Earlier this week, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex (Harry and Meghan) broke the news that they were planning on having a more limited role with the Monarchy, in part because they story would have been told by the tabloids.
From a crisis management standpoint, it was important that they broke the news themselves rather than read about it in the tabloids. However, they forgot to inform the Queen and others within their family and consequently stepped out of one crisis and entered another.
I am not sure of the circumstances and I am not familiar with the protocols but I do know that in any crisis you bring your team together to make informed decisions as quickly as possible.
Ideally, they should have thought it through in regards to #Whatif.
What if the tabloids leaked the story?
What if the web designer was working on this project in a Starbuck’s and someone saw it?
If they prepared for these scenario’s they would have been in a better position to deal with the crisis, with the support of his grandparents and family?
Sometimes external forces force us to make a difficult and take our story to the media first. It happens a lot in politics or with public figures.
When they made their announcement they also launched their website, which I think was a bit premature since the details of their departure had not yet been approved by the Queen. So I would’ve held off on this rather than give more information for the press to review.
The website is clean and well done. More public figures should create their own websites like this to take control of their narrative and protect their brand. It is a sad reality but in the era of fake news and no news at all, we need to create and preserve our own public record.
There is a lot we can learn from the Royal Family and there is a lot that Harry has learned from his mom and how his mom was treated. That is most likely why it is the decision they made for themself and what let them to create the website in the first place. After each crisis, we need to internalize the lessons learned and prepare for the next crisis. Unfortunately, many of us just don’t plan ahead — We should!