Glass Jaw: A Manifesto for Defending Fragile Reputations in an Age of Instant Scandal

by Eric Dezenhall

Overview

In an age when scandal can destroy a company's brand or anyone's reputation in an instant — Glass Jaw is an Art of War guide to modern crisis management.

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 and the strong are weak. Just consider this slate of recent reputational body blows: Toyota, Susan G. Komen, Paula Deen, Tiger Woods, Joe Paterno, BP, the Duke Lacrosse players, Lance Armstrong, and Anthony Weiner. Glass Jaw is a manifesto for these times, written by crisis management veteran Eric Dezenhall, who has spent three decades dealing with some of the most intense controversies, both known and . . . handled with discretion. In the current digital age, the fundamental nature of controversy is viral, rendering once-mighty organizations and individuals powerless against scandal.

In Glass Jaw, Dezenhall analyzes scandal and demystifies the paper tiger "spin" industry, offering lessons, corrective measures, and counterintuitive insights, such as: How there really is no "getting ahead" of a bad story (and other cliches from the media) The perils of navigating the "Fiasco Vortex" The art (and transaction) of the public apology Why a crisis is not an opportunity The Nixon Fallacy: if only he had just said "I screwed up," the whole thing would have gone away (not a chance) How you are the enemy: the self-sabotage of selfies, tweets, emailing before thinking, technology creep, the privacy vacuum, and the industrialization of leaking. From the boardroom to the parenting messaging board, scandals erupt every day. Glass Jaw explains this changing nature of controversy and offers readers counterpunches to best protect themselves.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781538725696
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	06/21/2022
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.03(d)

About the Author

Eric Dezenhall is the author of ten books, including Glass Jaw: A Manifesto for Defending Fragile Reputations in an Age of Instant Scandal, and Damage Control: Why Everything You Know about Crisis Management Is Wrong (with John Weber). He has written for publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, LA Times, New Republic, and Huffington Post.

Table of Contents

Section I How Scandal Has Changed (and How It Hasn't)

Chapter 1 The Fiasco Vortex 3

Chapter 2 When Scandal Went to Sleep 23

Chapter 3 "Monetizing Humiliation" 37

Chapter 4 Brittle-Why and How Goliath Became David (Part 1-The Syndrome) 56

Chapter 5 Brittle-Why and How Goliath Became David (Part 2-The Mindset) 80

Chapter 6 Social Media Is the Problem, Rarely the Solution 96

Section II Who Do You Think You're Spinning?

Chapter 7 The Eight Most Baseless Crisis Management Clichés 111

Chapter 8 The Three Apologies 133

Chapter 9 The "Spindustrial" Complex 143

Chapter 10 The Myth of Reputation Management (Whatever That Means) 158

Section III The Physics of Controversy

Chapter 11 Controversy Shortcuts and Cascades 173

Chapter 12 The Ingredients of Scandal 199

Section IV Redefining What It Means to Win

Chapter 13 The Controversy "Iceberg" 219

Chapter 14 Fewer Gurus, More Grown-ups 232

Acknowledgments 263

Index 265

About the Author 273

Editorial Reviews

"Today, one product defect, one offensive remark-combined with the power of instantaneous worldwide social networking-can bring down the mightiest giant. GLASS JAW analyzes how scandals spiral out of control and details the hard work required to regain a lost reputation. Dezenhall's cautionary tales are fascinating-and should serve as a stern warning to anyone with a reputation to lose."—Daniel H. Pink, author of To Sell Is Human and Drive

"I highly recommend Eric Dezenhall's GLASS JAW for anyone interested in reputational risk management in an age where no one is safe from scandal. GLASS JAW is like a wise cornerman teaching you how to take a public punch. No crisis is ever the same, but Dezenhall's book, rich with amusing examples and cautionary tales, will help you recognize if it's better to fight than to throw in the towel."—Ian Bremmer, president, Eurasia Group, and author of Every Nation for Itself

