What to Do When Things Go Wrong Read online

  Praise for

  WHAT TO DO

  WHEN THINGS

  GO WRONG

  Most people that watch the Super Bowl are only aware of the spectacle that kicks off at 6:30 PM EST the first Sunday in February. As former chairmen of the Super Bowl XLVII Host Committee, we have some understanding of the complexity and logistical difficulties in putting on not only the game itself but also the host/owner parties, the halftime shows and the extensive infrastructure prep for each host city.

  Together we’ve been through countless political campaigns (domestic and international), The White House and raising two daughters. Each had its unique challenges. We wish we would’ve had this book through it all. It’s genuinely applicable for every conceivable crisis; how to manage them, but more importantly how to avoid them. We’ve never seen anyone cooler under fire than Frank Supovitz. He has the ability to immediately adapt to his circumstances while instilling confidence in everyone working around him. Simply put, Frank Supovitz is the best and What to Do When Things Go Wrong should be required reading for all business leaders and college students who aspire to be.

  —James Carville and Mary Matalin, renowned political strategists and media personalities

  In governing, managing major projects, and life, things will inevitably go wrong. Those best prepared for adjusting to the unexpected can not only recover but come out ahead. Very few people understand this better than Frank Supovitz. I watched firsthand how he handled major events like the Super Bowl and found this book to be a great entry point for people in business, event planning, or even politics. What to Do When Things Go Wrong is full of insight to help you in your own journey toward success.

  —Mitch Landrieu, Mayor, City of New Orleans (2010–2018)

  Supovitz’s breezy, personable, and often provocative storytelling style brings to life the more sobering and valuable lessons of avoiding and planning for crises, and then managing them when they happen anyway. What to Do When Things Go Wrong is a necessary read for anyone managing projects or people.

  —Paul Tagliabue, Commissioner, National Football League (1989-2006)

  To you, Super Bowl Sunday may be a chance to gorge on guacamole. To Frank Supovitz, the Big Game is 1,327 disasters waiting to happen. In What to Do When Things Go Wrong, the NFL’s former Super Bowl Czar takes you behind the scenes at the world’s biggest sporting event. You get to laugh at Frank’s stories, learn from his mistakes, and most of all, develop the planning and management skills that will help you keep your next looming disaster at bay.

  —Allen St. John, award-winning journalist and New York Times Best-selling author of Newton’s Football and The Billion Dollar Game

  What to Do When Things Go Wrong is a seminal training tool for mitigating risk. Supovitz takes readers on a roller coaster ride of both glamour and potential disaster with storytelling techniques and memorable scenes that everyone can relate to. Like a disaster happening before your eyes or a Lifetime romance movie, the book is gripping, keeping readers wanting to know what’s next, as the relatable content draws out personal experiences, sentiments, and insecurities from the reader.

  What to Do When Things Go Wrong could be one of the classic business books that everyone who has ever managed anything needs to read and digest. It is a business lifesaving manual.

  —David Adler, CEO and Founder, BizBash Media

  Frank’s book provides a comprehensive treatment involving crisis management, with a strategic understanding of how to resolve unique and complex situations. In my years in the industry, I have never seen a treatment that focuses on all of these issues with an easy-to-understand and -implement message. It is a “must have” for those in business, and “in the business.”

  —Rick Horrow, author of The Sport Business Handbook:

  Insights from 100+ Leaders Who Shaped 50 Years of the Industry, and Visiting Expert on Sports Business at Harvard Law School

  Frank Supovitz has great experience in successfully managing massive projects that cater to expansive live audiences and are broadcast to the world stage. In his book, What to Do When Things Go Wrong, Frank draws from his experience to guide the reader on how to imagine, prepare, execute, respond, and evaluate challenging situations that do and will go wrong. His use of personal experiences, procedures, protocols, and outcomes offer actionable processes that everyone can use to avoid and deal with uncomfortable situations that will arise in their own personal lifetimes.

  —Brad Mayne, President & CEO, International Association of Venue Managers

  When things inevitably go wrong at an event, no matter how big or small, there is no one I’d rather have handle the response than Frank Supovitz. That’s because he’s prepared for anything. What to Do When Things Go Wrong should be required reading for every project manager whether they are in the sports world or not and should be placed right alongside any planning document they hold dear. As Frank notes, communication is key in a crisis and trust is a common denominator in making a plan flow flawlessly. After reading What to Do When Things Go Wrong, your team will be able to communicate through any problem and come away with a plan to trust when inevitable problems arise.

