There’s been no shortage of public apologies of late for a dizzying range of errors.
Take these four:
- A mining company ‘misplaced’ a tiny but deadly radioactive capsule somewhere on a 1400 km stretch of road.
- A politician who wore a Nazi uniform to his 21st birthday party.
- A broadcaster whose hatred of the Duchess of Sussex was so great he hoped one day to see her paraded naked through the streets while crowds threw shit at her. [Yes, he really did write that].
- An ugly argument between a high-profile couple in a Noosa park.
I’ve done my share of crisis communications gigs. Swiftly saying sorry is a given in most issues management manuals. In the heat of a crisis, communicators will advocate for an apology that takes responsibility and describes actions to ensure this never happens again.
The lawyers argue against this because they see accepting responsibility as causing problems for future court action. A we’re sorry if you were upset or offended by what we did/said type of apology is the legally preferred approach.
The research shows sympathy-oriented apologies don’t work. People recognise self-interest and lack of authenticity. They know when you don’t mean it. The apology from Jeremy Clarkson (example 3. above) was a non-apology, dragged out from him in increments following public outrage.
When sorry is done right, it is sincere. It shows that the person or organisation at fault is taking action to ensure their mistake never happens again.
Today I’m thinking about whether sorry is enough.
What should be the consequences of an error in judgement? Is it about scale and damage done? Does it matter how long ago the mistake was made?
Innovation can’t happen without risk. In leadership, we often talk about allowing our people to make mistakes and learn from them. But do we really let them?
Is it just big public mistakes that are unforgivable? Blunders that hit the headlines. Gaffes that generate social media ‘shoutrage’ (a term I coined after reading Jon Ronson’s great book, So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed).
What do you think? What is unforgivable? When is redemption possible?