Don’t Wait To Be Haunted Before Addressing Your Past and Shaping Your Own Narrative
12/23/25 – – In Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge becomes agitated by the unalterable episodes in his life revealed to him by the Ghost of Christmas Past: “Show me no more! Why do you delight to torture me?” Responding to Scrooge’s frustration, the ghost explains, “I told you these were shadows of the things that have been. That they are what they are, do not blame me!”
The bad things in a company’s, institution’s or individual’s past “are what they are.” And it’s hard to shift the blame or make them go away when they come back to haunt us.
As I discuss in The Crisis Preparedness Quotient (not as acclaimed as A Christmas Carol, but compelling holiday reading nonetheless), reputational crises most often spring from one or more of nine common sources: People, Products, Priorities, Policies, Performance, Politics, Procrastination, Privacy and . . . Past. When I review these wellsprings of woe with corporate audiences, Past is the scariest threat:
“We can’t change the past, so why should we be blamed for it?”
“We shouldn’t be responsible for something that happened years, maybe decades ago.”
“People grow and change. It’s not fair to judge someone by one event or period in their lives.”
Stage Your Own Intervention
Fair or not, your past is fertile ground for reputational erosion. The best way to deal with “shadows of the things that have been” is with honesty and transparency. Organizations and individuals can control their own destinies as much as possible by encouraging an open examination of their histories, warts and all.
Stage your own intervention. Apologize and make amends if appropriate. Better you lead the discussion than allow others to dig up the dirt and define you.
Even imperfect pasts, when embraced honestly, can enhance a reputation.
Shape Your Own Narrative
An article in the August 16, 2017, New York Times headlined “Rescuing a Whiskey Legacy” revealed that back in the 1850s a Tennessee slave named Nearest Green taught white teenager Jack Daniel how to make whiskey. After the Civil War, Nearest went into business with Jack as the first master distiller of Jack Daniel’s.
Recognition of this fascinating history may have been long overdue. Slavery is a topic most marketers would never touch. But credit Brown-Forman, marketers of Jack Daniel’s, with seeing Green’s pivotal contribution to what has become an iconic American brand as something to celebrate. As Times reporter Clay Risen observed:
“At a rough time for race relations in America, the relationship between Daniel and Green allows Brown-Forman to tell a positive story, while also pioneering an overdue conversation about the unacknowledged role that black people, as salves and later as free men, played in the evolution of American whiskey.”
Brown-Forman didn’t try to change its past or make it go away. They learned from their history and shaped their own narrative.
Living in the Past, Present and Future
The Ghost of Christmas Past interrupts Ebenezer’s sleep on Christmas Eve out of concern for his “welfare and reclamation.” The spooky intervention does wonders for Mr. Scrooge, who promises:
“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.”
A Christmas Carols’ crisis prevention lesson is clear: Don’t wait to be haunted to come to grips with the unalterable episodes in your past. A proactive strategy will protect your brand and lessen the chances that your past will reappear to disrupt your present or future.
Here’s to uninterrupted sleep on Christmas Eve and a crisis-free 2026.
“And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless us, every one!”
Crisis Quotient Blog 