Crisis: an unstable or crucial time or state of affairs whose outcome will make a decisive difference for better or worse (Webster’s New Collegiate). How many public relations spokespersons does your company have? The correct answer is, “as many employees as we have.” Sure, any organization can and should have a policy whereby only certain …

There are strong feelings that consulting, facilitating, coaching, and training are very different consultants’ roles. I believe that a good consultant should be able to use any of the roles for different purposes. Here are some guidelines for what roles to use and when. When You Might Resort to Facilitating Collaborative organizational consulting is about …

[The following is an excerpt from my newly published Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training.] I would love to be able to tell you that with regards to media interview skills, ‘practice makes perfect,’ but that would be disingenuous, a fancy way of saying it would be a lie. No amount of practice …

So many non-profit organizations are hiring Directors of Development without really knowing/understanding what “development” is supposed to be about and how the role of the Director of Development is supposed to function. For many organizations, the Director of Development is the person hired to write the grant proposals, create relationships with corporations, or create/run the …

The first question you should ask yourself…How do you measure customer satisfaction? If you are measuring by the # of complaints you are or are not receiving, you are in trouble. Not everybody bothers to take the time to tell you about his/her horrible experience. If you are asking your customers if they are satisfied, …

Crisis Communications: Avoiding the Biggest Mistakes Part 1 All organizations are vulnerable to crises. You can’t serve any population without being subjected to situations involving lawsuits, accusations of impropriety, sudden changes in ownership or management, and other volatile situations on which your stakeholders — and the media that serves them — often focus. The cheapest …

Watch the following situation occur in conversations among consultants. Many consultants place extreme value on people’s feelings, beliefs and perceptions. That’s their natural “lens” on organizations. Many of them are from fields of psychology, human resources and coaching. In my experience, they often conclude their clients have problems primarily with, for example, interpersonal conflicts, emotional …

In the post, Part 1, we reviewed the first 5 practices. This post is a continuation from that post, and reviews the remaining 5 practices. 6. Ensure strategic plan that includes action plans The action plan part of an overall strategic plan specifies who is going to do what and by when in order to …

With 15 years in public relations, occasionally it helps to stop and ask, “Why did I get into this profession?” Before answering that, a bit of pre-PR background. I was on the other side of the desk in the world of journalism before making a career change. Specifically, pop culture — music, comedy, the occasional …

What’s the difference between a code of conduct and a rulebook? A rulebook certainly sets outer parameters as what is unacceptable behavior. However, since most behavior is within those legal parameters, does (and should) a code of conduct dictate how employees should in fact conduct themselves at work? Imagine if a supervisor asks an employee …