Category: Organization Development

Here’s a great guest blog from a colleague and frequent contributor to my ezine, Jerry Brown. This advice is just as important for crisis-related media relations, maybe even more so, than it is for more routine, proactive PR.

Jonathan Bernstein

You had me at helloBy Jerry Brown, APR www.pr-impact.com Hook me at the beginning if you want me to notice your story. Then keep it interesting if you want me to stick around until you’re done telling it. Good storytellers know it’s important to grab their audience’s attention right from the start. That’s why the lead of a news story is so important. And it’s why you need a strong, attention-getting lead for your news releases and pitch letters. There are many kinds of good leads. Here are a few of my favorites: Ask a question. Asking a question intriguing enough that the rest of us will want to know the answer is a good way to get reporters to read your news release to learn your answer. Not everyone agrees with me on this one. Some purists believe beginning a story with a question is a no-no. Why would you ignore such a powerful way to bring me into your story? Example: Why are local bird watchers putting down their binoculars and picking up protest signs? Start with an anecdote. News is about people and things that affect people. Anecdotes humanize your story. A good anecdote is a great lead for a story about an individual or a group of people. Example: Joan Doe has spent the last 43 years helping others. On Tuesday, several dozen of them will be on hand for her final day at work to say thank you and tell her how she changed their lives forever. Say something unexpected. We’re hardwired to notice the unexpected — a strange noise that may indicate a problem with your car or a slight movement by a stranger on a dark street. It’s a survival technique. Because we’re hardwired to pay attention to the unexpected, a lead that surprises your audience is a great way to get their attention. Example: Giving away money isn’t always easy. Use a first-person story. A self-directed version of the anecdotal lead. Don’t overdo this one. But some feature stories lend themselves to first-person leads. Just make sure there’s a reason for the rest of us to care. Example: The bear stared at me. I stared back. What I did next probably saved my life. And it could save yours. Just the facts. Once almost universally used for spot news stories and news releases, and still the most common type of lead for both. Make sure your facts are interesting or your lead will be boring — and your news release will probably end up in the trash. Example: XYZ Company opened a new plant today in Localville, bringing 500 jobs and a $25 million annual payroll to the city. That’s my’ two cents’ worth. What’s yours? ——————————- For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management ——————————-

This recent report summarizes a recent survey of 740 organizations on the current state of the SE field in the US. This work was prepared by the Social Enterprise Alliance, in partnership with Community Wealth Ventures and Duke University’s Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship. REDF funded the survey.

Some interesting findings include:

• Top five SEs: education/training, retail/thrift stores, consulting services, food services/catering, arts ventures.
• Top five mission areas: workforce development, housing, community economic development, education, health.
• 87% of respondents currently operating an SE anticipate launching another one within three years.
• 60% operate their SEs as a division of a larger organization, with smaller percentages utilizing a for-profit (15%) or nonprofit subsidiary (8%), or a joint venture (5%).
• One third of the 400 respondents currently operating an SE had SE revenues above $1 million.
• Larger organizations generate more SE revenue, both in terms of dollars and percentages. For example, 42% of respondents with operating budgets greater than $10 million reported SE revenue of $5 million or more. In contrast, 43% with operating budgets below $1 million reported SE revenue of less than $100,000.
• Not surprisingly, 80% of SEs lack sufficient growth capital. More surprising: for SEs launched since 2000, individual donations were the second most cited capital source, after foundation grants. Less than 9% of the SEs mentioned debt or equity financing as a major source of start-up funds.
• Finally, in terms of biggest challenges, 27% mentioned sales and marketing, 23% financial issues, 14% human resources, and 12% operations.

All in all, this report provides some useful baseline measurements, along with six informative SE case studies worth reading. We hope efforts will be made to update this data regularly. Among things to watch: Will the new L3C and B-Corp organizational structures gain traction among SEs? Will equity and debt financing become more common for SEs as social capital markets expand?

Stay tuned!

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Copyright © 2010 Rolfe Larson Associates – Fifteenth Anniversary, 1995 – 2010. Author of Venture Forth! Endorsed by the late Paul Newman of Newman’s Own. Read my weekly blogs on Social Enterprise and Business Planning.

