Crisis Communications + Issues Management
Words Really Do Matter – Tips for Corporate Communications in an Unprecedented Time
Corporate communications—including both internal and external communications to key stakeholders—has never been more important, or more challenging, than it is today. With employees and customers working remotely with little or no face-to-face time, the words we use, when we use them and how they are interpreted take on a much greater importance. The ability to…
Read MoreWords to Inspire
I have begun acknowledging to family, friends and colleagues that the impacts of the pandemic and the devastation it has unleashed are starting to get to me. I am incredibly fortunate: I can work from home, and our business is doing well; my family members are mostly able to work from home and are following…
Read MoreKudos to Great Communicators
Ronald Reagan, the 40th president of the United States, was dubbed ‘The Great Communicator’ during his tenure for a potent ability to use storytelling, word pictures and empathy to bring Americans along with his policy choices. He acknowledged that he borrowed heavily from the communications skills of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd president, who led…
Read MoreStaying Power
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact our lives, the communications challenges for leaders have evolved away from crisis management toward perseverance and accommodation. At a time that people are craving certainty and clarity, leaders cannot honestly deliver those. While leaders search for data points that would enable them to create predictability, we are left…
Read MoreWhat’s Next for Lake Street Council?
We asked Allison Sharkey, executive director of Minneapolis’ Lake Street Council, how her organization has responded in the aftermath of civil unrest following the murder of George Floyd. Over two evenings, an estimated 250 Lake Street corridor businesses were damaged and 33 destroyed, many of which belonged to low-income entrepreneurs, individuals who are Black, Indigenous…
Read MoreWill Leadership Change in the “Now Normal?”
The answer is – it shouldn’t, but it will. Inevitably, leadership will be defined in new ways given the shift in how employees, supervisors, peers—and teams as a whole—interact. But if there is anything that the last few months have taught us, it’s that leadership is something that needs to be elevated as we move…
Read MoreMental Health Awareness Month
Mental health is extremely important, but rarely discussed. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), one in five individuals will experience some type of mental illness each year. Think about your family, friends, co-workers and acquaintances. Now picture 20% of those people will experience some type of mental illness this year. When left…
Read MoreChanged Priorities List
I’m an obsessive list maker: my computer screens show daily ‘to do’ lists; I have a running note on the kitchen counter for groceries and shopping; my computer holds a ‘priorities’ list for business development and other investments in my company. And I like to think that before COVID-19 I was pretty thoughtful in how…
Read MoreThe Do’s and Don’ts of Crisis Communications
With the COVID-19 pandemic gripping the world, it has become evident to many organizations that they were caught woefully unprepared to deal with the level of upheaval that the current pandemic left them in – not just from a business standpoint, but from a communications standpoint too. And though the COVID-19 pandemic is of a…
Read MoreAmerican Imagination, At Scale
There was a very sharply-worded column in the New York Times over the weekend about the pity with which our great country is increasingly being viewed around the world. I don’t take issue with much of what the author said but find myself wanting to pivot toward finding a path forward, rather than brooding on…
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