There are a number of lessons to be learned from the current disaster surrounding BP and the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
The most obvious (and most important) of these relate to the importance of disaster management planning and disaster prevention strategies.
But one interesting facet of the debacle is how some public statements made by the company have been well intended yet served only to inflame public anger.
Three examples stand out:
• Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg’s declaration, made after a meeting with President Obama on June 16, that, “We care about the small people”;
• Chief Executive Tony Hayward’s lament last month that, “I want my life back“; and
• Hayward’s earlier comment about the size of the spill being ‘tiny’ compared to the size of the ocean.
Fine intentions, bad wording
Each of the above statements were made out of good intention. Svanberg was simply trying to assure residents in affected areas that the company was taking their concerns seriously. Hayward, too, was trying to apologise for the disruption which the spill had caused to people’s lives.
But none were appropriate. Rather, each served only to cause offence.
Rightly so, too: references to ‘small people’ are rarely well received (Svanberg later recognised this apologised for his comment), and Hayward’s choice of words was dreadful – especially in light of the death of the eleven workers and the impact of the spill on so many lives. As for Hayward’s earlier comment about the size of the spill – that pretty much speaks for itself.
To be fair, given the extent to which BP execs have been under the pump, it was perhaps inevitable that some poorly worded statements were going to come out. And it should also be acknowledged that not even the best worded of statements would have done much given the magnitude of this disaster.
But that is no excuse. Well intended though they might have been, none of the above statements were appropriate. It is right that they backfired.
(It is also right, given the scale of the disaster and BP’s poor handling of the situation, that public anger against the company continues to grow.)
The lesson is clear: efforts to soothe public anger can easily have the opposite effect – especially in a crisis situation.
Choose your words carefully!
P.S. I cringe whenever I hear terms like ‘small people’ or ‘little people.’ Regardless of how well intentioned they might be, these terms are patronising and offensive. They have no place in good English usage.
No matter who they are or where they come from, each and every person is important. So too is each and every family, community, region or country. No one should be thought of otherwise and good language usage should reflect this.
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I apologize for joking about this: it’s really no laughing matter. I don’t think we’ve begun to see the devastation that’s coming to the Gulf states. Livelihoods are being destroyed; fragile state economies will pass the breaking point and shatter. I’m not too familiar with the situation in Mexico, but whatever hardships occur in the U.S. as a result of the spill will be amplified tenfold in that country.
Bill Says:
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