92. Crisis Communication and the Election Season in Independent Schools with Scott Butterworth

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Tara: Welcome to Mindful School Marketing. I’m Tara Clays. 

Aubrey: Aubrey Bush. Today we’re joined by Scott Butterworth. Scott is principal of Finepoint Communications, a full service strategic communications firm. Finepoint works only with independent schools and handles all types of messaging needs from alumni profiles to crisis communications.

We’re so excited that Scott’s with us today. 

Scott: Thank you so much for the invitation. I’m really glad to to be with you. 

Tara: That’s good to see you, Scott. The theme of today’s episode is going to be exploring the importance of strategic messaging, which I know is something as Aubrey mentioned, that you do especially during high stakes situations.

I know you’ve had an impressive career in crisis communication so we’re going to talk about, you know, what are some of the most critical lessons that you’ve learned along the way that have shaped your approach to messaging during a crisis? Can you start with that? 

Scott: Sure. Thanks for the question.

I’m sorry to the audience because talking about crisis communication is right up there with talking about a root canal or cancer screening. It’s one of these things you never want to think about. But at the end of the day, I mean, let’s be honest, bad things are going to happen in our schools, just as they happen in our lives.

And sometimes they’re going to happen because of Things we’ve done, our actions, or even our inactions. And sometimes they just happen because. The background I bring to dealing with these bad things when they happen, let me talk a little bit about that. I’ve been in independent school since 2015 when I joined National Cathedral School in D.

2020. As their director of communications over the next five years, we just had a spate of issue after issue that arose the school needed to message it successfully with a broad range of constituents, and it was a pretty good education. And what what can come your way without? Any expectation at all since 2020.

I, when I left NCS established fine point communications. And now we work with independent schools across the country on all sorts of strategic messaging needs. So there too plenty of times schools have called us in and said, this thing has just happened. Can you work with this? And here’s what we need.

And yep, we can plug immediately in because I and my colleagues have come from the independent school world where. We’re already well versed in what the opportunities and limitations are of any school message or whatever the school need is. So we get right to work and help, you know, the school get through the situation in the moment.

So, so let’s come back. You know, bad things are going to happen. This, you know, this is something I’ve known in education. I knew that beforehand when I was in journalism working for most of my career at the Washington Post. The choice that school leaders have is really, are you going to ignore the reality?

Are you just going to trust that we’re going to get rainbows with no rain? All year long, or are you going to start getting ready for the likelihood that something is going to come your way in the coming year? Don’t really foresee what it’s going to be like, or maybe you can foresee what it’s going to be like.

At FinePoint, we really, we really see crisis as a test. And just like pop quizzes and midterm exams, if you anticipate, you’re going And prepare adequately. That test will go easier. And when you don’t, well, it’s going to be rough with communications. We need to appreciate the context in which a message is going to land.

Sometimes communicators can focus so much on getting the words right, you know, seeing exactly what we want to say that we forget. to think about what people need to hear in a given moment. Crisis comes unlike a lot of other communications. It tends to come when people are dealing with pain, that something awful has happened in the world or in their community.

The school is reaching out in that moment. It’s important for the school leaders to think about what does your community need from you in that moment? Is it going to be confidence that you’ve got this? Is it reassurance? Empathy or consolation, the message needs to carry that emotion. And sometimes the most meaningful message a school can provide is actually not sending a message, but a school leader taking a heartfelt action at a really important moment.

One last thing sort of lessons I’ve learned a school leader, a head I once worked for had some really good advice. If you’re going to send out a message. Say it fast, say it all and say it true. So if you’re starting from those three principles with any school communication, you’re, you’re likely to end up in a really good place.

Aubrey: Oh my gosh. Wow. I loved everything you said, Scott. I mean, so much to think about because no one wants to be in a crisis, but you know, I bet a school is going to be in it at one point in their lives. And, you know, speaking of what’s coming up in a recent newsletter, you mentioned the idea of inverting problems to reveal potential pitfalls.

How can independent school leaders apply this concept in their election related communications and decision making this fall, especially given the diverse political climate? 

Scott: Yeah, let me talk about inverting problems, because that concept, when I first heard it, it felt very counterintuitive to me. Wait, you want me to think about the opposite of what I want to achieve?

But here’s what I’ve come to learn. When you consider the outcome you don’t want and how to get to the outcome you don’t want, it actually shines a really bright light on how to get to where you want to be. So let’s talk about that with elections. You know, we’re, we’re coming up pretty quick on November’s election and school leaders.

