Category: Organization Development

The following is a guest post from frequent contributor Rick Kelley, director of crisis communications for Triad Strategies.

Ryan Braun: Victim or Villain?

To many who have listened to the sports pundits hammering major league baseball player Ryan Braun for winning an appeal of his 50-game suspension “on a technicality” after failing a drug test late last season, the Milwaukee Brewer star’s reputation is hopelessly soiled.

To many who heard Braun’s articulate and adamant assertions of his innocence in a news conference Friday afternoon, Braun is one athlete who may have deserved to become the first to successfully challenge a Major League Baseball drug-related penalty.

Former Phillies’ all-star and current ESPN baseball analyst John Kruk exemplifies those who, in 24 hours, turned 180 degrees from “he’s dirty” to “he’s made some excellent points.” Others, such as New York Daily News columnist Mike Lupica, went the other way.

To the extent that Braun, the National League Most Valuable Player last season, may have preserved his reputation, he owes it to a fundamental principle of crisis communication: develop and deliver your messages and don’t hide from those with questions (in this case, the news media). At the same time, Braun’s assertions regarding the testing process must withstand continuing scrutiny.

Braun clearly came prepared to deliver his messages. Those messages were persuasive and were delivered persuasively, beginning with his assertion that the collector of his urine sample had compromised the process by failing to submit the sample for 44 hours over a weekend.

Braun noted that he had passed drug screenings at least 25 times in his career, including three other times last season. He said he was told that the elevated level of testosterone allegedly detected in his urine sample was three times greater than the level detected in any previous drug test by any player. He said his weight, speed and strength have never fluctuated.

He also said, unlike how samples are handled once they arrive at the testing lab, those that sit in someone’s house over a weekend are not secured, implying that there were questions regarding misidentification or even tampering.

“There were a lot of things that we learned about the collector, about the collection process, about the way the entire thing works, that made us very concerned and very suspicious about what could have actually happened,” Braun said.

He then proceeded to answer all the questions reporters asked. Chief among them was what he thought could have occurred to his urine sample during the time before it was submitted – were the samples mixed up, was there tampering, etc. Braun refused to speculate.

Under journalism’s rules of engagement, news coverage can’t, or at least shouldn’t, include speculation unless a source is willing to provide it. To Braun’s credit, he didn’t walk down “Speculation Avenue.” Otherwise, he could have come across as defensive or, worse, appeared to ratify what the public already believed to be true (for an example, see our previous post involving Jerry Sandusky’s lawyer, Joe Amendola).

The lessons here are that crisis communication does not consist merely of showing up to answer reporters’ questions, and a news conference is an exercise in message discipline – responding, but pivoting back to the points you want to make. It takes preparation, usually involving professional help. We’d bet that Braun availed himself of such help.

Is it possible that Braun is simply a very good liar? Certainly, and cynics and skeptics will point to several of baseball’s most prominent players who proclaimed their innocence, only to be contradicted by evidence (Barry Bonds), proof (Rafael Palmeiro) or a subsequent confession (Mark McGwire).

And here we insert our usual crisis communication caveat: you cannot communicate your way out of something you behaved yourself into.

If he wasn’t being truthful, Braun may discover this the hard way. In throwing the sample collector under the bus, he has taken a considerable risk, creating an expectation that more of the story will be forthcoming. Additionally, now the sample collector’s reputation also is on the line, he may feel compelled to fight back.

If the rest of the story fails to materialize, or if it doesn’t hold up, Braun’s efforts to restore his good name will founder. Moreover, if the sample collector crawls out from under the bus and brings a defamation action against Braun, the communication aspect of his appeal strategy almost surely will have backfired.

In that case, Braun may find himself joining an already long list of baseball “heroes” who, despite spectacular achievements, can only enter the Baseball Hall of Fame the same way as the rest of us – by paying the admission fee.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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Rick Kelly is Director of Crisis Communications for Triad Strategies, and an unabashed Phillies fan.

A client contact passed this excellent article on to us, and author Lisa Lochridge, Director of Public Affairs for the Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association, was kind enough to allow us to reprint it for you.

10 ways to ruin your company’s communications efforts

Rather than propose some resolutions for communicating well in 2012, I thought I would take a different approach.

Here’s a list of tips if you want to guarantee that your company’s communication efforts will fail.

