The following is cross-posted with permission of Ben Kirby, who has a new blog up here.
There’s going to be some bad news.
Something bad happened at your organization. Something went wrong, someone screwed up. Maybe a staffer. Maybe you. Maybe it was in control of the Board or the executives or the leadership team — maybe not.
As a leader of a community organization, you have a question to ask yourself: When do I get the whole story out about this mess?
The answer is: Right. Now. Don’t wait another minute. And if you don’t know the whole story — and there’s a good chance you don’t, if the news is still fresh – don’t be afraid to say that!
This is the number-one excuse I hear from leaders not wanting to talk to members of the media: they don’t have the whole story. “But I don’t have the whole story yet! They’ll misconstrue what I say…” Be forthcoming with reporters about what you do know, and they will understand where you’re coming from if you say you don’t know everything yet. We’re humans, fallible, flawed. We run organizations which are powered by humans… fallible humans who make mistakes.
The news today out of Florida may feel political, but it is a classic demonstration of not getting the story out fast enough, of not taking decisive action early, of — for lack of a better way to say it — a lack of leadership. State Education Commissioner Tony Bennett will be resigning his post because of a grade-changing scandal during a time when he held a similar post in Indiana. The scandal is being covered state-wide, in the Tampa Bay Times,the Tampa Tribune, Bay News 9, the Miami Herald, News Channel 5 in Palm Beach,Jacksonville’s First Coast News, the Naples News, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, the Tallahassee Democrat, the Gainesville Sun, Central Florida’s 13 News, the Orlando Sentinel.
Bennett’s old home state of Indiana has picked up the story.
Online, it has officially gone national as the widely-read HuffingtonPost Blog picked up the story. The esteemed Washington Post has the story as well. NBC News is running this story. It is also posted on the hugely popular site Reddit. And of course, it’s featured on the Associated Press site, which did much of the reporting work into this scandal to begin with.
The Bennett scandal has been widely discussed on the blog of Diane Ravitch, a well-known education advocate. Peter Schorsch at SaintPetersblog has likely noted the next stage of this metastasizing story: how this hurts Governor Rick Scott as we move into a gubernatorial election year.
Oh, and there was a Facebook page: Citizens Against Tony Bennett. Has more than 2,000 “likes”.
I hope I have demonstrated the point that this scandal is already out there. There is no reeling it in. There is not pondering what to say next, there is not waiting to “understand the full story,” no “getting all the facts.” Bennett is gone. It’s over.
Was it always going to be the case that Bennett had to resign? Maybe. But the silence from the Governor and from Bennett on this issue ensured the small little snowball at the top of the mountain rolled to the only inevitable conclusion that it could: a giant mess at the bottom.
Tell your story early. Tell it often. Add parts as you learn them. And don’t be afraid of the press.
Have a story to share? We hope it’s not too scandalous. Even if it is, let’s talk about it. We can help.
