Category: Organization Development

Know them, use them

It’s important to remember that your social media accounts are now considered major crisis communications resources, and will be treated as such by the public when trouble comes around. In the midst of a crisis, the last thing you want stakeholders seeking information to see is a Facebook page covered in advertisements for the latest and greatest. While it is possible to handle the transition from typical marketing/communication mode to full on crisis management tool manually, there are several types of programs that can make the switch both faster and easier. This quote, from a PRSA article by Dave Armon, describes a few of the possibilities:

While I don’t know of a magical solution that lets a company’s entire marketing program instantly switch off, there are powerful tools to prevent gaffes within the most widely used social networks. Among the features that apply to crisis situations:

* Moderation consoles that capture posts and comments, matching them against “black lists” of words and phrases that an organization may not want on its Facebook wall. These tools also display comments made to pages that are only weeks or months old, eliminating the possibility of disparaging content being buried deep within a fan page. An “escalation” feature allows questions posed by fans to be e-mailed to experts for faster responses.
* Page management tools to schedule the publication of content in advance. Some crisis scenarios can be anticipated, so approved responses can be loaded into the tool for faster responses. These tools also let administrators suspend campaigns without the intervention of third-party vendors.
* Self-service application dashboards allow organizations to publish customized content quickly for their Facebook page. Using these tools, a company, agency or nonprofit could quickly move from a sales-oriented page to one that distributes information about an incident or engages fans to support benevolent nonprofits.
* Many of today’s consumers gather information in real time. This can lead to big rewards for organizations that learn to behave like media companies, attracting an audience and then earning trust by communicating continuously through the good times as well as the bad.

Tools like these make it possible to keep up the 24/7 crisis management pace that the public demands while still sneaking in the little things like say…food and sleep. There are versions of all of these tools made by various companies and all differ in price and capabilities, so take the time to familiarize yourself with a few and see which works best for your organization. It may seem like extra work now, but it will be much, much more if you end up facing a serious crisis unprepared.

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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 Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training.]

Evaluating the impact of a social enterprise is often difficult to do. For most sectors, there are no agreed-upon metrics to rely upon to tell others how successful you have been. But you don’t have to start from scratch. Here are some perspectives and suggestions that might be helpful:

Continue reading “Measuring outcomes for social enterprises”

Quake leaves residents looking to Prime Minister

After an initial response slowed by the sheer magnitude of the disaster, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan has stepped up to his role as the head of crisis management for the beleaguered country. Following yet another explosion at the Fukushima power plant, Kan took the reins, as described in this quote from a National Post article by Peter Goodspeed:

Within hours, the Japanese PM had announced he was personally taking control of crisis management at Fukushima. He appointed a committee of government and TEPCO officials to report directly to him; had the transport ministry impose a no-fly zone for 30 kilometres around the badly damaged plant; and ordered Japan’s Self-Defence Forces to shift their attention to relief, instead of rescue.

Later, at a nationally televised news conference, where he spoke to reporters while dressed in a powder-blue emergency services jump-suit, Mr. Kan acknowledged the radiation peril and called for calm.

“There is a danger of even higher radiation levels,” he said.

“We are doing everything we can to contain the leakage. I know that people are very worried, but I would like to ask you to act calmly.”

Much like the head of a company, a country’s leader is looked to in times of crisis for guidance and as an example of how to behave. With the immediate threat of nuclear meltdown and the task of reconstruction lying beyond that, Kan has a long road to travel, but by remaining strong and taking charge, he encourages his people to do the same.

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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 Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training.]

There is a current LinkedIn discussion going on around the following question, “In one sentence, what’s the number one barrier to transferring learning back to the job?” The answers to this discussion, as with many on LinkedIn and other boards, have differing viewpoints. A common theme with this particular discussion tends to blame the lack of transfer on mangers, supervisors, and after training support. This seems like a reasonable view from this LinkedIn group whose primary audience is comprised of training professionals. And while this was the most common theme, there are still others in the discussion who blame the lack of transfer on poor training. So what we end up with in this discussion is everyone maintaining their position of blame on something beyond control.
What would happen if this discussion were taken a step forward and the debate on blame shifted to a discussion using the following, “Provide one example of how you have improved learning transfer in a current or previous role? What was the role and what did you do?”
Realistically, this question would still solicit some blame in answers; however, instead of 168 comments on blame, it might solicit more useful tips on how to improve transfer. Personally, I would find a discussion like that much more helpful.
How often do your discussions inside your organizations rest on blame and not solutions? Don’t get me wrong, taking time to determine the root cause of issue is important. But more important is what you do after you determine the cause.
What are you doing today to solve your internal issues? What are you doing today to prevent training transfer? What can you do to improve it?