  —Jason Gewirtz, Editor, SportsTravel magazine

  What to Do When Things Go Wrong should be required reading for anyone in business, or life, looking for a roadmap on how to handle the evitable challenges we all face. Delivered in an entertaining and engaging manner, Frank Supovitz marries his incredible experiences leading some of the world’s biggest events with a truly impressive series of lessons that can make us all better. I highly recommend it!

  —Ed Horne, President, Endeavor Global Marketing

  Most managers will never have a project with the number of variables that Frank Supovitz faced every year staging the Super Bowl for the NFL. The lessons he learned about planning, innovation, communication, time management, and preparing for every possible scenario—regardless how low the probability—are here for professionals in any business, not just sports.

  —Dennis Deninger, Syracuse University sport management professor and author, Sports on Television: The How and Why Behind What You See

  What to Do When Things Go Wrong is as practical, timely, and insightful for business professionals as it is for students who want to learn more about embracing unanticipated realities and dealing with unplanned outcomes. Supovitz provides readers with an inside look into event operations and crisis management at the NFL Super Bowl and leverages his professional experiences to offer readers countless practical and actionable strategies to manage and overcome the unexpected. The straightforward and witty tone makes What to Do When Things Go Wrong an easy-to-digest and essential read for project managers, event planners, and all college students.

  —Scott Bukstein, director, Undergraduate Sport Business Program, associate director, DeVos Graduate Sport Business Program, University of Central Florida, College of Business

  There’s this adage which has come to be known as Murphy’s Law: anything that can go wrong will. It is as important for business leaders and project managers as it is for event planners in the sports and entertainment industry to keep this in mind. Following Frank’s recommendations, our industry now has a blueprint on how to handle these event crises, and professionals from any industry can similarly benefit from Frank’s real-life experiences and wisdom. Readers are getting a gift from the best in the business.

  —Dr. Lou Marciani, director, National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security (NCS4), The University of Southern Mississippi

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  Dedicated to

  Catherine, Matt, Ethan, Jake, Amy, & Madison

  who always make life go right

  CONTENTS

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  FOREWORD

  1 CAN THIS DAY GET ANY WORSE?

  STEP ONE IMAGINE

  2 DEFINING DISASTER

  3 ANYTHING THAT CAN GO WRONG

  4 IT’S A MATTER OF TIME

  5 LIVING IN THE LAND OF THE LIKELY

  STEP TWO PREPARE

  6 THE “BCD’s” OF CONTINGENCY PLANNING

  7 HOPE IS NOT A STRATEGY

  8 PREPARE FOR ANYTHING

  9 COMMUNICATE OR DIE

  10 COMMAND AND COLLABORATE

  11 BUILDING A SUPER TEAM

  STEP THREE EXECUTE

  12 MANAGING THE INVERTED PYRAMID

  13 BUILDING AN EMPOWERMENT CULTURE

  14 LEADING A COMMUNITY OF PROBLEM SOLVERS

  15 EVERYTHING AFFECTS EVERYTHING ELSE

  16 REAL-TIME MANAGEMENT

  17 TWO-MINUTE DRILL

  STEP FOUR RESPOND

  18 CONFRONTING THE “OOPS–DAMN” MOMENTS

  19 THE CRISIS WITHIN, THE CRISIS WITHOUT

  20 RIGHT HAS LEFT THE BUILDING

  21 MANAGING RECOVERY

  22 MANAGING THE MESSAGE

  STEP FIVE EVALUATE

  23 BREATHE. DEBRIEF. REPEAT.

  CONCLUSION: A BULLET DODGED. FOR NOW.

  REFERENCES

  INDEX

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  A lifetime of errors, omissions, blunders, and bruises would not seem to be a very promising platform from which to guide other leaders, project managers, and other aspiring mess-ups on what to do when things go wrong. What I eventually did get right was to occasionally learn from my own fumbles, and more often from the wise counsel, trust, and friendship from countless mentors, bosses, teammates, and partners.

