the spokesperson for talking about a difficult subject.

Manya Chylinski: 8:32

Right, and I would imagine that our ability to make a decision in the high pressure of a crisis is going to be compromised.

Kjell Brataas: 8:43

Yes, Then I think it's also important that you think about different personal qualities that are essential for communicating in a good way, and that has many different aspects to it, and one, of course, is to try to be not too stressed when you are talking in public or giving an interview, and that you are able to at least try to be calm in situations that are new and unusual and maybe very, very challenging. And another point I think is important is to be compassionate. I'm sure you and I know lots about that from personal experience. Yes, but it has to do with simple things like taking care of employees, for example, making sure that they are taken care of, and I usually say that that's three main letters you have to think about Very, very basic FDT, food, drink and thanks. It's so important to also for the CEO or for the top manager to thank his or her employees and maybe just go out for a short walk when they are working day and night and say thank you for doing this.

Manya Chylinski: 9:55

Wow, I like that Food, drink and thanks. Those are things we need a lot of times, but in a crisis Wow, I like that Food, drink and thanks. Those are things we need a lot of times, but in a crisis crisis in particular and you mentioned something about the ability to stay calm and as a civilian, as someone who is going to be listening to a leader, going to be looking for reassurance that ability to stay calm, I think, is so important for the listeners that we are able to feel like we're being taken care of or that somebody knows what they're doing.

Kjell Brataas: 10:30

Yes, I think that's the main point and at the same time, it's very vital, I think, that the person who is giving a statement doesn't do that based on written script, because then it doesn't sound right and it doesn't come out right and people who listen to it or see the person saying that immediately sees that it doesn't come from his or her heart.

Kjell Brataas: 10:52

So I think it's very important to also show a personal side. For example, if you have to visit family assistance center, you know this place that is set up after a disaster side. For example, if you have to visit family assistance center, you know this place that is set up after disaster or a mass shooting. For example, if a leader goes there, he or she has to really show his personal side and not to read something from a script, but just say it as it is, Maybe say that this is the worst day of my life, and people will understand and respect that yes, as you were saying that, I keep thinking that trust is so important and showing a personal side or showing that vulnerability lets us trust a little more.

Kjell Brataas: 11:33

Yes, and we have seen that in many different cases, especially during COVID in Europe and also in the States. That trust was vital, and in Norway we are very lucky because there is a high trust in government and a high trust also in the media. So the pandemic was dealt with quite well here, I think, because people trusted those authorities. But of course, in other countries that is much more challenging, and it's also very, very important to keep that in mind always, because it's so easy, especially nowadays with social media and AI, for someone to find out that you are not telling the truth, If you are lying or if you are hiding something. It will always become public in the end, and then it's very, very hard to get back on top.

Manya Chylinski: 12:25

Absolutely, and you mentioned Norway being a high trust society. Not sure where the United States falls on that, but I know that there are a lot of people who don't trust authority figures. That just is. That is not who they're going to turn to. They're going to look to faith leaders or community members of their community, whose word they will trust. If you're in a situation like that, or you're in a country where there isn't a high trust, how, as a, do you work through that or work around that?

Kjell Brataas: 12:59

I don't think there is an easy answer to that very good question. But I think you have to look at the long term and again, you have to show your personal side, to be open to also take difficult questions and answer them, and try to have a team that can help you, that can support you and that can do basic things like media monitoring, for example, or monitoring social media, so that you are aware of what is happening not just within your company or within your organization. But I think it's equally important to have a feeling for what is being said on the outside and to be able to answer that as quickly as possible.

Manya Chylinski: 13:40

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for that. Well, I know you have done a lot of work in this area and I would really like it if you could share an example of crisis where the communications you felt were handled particularly well.

Kjell Brataas: 13:56

Yes, I think I'm sure many of your listeners will remember what happened in Norway in 2011, when there was first a bomb went off in the government quarters in Oslo, killing eight people, and then the perpetrator took a car and a boat out to the island of Utøya where he shot and killed 69 young people who attended a youth camp.

Kjell Brataas: 14:22

I was heavily involved in that from the government side, on the communication side.

