By Stephanie York/Hennes Communications Q. We have an emerging issue. When should we contact our attorney? A: When an organization is facing a crisis or an emerging issue that may evolve into a crisis, employees typically start talking about it – especially via email and texts. It’s easy to fire off messages to colleagues, managers […]
By Hennes Communications Q: A reporter wants to interview me, and I don’t want to be identified as the source of the information. What do I do? A: The reporter’s goal is to interview you with no strings attached – everything you say and do can be reported. This is called “on the record” and […]
Attorney Jack Bacevice joined the Cleveland firm Mansour Gavin after years as an Assistant Director of Law for the city of Cleveland. He’s handled numerous high-profile cases and is very familiar with practicing in the court of law while the court of public opinion intently watches. We’ll periodically feature a Q&A with Jack and Hennes […]
By Thom Fladung/Hennes Communications In 1982, Johnson & Johnson wrote the book on effective crisis response – literally. Chicago was in a state of panic. Within just a few days, seven people had dropped dead from cyanide poisoning. There was no explanation until investigators discovered the link: Tylenol. Someone had laced Chicago’s Tylenol supply with […]
By Thom Fladung/Hennes Communications Even in this era, when the news barrage can be numbing, the report that Jeffrey Epstein had apparently hanged himself in jail and the immediate flurry of conspiracy theories took a run at qualifying as “shocking.” The least surprising element: Much of it started and played out on Twitter. In an […]
Q. How do I know whether I should respond to a negative social media comment about our organization? A. We’ve worked with several clients recently that faced the challenge of negative social media posts going viral, attracting thousands of comments and shares and threatening the reputation of the organization involved. Before it reaches that crisis […]
By Thom Fladung/Hennes Communications This 4th of July, amid the fireworks, hot dogs and parades, let’s remember another grand American tradition: making stuff up. Or, as John Adams noted with delight in his diary in 1769, he’d spent the evening in “a curious employment. Cooking up Paragraphs, Articles, Occurrences etc. – working the political Engine!” […]
By Thom Fladung/Hennes Communications The Q&A session is a staple of leadership, whether those questions come at you in employee meetings, community forums or in an interview with a journalist. It can be challenging in any setting. But doing a Q&A amid a crisis or serious issue your company or organization is facing ratchets up […]
Q: My attorney says apologizing will be bad for future litigation – that apologizing means we are liable. What do you think? A: We often find ourselves wrestling with our client’s attorneys over the phrase “I’m sorry.” Somehow, through the years, attorneys have come to define the phrase “I’m sorry” as meaning “I’m liable. I […]
Q: How do you convince leadership that creating a crisis communications plan is a good idea? A: We get it. People don’t want to think about their businesses or organizations being thrown into a crisis because there’s been a data breach, or an allegation of sexual harassment, or an inappropriate social media post. And who […]