  I met Allen St. John while he was writing The Billion Dollar Game, an intimate behind-the-scenes look at the Super Bowl. An event most often thought about only in terms of numbers and statistics, Allen discovered that there were real people under real pressure not only on the gridiron, but off the field as well. Allen and I reconnected many times over the years to talk about plans and planning, and about things that went wrong. His encouragement and deft preparation of the proposal for What to Do When Things Go Wrong helped to attract the interest of Alec Shane at Writers House, and through him to my talented and enthusiastic editor at McGraw-Hill, Cheryl Ringer. My profound thanks to Alec and Cheryl for their untiring support for the project.

  Things could not have possibly gone wrong as often if I hadn’t been blessed with dozens of people who trusted me with their company’s brands and projects, including Bob Jani, Dick Evans, Chuck Cone, Mike Walker and Barnett Lipton at Radio City Music Hall; Gary Bettman, Steve Ryan, Steve Flatow, Steve Solomon, and Jon Litner at the National Hockey League; and Paul Tagliabue, Roger Goodell, and Eric Grubman at the National Football League. Nor could things have gone wrong as infamously without Alan B. Goldberg, Armen Keteyian, or Clem Taylor, who so capably and accurately documented the Super Bowl blackout and other preparations for 60 Minutes Sports. Another shout-out is due to Howard Katz at NFL Films, who convinced truTV to shadow a dozen of us around for a year documenting how the league managed events for NFL Full Contact. Watching some of the finished episodes helped to remind me of a multitude of things that went wrong over the course of that year, but thankfully, there were far fewer viewers for that show than when the lights went out in New Orleans.

  A hearty thanks to the experts who allowed me to include a small sample of their prodigious wisdom, including former NHL IT guru Chris Barbieri, Kevin Catlin of Insight Strategies, Inc., crisis communications expert Ivy Cohen of Ivy Cohen Corporate Communications, entertainment insurance specialist Paul Evans at Marsh, Inc., talent development consultant and executive coach Nancy Gill, Robert Krumbine of Charlotte Center City Partners, Kevin Kruse of LEADx, former Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner and current head of security for the Kansas City Chiefs Jeffrey Miller, and Noah Sarff of The Basement.

  The number of teammates who have journeyed with me over the years from right to wrong and back again is a list too populous to mention in its entirety, and most will be grateful I left them out. A special thank-you, however, is due to those who came along in this book, as named or unnamed co-conspirators, including Jerry Anderson, Mike Arnold, Todd Barnes, Lance Barrow, Jack Budgell, Sherri Caraccia, Sammy Choi, Dan Donovan, Bob Hast, Ric Martinez, Brian McCarthy, Bill McConnell, Alli
son Melangton, Mark Miles, Phil Pritchard, Bruce Rodgers, Joan Ryan-Canu, Mike Signora, “Skippy,” Doug Thornton, and Mike Witte. Thank you all for your contributions to the eventual recoveries from all that went wrong.

  FOREWORD

  Minutes after Beyonce blew up Super Bowl XLVII with an electrifying halftime performance the game went from blowout to blackout. Ninety-eight seconds into the second half with the Baltimore Ravens leading the San Francisco 49ers 28 – 6, fully half of the stadium lights inside the Superdome in New Orleans went dark. You may remember the moment.

  At that very moment I was standing next to the author of this book. Frank’s official title at the time was senior vice president of Events for the NFL. In his words, he was “the ringmaster” of the biggest sporting event on the planet, the man in charge of everything from broadcast operations to communications to transportation to game day operations and more. Much more. As I later wrote, “the sum total of a thousand parts broken down into a million pieces.”

  For the better part of two months I’d observed Frank in a number of different settings, relative to his job. I’d seen him stand in front of some 300 high-level employees and quickly and efficiently lay out the groundwork and ground rules for the game. I watched him tool around the vast confines of the stadium in his souped-up Segway, double-checking power cords and party preparations. But you never really know how a leader operates until things go wrong.

  And, in Frank’s case, I mean really wrong.

  Franks came out of nowhere—as they so often do—inside NFL Control, the league’s nerve center wedged into a section high above the field of play. As part of what would become a 33-minute behind-the-scenes feature for 60 Minutes Sports, I was conducting an interview with Frank when out of the corner of my eye I noticed an entire bank of stadium lights snap off. Then another. Then another.

  “Oh, oh,” I uttered aloud. “That’s not good.”