A new school year means new students, new teachers, and—yes—new problems for you, the School Head, to resolve. No matter your experience level, you’ll make a decision this year that will be unpopular with someone. You’ll receive private and public criticism for those decisions, however necessary or difficult they were to make, and be left questioning yourself. What is the most graceful way to respond to such censure?
Oddly enough, we can look to HBO’s new satirical news segment “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” for two great examples of how leaders and organizations should (and should not) respond to candid criticism. The first, commercial fruit juice company POM Wonderful, responded well; the second—which we’ll cover next month—responded poorly.
John Oliver, a naturalized American comedian formerly writing for shows like “The Daily Show” with John Stewart, harpoons subjects like net neutrality and misleading food labeling practices on his weekly late-night run. Sometimes, the subject of the satire decides to respond to John Oliver’s take on their decisions or organizations, and this is where the lessons for School Heads and other school leaders lies.
During one segment, Oliver decided to tackle the labeling and advertising practices in the food industry, focusing on POM Wonderful’s marketing campaign. The company’s advertisements claim that pomegranate juice helps men battle prostate cancer and live longer. Oliver believes that these unsubstantiated claims are spurious at best. Watch the video here.
(Please note that since “Last Week Tonight” is an HBO production and not hampered by censors, the language is occasionally coarse.)
A few days after his segment on the mislabeling of food products aired, during which Oliver made his anti-POM comments, POM Wonderful sent “Last Week Tonight” several cases of pomegranate juice and a letter, which Oliver reads in the video below.
What lessons can School Heads take from POM Wonderful’s response?
- POM’s response was planned. Instead of reacting indignantly and defensively as soon as the criticism was known, POM Wonderful planned its reaction for the classiest, most tasteful response that had minimal chance of backfiring. POM Wonderful came out looking better than before Oliver ever mentioned the company. As the School Head and public face of your private school, you can’t afford to just “wing” a response to damning criticism. Plan your response, and stick to that plan.
- POM’s response used facts and real data, not feelings, to counter the criticism’s claims. POM chose which parts of the criticism they’d take exception to, and responded to those with facts (“We really have spent $35 million to finance world-class research”) and even acknowledgements of its weak points (“That research isn’t definitive, but it actually is promising”). You don’t have to confront every aspect of the criticism—just the parts that are most important to show that your decision was the best course for the school. You do, however, need to provide reasoned—not emotional—responses, preferably written down in a traceable paper trail in case someone take legal offence.
- POM’s response took into account the culture of the recipient. Knowing that Oliver was a comedian, POM’s playful addition of several cases of pomegranate juice and its remark that “what he does with it is his business” was taken as funny, rather than insulting. If it had been any other show, POM may have done serious harm to its reputation. As School Head, you know your school’s culture well—perhaps better than anyone. Use that knowledge to your advantage, in both delivery and content of your response. (Should it be via social media? A private email? A phone call? Should it be serious or lighthearted?)
POM Wonderful clearly did an excellent job both reacting and responding to Oliver’s satirical criticism. While your independent school’s programs and policies won’t be lampooned by comedians any time soon—we hope—you can certainly take some lessons to heart about how to respond positively to criticism from this example.
However, not everyone performs as gracefully under this sort of pressure. Next month, we’ll take a look at FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s response to John Oliver’s critique that he’s “a dingo” when it comes to net neutrality and personal conflicts of interest.
Additional ISM resources:
ISM Monthly Update for School Heads Vol. 9 No. 1 Small Talk and Tough Conversations--It's All Human (Resources)
ISM Monthly Update for Human Resources Vol. 11 No. 1 Do You Have a Trusting Culture?
Additional ISM resources for Gold Consortium members:
I&P Vol. 30 No. 1 The Administrative Culture Profile
I&P Vol. 38 No. 8 Predictability and Supportiveness: The ISM School Culture Matrix
I&P Vol. 34 No. 7 Managing Faculty Culture in Times of Turmoil
