Communications Officers (Public Relations)
Plan, develop, implement and evaluate information and communication strategies that create an understanding and a favourable view of organisations, their goods and services, and their role in the community.
When the news breaks before you do
You are a communications officer at a regional utility, and something has gone wrong that the public needs to hear about today. It is mid morning. A treatment fault means residents are being asked to boil their water. Phones are ringing, the media is chasing a comment, and your executives each want a different message.
Choose what you would do. Then see what happens. There are often good reasons for each choice.
I'm live in twenty minutes. Can you tell me how many homes are affected, how long it'll last and whose fault it was? Your boss said to refer all calls to a 'no comment' line.
Give him the confirmed facts, say clearly what is not known yet, and promise to call when you know more
Gareth reports what you told him, including the gaps. Listeners know what to do now. Because you were upfront, he calls you first the next time something happens.
Stick to the 'no comment' line, because those were the instructions
You follow orders, but the silence is filled by rumours. The story runs without your voice, and a worried listener cannot find out what to do. The line was safe for the organisation, not for the public.
Give him your best guess on how long it will last, because he needs something to say on air in twenty minutes
The estimate is repeated on air as fact. When it proves too hopeful, people feel misled. A guess spoken as certainty is worse than an honest gap.
I'd rather the notice didn't say 'contamination'. It frightens people and the cause isn't confirmed. Can we just say customers 'may notice changes' in their water and leave it at that?
Use the softer wording, since the chief executive makes the final call on messages and knows what the board can handle
Some residents read 'may notice changes' as a minor thing and use the water as normal. Playing down what people need to do to stay safe puts the community at risk and your name on the notice.
Keep the warning and instructions plain, explain you are not claiming a cause yet, and offer a calmer tone
The chief executive reads it again and agrees: the facts are clear, the tone is steady, and no cause is claimed. People know exactly what to do, and the notice is shared widely.
Refuse to change a word and say it is your job to decide how the message reads
The notice stays as it was, but your relationship with the chief executive takes a knock. You can hold your ground and still show you heard the worry about tone.
Sorry, I think I posted the old map. It shows the wrong suburbs as affected, and it's been shared a lot. Should I delete it quietly and hope nobody noticed?
Delete it quietly so there is nothing left to correct
The old map is gone, but copies of it keep travelling and nobody has been told the mistake. People in the wrong suburbs may think they are safe or not affected.
Leave it up until the evening and then replace it, so you don't draw attention to the error
More people act on the wrong information through the afternoon. Hiding an error does not remove its effects, and a correction hours later is too late for some.
Post the correct map with a short note saying the earlier one was wrong, and thank Dani for speaking up
The correction is shared more than the mistake was. People appreciate the honesty, and Dani learns that reporting a mistake early is welcome here.
How it went
By evening the fault is fixed and the notice is lifted. You spent the day deciding what people needed to know, in what order and in whose voice. Communications work is about trust: telling the truth early, clearly and kindly when it is not comfortable. Would you want to be the voice people turn to in a crisis?
This is a simplified, fictional situation to help you explore. It is not professional instruction or a test of your ability.
Case study: The notice nobody could miss
A fictional case set in the communications office of a fictional regional water utility.
The situation
Aroha worked in communications at Tallowood Water. At six one morning, a large pipe failed and several suburbs lost water. The operations team did not yet know how long the repair would take. A senior manager wanted to say only that crews were working on it. Aroha knew residents had medical needs, small children and businesses that needed to plan. Reporters were already calling, and a post on a local community page was guessing wildly.
What they did
Aroha agreed with operations on what was known and what was not, and wrote a short update that said exactly that. She promised another update at a set time, even if nothing had changed, and kept to it. She arranged bottled water points, passed those details to local radio and put the same information on the website and social channels. When the repair estimate changed, she said so straight away instead of waiting for a better message.
How it turned out
Water returned later than first hoped, and some residents were still frustrated. But calls to the helpline were calmer than usual, the local radio praised the updates, and the manager agreed that saying what you do not know is part of keeping trust.
What would you do?
- Why did Aroha promise an update even when nothing had changed?
- How is a message that is honest but unfinished different from one that is silent?
- What would you want to know first if your water suddenly stopped?