I am offering free guest lectures in crisis management/crisis communications-related topics to any relevant college or university class, lectures to be delivered by webcam. At your end — project my image for the class to see. Then point your webcam at the class so I can see and hear them. It’s that easy. Contact me for more information.

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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.]

The morning before the brouhaha over Shirley Sherrod vomited out of Fox News to create a domino effect of shameful response, I happened to publish an analysis of journalistic ethics today in the form of an article telling non-journalists exactly how to fight back against unethical media. If the practices espoused in the article had been followed, a lot of innocent people, including Shirley Sherrod, could avoid being hurt in the court of public opinion.

I hope all readers of this blog find the “how to” piece useful, and please pass it on!

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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.]

[This is a guest post by Dave Statter, who recently retired from the broadcast news business and now consults to public safety agencies on media matters. It provides readers with several excellent lessons about crisis management.]

When PGFD paramedics misidentified flesh eating bacteria and related signs as decomposition following death (despite a Glenarden, Maryland man still being alive), the department handled the bad news in text book fashion. Rather than wait for those pesky reporters to uncover the mistake, Chief Spokesman Mark Brady was proactive. Brady sent out a press release before there was a leak and told the story himself. The initial coverage had little shelf life and disappeared from the news rather quickly. A good lesson and reminder for all of us about a story that had the potential to linger for days.

But here’s another lesson. Candor in your efforts to get the bad news out and over with doesn’t necessarily mean you can completely control the message. Now, almost four months later the story has surfaced again because the daughter of the man (who really died the next day) says she wants an apology from the medics who made the error. Click here to watch the latest story and here to read it.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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In the past couple of weeks Dell has been the focus of a newly revealed crisis as a recently-unsealed 2007 lawsuit charging the company with knowingly selling millions of faulty computers made headlines. PC Magazine has the details:

Advanced Internet Technologies (AIT) sued Dell in 2007 over charges that Dell sold AIT more than 2,000 OptiPlex desktops in 2003 and 2004, despite knowing that there were significant problems with the devices.

Dell on Wednesday dismissed the issue as “old news” and said that the problem originated with a capacitor manufacturer, not with Dell.

Dell “knew long before AIT’s purchase of the Dell OptiPlex computers that it had significant problems with the Dell OptiPlex computers, including but not limited to, the motherboard, power supply, and the CPU fan failures that caused overheating, crashes, and lost data from these computers,” AIT wrote in its original complaint.

For the time being, Dell’s crisis management strategy is holding strong as it focuses on redirecting blame to the manufacturer of the capacitor, a part of the computer’s internals, and communicating its dedication to customers and quality. Let’s see if AIT can “out-message” them in the long run.

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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.]

Earlier this year, the Social Enterprise Alliance published Succeeding at Social Enterprise: Hard-Won Lessons for Nonprofits and Social Entrepreneurs (Jossey-Bass). Anyone interested in starting or strengthening a social enterprise would benefit from reading this informative book.

The book’s sixteen chapters are organized into three sections: Startup and Structure, Methods, and Leadership. Each section contains chapters written by leading social entrepreneurs, offering “hard-won” lessons from the field. This book provides a sampling of bite sized morsels on many topics, with tips, anecdotes and a few war stories along the way. Regardless of your level of prior experience in social enterprise, you will gain useful insights from reading this book. I certainly did.

People often ask us for social enterprise examples, case studies or success stories, along with lessons from those experiences that they might apply to their won work. This book delivers on those requests, and it does that very well. What it doesn’t provide is much in the way of in-depth “how to” information on starting a social enterprise, despite claims to be all about implementation. So, for example, there’s very little about market research and even less about competitor analysis, both essential ingredients for success in starting and sustaining a social enterprise. Instead, there’s a great deal about values, mission, stakeholders, social impact, even advocacy – each of which is important to many social enterprises but not always all that important to customers.

But that’s a relatively minor critique of this informative book. Taken for what it is – lessons learned through stories and structures – Succeeding at Social Enterprise is well worth buying, reading and keeping for future reference. It’s a book you’ll come back to so many times you’ll appreciate the index that’s been thoughtfully included at the end.

