Hope
There is hope! The barrage of COVID-19 news pours down on us and we struggle to rise above it. Additional quarantine and the isolation it brings. Missed dinner dates. Birthdays celebrated alone. Business closures, more market drops, more layoffs and more loss. For most of us, we’re not even into the actual suffering. That will […]
Fear
What we don’t know is always worse than what we do know. Not knowing leads to doubt and fear. Doubt and fear lead to hyperbole and hysteria. And we end up making decisions based on misinformation or overreaction. We’re seeing this dynamic playing out in front of us right now, even in our own lives […]
How Do You Burst the Outrage Balloon?
Accidents are inevitable, so we prepare for them. Good communication planning includes preemptive actions to build stakeholder trust and acceptance. We work hard to make sure our neighbors and communities understand that we are trying to be good neighbors. We bank on their goodwill and make sure we’re ready to respond to the inevitable accident. […]
The Uncounted Cost of Poor Response Communication
How much does bad response communication cost? Is there a penalty for poor performance? In “Getting a handle on a scandal” the Economist Magazine looked at eight different corporate crises since 2010, to determine if they actually damage shareholder value. The consensus from a review of large crises is that a crisis actually does: “After […]
Communicators and responders have a lot to learn from each other.
Communicators and responders have a lot to learn from each other. Notice Jennifer Pearsall’s – from NYC Emergency Management – key points from her post here: People are the mission Asking ‘why’ will get you further Recovery starts with rebuilding a sense of control Jennifer’s ‘responder truths’ are also ‘communicator truths’: We’ll all get further […]