Kjell Brataas: 14:26

I'm not trying to say that we did everything perfectly, because we didn't, but the plan then, from before and right after it happened, was to be as open as possible and to try to give information as often as you could, and also give out information that you could say that this is what we know right now, but it might not be the correct answer when we know more later.

Kjell Brataas: 14:53

And an interesting point, and I think it's very important to realize that after such an event, such a disaster or a mass shooting, for example, it's really really hard to find the right number, the number of people who have been affected or the number of people who were killed or hurt or injured or psychologically injured, and we saw in Norway, actually, that it took almost two days for the number to be corrected about how many people were killed on the island of Utøya, and the police did a fantastic job, but it was such a chaotic scene and you know, people were taken to many different hospitals, yes, and were taken to morgues and other places, and it took two days for the number to be the right number. Sixty nine people were killed there and I think you just have to realize that that will be the case in many, many situations.

Manya Chylinski: 15:50

Right, and I appreciate what you said about being honest, about we're sharing with you what we know now and that could change. I think, as a member of the public who's listening, I know I am thinking what you are saying is the truth. You are in charge, so you know the exact thing that is happening and, I think, making it clear that this is a moving situation and that the numbers are something I think that we, as civilians in the audience, we want to know right away, and that is something you can't know right away.

Kjell Brataas: 16:30

That's true, and another example is I also did a lot of work on the COVID-19 situation in Norway. I also did a lot of work on the COVID-19 situation in Norway and I talked about the importance of trust, and I think one of the reasons the trust in Norway is so high that it is was exemplified during the COVID-19 situation in my country, Because there were several press conferences organized by the Ministry of Health or some other part of the government where there were some discrepancy from the people who were talking to the media from a podium. Someone would say that this is the right approach and a colleague from another office or another government entity would argue against that during the press conference and say that no, maybe we should do it this way. And it sounds maybe counterintuitive, but the result was that people realized that this is an unclear situation. Nobody really knows the right answer. Necessarily Great to have discussions about the ways forward, because then we might choose the right path.

Manya Chylinski: 17:33

Right, that's so interesting. I could see how that could build the trust that we are trying to figure this out at the same time that you are trying to figure this out.

Kjell Brataas: 17:44

Wow.

Manya Chylinski: 17:46

So, given your experience, if we're looking at the timeline that comes after a crisis or after a disaster, what are the aspects that are particularly important for leaders to consider?

Kjell Brataas: 17:59

Yes, I've done a lot of research into that and I think it's very interesting to see that, almost no matter what kind of disaster happened or where it happened in the world, it will be the same kind of timeline aspects that you have to think about. And I usually divide that into what happens during the first weeks and then what happens during the first year, but also look at what happens in the coming years, and all these events can be planned for. All these events that take place after a disaster can be planned for and should be planned for from a communication side, but also from a leadership side. And of course we don't have time to go through all of these aspects, but I would just mention a few. Regarding the first days or the first weeks, that has to do, for example, spontaneous memorials that we see emerging after a disaster. I think no matter where in the world it happened, people will start putting down flowers and light candles etc. And that can be a challenge in itself and light candles etc. And that can be a challenge in itself. A little bit after, maybe two or three days later, there will usually be a family assistance center.

Kjell Brataas: 19:10

There are many challenges about how to deal with communication in such an area, of course, where people are coming to get information when maybe nobody has it, and there will be many, many people who are experiencing the worst days of their life and it's, of course, extremely important to take as good care of them as can be done. And then, during the first year, I've seen that time and time again there will be a support group that emerges, and we have very good experience with that in Norway. That it's kind of a peer support group that emerges, and we have very good experience with that in Norway. That it's kind of a peer support group, but that can also be used for deciding on the monument or deciding on discussions with the government, for example, or dealing with compensation questions. And then there will be a memorial service and sometimes also quite often what we call a site visit, that people want to go back to where something happened.

Kjell Brataas: 20:07

Yes, and for example, after the utah tragedy in 2011, I was part of a group that organized one day of visits back to the island for the survivors, and the next day we had a similar setup, but for the victims victims' families. That was so important for them to go there and see where this had taken place. And just to mention also, in the coming years you need to be thinking about the commemoration days, sometimes called anniversaries. I don't think that's the right word, because it's not something you celebrate.

Manya Chylinski: 20:41

Right.