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Copyright © 2010 Rolfe Larson Associates – Fifteenth Anniversary, 1995 – 2010
Author of Venture Forth! Endorsed by the late Paul Newman of Newman’s Own
Read my weekly blogs on Social Enterprise and Business Planning

[This is a guest blog from “Managing Outcomes,” published by Tony Jaques, Director of Issue Outcomes Pty Ltd, for people who work in issue and crisis management and strive for planned, positive outcomes. You can subscribe to his newsletter at www.issueoutcomes.com.au]

Every manager who has ever wanted to beat up on an ill-informed or aggressive journalist in the midst of a serious corporate issue can take a lesson from the CEO of Air New Zealand.

At a time when New Zealand’s national airline was discussing a proposed alliance with Australian-based Virgin Blue, the news and comment magazine The Listener published an intemperate editorial entitled “Turbulence ahead” accusing Air NZ of going “determinedly downmarket on its Australian and Pacific routes” and suggested the “downgrade” would move the airline towards budget standard on international short-haul flights?

Although Air NZ has an acknowedged reputation for very open communication with the news media, angry CEO Rob Fyfe must have considered giving the magazine “both barrels between the eyes” but decided instead on a response which was both clever and effective.

Playing on the name of its accuser, Air NZ produced a video response entirely in sign language, with subtitles. It began: “Dear Listener, Ironically it seems you haven’t been listening to what we’ve got to say, you’re hardly living up to your name . . . As you appear to have turned a deaf ear to us we thought it might be best to respond in a language you may be more familar with.” The sign language video concluded: “Now we’re all guilty of selective hearing sometimes, but we’ve got to say you did a fantastic job of not listening to the facts. If you’d like to talk this through further, lend us you ear and give us a call.”

The video (below) featured the CEO himself and, just to drive the point home, was accompanied by a formal press statement written entirely in the printed version of sign language except for the heading: “We’ve worked bloody hard to create an airline New Zealanders can be proud of and it really winds me up when someone gives us a gratuitous slap.”

Needless to say the video also got posted on Youtube, where thousands of viewers have enjoyed the airline having fun at the expense of the hapless magazine.

But beyond the fun element is the serious question of how best to respond when under attack. Too often the corporate first reaction is an angry denial. Wry humour like this is probably not appropriate during a crisis when lives or the environment are at stake. However it is a reminder that sometimes it is better to whisper than to shout. The Biblical proverb has it: “A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.” Perhaps the modern version is “Don’t get mad, get even.”

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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This blog was written by guest writer Andy Horsnell.

While working for a nonprofit capacity building service, I had occasion to put together an “Executive Director Boot Camp” that would help EDs identify and begin addressing issues that were critical for their on-the-job effectiveness. Early in the development of this project, I almost had myself convinced that I knew enough, given my twenty years in capacity building, to just roll it out to the market. Almost. Instead, I invested in interviews and focus groups with about two dozen executive directors to see what I could learn.

I learned plenty. First, make it exclusively for executive directors; resist the temptation to open it up to other senior staff and board members. “We want to be free talk about our issues, without worrying about what our staff and board members might think.” Then they told me the issues what they wanted the session to address, and gave me specific input on the session format, timing, promotion and pricing. They said, “If you can pull this off as we’ve outlined, we’ll happily pay $400 for a two-day session.” This from a group of people who were known to complain about paying $20 for a lunch presentation by an expert on the latest ‘critical issue’.

We launched the program with the initial goal of thirty participants. The common wisdom around the office was, “We’ll be lucky to get twenty. I mean, how many EDs are there that will come up with $400?” Sixty-five, to be exact. And we could have taken another twenty, had we had the room to accommodate them.

In short, the program almost sold itself, because we had the audacity to give our paying customers what they actually wanted, instead of what we felt they needed. It’s a lesson I won’t forget quickly: don’t ever fool yourself into believing that you can think for your customers. It’s so much easier (and effective) to just ask them in the first place and, if you do, they’ll reward you for it.

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Andy Horsnell is an accomplished social entrepreneur with deep roots in nonprofit management, consulting and training. He is the guide to the Social Enterprise section of the Free Management Library.

This is the first short educational video I’ve created on YouTube. I apparently spoke a bit too quickly and one word was omitted at the beginning, but otherwise I hope you find it to be an interesting introduction to this crisis management subject!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVar3MZbpaU

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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.]