Crisis Comms and the Monkey Mind

The Inner Emergency Operations Center

Honestly, I pretty much fell into PR by accident. I wanted to be a lawyer, but I always knew I’d end up in politics and decided to work in campaigns instead. Back then, if you wanted to be a political consultant, you’d better have liked eating only during even-numbered years. So I picked up side gigs with a couple of newspapers, and eventually landed at a communications agency started by two former political consultants. See how that works?

I loved agency life because I got to learn at least a little about a lot of industries—health care, education, public utilities. But what I loved most was crisis communications. My mentor once told me, “Tim, if people didn’t step on their dicks sometimes, you and I wouldn’t have jobs.”

I thrived on the chaos and the adrenaline. I wrote faster and better in those situations than any others.

And don’t even get me started on natural disasters.

My wife had serious responsibilities—life-and-death stuff—in floods and hurricanes. But even when we were in the same emergency operations center - as we often were - she was always a little worried that the communications desk was giddy over maximum sustained winds and storm surge.

She wasn’t wrong.

But sometimes, in more mundane crises when lives aren't at stake, the best communications strategy is keeping your damn mouth shut.

That’s a hard thing to explain to a client. After all, they hired me to tell them what to say. If I say “nothing right now,” the next question is “then what am I paying you for?”

But just like with a personal meltdown, the best strategy—at least at first—is to pause, take a breath, and think before you speak.

That’s mindfulness.

Sometimes I’m sitting at home in my recliner—especially when no one else is home—and all the worrisome shit is running through my mind: should we sell this house, is my Pop okay, are the kids safe, and how do I get this damn dog to stop peeing on the floor. And that’s all in the first 45 seconds.

Meditation doesn’t stop the monkey from swinging — it just keeps you from being dragged along for the ride.

Buddhists call it monkey mind. It’s that endless scroll inside your head, like the chyron on CNN that tells you the world is on fire, but Taylor and Travis are just fine, thank you.

Joseph Goldstein describes monkey mind as the restless state where the mind jumps from one worry to the next, never satisfied. Dan Harris just calls it the brain’s default setting—loud, chaotic, and often ridiculous.

Meditation and mindfulness don’t stop the monkey from swinging. They just help you notice it’s there—and keep you from being dragged along for the ride.

In the 24-hour news cycle, the monkey is in charge more often than not. The trick is to pause, see the situation clearly, and only then communicate calmly.

Calm the monkey first, then choose your words. That’s crisis comms, and that’s mindfulness.

You’re on your own for housetraining the dog.