From Wikipedia: A crisis (from the Greek κρίσις – krisis; plural: “crises”; adjectival form: “critical”) is any event that is going (or is expected) to lead to an unstable and dangerous situation unstable and dangerous situation affecting an individual, group, community, or whole society. Crises are deemed to be negative changes in the security, economic, […]
From Kristen Senz, writing for the Harvard Business School: New research sheds light on implications of using politically correct and incorrect speech and identifies five techniques to increase persuasiveness and diffuse conflict. Insights from two recent studies in an emerging field—the psychology of conversation—are aimed at organizational leaders interested in improving their conversation styles to […]
The managing partner of Hennes Communications, Thom Fladung, was recently interviewed on the subject of crisis communications for Ari Lewis and his Mastering the Attention Economy video podcast. Tune-in here for a short, 20-minute master class on crisis management: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7jTEG7cHaE
By Bruce Hennes & Nora Jacobs, Hennes Communications A CEO, executive director, bar association president or other business executive has to apologize or speak about something very important. The stakes are high – and in this COVID-19 era, the apology is going to have to be done using Zoom or another virtual platform. Under any […]
Nicole Schuman, writing in PR News… Major League Soccer relaunched. Then golf. Major League Baseball. NASCAR. The NBA. The WNBA. The National Hockey League. It’s the National Football League’s time to shine. Excitement for the unique 2020 season began in April, when most people were locked down at home due to the quick spread of […]
From Dan Levin, writing in The New York Times… On the first day of school in Camden County, Ga., local Facebook groups were already buzzing with rumors that a teacher had tested positive for the coronavirus. The next day, a warning went out to school administrators: Keep teachers quiet. “Staff who test positive are not […]
By Nora Jacobs, Hennes Communications As we have seen countless times during these COVID-stricken months, employees are working on a short fuse. Isolation, stress and a galvanized political landscape have combined to create an environment where casual comments on social media explode into wars of words, workplace rules spawn walkouts, and long-simmering resentments about past […]
By Erin Dowell and Marlette Jackson, writing in the Harvard Business Review: Kelli, a data scientist at a tech company, recently submitted a request for a promotion. Her responsibilities had increased after turnover on her team and she felt the extra work merited recognition. But she was told that the VP who needed to […]
By David E. Johnson, writing in CommPro: McDonalds stands out for handling its latest crisis with former CEO Steve Easterbrook right. The fast food giant let Easterbrook go last year after discovering that he had had a consensual relationship with an employee. When McDonalds terminated Easterbrook last year it said it had evidence of only of a non-physical, consensual […]
From Bill Ide, III, Partner, Corporate Governance, Akerman and Richard Levick, Esq., Chairman & CEO, LEVICK Late one night during the financial crisis of 2008–2009, when working around the clock was the order of the day in the AIG war room, a team member left the building to grab takeout for dinner. Having forgotten to remove his […]