Kjell Brataas: 20:42

But every year on the exact date, there will be some kind of a commemoration or an event happening and later, of course, monuments will be maybe built or at least being discussed, and there will also be court cases. In many instances that can trigger difficult challenges.

Manya Chylinski: 21:02

For those who have experienced it, it can trigger difficult challenges for those who have experienced it. You know what you just said is so important because we're looking at a really long term and complex outcome. It's not simply that it's now over and we've cleaned up what happened. We all move on our lives Not that people think that's what it's going to be, but there's so many different elements are important to be paying attention to from the leadership perspective. You've worked on a book about memorializing tragedies and what kind of monuments do we erect and how and why. And what have you learned from that research about that next step where we're memorializing something?

Kjell Brataas: 21:47

I learned that there are many pitfalls, there are so many challenges, but there is also a way to do it that, I think, is the best way, or at least the suggested way, and one advice I would like to give is to not start such a process too early. I would like to give is to not start such a process too early. I've seen examples of someone wanting a monument to be erected and in place within one year after something has happened, and most experts say that that is way too early, because those who have been directly involved or have lost someone in that tragedy, they probably need the first year just to get their life back together or organize funerals, for example, and taking care of money questions, etc. So the first year should not be set aside also for working on the monument. That can maybe start after the first year. And the other very interesting learning point is that there has to be a very good and thoughtful consultation process where you need to involve everyone, and not just the victims' families, not just the survivors, not just those who were physically hurt, but everyone else, including the neighbors, for example, and including the first responders and the volunteers who took part in it. Maybe not all of them will have their opinion deciding the monument, but it's very important to hear what they have to say and to make sure that they have their voices heard.

Kjell Brataas: 23:20

And the last point I would like to make is maybe that really I think that in this case, size does not matter. It doesn't need to be an enormous monument for people to memorialize in a good way, and we have seen examples around Zero there's a very large memorial and museum. Also, in outside of Amsterdam that I have visited, there is a very large memorial park for the MH17 disaster, where lots of people from the Netherlands died, and they have made a large park where they have 298 trees, so one tree for each victim. It's very nice, but it's very large and it takes a lot of money to keep it as nice as it should be. People there that I've talked to say that it's a little bit challenging. We might have set the precedence for the next disaster. That, too, should have a very large monument, and I don't think really that's necessary.

Manya Chylinski: 24:17

Yes, that's so interesting that you say that. Just on a practical level, how much is it going to cost to do it and then to maintain it at a level that loved ones and family would find respectful?

Kjell Brataas: 24:33

And I've seen that in many times and in many examples from around the world. It's really enough to have quite a nice plaque where you have written what happened and the names of those who died, and that might be enough, especially for the families of those who died, who just need a place to go to.

Manya Chylinski: 24:51

Yes, I can attest to I guess I'm going to call it a need to go back to the place where it happened, and in my own case it's in my neighborhood and it's somewhere that I would walk on on any given day. So I needed to go and feel I could take it back for myself and I know that feeling. I know other survivors who had that same feeling. So we're getting time to wrap up and you know how important this topic is to me and that we could chat for hours. What is a final thought you would like to leave our listeners with?

Kjell Brataas: 25:29

I think I would like your listeners to think that something can happen any day, that you really need to appreciate the life that you have. You have and if you are in a position where you will have to deal with large crisis, you need to prepare in advance to, like I said, think about scenarios, think about how are we going to communicate and, most importantly, how are we going to take care of those who have been affected from what happened.

Manya Chylinski: 25:59

I think that's a great thought to end on Kjell. Thank you so much and thanks to our listeners for joining us today. Thank you, thank you for listening. I hope you got as much out of this conversation as I did. So if you'd like to learn more about me, manya Chylinski, I work with organizations to help understand how to create environments where people can thrive after difficult life experiences, and I do this through talks and consulting. I'm a survivor of mass violence and I use my experience to help leaders learn about resiliency, compassion and trauma-sensitive leadership to build strategies to enable teams to thrive and be engaged amidst difficulty and turmoil. If this is something you want to learn more about, visit my website, www. manyachylinski. com, or email me at manya at manyachylinski. com, or stop by my social media on LinkedIn and Twitter. Thanks so much.