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For more resources, See the Human Resources library.

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Sheri Mazurek is a training and human resource professional with over 16 years of management experience, and is skilled in all areas of employee management and human resource functions, with a specialty in learning and development. She is available to help you with your Human Resources and Training needs on a contract basis. For more information send an email to smazurek0615@gmail.com or visit www.sherimazurek.com. Follow me on twitter @Sherimaz.

Twitter and Facebook lead the way following massive earthquake

Social media has been at the forefront of crisis communications during every disaster in recent memory, and this trend has continued in the aftermath of the massive earthquake in Japan. In an article for Mashable.com, Sarah Kessler described the various ways people are getting connected:

Google often creates Person Finder sites during emergencies that allow people to leave information about their whereabouts or information about a missing person. At the time of writing, there were about 158,700 records for Japan — more than 140,000 more records than were submitted to the last such site it set up for the victims of the Christchurch earthquake in February.

The Red Cross site operates in a similar manner, publishing a list of names with contact information of people who want to make it known that they are alive and people whose relatives have indicated they are missing.

But perhaps the most simple method people in Japan have turned to for connecting with loved ones throughout the emergency is posting to their social media accounts. Less than an hour after the quake, the number of tweets from Tokyo topped 1,200 per minute, according to Tweet-o-Meter. An interactive graphic created by Facebook to illustrate status updates related to the quake shows Japan’s activity on Facebook during that day was also high.

Hopefully the grizzled veterans at the Red Cross will eventually combine their experience with the tech prodigies at Google to further improve and advance the ability for people to both get in touch and find or request emergency services despite downed telephone lines or power outages. With incredible stats like 1,200 tweets per minute out of Tokyo, the demand is obviously there.

Applying this to business, you could be left in a similar situation following a disaster, natural or otherwise. How would you communicate with employees and, if possible, keep business running? One minimal solution is to establish and maintain a list of Twitter accounts, while more involved solutions often involve things like employee-only message boards or Internet workstations. Regardless of what your solution is, educate and practice with everyone involved to ensure that things will run smoothly, even in the midst of a crisis.

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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 Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training.]

Social media is not novel any more. Facebook and Twitter are now household names, worldwide. They connect people and causes, they build online communities, sure. But they also sell products, big time.

The corporate sector has discovered this power, and recently many nonprofits are finding these online, interactive communities to be powerful places to build awareness, engagement, and ultimately contributions.

Social enterprises can benefit from skillful use of these tools as well.

Continue reading “Use social media to increase sales”

Be prepared for crises

At the very core of crisis management is the fact that all businesses, no matter how well-managed, can and will be impacted by crises at some point. Because of this, it is crucial to put yourself in a position to both prevent and react to damaging situations before things get hot. In a recent article about the impact of real-time communication on crisis management, PR expert Bill McLaughlin gave a list that will help you jump start your defense:

1. If you don’t already have a blog, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook channel in place, get one and get it fast.
2. Start listening. See who is talking about you, your products or your customers. Assess their influence and reach out to them.
3. Create a crisis communications team. Your head of communications should lead it. Representatives from human resources, sales, customer support, legal, investor relations and executive management should be on the team.
4. Create a playbook. Set up a contact procedure and an issue escalation process for when it’s necessary to convene the team.
5. Identify potential types of crisis and rank their impact factors. For example, unhappy customers blogging about your products, interruptions in service, closing of offices and dismissal of employees, lawsuits filed by competitors or government agencies, and so forth.
6. Assign primary spokespersons responsible for handling the issues.
7. Respond quickly. Don’t let things fester. Make a statement, even if it’s as open ended as we’re aware of the problem and are in touch with the parties involved and will get back to you with an answer as soon as as we can.
8. Don’t let the lawyers dictate everything. In crisis, there is a natural tendency to rely on their advice to minimize legal exposure. This is a wise thing to do, but not at the expense of saying nothing.
9. Develop your position and communicate it through all the channels you have at your disposal — web site, press release, blog, Twitter, Facebook, conference calls, and so on.
10. Monitor the reactions, modify your message and respond as needed.

