"Once again, Tony Blair, the English Prime Minister, shows why he is the top of the class when it comes to communicators on the world stage. Immediately after the July 7th terrorist attacks in London, Blair made a statement to the press and the world community (a full transcript is below). As usual for Blair, he hit each note perfectly, even though this was an unusually crisis-filled day.

Blair, of course, understands that words are only one small part of the equation when figuring out how to address the world in a time of crisis. So what, exactly, did Blair do well?

1. He spoke with emotion and passion—feeling was dripping through each word.
2. He spoke with the right amount of emotion. He didn’t fall apart and he didn’t seem too matter-of-fact either.
3. Blair didn’t read. This is an extraordinarily important issue in a time like this. Rudy Giuliani didn’t read after 9-11 (Bush did). Reading would have destroyed all sense that Blair had an emotional stake in what happened.
4. Pausing, pausing…and more pausing. Blair paused a great deal in getting through his statement. The pauses were excellent ways of communicating the gravity of the situation, the feelings associated with the tragedy, the respect Blair had for those killed, and the sense that absolutely nothing about this situation was business as usual. Blair communicated brilliantly with his pauses (something that you can grasp only by watching or listening to him, not by reading the transcript.)
5. He stated the facts as he knew them, and did not speculate on what he did not know.
6. He expressed sympathy for families and victims and he seemed sincere in the process.
7. He listed specific actions he was taking (leaving the G8 conference) to show the seriousness of the matter.
8. He used strong and forceful language that was appropriate, calling the actions “barbaric.” Bland and inoffensive diplomatic language is not appropriate at such times.
9. He placed the tragedy into a broader perspective that the world could relate to by reminding people that this event happened on the same day that leaders were meeting to fight problems of poverty, climate change and other issues that affect many nations.
10. Finally he ended by telling people that he and his government would fight terrorism and defend civilization around the world by seeking out the perpetrators.

Blair made his statement shortly after the attack occurred. There really wasn’t much else he or anyone else could say. But Blair said what he needed to in order to calm people down and to reassure the world. As noted above, Blair accomplished quite a lot in a very short period of time. Crises always catch people off-guard, but Blair proves that your response to a crisis can be a helpful start to recovery. 

In short, Blair committed a text book example of excellent crisis communications."

Statement SAID, NOT READ by Tony Blair:
“I am just going to make a short statement to you on the terrible events that have happened in London earlier today, and I hope you understand that at the present time we are still trying to establish exactly what has happened, and there is a limit to what information I can give you, and I will simply try and tell you the information as best I can at the moment.
It is reasonably clear that there have been a series of terrorist attacks in London. There are obviously casualties, both people that have died and people seriously injured, and our thoughts and prayers of course are with the victims and their families.
It is my intention to leave the G8 within the next couple of hours and go down to London and get a report, face-to-face, with the police, and the emergency services and the Ministers that have been dealing with this, and then to return later this evening.
It is the will of all the leaders at the G8 however that the meeting should continue in my absence, that we should continue to discuss the issues that we were going to discuss, and reach the conclusions which we were going to reach. Each of the countries round that table have some experience of the effects of terrorism and all the leaders, as they will indicate a little bit later, share our complete resolution to defeat this terrorism.
It is particularly barbaric that this has happened on a day when people are meeting to try to help the problems of poverty in Africa, and the long term problems of climate change and the environment. Just as it is reasonably clear that this is a terrorist attack, or a series of terrorist attacks, it is also reasonably clear that it is designed and aimed to coincide with the opening of the G8. There will be time to talk later about this.
It is important however that those engaged in terrorism realise that our determination to defend our values and our way of life is greater than their determination to cause death and destruction to innocent people in a desire to impose extremism on the world. Whatever they do, it is our determination that they will never succeed in destroying what we hold dear in this country and in other civilised nations throughout the world.”

TJ Walker is president of Media Training Worldwide www.mediatrainingworldwide.com, a firm that specializes in crisis communications and media training for political leaders and corporate executives.

TJ Walker 212-764-4955 (office) 917-204-9490 (cell).