Glass Jaw

In boxing terms, a tough-looking fighter who can’t take a punch is said to have a ‘glass jaw,’ and so it is these days with targets of controversy. Down the rabbit hole of scandal, the weak are strong, the strong are weak. GLASS JAW is a manifesto for these times, written by crisis management warhorse Eric Dezenhall who has spent three decades inside of some of the most intense controversies in recent memory.

In the digital age of 24/7 news, information is easily acquired and quickly spread, and this has changed the fundamental nature of controversy, rendering once mighty organisation and individuals powerless against scandal. Think Toyota, Susan G. Komen, Tiger Woods, Paula Deen, Penn State and Joe Paterno, BP, the Duke Lacrosse players, Lance Armstrong, Manti Te’o and Anthony Weiner. Here Dezenhall defines this new reality where information moves at the speed of light and reputations are tarnished ever faster. In GLASS JAW, he analyses controversy and scandal from the perspective of the truth-telling crisis management veteran to demystify the paper tiger ‘spin’ industry, offering lessons learned, crucial corrective measures, and counterintuitive insights, such as:

· How there really is no getting ahead of a bad story
· The art of public apology
· Why a crisis is not an opportunity and Hemingway’s Old Man and the Sea is the I Ching of crisis management (because the old man survived and nothing more)
· The problem with ‘getting it all out there’ and The Nixon Fallacy: if only he had just said ‘I screwed up,’ the whole thing would have gone away – not a chance
· Why are you the enemy: the self sabotage of technology, cameras, tweets and emails.