As you can see, social media continues to play a large role in the way we handle crises and communicate. If you’re not at least familiar with the big three (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) then the deck is stacked against you, and if your company doesn’t have an active blog then you’re really in trouble. If you want to maximize the value of these platforms, create a precedent of posting valuable information so that when the public goes searching for answers they will look to you first.

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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 Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training.]

In my last post, I shared some ideas on the Key Questions To Ask before Selecting a Solution to a Business Problem. Inevitably, the reality with all Business Improvement efforts is, some ideas will have to be turned down, for a whole myriad of reasons.

The way to communicate the “rejection” of these ideas has a massive impact on how the idea originator continues to meaningfully contribute and identify further improvement opportunities in the future.

There are Three Approaches to Communicate the Rejected Idea.

1. POSITIVE:

Thank the contributor for his/her idea.

Emphasize positive points about the idea.

2. NEGATIVE:

Tell the contributor why it won’t work.

Explain the difficulties or dangers.

3. CREATIVE:

Seek alternatives and creative additional ideas.

Ask: How can we think about this differently? How can we achieve our goal in a different way? What if….? Consider new ideas, changes, alternatives.

The CREATIVE APPROACH is undoubtedly what keeps the ideas floodgates open.

Some of the firms who have used this approach include immigration solicitors bedford as well as immigration solicitors reading

Give it a Try.

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Some firms who have tried this approach include Immigration

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For more resources, see our Library topic Quality Management.
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Recently, I attended the TEDx Manitoba event at the Park Theatre here in Winnipeg.

The first speaker, Robert Sawyer, who is a science fiction writer, gave an excellent presentation about the emergence of consciousness in humans and the projected emergence in non-human intelligence.

Sawyer’s presentation made me think about how the non-profit sector’s work is resulting in the emergence of consciousness in their target populations. After more than 12 years in the non-profit sector, I have personally witnessed this type of emerging consciousness.

Clients that I have worked with came to us with limited awareness of resources available to them and limited consciousness of external factors impacting their lives. Through their personal journeys of emergence, I saw them begin to identify their own personal goals and strive to educate themselves about resources available to them. Then they began to grow an internal confidence that allowed them to begin to tap into these resources.

Without this emergence of awareness, thirst for knowledge and faith in their own capabilities, capacity building would not be possible.

What kind of emergence have you witnessed in your capacity building efforts?

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

By Ingrid Zacharias, Managing Director, Envisioning the Future International, http://envisioningthefutureintl.ca/ Email: izacharias@envisioningthefutureintl.ca

The former inevitably leads to the latter

One of the most common cause of crises (business and personal!) is making poor choices, a problem that can usually be corrected by training and communication. Sometimes, though, underlying conditions make standard crisis management nearly impossible. One issue that often surfaces in the world of big business and celebrity is addiction, a disease that leads quickly to irrational behavior and repeated public downfalls. Charlie Sheen is a perfect example, but rather than that being the topic of discussion, reporters and bloggers like BNET’s Erik Sherman have focused on ego as the cause of his troubles. Below is my response to a post by Sherman on his blog:

Holy missing the point, Erik. Charlie Sheen is an addict, which means by definition he is an egomaniac with an inferiority complex. Treatment professionals say that “delusion and denial are the defining characteristics of addiction.” You write as if his ego was the problem while, in fact, this is a sick man, a man with a disease. That’s not an excuse for his behavior, it’s simply an AMA-recognized fact. If a tumor on the brain caused him to behave this way, would you criticize him the same way? Of course not. There is NO difference.

Sheen is literally incapable of going through the crisis management process until he deals with addiction. The people around him know this, evidenced by the departure of longtime friends and associates like publicist Stan Rosenfield, but unless Sheen himself recognizes that he needs help, there is little that can be done other than for his business and personal associates to “detach with love” and pray for his recovery.

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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 Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training.]