WHEN THE BALL DROPS - WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM THE CORPORATES

WHEN THE BALL DROPS - WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM THE CORPORATES

In 2017 we have already witnessed mess ups and mix ups at giant corporate level.

 Earlier this year there was huge furore following revelations of potentially fatal defects on the compact SUV Ford Kuga, a headline by the Sunday Times in South Africa read " Angry Kuga owners get bad news as PR disaster escalates."
This followed what could be described as denial on the manufacturer's part in the initial stages as the disaster unfolded.

Eventually the manufacturer acknowledged the faultiness and a massive recall would follow.

Just this past week there was a widely reported mix up at the Academy Awards ceremony for best picture by PricewaterhouseCoopers popularly known as PwC. La la land was mistakenly announced as the winner and then the correct winner Moonlight was subsequently announced.
"What a blunder!"one may say,  "by such a reputable organisation at that"
The fact is it happened. What followed would be very crucial for the firm's public relations.

The firm issued a statement saying " for the past 83 years, the Academy has entrusted PwC with the integrity of the awards process during the ceremony, and last night we failed the Academy."
Of note is the acknowledgement of the error in the collective by PwC, the  statement says "WE" failed the Academy, it is expected that internal investigations and processes would deal with the matter in a more direct manner for the way forward and avoidance of recurrence.

Our lessons are drawn from the two scenarios above;
i) even the best of the best can make a mistake, to err is human
ii) Owning up to it forthrightly attracts less or allays the gravity of the backlash and negative response, moving forward is easier.

Our first lesson is straight forward and self explanatory. Even the best can make a colossal mistake. The examples are too many, PwC is not the first and definitely not the last. We have witnessed renowned football greats miss open goals and penalty kicks when it mattered most. I'm convinced they did not wake up that fateful day deciding to commit that error but they did. We can stand and harshly criticize, condemn and punish the ball dropper today yet tomorrow be found wanting in our area too, we are human.

The second lesson is one which requires self mastery on our part, a quality which comes with practice.
It is generally difficult ordinarily especially for adult human beings to apologise for one's mistakes yet it is the one noble and just thing to do for healing and restoring relations.

Other people go to the extent of interpreting apologising as a sign of weakness and submission to the other party and feel a sense of loss in their pride by so doing. However self mastery helps one overcome ego and
pride issues which in their own right are insecurities.

Owning up forthrightly means we fully acknowledge and understand the pain, loss, inconvenience and any prejudice suffered by the wronged party due to our dropping the ball. We sympathise immediately and ensure there is redress to the best of our ability.

The aggrieved party though having suffered loss in one way or another is highly likely to accept our apology and agree on amicable means of redress without seeking to severely punish the
ball-dropping party.

 Even after the terrible and embarrassing mistake like the one describe above the relationship may continue and even grow further due to the confidence and trust building conflict resolution and problem handling manner of the party at fault.

However denial and finger pointing result in terrible backlash,severe judgement and harsh punishment due to the initial display of remorselessness. Denial and indifference are just like arrogance they bring out the worst in the aggrieved party and the damage they do is almost irreparable if not totally.

For individuals without PR machines like the giant corporates do to clean up their images after such incidences    the answer lies in introspection and self mastery, one has to find it in themselves to overcome the pride and ego in order to do right by the party which one would have wronged even it's not deliberate, a sincere apology given promptly is able to heal and foster relations.

The headline corporate stories make interesting business reading and analyses in the newspaper columns yet they can be used further as lessons to inform our future actions and decisions even at personal level if we zoom in close enough to extract the lessons therein.


THE GOLDEN WORD FOUNTAIN - (TGWF)