1. Don’t listen to the conversation. Gone are the days when companies simply pushed out information and went on their merry way. Now, you have to be willing to engage your customers and other groups who are vital to the success of your business. Listening is just as important—if not more so—than doing all the talking.

2. Ignore negative comments on social media sites. That’s why it’s called “social” media; people speak their minds. If someone is unhappy with your company and being vocal about it, address their concerns when appropriate. If you don’t have the answer to a question, say so. And even though it may be painful, allow the conversation to occur and see what you can learn from it.

3. When bad news happens, hunker down. That’s a gut reaction, but it’s the wrong thing to do. In today’s world of 24/7 news cycles, citizen journalists and digital media, you can’t go mum during a crisis. If you’re not out there telling your story, it won’t get told (and you can be sure others will be talking). Warren Buffet, chairman and chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway, told a reporter once that the best crisis communication philosophy is to “get it right; get it fast; get it out; and get it over.”

4. Assume all reporters are out to get you. After all, bad news sells papers, right? If it bleeds, it leads? I worked at a daily metro newspaper for 21 years, and I can assure you those words were never spoken in the newsroom. My colleagues were journalists who were doing their jobs. That’s not to say there aren’t bad apples; there are in every profession. That leads me to No. 5…

5. Don’t bother building relationships with reporters who cover our industry. When a crisis does occur, you’re in a better position if you have at least had some contact with the local media already. It takes time and isn’t easy, but making yourself available as a credible source goes a long way in establishing a good working relationship with reporters.

6. Forget about developing a strategic plan for using social media. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other platforms are just tools in our communication toolbox. They’re not strategies in and of themselves. Be sure to identify your objectives and make sure everything you post contributes to those objectives.

7. Don’t have key messages. A media interview is a chance to communicate what’s most important. Speaking with the media without deliberately preparing talking points is a waste of a valuable opportunity to tell your story and say what you want to say.

8. Neglect your employees when communicating about your company’s operations and products. Your workers are your ambassadors. It only makes sense to keep them informed when the news is good and when it’s bad. Doing so prevents rumors and misinformation from circulating, and it’s good for company morale.

9. Don’t worry about having a crisis communication plan. The last thing you want to do when a situation blows up is to fly by the seat of your pants. Invest the time now to assess the risks of a crisis in your operation and develop a solid blueprint that will guide you when you’re in the thick of things.

10. Keep doing things the way you’ve always done them. The media world and the communication tools we have are changing at warp speed. This is what I do for a living, and even I have a hard time keeping up sometimes. Recognize that change is good, conversation takes time but pays dividends, and don’t be like the proverbial old dog … be willing to learn new tricks.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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Lisa Lochridge is the director of public affairs for the Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association in Maitland. She can be reached at (321) 214-5206 or lisa.lochridge@ffva.com

More than ever, your reputation relies on social media

At a time when 89 percent of consumers say they find online channels trustworthy sources for product and service reviews, new Cone research reveals four-out-of-five consumers have changed their minds about a recommended purchase based solely on negative information they found online. This is up from just 67 percent of consumers who said the same in 2010, according to the 2011 Cone Online Influence Trend Tracker. Positive information has a similar effect on decision making, with 87 percent of consumers agreeing a favorable review has confirmed their decision to purchase. But, negative information is gaining traction and is now just as powerful in tipping the scales against a recommended purchase.

If you didn’t know by now that social media holds immense potential for any business, then you’ve been living in a hole somewhere for the past several years. What this quote, from the Cone Communications 2011 Online Influence Trend Tracker report, does, is put several staggering figures in front of us.

Combine the fact that four out of five consumers have reversed purchase decisions based purely on negative online reviews with the flip side of 87% confirming their decision via favorable reviews and you get an idea of the massive power everyday people are wielding when they discuss your company online.

Even with our best efforts, consumers occasionally have negative experiences. Products break, shipping lines are disrupted, or a phone rep has a bad day, and this is likely to be reported quickly on Twitter, Facebook, Yelp, and more. What differentiates the cream of the crop from an average company is how they respond. Do a bit of crisis management, figure out the problem, FIX IT, and reply to your disgruntled customer where everyone can see. Just this small action could turn their negative post into a positive selling point.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc. , an international crisis management consultancy, and author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is Social Media Manager for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

Can you survive a crisis?

Every single business has potential problems, and the difference between whether they sink or swim in the aftermath of a crisis can often be determined in the critical 24 hour period right after it breaks.

