Month: May 2010

What type of highly confidential information do you store on your mobile device? Contacts who would hate to see their information shared with spammers or identity thefts? Passwords? Photos or videos you or others wouldn’t appreciate appearing on YouTube? Text messages flirting with someone who isn’t your spouse?

It’s an odd quirk of human behavior that we will put certain types of information under lock and key and password at home or office, but then make the same information easily accessible to anyone who steals (or finds) our phone or other mobile devices. I have helped more than one organization respond to crisis that originated with such thefts. And while some types of crisis aren’t preventable, these situations are, usually employing simple-to-implement measures.

Take my Blackberry Tour, for example. By using the built-in password protection system, I can prevent access to the phone and my data. If someone fails to enter the correct password a preset number of times, all my data is wiped! I can restore it 100% from my corporate Enterprise server (and even a private Blackberry user could restore from their backup), but a thief could not unless he/she could quickly guessed my password. Are there hacks around this system? Probably. But most thieves wouldn’t have that level of sophistication. I set up my Blackberry so that it defaults to “password required” mode if it has been turned off or if haven’t used it in an hour, but there are other options. Even if the device is in password-protected mode, it can receive incoming phone calls and can be used for one type of outgoing phone call – to emergency services (911 in the United States). While it sounds like a pain in the ___ to enter a password first, I became very fast at doing so with just a little practice.

There are built-in and/or inexpensively purchased protection systems of this sort for literally every type of mobile device. Is entering a password a slightly-time-delaying pain in the ass? Sure. But it doesn’t cause nearly as much pain as dealing with the aftermath of stolen confidential data.

I recommend strongly that every organization whose employees use their mobile devices for business purposes require that those devices have some means of protecting confidential information in the event of theft or loss.

Comic Postscript: I know how well my Blackberry’s protection system works because, shortly after getting this phone, I forgot the password I’d set up. I knew my data would be wiped if I kept mis-entering, so I called for tech help with one password try left to see if there was a workaround. I was told no, the system is hard-wired for the protection of the owner. So I tried one more time and *POOF*, all my data went bye-bye.

——————————-
For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
——————————-

[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc. and author of Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training.]

I’ve worked with nonprofit organizations for a very long time. I’ve noticed two distinctly different approaches to leading: reactive versus proactive. You’ll very likely notice each of the two distinctly different types in the following paragraphs.

Fundraising

The reactive nonprofit is continually fundraising and then spending whatever funds are obtained — so the organization is in a continual state of fundraising. The proactive organization sets a fundraising target and raises funds until that target is hit. Then the organization directs more energies to the rest of the organization, especially to programs.

Source of Leadership

The reactive organization is led by a person, usually the Executive Director. He/she staffs the Board with members who are expected primarily to do fundraising. The proactive organization is led by a strong working relationship between the Board and Executive Director, with emphasis primarily on planning and implementing those plans.

Sustainability

The reactive organization sees sustainability as a matter of having enough funds. The proactive organization see sustainability as being realistic in everything it does — because if the organization is not realistic, then it will not have enough resources, which will lead it into an unsustainable situation.

(Astute readers might recognize the signs of a reactive organization as very similar to the signs of an organization with Founders Syndrome.)

What do you think?

——————

For more resources, see our Library topic Nonprofit Capacity Building.

———————————————————————————————–
Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD – Authenticity Consulting, LLC – 800-971-2250
Read my weekly blogs: Boards, Consulting and OD, Nonprofits and Strategic Planning.

Which of the following statements about a jury, civil or criminal, are true?

1. Prospective jury members never lie regarding their advance bias about a case.
2. Jury members are always truly “peers” of the defendant.
3. Jury members never talk about a case outside of jury deliberations, or read and watch TV about a case when sequestered, once directed not to do so by a judge.

If your answer is “none of the above,” you begin to appreciate the potential value of crisis/issues management for the purpose of educating a jury pool. Now, I am aware, though not an attorney, that members of the bar are not allowed to influence a jury. Ed Novak, a partner at the Phoenix-based law firm, Polsinelli Shugart, bridges the gap between influencing and educating.

“While it is unethical to attempt to influence prospective jurors, there is nothing unethical or unprofessional about having an accurate picture of your client presented to the media and other audiences,” said Novak.

A jury consultant is typically not called in until there is some high certainty that a case will, in fact, go to trial. By then, if the case in question has been highly visible in the press, it may well be too late to educate a jury pool “contaminated” by the media’s interpretation of events.

Any honest reporter (yes, there are honest reporters who might even acknowledge there are honest attorneys) will admit that he or she brings a natural bias and an institutional editorial perspective to a story. Journalists will do their best, in that context, to report in a “balanced manner,” with the exception of columnists, who are often free to say pretty much what they please and not worry about “balance.” These media representatives are a gateway through which both plaintiff/prosecutor and defendant can communicate not only to the publics thought of most often – business contacts, community VIPs, etc. – but also to potential jury members. It is the responsibility of counsel, with expert assistance as necessary, to direct media relations that can shift the balance of coverage.

“If we say something to the media, we realize we may be talking to future jury members as well, and if we don’t say something, we’re telling those jury members ‘we don’t care enough about you to keep you informed.’ When we get to court, they’ll remember that,” said Novak.

And, he notes, his firm has realized that the same analysis done by crisis management professionals to anticipate multi-audience response to various public relations tactics also helps them anticipate jury response.

“I’ve had a crisis consultant sit in on practice sessions for depositions, resulting in a change in the client’s choice of words,” he said. In that circumstance, the crisis consultant was actually hired as a jury consultant under the law firm’s umbrella of confidentiality.

What tactics can be used for this public education process? They include, but are not limited to:

• The use of spokespersons trained to deliver key messages to the media and other audiences.
• Educating employees of defendant or plaintiff’s companies about what to say or not to say about the situation at hand when they’re back home, out in the community which will eventually be the source of jurors.
• Advertorials — buying print space or broadcast time in which one puts news-like stories about your client organization that are designed to help balance any misinformation which may already be in the public eye. This tactic is usually only employed if the media has consistently mis-reported the facts.
• Launching blogs and websites.

The battle for the hearts, minds and votes of jury members does not begin in the courtroom. In my experience, advance communication begins immediately after a legal situation hits the media. It can work together with legal tactics to (a) preclude a case ever going to trial (assuming that’s a desired outcome for either side of the issue) or (b) affect public perception sufficiently to enhance either side’s chance of a favorable outcome in court.

——————————-
For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
——————————-

[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc. and author of Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training.]