Read the Room: How to Detect Faltering Trust and Win Back Audiences

On March 16, 2017, then-United Airlines CEO Oscar Muñoz accepted PRWeek’s U.S. Communicator of the Year Award. The publication’s editor-in-chief lauded him for his transparency, authenticity and effective communication, citing Muñoz’s philosophy: “All good relationships are built on trust. We know that, and we know we have to earn yours – every day on every flight.”

Three weeks later, Muñoz went from a “great communicator” to a case study in tone deafness. 

A viral video was racing around the globe of airport security officers dragging a bloodied, 69-year-old physician by his arms down the aisle of a United aircraft as fellow passengers watched in shock.

The physician, Dr. David Dao, was among four United customers randomly selected on Sunday, April 9, to be involuntarily bumped from a flight from Chicago O’Hare International Airport to Kentucky to accommodate four deadheading United Airlines employees needed to crew a flight the next day. The incident left the pulmonologist with a broken nose, a concussion and the loss of two teeth. 

A failure to adapt

Muñoz’s response over several days gave him a communications black eye. “This is an upsetting event to all of us. I apologize for having to “re-accommodate these customers,” Muñoz said in a statement midday on Monday, April 10.

The trolling began within hours with memes focused on “re-accommodate,” legalese pulled from the United Airlines Contract of Carriage. Brandwatch tracked 426,000 related tweets with 1.5 billion impressions.

The mismatch was clear. Muñoz and his communications team did not adapt his statement to the emotional heat of the moment. In a firestorm of anger and outrage, his words telegraphed an icy remove. The trust he had built vanished in an instant. Two days later, with the furor showing no signs of abating, Muñoz tried again, this time with words that reflected heartfelt regret.

“The truly horrific event that occurred on this flight has elicited many responses from all of us: outrage, anger, disappointment. I share all of those sentiments, and one above all: my deepest apologies for what happened. Like you, I continue to be disturbed by what happened on this flight and I deeply apologize to the customer forcibly removed and to all the customers aboard. No one should ever be mistreated this way,” Munoz said in a statement.

“I want you to know that we take full responsibility and we will work to make it right,” he added.

Someone finally read the room.

A need for flexibility

It is not enough to have a crisis communications plan and media training for when things go wrong. The plan is an essential starting point, but it won’t be effective unless it is elastic enough to adapt to the mood of the moment. And you won’t understand the mood if you’re not dialing into the observable signals that shape the response in a high-stakes environment.

In planning for a crisis, communications professionals evaluate how each stakeholder or audience might respond, whether that’s the client’s customers, board, regulators or employees, and media. 

With the advent of social media, the “room” you’re addressing can expand in an instant to millions of people around the globe. It’s difficult to plan for that level of unpredictability, which makes learning to read the room in real time a crucial skill to master.

A beginning point

In the context of public relations, reading the room begins with two concepts: social observation, the capacity to interpret complex human environments in real time, and adaptation, the ability to use those observations to pivot your messaging.

Social observation is the ability to read behavioral cues, assess emotional reactions, detect hidden social currents, and understand what is really happening in the room — among your audiences and stakeholders – before an incident escalates. 

Groups and individuals give off signals that reveal their levels of trust, agreement, disdain, their simmering anger or resentment, and much more, if you train yourself to see and understand them. We have all been in rooms as attention wanes, questions stop, eyes roll, and an idea dies. 

Observing those signs, understanding what they mean, and using them to gauge the emotion, opinions and power shifts of your audience will help you craft a message that speaks effectively to that audience.

It is a continuous process that should begin in the normal course of business, when you can observe the client’s baseline responses to minor disruptions and how that response is received by customers, employees, the board, trade media and the public. When the pattern shifts, keen social observers will spot the red flag.

That’s where adaptation comes in. In public relations, staying on message is a bedrock discipline. It fails when the ground shifts, but the message doesn’t. Staying on message while the room dies is not discipline. It means you have the wrong message.

Adaptation does not mean improvisation. The statement can still incorporate approved legal language and the client’s commitments. This is about taking insights gleaned from social observation to craft a message with the right emotional tone to connect with the audience, build trust, and convey accountability. And it needs to happen again and again as the incident plays out: observe, interpret, adapt, repeat.

A daily practice

When Muñoz took over the leadership of United Airlines in 2015, he embarked on a “listening tour” of the company. He recognized that this form of social observation and adaptation — reading the room — would boost trust among employees and customers. His one failure to read the room and adapt his message cost him and the company dearly. 

PR professionals who can take the pulse of the room — big or small — and help their clients adjust can avoid tone-deaf communications and build real trust.

Reading the room isn’t just for corporate boardrooms or negotiations. It’s a daily practice that determines whether you earn someone’s trust or misfire in an important personal moment. Organizations that cultivate observation can build trust that can withstand a crisis – or rebuild it when it erodes. 

The room is always talking. The challenge is learning to listen and observe.