I’ve spent much of the summer thinking about this, you know, coming together, talking through their plans. They’re not worried about the results. They’re worried about how are they going to help their communities keep calm no matter the results and carry on. And so at FinePoint, what we did over the summer is we flipped that goal completely upside down.

What we asked is, How could a goal? How could a school completely upset its constituents this fall? I mean, you know, just lose their their trust totally. And thinking through that process of just inverting, we came up with a whole series of answers. Almost a couple here. One of them, which I alluded to a little bit ago, was, you know, if the school relies on crossed fingers as their strategy, you know, what I what I like to say is hope is their strategy.

Just hoping that everything will stay quiet rather than preparing for things getting hot. The other another one is for school leaders to act instinctively and almost reactively rather than pausing to gather information and talk to a wide range of people. You know, getting to know what the community really needs or wants.

This latter, we saw some of that last year in the wake of October 7th. You know, school leaders felt like they, they instinctively needed to respond in some way without actually touching base with their community to find out what do they need to hear from the school in 

Tara: this moment.

Thank you. That’s also super helpful. One of the concerns when we’re talking about, well, elections, but any kind of crisis is the idea of Focusing on adults rather than students, which is easy to do because some of these issues are really more adult issues, right? In what ways do you think that independent schools might risk centering those adult concerns over student needs this fall?

And how can they avoid that trap while maintaining trust with their, within their community? 

Scott: That’s a great question. I mean, as you guys both know, schools have a lot of groups of adults in their constituencies. You know, we think of faculty, staff, we think of alumni, we think of current parents, we think of donors, the board could even be a different constituency to think about.

And what’s become really stark in the last few years is how differently each of those adult groups can see a particular situation and how anxious schools have become about upsetting any of them. And so that’s led some schools, rather than putting students at the center of their decision making in a moment of crisis, really to focus on those adults and try to find a way to thread that really small needle of finding consensus.

I mean, I kind of understand where that’s coming from. I mean, parents are the ones signing enrollment contracts, paying tuition. You know, adults are the ones making major gifts. They’re the ones teaching many sections of classes. So I get why adults would be at the center of all the discussion. But here’s the thing, students get to have a say in their school too.

And we’ve seen some moments of backlash. I think back to 2020 and the black at posts we saw on social media. Those were really painful in a lot of, for a lot of school communities, you know, as students described the ways that they felt unseen, unappreciated, unwelcome in their school communities. And what we saw were school leaders.

really that students were outpouring their pain in this way. They didn’t know where that was coming from. Well, here we are four years later. And it seems like students are starting to find their voice again. We’ve seen several cases over the last few months where students are starting to complain that schools are teaching them what to think as opposed to teaching them how to think.

So at fine point, we advise school leaders just focus on what serves the kids best. That usually means hold really tight to your mission, which at the end of the day is a promise to the families in your community. And we recognize that that’s a risk. I mean, the adults may be really unhappy with that kind of focus because it may make them think, well, you’re taking me for granted.

But here’s where communications can help. If you could explain to your entire community, students and adults alike, why you’re taking the actions that you’re taking, the principles you’re starting from when you move ahead, the values that are important to you along that way, it’s going to diminish your risk.

What I’m really urging here is transparency about your choices and the reasoning. If you give people the information they need to understand where you’re coming from, they may not agree. In fact, there’s a pretty decent chance, a significant number of people will agree. Adults will not agree with your point of view students, too, but they will have a better sense 

Tara: of where you’re coming from.

Aubrey: That’s really important. Like the why, why are we doing this? Why are we coming from here? This point I think is really key. And I love what you said about not forgetting the students, especially in those high school and middle school students. They have a voice. That’s that’s a time when they’re learning to find it and also, you know, I’m sure schools are teaching them also to use it in some ways.

I’m curious because we just touched a little upon this about the importance of transparency and communication with elections, often bringing heightened emotions with specific what specific steps can independent schools leaders take to ensure clear, transparent communication without alienating parts of their school community?

Is that possible? Okay. 

Scott: I mean, that’s really the big question right now. I was at a conference in June with several heads of school and the number of them who were saying that they didn’t really know where whether it was possible to put a foot right these days. So, yeah, I think it’s it’s a real concern.

I mean, you’ve got about a quarter of head say and polarization is one of their biggest issues on campus. So. How are you going to lower the temperature? Schools have talked about and I think there could definitely be an impulse. Just let’s take politics out of it. If we don’t talk about the election, nothing, you know, is going to pop up on its own that we need to deal with.

I just don’t know how that sort of approach, I mean, it could solve that immediate problem, but I don’t know how it really serves students. Getting back to the point of like, we should be serving students here. The whole point of education is we are preparing well informed citizens who are going to take what we give them generationally and take it forward.

