Earlier this week I touched on the value of the “Trusted Advisor” and having a senior communications official at the table when decisions are made, off of a story done by former Clinton Press Secretary and head of communications at the NFL Joe Lockhart.
The issue, and value of trust, came up again this week when Peter King ran a fairly lengthy piece in his Monday column on the removal of Amy Palcic as head of communications at the Houston Texans. The response across the board at the move, made because the team deemed she was not a “cultural fit” any more, was trashed widely by media, colleagues and players, and again brought into focus the value of trust the senior communications officials bring, and offer, not just to those who employ them, but to the media as well.
In a time now where access to information is even more restricted, smart and effective communications people have become in valuable. They are disseminators of information and have the ability to grant and proactively arrange access for media when media cannot physically be anywhere near players, coaches, athletes or staff. The ability to help get information out using whatever digital means possible has been on full display throughout sports in recent months, and while the future of access is still pretty murky, the ability to share information and access today has been evolving, with many new practices like streaming press conferences here to stay as a best practice.
That ability to gain access requires trust of the communications officials and professionals now more than ever, and it that trust which King touched on in his column, which is excerpted below…you can see all of King’s thoughts via this link.
“I think if Amy Palcic is not “a cultural fit” with the Houston Texans—which Adam Schefter reported was the reason why club president Jamey Rootes fired her Wednesday—then a thinking, intelligent person who cares about doing things the right way and takes pride in his or her work should not want to work in the culture of the Texans, at least as long as Rootes is in charge.
I think the media’s job in 2020 requires a level of trust in the media-relations staffs. It always does, but this year in particular because we can’t have personal contact with players and coaches. We can’t work locker rooms, or sidle up to guys after a practice or in team facilities. The only contact is virtual, or by phone. One of the things I’ve tried to do—when possible—is take you behind the curtain to tell you real stories of how football works in 2020. Covering the first round of the Bucs’ draft virtually, for instance, with GM Jason Licht allowing me to spy on his videoconference and phone calls. I’ve done a couple more, but my favorite because of the detail involved was a Day in the Life of Houston Texans Training Camp on Aug. 10. You might remember it. It was a tick-tock of a real training-camp day in an unusual season. How it began:
4:30 a.m.
Geoff Kaplan, the Infection Control Officer of the Houston Texans, wakes up—no alarm needed—in the guest room of his Houston home. Guest room, in his own home? Kaplan is married with 17- and 15-year-old sons, but for the last two weeks, while he tries to keep COVID-19 out of his own house and tries to avoid carrying it into an NFL practice facility, the guest room has been his bedroom. “I can’t ask my sons and my wife to not live their lives,” Kaplan said. “This is a way to protect them, and to protect me.”
Kaplan set the alarm for 4:45 just for insurance, but didn’t need it. Because when Kaplan begins to stir on training camp mornings this year, he finds himself a little jittery, thinking, What type of curveball will I be thrown today? He’s the point of the spear for the Texans on COVID-19, and if any of the 180 Texans’ players/coaches/staff test positive for the coronavirus, there will be an overnight email from the NFL’s testing lab, BioReference Labs, in his Texans inbox informing him. Thus the reason for reaching for his phone when he wakes up, first thing. Every morning.
Good news this morning: no email from BioReference. For the eighth straight day, the Texans have zero positive tests for COVID-19.
I remind you of that story because it never would have happened without Amy Palcic. When I went looking for a team to open up everything for a day so I could see by FaceTime (surreptitiously and in-plain-sight) and cell phones and Zoom, I had conversations with seven different PR people or coaches I thought might be open to it. I told the teams they had to trust me. I needed access to everyone in the organization I thought could help me tell the story—including the head coach, the GM, the infection control officer, four or five vets, and a rookie who could riff on the weirdness of entering the NFL in this way, plus any other people important to the function of the team during camp. I thought I would not find a team willing to do it, because the ask was just too big.
But I knew Palcic pretty well, I knew coach Bill O’Brien, and I figured because they had such a nightmarish off-season, they’d be more willing to open their lives to me for a day . . . if and only if they actually trusted what was happening inside their team. It took Palcic a couple of days to think about it, but I remember the day she was going in to pitch the story to O’Brien and EVP Jack Easterby. She said she was confident about letting me do the story because they set camp up so diligently. Palcic’s attitude was, I’ve got faith in what we’re doing because I see it every day—and we’re doing it the right way. She got the approval.
For that one day, I Zoomed and talked on the phone and saw meetings and got videos and photos from around the facility. When I looked back at my phone the day I finished the column, I counted 37 contacts between me and Palcic and her staff and O’Brien and Easterby and Kaplan. She promised I could see a day in the life. I’m not naïve enough to think if there was some ugly incident that day that she’d have welcomed me to see it. But you read the story. You judge whether it passes the sniff test.
I don’t know Amy, I only know of her, and I certainly do not know what went on behind the scenes with the Texans. What I do know is that in these challenging times having a senior comms person at the helm who can find the right inflection points, proactively drive storytelling and keep growing relationships is vital to every business that is looking to tell it’s story.
There has never been a more challenging time for the industry, and because of that you need smart, calm thinking consensus builders leading the charge. Now is a move like this unprecedented? No. Is it something that the consumer cares about for more than a minute? Probably not. Are there staff at the Texans who have stepped in, maybe learned from Palcic and can fill the void? Hopefully. However it is a risk in storytelling, and even in crisis management, that an organization takes in making changes in the midst of a season, a campaign, or a valuable project. It sends a questionable message to anyone who hears it at a time when unity, and consistency is needed most. And it casts doubt at a time when an organization does not need distractions.
Losing a job any time is tough. Given we are in a time of cuts and slashing of budgets and staffs, makes it tougher. However losing trust, and integrity is even tougher. I doubt Amy Palcic lost those elements. She will find another job in time and move on and will probably learn more from the experience than those who chose to make the move at this time.
The job should never define you as a profession, you should help define the role, and with it, the path to positivity an organization can take. That’s what having solid communications people at the top brings, and by most accounts that’s what the Texans had, and lost.
That trusted advisor especially in these challenging times, is invaluable. Sounds like there is a pretty good one back on the market, at least for now.