"With GLASS JAW, Eric Dezenhall once again offers fascinating and timely insights into the gladiatorial arena of modern crisis management. Like an Amazing Randi of communications, he debunks anyone claiming to perform PR magic as a fraud. Instead, he offers realistic strategies tempered by hard truths. We've been studying human behavior and how good and bad people react under great stress for quite some time, but we always learn something valuable from Eric."—Former FBI Special Agent John Douglas and Mark Olshaker, bestselling authors of Mindhunter, The Anatomy of Motive, and Law & Disorder

"From Silicon Valley to the factories of the 'old' economy, marketplace power has never been more precarious. Eric Dezenhall's GLASS JAW is to damage control what Taleb's Black Swan is to economics-a jeremiad on how the seemingly powerful are increasingly at the mercy of the seemingly powerless. This book is the field guide anyone in a position of responsibility will want in the foxhole with them when their reputation is on the line."—Deborah Perry Piscione, New York Times bestselling author of Secrets of Silicon Valley: What Everyone Else Can Learn from the Innovation Capital of the World

"During my 30 years of helping people navigate the risks of public life, Eric Dezenhall has emerged as the most effective warrior and teacher. GLASS JAW offers the highest-resolution image of controversy in the new millennium, showing who wins, and how—who loses, and why."—Gavin de Becker, New York Times bestselling author of The Gift of Fear

"This is not a book of morality but pragmatism...[Dezenhall] effectively shows how dramatically things have changed, from a partisan perspective that maintains, 'social media promotes warfare,' and that, as with guerrilla warfare, 'David has become Goliath, and Goliath has become David.'"—Kirkus Review

"Lots of practical advice."—The Economist

From the Publisher

08/25/2014
Dezenhall, a crisis management consultant, reflects on the contemporary challenges of reputational damage control in the digital age. Arguing that both organizations and individuals are increasingly more susceptible to scandal, he takes readers through the “fiasco vortex” of new media, detailing several controversies from recent headlines, many of which ran amok with bogus information (including a wildly misleading ABC News report on “pink slime” in ground beef and the Toyota sudden-acceleration drama). When it comes to mending a broken reputation, Dezenhall offers advice by way of example, emphasizing that these remedies depend on context. (Bill Clinton and Martha Stewart were able to weather the storm; Paula Deen fell on the side of less successful). The author defends corporations against whistle-blowers and activists, claiming, dubiously, that “the meek are predators and the strong are prey.” However, he rightly identifies a public schadenfreude inherent in the taking down of wealthy targets and finds a more palatable enemy in “Big PR” firms that are ill-equipped to handle the intricacies. While Dezenhall claims to address a wide audience, he freely admits to favoring those at the center of a scandal, and as a result the book favors corporations both in applicability and ideology. Agent: Kris Dahl, ICM. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

2014-08-18
Dezenhall (The Devil Himself, 2011, etc.) counsels beleaguered corporations on how to deal with bullying citizens and their social media attacks. A novelist and teacher as well as the founder of a leading crisis management firm (whose clients have included Michael Jackson, though there's no gossip here), the author plainly knows which side butters his bread—and that is the side typically seen as the powerful target of scandalmongering—but is here more often portrayed as the victim of "the bathrobe brigade," as "online advocacy makes the powerless powerful." He offers no road map through the minefields of new media, no playbook for the best defense (or a good offense); the landscape changes constantly and each scandal is different. "I am hired by those who are anticipating or embroiled in controversy," he writes, "who are enduring intense criticism—corporations, public institutions, prominent individuals—and they want me to shepherd them through the storm so they can return to their pre-scandal lives." Most often, the best that can be done is minimizing the damage rather than winning the battle, especially when the target (Tiger Woods, Eliot Spitzer) has been caught doing something flagrantly wrong. Someone like Bill Clinton has an advantage, since his scandal simply added evidence to what people suspected him to be, and they liked him anyway. This is not a book of morality but of pragmatism, of trying to determine what goals are within reach and what audience is crucial. Dezenhall suggests that most spin doctors are charlatans, and most bromides about getting in front of the story and other clichés are bunk. The author jumps around a lot, with bullet points and lists providing jarring juxtapositions, but he effectively shows how dramatically things have changed, from a partisan perspective that maintains, "social media promotes warfare," and that, as with guerrilla warfare, "David has become Goliath, and Goliath has become David." More an illumination of the challenge than a pat solution.

Kirkus Reviews