Where is your story?

I was working for a housing association and I got a call on a Sunday afternoon to say that one of our tenants had been killed in their home.

It was a horrible horrible situation… but the exec team member that called me wanted to know what our crisis comms plan was, and would I draft something.

I said that I had seen the story, I said that it was awful, and I said that I wouldn’t be doing anything.

We had a good relationship, and I respected their leadership and their knowledge, and they knew that, so I felt entirely comfortable telling them that “no one gives a shit who their landlord is.”

I told them that this wasn’t our story, this was the police’s story, and it was the poor family’s story, and that there was nothing for us to do.

They agreed and hung-up.

10 minutes later I was explaining it all again to my Chief Executive. They wanted to find out what the crisis comms plan said we should do.

This wasn’t our story. A person was dead, the police were dealing with it, our only connection was that we owned the building this tragic act happened in.

As comms professional should always understand where their story is, what it looks like and how to find its boundaries, and they need to know what isn’t their story.