And it’s hard to see how. It’s hard to see how we end up with well informed students when their adults today are ducking the issues of the day. So again, I come back to the idea of just explaining yourself better. You know, most independent schools It’s fair to say we’ll stand institutionally neutral on the election.

They don’t care whether what color wins, what, what candidate wins, what they’re in favor of is democracy. They’re going to support the idea that we all should have a say in our society through our democracy. But very few schools actually make a point of telling their communities we are institutionally neutral.

They seem to just assume that people were born knowing this or inherently they should know that it’s not a difficult message to explain of we’re not taking a position and And here’s why schools could be clear what happens in their government classes or in their student run gov clubs there. I think approaching it in this way can dispel any sort of misconception about the school indoctrinating kids the rules on political activity by faculty staff schools could be clear about that.

Honestly, that would serve the adults, the employees of the school, too, because I’ve talked to many employees over the years who are just unsure about whether they’re allowed to express themselves in a political fashion. You know, it’s a fine point. We really put forward the point that candid, transparent schools inspire trust and trust.

That’s a commodity that Everybody everywhere in our society is really short of right now. So assuming that everybody knows what they need to know, that’s not going to help you generate more trust, candor, transparency. These are the ways you’re going to get your community to understand where you’re coming from and begin to trust you.

Tara: Yeah, these are difficult conversations. I mean, I think people make assumptions as you say, especially these days. It’s, it’s really challenging to have these difficult conversations and gather diverse perspectives. And that can really impact a school success for sure. And the whole culture and tenor of the school.

So I’m curious who leaders are not hearing from what, what viewpoints have not been advanced or considered yet. I 

Scott: mean, we talked about polarization earlier. And one of the things with polarization is various people are going to come to very different conclusions about a similar set or the same set of facts.

Some school leaders have seen, will see that difference. It’s a huge negative as a disruption to we’ve just got to get kids through the day and they just turn off their ears. They don’t want, literally want to convene that conversation. They don’t want to hear that other point of view. And students and adults pick up on that really quick.

The idea that in this school, only certain opinions matter. Word gets around and before you know it, people just stop offering. They’re differing. Opinions that could create blind spots for schools, and it feeds this false sense of a contented school. You know what? Actually, people internally are judging and perhaps seething and so moments of crisis in moments of crisis are really the catalyst for when this discontent just happens.

blows up. It comes out, you know, out of nowhere. And that could come as a real shock to leaders who are, you know, are looking, I think, as Blackad happened, where did this come from? It had been there all along, but the school leaders weren’t talking to the right communities. So what we advise for schools as part of their crisis planning is to constantly be checking their blind spots.

Dissent can be constructive for schools. Parents, you Employees, they are willing to tell you what they see as areas for improvement. Are schools going to be willing to listen? So find the naysayer on the faculty, you know, is grumpy about this or that. Just hear out their concerns. Invite the group of grumpy parents in to clear the air over a cup of coffee.

Pay attention to the survey results that point to a finding that you don’t really want to acknowledge may be held in the community. This shouldn’t be an empty exercise. If you’re doing this right, you should be taking away important pieces of information, maybe intelligence you might call it. Think about that point of view the next time you’re crafting a community message.

Will this message reach those people? Are you, are you beginning to answer those concerns as opposed to the audience that you’ve concluded up until this point is content and everything’s honky dory? 

Aubrey: I think that’s so important, Scott as someone who regularly helps schools with surveys and also talks to them about how to report back about feedback and how to look at the, the, the, you know, survey results that maybe they’re not too excited to look at.

I can definitely tell you that that is so important, like finding those, having those conversations with that, the grumpy person and the, those, you know, people in the community who, you know, aren’t happy. It’s really important. And I appreciate you bringing that up. 

Scott: Yeah. I mean, Tara described those earlier as difficult conversations and they are, I mean, we can’t, I can’t sugarcoat that.

These are going to be difficult conversations to have because people are bringing you what they’re unhappy about and you’ve got to sit there and take it, but it’s a gift in a lot of ways. These people are bringing you a gift with their trust that you are willing to take their feedback and then maybe do something about it.

Aubrey: Yeah. And the active listening too. I mean, the fact that we’re listening to them, I think just helps a lot. I really do. So thank you for bringing that up. What practical advice would you offer to independent schools about preparing for potential political or community disruptions this fall instead of the taking that, you know, wait and see approach?

Scott: Yeah, yeah. I mean, it. School year’s underway. It feels late because the election’s, you know, barreling down at us, but it’s not too late to start planning. It’s never too late to start planning. Here’s an actionable tip. Look back, identify a couple of situations that have happened recently with your school.

