Communicating in a Post-Pandemic World

Posted on July 19, 2021July 19, 2021 by Laurie Storey-Manseau

Can I tell you a secret? The pandemic made me love video meetings. I wouldn’t mind never talking on the phone again.

Okay, okay…I have and will talk on the phone again, but nowhere near as often as I did pre-pandemic. Video chat and video meetings exploded during COVID-19, and in the process changed business communications forever.

With 41 percent of Americans fully vaccinated and more than half partially vaccinated, businesses are welcoming employees and customers back through their doors. How we work – and how we work together – in a post-COVID world will never be the same. As technology stepped up to keep society functioning in a raging pandemic, telecommuting proved to be viable for so many more employees than we ever believed it was possible. Remote interaction with customers has become easy and almost preferable for both customers and businesses. Even school kids have learned that snow days have sadly become a distant memory.

The challenge for business communicators now is adapting these new ways to connect with customers, employees, partners, vendors and the world, utilizing engagement tools that have quickly replaced obsolete ways of communicating.

What’s really changed is a realization that we can quickly and effectively operate in new ways.

To be fair, the tools have existed for a while now. What’s really changed is a realization that we can quickly and effectively operate in new ways. What the pandemic affirmed is that where there’s a will, there’s a way, and technology has become that way.

So, with employees, customers and others settling into their home offices for good, those charged with the job of communicating important information without the ability to use many traditional tools we’ve always relied on have found they must quickly adapt. Some are wondering where to start.

Conducting a communication audit will reveal how innovative we must be. Not all old tools are obsolete, but we won’t know which ones to keep unless we understand whether or not people are still using them. Likewise, we don’t know how comfortable people are in receiving information through new technologies unless we ask.

Today’s mantra of relying on science applies to communications, too. The science of quantitative and qualitative research as part of a communications audit unveils essential information, giving communicators the ability to create effective communications, selling services and products, reaching out to new audiences, and keeping their businesses functioning.

To use an adage, there is no need to reinvent the wheel, so I look for innovation wherever I can find it. Remember, the highest form of flattery is to copy! Likewise, be generous with your ideas and innovations, and send them out to the world.

The idea doesn’t necessarily need to be to create anew, but to evolve what has worked so that it can be effective for today’s needs.

With so much change happening, new best practices are shifting rapidly. Our efforts to find the right tools to use may be hit and miss right now, but we must ground them in what’s working. The idea doesn’t necessarily need to be to create anew, but to evolve what has worked so that it can be effective for today’s needs.

We can all agree that it has been a challenging year and a half. The disruption we experienced with the pandemic has left so many of us uncertain on how to proceed. But, communicating is what’s kept us going. We can be certain of one thing; how we communicate will make a difference in how we succeed in changing times.

Communicating Through Mergers & Acquisitions

Posted on July 2, 2021July 2, 2021 by Laurie Storey-Manseau

Nothing strikes anxiety in the hearts of employees faster than the words “merger” and “acquisition”. With all the disruption businesses have experienced through the pandemic – several hanging on by their fingernails – for some, mergers and acquisitions have been their most viable road to survival.

When a company embarks upon a merger or is being purchased, communication becomes essential throughout the process and afterwards. Create a communication plan before the merger or acquisition is announced, so that you can keep communicating through the merger or acquisition. Here are a few dos and don’ts to keep things on track:

More than ever before, employees need information. They need to know what’s happening, and you need valued and essential staff not to jump ship. Communicate constantly using every tool in your toolbox.
Saying something once is never enough. Create key messages and talking points, and deliver them again and again, and then some more. You will feel that the messages have gone out and you’ll be tired of repeating them, but your employees won’t.
Never say that nothing will change because things will After all, that’s the reason for the merger or acquisition. The point is change means survival!
Be compassionate and be honest. When things change, they will require employees to change, with some even losing their jobs. Your honesty and compassion will make it much easier for them.
It’s never a merger of equals, so don’t say that it is just to make senior leaders and board members feel better about it. Be honest about what each organization brings to the table. Just because it’s not equal doesn’t make it not valuable.
Don’t guess if you don’t know. It’s okay to say you don’t have the answers, but you must remember that those answers are important to employees, so quickly follow up with information for them.
Go in with plans. On day one, your employees expect and deserve to know where the ship is headed, so have a chart for the journey. Nothing says that everything is set in stone, but plans give employees faith in the future.
Jump on early successes and communicate them with exuberance.
Finally, good and constant communication is reassuring. It gives comfort. Remember, you can never communicate enough!

Well Played

Posted on April 18, 2018 by Laurie Storey-Manseau

Johnson didn’t hide behind a statement, a lawyer, or a “no comment”. He delivered an apology and owned every word.

Did you see it? Did you see Kevin Johnson, Starbucks CEO, apologize again and again and again on live TV?

What Johnson did is probably one of the best damage-control efforts by a company-in-crisis’ leader in many years, and he had the network anchors praising him for it.

In a nutshell he:

Moved swiftly to contain the crisis;
Immediately went to Philadelphia, the site of the crisis;
Spoke to every major network immediately after the crisis broke;
Apologized with sincerity and took full responsibility;
Privately met with the two black men who were arrested to deliver his apology personally;
Met with Philadelphia political and community leaders to discuss what happened and commit to fixing the problem;
Acted the way a CEO should act.

In case you missed it, last Thursday, two black men went to Starbucks in Philadelphia for a meeting. While waiting for their colleague to join them in the meeting, they asked to use the bathroom. The store’s manager told them they couldn’t because they hadn’t bought anything. Then, she asked them to leave. When they didn’t, Starbucks’ manager called the police. The men were handcuffed, removed from the restaurant and arrested.

Now, that’s odd because Starbucks markets itself as being a place people can go to to work and meet, without being obligated to buy anything. What’s outrageous, to use Johnson’s words, is that two black men were accused by the store manager of trespassing and were arrested for doing exactly what Starbucks invites people to do.

Where other corporations and their leaders have failed, Starbucks succeeded. Their crisis communications plan worked. They were armed and ready. How do we know? Because they were in front of this horrendous story before it got out of control. They issued a statement of apology on Sunday and immediately framed the narrative, so that no one else had the opportunity to deliver a different message about Starbucks.

“It takes a lifetime to build reputation and only a few seconds to destroy one.” ~ Unknown

That was no coincidence. Johnson and his Public Relations team may not have known the specifics about what was about to unfold, but they had planned for some type of crisis like this. They had fill-in-the-blank talking points ready to go. Johnson was trained to speak to the media and deliver compelling messaging from the heart and with sincerity. They developed a theme – I am sorry and I take full responsibility – and Johnson delivered it.

Johnson didn’t hide behind a statement, a lawyer, or a “no comment”. He delivered an apology and owned every word. Then, he put his words into action with a commitment to close their stores in order to educate staff about conscious and unconscious biases so that it doesn’t happen again. He reached out and personally delivered his apology publicly and privately to the two people who deserved it most.

This was textbook crisis communications management at its best.

Now, take a look at your company. Would you be ready to roll before things got out of control in a crisis? If the answer is no – or even I don’t know – it’s time to put your plan together, because a crisis isn’t going to wait for you to be ready.