On March 1, Jonathan Bernstein will present, “Communicating in Crisis: The First 24 Hours,” a Communitelligence webinar. Focused on this period that is full of both danger and opportunity, Jonathan will lend his decades of crisis management experience to speaking about the biggest mistakes in crisis communications, how to speak to stakeholders, the importance of holding statements, how to pick the right spokesperson, and more.

We’d also like to thank you for being readers, so enter the code, “bernsteincrisis” at checkout and you’ll receive a 20% discount.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc. , an international crisis management consultancy, and author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is Social Media Manager for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

The following blog was written by guest blogger Cyndi Laurenti:

The economic struggle the U.S. is facing today isn’t simply a matter of a few bad business decisions; for too long business practices have marginalized and preyed on their market base. The quest for corporate profits has caused similar degradation of social systems and the environment, creating a weakened infrastructure that has difficulty recovering from major catastrophes like the subprime mortgage crisis.

Continue reading “Public Administration and the Impact Economy”

Still not ready??

While social media continues to grow and users welcome it into most every aspect of modern life, few businesses are truly prepared to launch a social media crisis management campaign. Check out these telling figures, from a recent SmartBlog on Social Media survey:

If a social media public relations crisis were to hit your brand tomorrow, do you think you would be prepared to respond effectively? The results:

• We have the capacity to respond, but there’s no formal plan in place: 63.81%
• We wouldn’t know it was happening until we read about it in the media: 15.24%
• Yes, we have a well-documented social media crisis-control strategy: 15.24%
• We’re monitoring social channels but lack the capacity for a response: 5.71%

It was shocking to see only 15.24% reporting a well-documented social media strategy, especially given the fact that this poll was directed towards those that use social media for business, as well as the monumental amount of coverage received by both positive and negative social media situations over the past year. Of those 63.81% that claim the “capacity to respond, but there’s no formal plan in place,” it would be a solid bet that the majority of those have absolutely nothing except a dead Twitter stream and a sporadically updated Facebook.

A 2011 Burston-Marsteller survey found that 79% of business decision makers believe they are only 12 months from a potential crisis, and a full 43% of those expected the crisis to revolve around social media. We aren’t saying that getting involved with social media isn’t a big step, but we are saying that you’ve GOT to take the plunge, invest the money, and get involved.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc. , an international crisis management consultancy, and author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is Social Media Manager for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

Play your cards close until the time is right

Veteran reporters are wily creatures, and when it comes to determining whether the juicy lead they’ve got about a breaking crisis at your company is legit, they can read volumes from a simple phone call. A recent Pro Sports Communications blog post by Martine Charles took at look at how this plays out, and gave some solid advice on how to…

Keep Your Cool

Under the circumstances you may feel under attack. Your first instinct may be a sarcastic or hostile answer, or a succinct “no comment.” Both are knee jerk reactions. The first creates an adversarial situation and the second, often implies guilt. However, if you remain calm and respond in a professional manner, you can begin to establish rapport and garner the information you need to get back to the reporter once you’ve analyzed the situation. Remember, your words and demeanor are powerful. How you answer the phone and respond can provide immediate insight to a reporter seeking verification of a story.

It’s important to remember, a primary goal of reporters is to grab reader’s attention, and they have no duty to present your company in a positive light. While it’s important to get facts out when a crisis is discovered, the goal is to control the flow of information. At the same time, you do want to maintain a positive relationship with the media.

How do you manage this? It’s easier than you think. Tell them you’d love to share more information, but have to wait until you’ve got the facts together. Given a reasonable time frame for a response (work with your crisis management team to determine this before you pick up the phone), most reporters will delay a story to get your full participation.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc. , an international crisis management consultancy, and author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is Social Media Manager for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

This week-end I found myself navigating the underground tunnel system of a local university on my way to the library. Although this was not my first time, it got me thinking of others. If not for the signs, newer navigators would have either run into dead-ends or ended up walking in circles. Evaluations can also go around in circles or run into dead-ends. In this post I aim to whet your appetite for the evaluator’s version of signs and guideposts: evaluation models or frameworks.

Some think of them as evaluation road maps or mental models. Usually such models are based on years of experience and/or research. Following such models will help to spare you costly mistakes.

Today I will briefly introduce the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Framework for Evaluation. A thorough presentation is beyond the scope of my post, so please review the references I have included for future study.

A Framework for Evaluation.