We would suggest look at one that happened off campus and one that happened on campus. And with the benefit of hindsight, build your response plan around each one. If that event were to happen again today. Or tomorrow or next week, what would your school do? Here’s the thing when you’re doing this sort of planning this crisis planning.

You’re not trying to predict the future There’s nobody who anticipated what was going to happen on october 7th. We all went into that weekend thinking it’s just another weekend Understanding that school worlds were about to change dramatically in the weeks and months ahead Your your aim in doing this sort of planning is to identify gaps Where do you have incomplete information?

Where do you have no information? Who are the people who care deeply about a particular scenario? Who doesn’t care at all? When you start to work your way through this planning, whether you do it inverted or you do it directly you’re going to end up coming away with much more helpful information.

starting places for how to, how to respond. President Eisenhower once said, plans are worthless, but planning is everything. And that’s a quote you guys probably have heard a few times in your career, but people tend to skip over the next part, which is the more you think about certain situations, the better chance you have of anticipating what Eisenhower called the character of the problem.

One last point. No one has to do this alone, and I think schools do have this tendency to hunker down. There’s a bunker mentality when things start getting hot, and the people around the table are the only people in the world who can understand and who can help us deal with that. There are lots of folks out there who are willing and interested to help.

Fine point is one of them. So you can certainly call in an expert to coach you ahead of time or to advise you when, you know, in the middle of a difficult situation. Call in a trusted partner. That’s a great way to safeguard the school’s reputation. And not to put too fine a point on it, these days also protect people’s careers.

Tara: Wow, this is so timely. And I’m so glad that we have you on right now. Cause I know I’m feeling stressed and I don’t work in school. So, this is really helpful. These, these are really hard conversations, but you make it feel just a lot more. I feel a lot more relieved about it. So thank you for, for doing that for us today.

I’d like to shift a little bit to the idea of mindfulness because we do talk about that on our podcast and how it applies to school leaders and people who do marketing in schools, which, you know, we’re not necessarily talking about marketing here, but all of these things relate to how a school comes across, which is marketing.

So how do you define mindfulness, especially when dealing with a crisis? It seems very relevant to that. 

Scott: Absolutely. I think mindfulness is really important in a crisis. It’s one of the things when I started in education, I didn’t give sufficient attention or thought to it. I learned the hard way. So, As living into this, you know, the situations where fine point is called in.

Often these are the worst days of an educator’s life. And so I go back to the beginning, like nobody wants to think about the root canal or cancer screening. So we really bring that sense of dismay, pain, anxiety into our work and with our clients. And often I’ll start by laying it on the table, telling officials I’m really sorry that you’re dealing with this right now.

Let’s let’s acknowledge this is not where you want to be. It’s not where your school needs to be. And I assure them that they will get through this. The situations have happened to other schools. They’ve come through it. We will come through it in this situation to there may be a few bruises, but hopefully there’ll be as few as possible.

There could be a lot to manage. The stakes could feel incredibly high with so many people are relying on a successful outcome to your crisis. So mindfulness is also important in that school leaders really need to keep their head. Just breathe. Take one step at a time. Don’t get too far ahead. Focus just on the next action.

Really rely on your team. Trust your team. And last thing I’d advise is be gentle with yourself. There can be a tendency in the middle of a crisis to be, have that little voice inside your head be incredibly harsh. Let me tell you, answering that internal critic, you are an admirable person. Your community sees you as a wise person, a thoughtful person, and you’re trustworthy.

You’re doing the best you can. You need to remember 

Tara: that and you need to believe in that.

Aubrey: Those are such powerful words. And I think every school leader needs to hear that, especially on their bad days and especially during a crisis. So thank you, Scott. I’m going to transition us to one of my favorite parts of the show and that’s our rapid fire questions. Are you ready to rapid fire? 

Scott: Let’s do it.

Aubrey: Okay. I’m going to kick us off. If you could put one book as mandatory reading in the high school curriculum, what would it be? 

Scott: The autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. So this is one I came to as a middle aged man, but I read it through the eyes of a 16, 17 year old. And I feel like there is great, great material here for teenagers to be thinking about.

It’s written in the form of a letter from Franklin to his son. And It’s, it’s wonderful. So in the best, it’s it’s out of copyright, so it’s free. And you know, let’s add that to the curriculum teachers. 

Tara: How fun. That’s great. Thanks for sharing that. What is one app you could not live without?

