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The Biggest Mistakes in Crisis Communications – Part 2

7. Don’t Listen to Your Stakeholders Make sure that all your decisions are based on your best thinking alone. After all, how would your clients/customers, employees, referral sources, investors, industry leaders or other stakeholders’ feedback be at all useful to determining how to communicate with them? 8. Assume That Truth Will Triumph over All You …

Does Your Organization Have A Director of Development Who Isn’t….??

So many non-profit organizations are hiring Directors of Development without really knowing/understanding what “development” is supposed to be about and how a DOD is supposed to function. For many organizations, the Director of Development is the person hired to write the grant proposals, or create relationships with corporations, or create/run the event that’s going to …

How to Start Strategic Planning: Plan for a Plan – Part 4 of 5

In the previous post (Part 3), we covered questions 7-9 of the 15 questions to address in the “plan for a plan.” This post (Part 4) explains questions 10-12. 10. What Materials Will Be Needed? For example, think about: Materials (books about strategic planning, flipcharts, markers, etc.) Equipment (overhead projectors, flipchart stands, white boards, etc.) …

Offering Your Gifts in Service

I usually start my workshops by asking people why they are interested in the topic of spirituality and work, and have them say what kind of work they do. One woman said she was a bus driver as well as a Reiki Master. When I asked her about that unusual combination she said it was …

Customer Service Basics

The first question you should ask yourself…How do you measure customer satisfaction? If you are measuring by the # of complaints you are or are not receiving, you are in trouble. Not everybody bothers to take the time to tell you about his/her horrible experience. If you are asking your customers if they are satisfied, …

The Biggest Mistakes in Crisis Communications – Part 1

All organizations are vulnerable to crises. You can’t serve any population without being subjected to situations involving lawsuits, accusations of impropriety, sudden changes in ownership or management, and other volatile situations on which your stakeholders — and the media that serves them — often focus. The cheapest way to turn experience into future profits is …

As a Consultant, What’s Your Blindside?

Watch the following situation occur in conversations among consultants. Many consultants place extreme value on people’s feelings, beliefs and perceptions. That’s their natural “lens” on organizations. Many of them are from fields of psychology, human resources and coaching. In my experience, they often conclude their clients have problems primarily with, for example, interpersonal conflicts, emotional …

Calculating ROI

(This post has been moved to https://staging.management.org/trng_dev/evaluate/evaluate.htm#roi.)

How to Start Strategic Planning: Plan for a Plan – Part 3 of 5

In the previous post (Part 2), we covered questions 4-6 of the 15 questions to address in the “plan for a plan.” This post explains questions 7-9. 7. What’s Your Schedule for Developing the Plan? Too many organizations do planning by gathering planners into one retreat where they tweak wording on the mission statement and …