November 1, 2019
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Dealing With Ambush Interviews
By Howard Fencl, Hennes Communications
What's the best way to deal with an ambush interview? Here's what you should do — and what you should NEVER do.
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Why Auto-Marketing is Another Threat to Effective Crisis Management
By Nora Jacobs, Hennes Communications
When we create crisis communications plans for clients, we remind them that their best-crafted words of apology can come across as hollow when the recipient is directed to the guilty party’s homepage that still features photos of smiling, satisfied customers apparently oblivious to the crime or misbehavior the site’s host is confessing to.
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Practicing Law In The Public Spotlight
By Thom Fladung, Hennes Communications, and Jack Bacevice, Mansour Gavin
In this installment, we talk about the most effective approaches for working with reporters covering trials.
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Lawyers Should Not Rewrite Crisis Communications
By Bruce Hennes, Hennes Communications
Frankly, I don’t know one single attorney that wants to lie. But I do encounter many who want to deny the obvious, parse facts down to a micro-millimeter – and preserve everything for trial, despite the fact there’s a 97% chance that case is never going to actually go to trial.
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Get Inside a Reporter’s Head to Prep for a Media Interview
By Howard Fencl, Hennes Communications
When you’re faced with a media interview on a breaking crisis or a tough issue your organization’s working through, media training experts will tell you to anticipate the toughest questions you can imagine. But taking a step further and anticipating the reporter’s approach to covering your issue is a critically important exercise. Step back from your issue and get inside the reporter’s head!
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A Crisis is Coming - Is Your Board on Board?
What makes an independent school succeed or fail when crisis strikes? More often than not, the difference hinges on whether the administration and board work collaboratively. The greater the crisis, the greater the stressors on the relationship between the two. Advance planning is critical.
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11/07/19 - Luzerne County Bar Association (Wilkes-Barre, PA)
11/14/19 - Association of Corp. Counsel - NE Ohio Chapter
11/21/19 - Ohio Association of Civil Trial Attorneys
12/02/19 - Tucker Ellis (Cleveland)
12/11/19 - Association of Corp. Counsel - Central Ohio Chapter
12/16/19 - Akron Bar Association
12/17/19 - Toledo Bar Association
12/19/19 - Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association
12/20/19 - Cincinnati Bar Association
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For full information about our Continuing Legal Education Seminars,
click on the photo below.
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Attention Public School Board Members,
Superintendents & Attorneys
OSBA Capital Conference Seminars
Monday, November 11, 10:30 am - 11:30 am, Crisis Management for Education Leaders
Speaker: Bruce Hennes
Monday, November 11, 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm Practical Tips for Social Media Crises
Speaker: Thom Fladung
The Ohio School Boards Association (OSBA) has entered into a strategic partnership with Hennes Communications to provide crisis management and communications services to public school systems throughout the State of Ohio facing sudden challenges to their organizations’ reputations and operations. With this partnership, OSBA member school leaders have access 365 days a year to expert crisis communications professionals. |
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Not Everything is a Crisis
Most crises are unexpected and sudden - a traffic accident, explosion, fire, chemical leak, social media attack or criminal arrest.
While a crisis usually appears to be sudden, sometimes you should have seen it coming. For example, activists who hate your product, lax enforcement of company policies and procedures, deferred maintenance on heavy equipment, or instability in your leadership ranks.
More often than not, what you're probably facing is an issue, a situation that can and should have been foreseen. For instance, three months from now you know you're going to close a plant, discontinue a product, get a new board chair, acquire a company or announce a rate hike. For another example, click here.
Whether it's a crisis or an issue, carefully crafted communications targeting the appropriate audience at the right time can go a long way toward mitigating the amount of reputational damage you experience and the work you need to do to restore confidence among your stakeholders.
Identifying an issue early gives you the added ability to craft a well-rounded strategic plan that not only identifies what you say, it enables you to carefully consider allies you might enlist, initiatives you might employ to blunt the effectiveness of your adversaries and other tactics designed to protect your market.
Are there threats looming on your horizon you should address now? Let us help you create the communications to help you avoid them from evolving from issues you can manage to crises you can’t avoid.
While we sell "crisis" (hence our website name, www.crisiscommunications.com ), the professionals at Hennes Communications understand the difference between crises and issues.
And now, we hope you do, too. |
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Crisis Communications & Media Training
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Do All PR Firms Offer Crisis Communications?
It seems that way. Since there are no real barriers to entry, every P.R. firm in the U.S. now appears to offer “crisis communications.”
In actuality, they don’t. Crisis work requires a different – and often counterintuitive - skill set from the traditional practice of public relations. As well, it’s also an art form where more often than not we’re helping clients figure out not just what to say, but what to do, which isn’t something learned from a book.
More and more often, business advisers – especially those who truly understand their clients’ business models and wish to offer holistic advice, rather than simply serving as "transactionalists” - are beginning to understand that the Court of Public Opinion is arguably more important than the Court of Law, especially since 97% of all cases never actually make it to trial.
When you're searching about for a crisis firm, ask them to provide you with a list of specific and similar crisis situations they've handled in the past. Ask them, too, who'll actually do the work? Senior people with decades of experience? Or junior people?
We rest our case.
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Media Training
No one trains clients for high-stakes situations better than Hennes Communications. We can teach you how to communicate with power, mastering even the toughest interview, speech or presentation.
Call or email us today and ask us about crisis, media, spokesperson and presentation training/coaching for you, your top executives and managers.
Remember – it's usually not what you say, but how you say it. Never again go into a media interview unprepared or go before a hostile audience uncoached.
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11/4 Medina County Educational Services Center
11/5 Winding River Managing Partners Boot Camp (Cleveland)
11/7 Luzerne County Bar Bench-Bar Conference (Wilkes-Barre)
11/14 Association of Corporate Counsel - Greater Cleveland Chapter
11/18 Marshall School of Law, Cleveland State University
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11/21 Ohio Association of Civil Trial Attorneys (Cleveland)
11/21 County Auditors Association (Columbus)
12/2 Tucker Ellis (Cleveland)
12/4 Ohio Association of Secondary School Administrators Safety Conference (Columbus)
12/5 Ohio Association of County Boards (Columbus)
12/12 Ashtabula Safety Council
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