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Office of the Associate Director for Program (OADPG)

Step 1: Engage Stakeholders

Stakeholders include everyone linked to or benefiting from your program: for e.g. participants, program staff, national staff, collaborators, funders and even evaluators. Identify a small number of key stakeholders and involve them as much as possible throughout the lifespan of the evaluation. Such involvement is crucial since it ensures that stakeholders, especially those belonging to vulnerable populations, are adequately represented. A range of active and passive involvement strategies may include:

• forming an evaluation committee
• promoting engagement via
  • face to face meetings
  • capacity building activities
  • teleconferences
  • e-mail or discussion groups
  • simple interviews or surveys of stakeholders
  • letters and newsletters to inform them of evaluation activities and key decisions

The type of involvement strategy you choose should be custom-tailored to the specific needs of your particular program and stakeholders. Pay close attention to organizational climate and of course, timing!

Step 2: Describe the Program

Describing the program can be much harder than it deceptively seems! Various stakeholders may have differing ideas of what the program entails or should entail. Even an individual stakeholder’s perspectives can evolve over time. An iterative process is important to get everyone on the same page and to determine whether everyone’s intentions for the program reflect the actual program goals.

Once program goals are clarified, work backwards to develop a logic model, which is a flow chart demonstrating relationships between program components and the outcomes you are seeking.

Step 3: Focus the Evaluation Design

Focused evaluations are the most useful. Prioritize and focus your evaluation questions in collaboration with the small number of key stakeholders. Consider how to best serve their needs and how to prioritize the competing needs of various stakeholders. Then choose the most appropriate evaluation methods that will provide you with the best answers to those evaluation questions. Seek to balance:

• efficiency and practicality with
• the quality and type of data and the level of accuracy needed.

To be Continued…

Sources/Further References:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Office of the Associate Director for Program (OADPG). (2011) A Framework for Evaluation. Retrieved February 6, 2012. From www.cdc.gov/eval/framework/index.htm A reliable, easy to navigate website hosted by the CDC.

Milstein, B., Wetterhall, S. and the CDC Evaluation Working Group. (2012) A Framework for Program Evaluation: A Gateway to Tools. The Community Toolbox. J. Nagy & S. B. Fawcett (Eds.). Retrieved February 6, 2012. From http://ctb.ku.edu/en/tablecontents/sub_section_main_1338.aspx The Community Tool Box is an online tutorial that is designed especially for community-based nonprofits and hosted by the University of Kansas.

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

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Priya Small has extensive experience in collaborative evaluation planning, instrument design, data collection, grant writing and facilitation. Contact her at priyasusansmall@gmail.com. Visit her website at http://www.priyasmall.wordpress.com. See her profile at http://www.linkedin.com/in/priyasmall/

Not your fault? Let the people know!

Additional fees for air travel have been a topic of increasing unpopularity in recent years, so when new federal regulations pushed airlines to conceal government taxes in fares, budget line Spirit fought back with the ultimate in transparency.

By sending an email with the following headline to its customer base, Spirit made it clear to stakeholders that it’s still 100% committed to being a low-cost airline:

The letter goes on to explain exactly why the new fees have been included, why Spirit does not support the policy, and even includes a call-to-action, complete with links to locate and contact representatives in the House and Senate, all in a concise 150 words.

It would be quite easy for airlines to just shrug this off and assume customers were educated about new changes to the fare structure, and, judging by the thundering silence from just about everyone else in the industry, that’s exactly the choice they’ve made. By thinking about how its customers would feel, and meeting them with the information they want the very second they realize they want it, Spirit set itself apart, and in that action likely gained customers for life.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc. , an international crisis management consultancy, and author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is Social Media Manager for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

This is a companion piece to an article at my blog, Marion Conway – Nonprofit Consultant: Demonstrating Board Leadership with Facebook

I write and present about how small nonprofits should use social media. I am usually writing about it from the standpoint of what a nonprofit should do. This is about what Board Members should do. Almost every small nonprofit I work with has an underutilized web presence. Some have made an investment which is big for them in a new website and are disappointed that the website does not generate much in the way of online donations. I frequently wince when I see these websites and some of the fundamental mistakes that have been made.

But board members can do a great deal to boost the overall web presence of their nonprofit. Today, in addition to a website, having a vibrant social media presence is an important tool in any nonprofit’s toolbox. It is a key way to build relationships with existing supporters and to find new ones.