Scott: All right. So I’m, I’m cheating a little bit because I’m not going to go with a digital app. At the end of the day, like I, I do a lot of my work with hands on keyboards, but what I really rely on, and frankly, for a mindfulness podcast, I feel like I need to. Represent this which is a little pocket notebook.

So, I live with pocket notebooks in my back pocket all day long, and I can’t recommend the one that I’m holding right here enough to buy a little mom and pop shop out of York, Pennsylvania called story supply. So get those there 4, they’re 4. I tell you, when I start writing in the notebook, one, I get all the stuff out of my head and I get onto paper.

I feel accomplished just by that mere act. And the number of times that I feel in flow, where time just slips away when I’m writing in the notebook, it’s really helpful to me on a professional, but also a personal level. So that’s the app I would recommend is grab a pocket notebook, stick it in your pocket, and it’s always there when you need it.

Aubrey: It’s the original app. It’s called a pocket notebook. I love that you veered off and you took a completely different approach. And I also, you’re supporting a small business. So, yay! I love that. There is something so rewarding about writing it down, right? It’s different than typing it. So different. I mean, what 

Scott: I need to remind myself is that doesn’t mean it’s done.

I mean, if I’ve written this due down, I still have to actually go back and, you know, have that nice little endorphin rush of marking it off. But anyway, yeah, that’s, yeah, I was going to say, what do you do 

Tara: with all those notebooks? Do you keep them all? 

Scott: So I do keep many of them. In fact, this one I don’t know if we can see it on the screen, but I’ve got a lot of crossed out pages that, you know, notes from back in the day when I’m done, scribble the heck out of them.

But yeah, this one is It looks about four years old. So, wow. 

Aubrey: Okay So if you’re watching us on youtube, you’ll see scott’s little pocket notebook. So definitely check it out. Thanks, scott. That’s awesome. I love it what are you reading right now? 

Scott: So i’m reading a biography of milton hershey and this applies to independent schools because as Some of your listeners may know milton hershey was the benefactor Who’s endowment provided for the Milton Hershey School in Hershey, P.

1. Gosh, I didn’t realize there was a Pennsylvania thread running through all of these. But here we are. Anyway, so the biography is by Michael D’Antonio. And the title of it is Hershey. And I am really dig at it. It is. Teaching me a lot about the candy industry, which, frankly, I knew nothing about it’s digging into the Gilded Age which is an era of American history that I find fascinating.

And definitely there’s some parallels with our time today. So, yeah, I’m reading that. I’m really digging it and I can recommend it. Hershey by Michael D’Antonio. 

Tara: Great. Thank you. I have made a note and it’s going to go on our Goodreads list. 

Scott: Our 

Tara: last question. What is one great piece of advice that you’d like to leave us with today, Scott?

Scott: It’s a really, that’s a really wide ranging question. And so I’m going to be really dull and bring it back to profession. Which is I’m going to focus on school communications. The one thing I feel like I want to, you know, By a billboard on a place where every school leader can see it is with this statement.

School statements are crisis communications. We’ve saw so many times over the last year, schools that either went on autopilot and just felt like I’m going to send a message because the school down the block is sending it. Or because a board member thinks we need to, they hadn’t really considered what it was that they needed to say.

And if you reframed a school statement as, this is a crisis communication, that board member would not do that. The fact that school down the street did this. May or may not influence you to send out that statement. So, I can’t urge more highly. Before you send out that next letter from the school, just pause before you send it.

Take a second and read it with the context of, this is a crisis communication. Because you’re sending it, Because it was a really important thing that school needed to address. Does that frame cause you to want to reword anything in there? So that’s my, that’s my piece of advice. I wish I had something, you know, a little bit more about better living or anything like that.

But unfortunately you just get school advice. Sorry. 

Tara: That’s great. We love it. Thank you so much. Thanks for joining us today, Scott. Where can people find you online? 

Scott: Okay our website is finepointcommunications. com. That, we, there we have several blog posts. With more advice, like what we’ve been talking about here, there’s also a description of how we help schools so you can learn more about our company and our services.

We also produce a monthly newsletter and there was a mention early in the conversation about the newsletter. That’s where a lot of this came from, was a recent issue of that. The newsletter is all about school communications and it’s called Refill. It’s good for school communicators. I think it’s also good for heads of school.

Really anybody around the admin table Should consider signing up. You could read past issues and sign up for future issues through the newsletter tab on our website. And lastly, we’re on LinkedIn, where we post quite often. 

Tara: Wonderful. Thank you again for joining us. Thanks so much for having 

Scott: me. This was great.

Tara: Yeah. Good luck in the election season to everybody. Bye. Bye.