What to do When the Secret is Out
By: Genevieve Coates
Ever have a really big secret to tell people? Like you and your partner are going to have a baby? You’ve managed to keep it quiet for a month and just as you are about to announce it to all your close friends and family, your next door neighbour who has a tendency to be a little “up in your business” starts spreading your secret all over town. Now, it’s really not that big of a deal because you were planning on telling people anyways, but you feel hurt and upset that you weren’t the one to spread the news. The announcement you had planned just seems pointless now and your entire timetable is completely thrown off.
No need to fret! Just like in life sometimes competitors can reveal things about you before you’re ready to tell people. So what do you do when people break the news before you’re ready?
Breathe
It seems cliche, but it’s true. The very first thing you need to do when you think intel about you has been exposed is to breathe. Nothing good ever came from reacting too soon to a situation without knowing all the facts. Just like if your Mom & Dad were standing gasping in front of you, you would take a moment and just breathe.
Assess
In that moment that you are thinking about what you are going to do, you need to have a full understanding of how much was exposed. Before you do anything else, assess the situation and figure out:
Who is exposing your intel info? Competitor? Client? Employee?
Why are they exposing it? Was it an accident?
What are they exposing? What departments will it affect?
When did it happen? How long did it last?
Where was the information posted? How many different media types did it spread across?
What’s the most likely place that this information came from?
React
So you know the answers to the questions, you know what happened and you’ve taken a moment to think about it. Now, it’s time to react. With your parents you might start explaining how you are ready for this change in your life. With your competitors you may choose to send out a public press release to get ahead of the information that was released. Whatever your decision is, make sure you are basing it off your strategy and your assessment and not a rash quick decision.
Stick to the Plan
Remember how back when you started thinking about competitive intel that you sat down and made a strategy of how you would protect yourself against having your sensitive information exposed? Well now is the time to stick to that plan and also re-assess it. Looking at that plan and this particular situation, determine what went wrong. This is where you’ll learn important things like not speaking so loud to your partner that your neighbour can hear you say “Oh my god, it’s a girl!”. There’s always places we can improve our strategies so take the time to review and revise.
As long as you learn from the experience of having intel information exposed outwardly, you’re probably going to be okay. No one likes to be surprised by information they weren’t expecting to be talking about, but we can all deal with those situations if we take a few deep breathes and think it through.
What do you think about in these situations? Have you ever had to overcome a situation when your intel information was exposed? What did you do and how did you react? What did you learn from that experience?
Tags: Competitive Intel, damage control, public relations, Social Media, Social Media Monitoring
"Three people can keep a secret, but only if two are dead."
I don't know who originally spoke this truism, but it fits. If you're concerned about "your intel" (whatever that might mean to you) getting out, then the best policy is to not tell anyone.
It's been my experience that people tend to want to share secrets, since having a secret is a form of power. Of course, there are exceptions to this, as there are in every situation.
The next easiest thing to help keep information from spreading it to limit it to a VERY select few people. If it leaks, then you will know it was one of them. If you're truly paranoid, you can insert a different, yet juicy tidbit, into each telling. That way, if word gets out, you can track down the culprit by the otherwise "unpublished" factoid that only they got.
Creators of classified documents will do this, making versions that differ ever so slightly from one another, then noting to whom each version is delivered. Some examination creators do the same thing to help identify people who post the tests/answers online.
Next, keep the information off of all Social Media outlets: Don't tweet it and don't put if on Facebook (even protected tweets or a private profile). Don't put it in email. Don't write it down. That which remains verbal makes for a more difficult to prove rumor. And, well, a less problematic evidence trail.
Finally, you should always have a Plan B: "What if this information gets out?" Instead of reacting, as listed above, proactively wargame the scenario to come up with likely responses. Just as practicing for an interview helps a job candidate, so too will practicing the "what if?" scenarios for the information.
The biggest problem in business isn't necessarily having confidential information get out, it's being blindsided by it.
Oh, and no flash photography either. I shouldn't even have to mention that.
Thanks so much for your thoughts Tim!
Along with adding to Tim's 'don't let the secret get out in the first place', I would add, 'if it does, make sure you turn it to your advantage'.
Exactly. By having a Plan B addressing "what if it DOES get out?" you can have elements in place (or at least already thought out) on how to address the situation to best advantage.
Of course, there are going to be times where this just isn't possible, such as disasters (like the Exxon Valdez, Union Carbide in Bhopal and BP's Deepwater Horizon) or info-leaks (like Sony downplaying their PlayStation Network getting hacked or Congressman Anthony Weiner's pictures/texts).
In the former, there's really not a lot a company can do, though there can be emergency contingency plans that wargame several types of scenarios that could occur. In the latter, however, both Sony and Weiner got taken to task for essentially trying to cover up what happened.
Nobody likes it when information they thought was private…and that could be damaging…gets out.
Having a plan to address the issue can help deal with that.