Having a website is not like “If we build it, they will come.” They won’t – that only happens in the movies. You have to DRIVE traffic to your website. And the best way to do that is with a vibrant social media presence.

First let’s look at what a nonprofit should ideally be doing with its overall web presence:

• Engage existing supporters
• Find potential new friends (donors, volunteers, etc)
• Find volunteers
• Find people who are interested in attending events – and maybe sell tickets
• Identify potential Board Members
• Build better relationships with all of the above people
• Get donations

The last one – get donations – comes later. First you have to do all the other things. Board members can help with some of or all of these goals by just incorporating their nonprofit into what they already do with social media. Different board members will use different aspects of social media and they can all contribute in their own way. I am not talking about asking your friends to give money online. If you feel comfortable doing that, by all means, go ahead. But that is not what I am suggesting here. I am talking about how you can be an ambassador online just by tweaking – a very little bit – what you already do. Let’s look at the possibilities.

Facebook

My article, Demonstrating Board Leadership with Facebook is getting record readership, and I am getting lots of feedback about sharing it with other Board members. I go into detail with these items in that article but here are the highlights for board members on Facebook:

1. Like the organization’s page
2. Like comments and comment on the page’s posts
3. Initiate posts on the organization’s wall.
4. Initiate posts on your own wall.
5. Post pictures

LinkedIn

LinkedIn has become an important resource for nonprofits. You can use LinkedIn to give positive exposure to you and to your nonprofit. Here are a few ways:

1. Update your profile

LinkedIn has a new category in its profile – Volunteer Experience & Causes. You can enhance your profile and gives some exposure to your organization by updating your profile to include your Board Service. You can see mine as an example.

Marion’s LinkedIn Profile

2. Donor and Board Member Prospecting

Use the search and advanced search to find people who have particular professions, went to your university and more to find people you know who may be a good match. This takes a little time but you can do it whenever you have free time and you just might find some good prospects to invite to be a Board member or to invite to an event.

3. Update your Status

You can update your status to show activities you are involved with at your nonprofit – always include a link to their website. Updating your status can serve to keep both your name and your nonprofit’s name in the sight of your business friends. It is a win-win situation. Short, but effective. And if you have linked your LinkedIn and twitter accounts, you can just click to have this update appear automatically in twitter also. Use this to promote events, seek new Board members, etc.

Twitter

I love twitter and I am active on it. I enjoy being part of an active nonprofit online community and learn about incredible opportunities, great resources and events all the time on twitter. It has been wonderful to finally meet people in person at conferences or at a workshop who I have only known on twitter. But I don’t see twitter as being very useful for the purpose of a Board Member using it to build relationships for a nonprofit. If you are on twitter, be sure to mention your nonprofit sometimes especially if they are on twitter too.

There are two exceptions to this is that twitter is wonderful for – advocacy and promoting events. If advocacy is a part of what your nonprofit does, Board Members who are on twitter should definitely be using their 140 characters for advocacy. Make sure you use relevant hastags (#) and you will see lots of new followers.

If your nonprofit is having an event and you have local followers promote the event and link to the nonprofit’s website – not the homepage but the event information page. Be thoughtful in using hashtags so that more people than just your followers may see the tweets.

Blogs

Do you read blogs related to the work of your nonprofit. Be sure to leave comments and mention your organization in the comments when appropriate.

Websites

Do you have a website – personal or small business. Include your board membership in your biography and have a link to it in the bio. If appropriate have a small “ad” for events that your nonprofit is having on your website.

Pinterest

Pinterest is new and you may not of heard of it, but it is very fast growing. It is a new social media site that is perfect for people who like visuals and it is very simple and easy to use. It is essentially a bunch of online bulletin boards. Once you have a pinterest account – which you can associate with your facebook account, you can easily “pin” visuals on a board. You can have lots of Boards and it is best to have all the visuals on that board be about a common topic. This is the link to one of my favorites – nonprofit infographics by Beth Kanter: http://pinterest.com/kanter/nonprofit-infographics/. If you have a pinterest account, create some Boards with visuals about your nonprofit. Cover an event or a program. Use a brief description. And then…post an invitation to see your Board on facebook, twitter LinkedIn, etc. You get the idea – have it go viral. I think that Pinterest may take off and become very popular so I am including it in this list of social media things to do.

I hope this article has given you something to think about. These are all easy things to do but they can have a big impact if enough people take just a few steps. And I promise it won’t seem like work at all, once you dive in, you’ll enjoy it.

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