Crisis Management for Inebriated Mayor and Dummies

Hello friends it is the end of the week and as much as my intention was to make it light today another video surfaced with an extremely inebriated Toronto Mayor Rob Ford. To be honest yesterday I thought about blogging about my favourite personalities of the week today. At the top my list was Mayor Rob Ford for finally having the courage to stand up and telling Toronto and the world that he smoked crack cocaine. Yes, he was at the top of my list. Despite his lengthy period of denials as human beings we all deserve second chances. Mayor Rod Ford, like George W. Bush is one those persons who you really want to love but he just keep on breaking your heart and sometimes all you want to do is just give him a slap in the back of his head for stupidity. Frankly, I believe that Mayor Rob Ford is now seriously incapacitated and it is therefore difficult to comprehend why he has not resigned.

There are other personalities that I wanted to blog about today one of whom is Michelle, my adorable and hardworking wife. Few days ago Michelle fell asleep on her train ride from Brampton into Toronto Union Station. According to Michelle’s Facebook status she suddenly woke up just before the train pulled into Union Station and she frantically started to search for her glasses. She was in a state of panic thinking that she had lost her spectacles which it turned out was still on her face. This was my pick for joke of the week.

Dear friends, the holiday season is fast approaching and there will be lots of partying and drinking. With the video released yesterday showing an extremely inebriated Mayor Rob Ford, as professionals you should take notes. The number one rule is don’t consume more alcohol than your limit. You can use some self-reminding methods to stop yourself. For example, you can ask a trusted friend or relative to remind you when you have reached your quota.

Today I am sharing a personal crisis management and communication plan for those professionals and dummies who will become extremely intoxicated and be drunken stupors like Mayor Rob Ford during the holiday season. Let me tell you friends it is extremely important to have a plan in place. As you can clearly see Mayor Rob Ford does not appear to have a crisis management and communication plan. It just seem that his crisis keep on escalating from bad to worse and now we have to believe he is cursed.

Here is my drunken stupor crisis management and communication plan.

Pre-drunken stupor

It is very important that you anticipate the possibility that you will become intoxicated from your alcohol consumption and plan ahead this holiday season. You can be proactive and prepare for being drunk with your Drunken Stupor Crisis Management and Communications team.

Let us be frank. Let us not fool ourselves. This is not rocket science. Here is the deal where ever you go today there are mobile devices with cameras and video recording capabilities. If you get drunk it is fair game to assume that you are going to get caught on camera. You must be prepared that even your closest relatives and friends are going to take your picture or record a video. Look at the Youtube video of Justin Bieber filmed sleeping by lady of the night. Remember even if your friends or relatives signed agreement to silence and handing over their phones those rules are tough to enforce. Please don’t fool yourself into believing it will not happen to you. Listen you look funny when you are drunk and acting stupidly...it makes others laugh and gives them damn good reason to laugh at your drunk ass. 

My point here you don’t need intensive brainstorming sessions on all the potential crises that could occur when you get drunk. If you drink don’t drive. If you drink please have a designated driver or take a cab. Drunk drivers kill or get killed!

There are benefits to exploring the being drunk. For example, you may realize that getting drunk is preventable and you may decide to simply modify your behaviour and attitude towards alcohol consumption. You can begin to think about possible responses for the best case and worst case scenarios. Remember prevention is better than cure. It is better to think about these things in your pre-drunken stupor state than when you are inebriated and unable to respond to being drunk.

Identify Your Drunken Stupor Crisis Management and Communication Team

Here you need a team of trusted friends and relatives. Here is the deal your team have to be people who you respect. Remember one of the points I made earlier in the week that is a damaged leader hurt the entire team. Yesterday we saw a clear a sign of this when the Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty choked up speaking about his friend Mayor Rob Ford. Being a drunken stupor this holiday season will hurt your career and it will hurt the people around you. It will hurt your career!

As it is silly season for partying and drinking a prudent philosophy is to trust only you. At 46 years old, I know too well how many of my friends told me they would not be drinking at a party and in the end they drink themselves into obliviousness. If you have not watched the movie The Hangover, you should watch it right now! You will not want to have people on your team who are going to wake up from a night of partying with no memory of the previous night and they don’t know where you are or they can account for you. You definitely don’t want them driving around Toronto searching for you or calling your boss or your wife to ask about your whereabouts.

Let us be clear, you will need a team. Make sure your team consist of people who are not intimated by you. You need people are will be prepared and willing to overrule you. You need people who are willing to go to the bartender to demand that you are not served any more alcohol. In building your team please ensure you have people who you respect and people who you will listen to in time of your drunkenness. You will need a spokesperson as well as a back-up. These have to be people who are pre-screened, trained and have clear instruction on different channels of communications including speaking your spouses, etc.

You will need to have a system for notification. Who are the people who need to know that you are inebriated? When do they need to be notified? Why do they need to know?

Arising out of your pre-drunken stupor planning you should develop holding statement for when your drunken stupor crisis breaks. You need to have a holding statement for different people including your firm’s board and senior management, the media, etc

Post-Drunken Stupor Crisis

Darn you were extremely inebriated at your office party. Consult with your team to determine the extent of your crisis. Did you dance naked? Did you puke in CEO’s plate? These things happen. You should be prepared for the embarrassing news and Youtube videos. You are going to get hurt and you would have hurt others in the process. Despite how difficult will be for you must remain calm and remember that you cannot act without adequate information on your state of drunkenness. Sober up quickly and face the music. Humble yourself. Accept the fact that you made an ass of yourself. You should consult with your Drunken Stupor Crisis Management and Communication Team. The team should be receiving information and ensuring that the right information is being provided to you so that you can determine an appropriate response.

You have to assess your situation. It is imperative that you develop your statement once you have assessed the situation and the full outbreak of drunken stupor crisis is known. As professionals you should be prepared for the worst case. Some firms will fire you!

Mark McKenzie is a leading Subject Matter Expert in financial services regulation and supervision as well as a professional motivational speaker, corporate trainer and youth mentor.  He can be contacted by email mastbmckenzie@gmail.com or by telephone 647-406-4622. Read my blog  http://mastbmckenzie.blogspot.ca/ and always write me a comment and share. Follow me on Twitter @mackynacky. Connect with me on www.youtube.com, Google+, Facebook and Linkedin.