“What are you doing wrong?”
Perhaps not the nicest of questions, but should it need to be asked eight times before a spokesperson provides any semblance of an answer?
Well, that was what happened during one recent breakfast radio interview and it provided a key media training lesson for other spokespeople.
It happened when Andrew Whitaker, planning director at the Home Builders Federation, appeared on Radio 5 Breakfast to discuss a report which claimed that three-quarters of recent housing developments are poorly planned and should not have gone ahead.
Mr Whitaker’s interview, which you can hear here (at 2:02:57) for as long as the broadcaster makes it available, started well enough.
Asked who was at the fault for the situation, Mr Whitaker admitted that developers needed to do things differently.
He said: “It is everybody’s fault and everybody needs to do better. Certainly, the developers need to do better, but local authorities and particularly local highways authorities need to do better.”
And from there he used the example of bin storage to show where he thought local authorities could improve.
But when presenter Nicky Campbell looked for details on what developers are currently doing wrong the interview began to crumble.
Mr Whitaker seemed to want to avoid the question and continually tried to direct the journalist to the report.
Here’s an extract from the exchange:
Campbell: “What are you doing wrong?”
Whitaker: “Clearly, the report sets out the mistakes developers are making…
Campbell: “Just remind our listeners what those mistakes are.”
Whitaker: “Every site has a story to be told and every site is different as to how it ends up in the way it is designed and laid out and everyone has an input into that, including the developers.”
Campbell: “So what mistakes are you making? Just remind our listeners.”
Whitaker: “Well, the report is quite clear as to what the assessors thought was going wrong with development and where those mistakes lie with the developer. They also…”
Campbell: “But what are those mistakes? I’m asking you to tell our listeners.”
Whitaker: “It is also the local authorities’ fault and the local highways authorities at fault as well as the developers. We all need to come together.”
Campbell: “We’ve said that. You are representing the developers. Tell our listeners what mistakes the developers are making. That’s all I’m asking.”
Whitaker: “The report is clear on…”
And so it went on with Mr Campbell posing the question eight times and ultimately telling his interviewee that the listeners, not unreasonably, would not have read the report.
It was an interview reminiscent of the one produced by the then BlackBerry boss on BBC Breakfast several years ago when he kept ignoring the ‘what went wrong’ question about the delayed launch of a new phone.
There is no doubt that this approach to this question led to Mr Whitaker appearing evasive.
But this could easily have been avoided.
In fact, it is as simple as ABC.
Spokespeople need to remember that journalists are asking questions on behalf of their audience. They are asking what the audience wants to know. And ignoring these questions can make spokespeople appear unhelpful, impolite and defensive.
He was terrible on @bbc5live this morning. Really evasive...
— Key Behaviours (@keybehaviours) January 21, 2020
@HomeBuildersFed Andrew Whitaker - Director just been on @bbc5live. Didn’t say anything at all. Not one question was answered. Dodged the lot. WHY??? What a mess the new housing estates are! Seems like you might be accountable otherwise you would be more forthcoming.
— Andy (@AimHi7) January 21, 2020
The key with these questions is to briefly answer them, then bridge to the key message or subject area you are more comfortable with and then communicate that message.
A Answer the question
B Bridge to a key message or subject the interviewee is more comfortable with
C Communicate what you want to say to the audience
If you have been on one of our media training courses, you’ll know this is known as the bridging technique and when it is used well it can be hard to detect.
Having already admitted that developers “need to do better”, it shouldn’t have been too difficult for Mr Whitaker to find an example of where developers could do things better.
And from there, he could have used bridging to steer the conversation to his message, which, judging from his initial response to the first question was that ‘we all need to work together to improve things and this is not any one person or organisations fault’.
So, his response to the question could have been something like:
“Developers need to do … (example) better and that is something we are working on, but what is really important is that everyone involved in the development process comes together and makes improvements.”
The most important thing with bridging is not the words you use. What is crucial is that the spokesperson answers or at least acknowledges the question that they have been asked before trying to move the conversation on.
Once they have bridged successfully, the key to a really strong response is to develop that answer by telling a story or giving an example that is relevant to the target audience and has an element of the unusual or surprising in it – taking ABC to D (develop) and E (example).
In most cases, the journalist will let you carry on as they know this is good for their audience – and that is ultimately what they care about.
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