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Communication Crisis Communication LinkedIn

An Elementary Primer for Your Crisis Communication Efforts

The article was first published on LinkedIn here.

If you accept on the day prior to embarking on your entrepreneurial journey that you will be facing  a range of crisis along the journey, tiding over which would lead you to success, you would be creating a healthy foundation for an effective response to any future crisis.

The acceptance happens at the subconscious level. But it still is a communication – with your own self. Believe it or not, that is the first crisis communication exercise that you undertake.

That, luckily, is also the first lesson in crisis communication: ANTICIPATION of crisis and being proactive about it is the absolute key towards executing a successful – read ‘easy to understand and effective’ – crisis communication.

The real advantage lies not only in the fact that you would be better prepared to address the crisis situation but also in the possibility that you – by means of pre-empting it – might even be able to prevent the crisis from raising its head in the first place. That would be a magnificent example of crisis management by means of having an early crisis communication within the core team of any organisation.

That core team may or may not have communication experts. If not, then it is imperative to make sure that the designated communication team members – or at least the communication leadership – is made a part of all the (anticipatory) crisis management team meetings.

A complete involvement in and UNDERSTANDING of the issue and the approach towards managing the crisis – whether anticipated or existing  – would allow the communication team to be better equipped while DEVISING the crisis communication message, while also TRAINING better the eventual external or public/partners facing spokespersons.

From there on, it is a matter of ESTABLISHING systems for notifying the message (‘communication’) to the desired stakeholders – and for MONITORING the effectiveness of the notifications. The monitoring would involve gauging responses to the communication and, after interpreting the responses, making adjustments to both the message and the delivery methods and modes for greater efficacy of crisis communication.

Sometimes, the crisis does not blow up into something massive. It is always beneficial to, therefore, study the nature of the crisis carefully, as it unfolds. That period, when things are in a flux, is generally called ‘The Critical Hour’. The ‘hour’ demands that the crisis communication team does not go overboard with their messages – but develop and release, what is called, ‘holding statements’.

The beautiful thing about holding statements is that they can be devised right at the first (‘anticipation’) stage itself. Further, they are also common sense statements. Here are a couple of examples:

“The situation is evolving, and we will keep everyone updated via our website and social media networks as we receive more information.”

“We are both investigating the incident and cooperating with the authorities.”

Not too difficult, eh? And yet, so many – just so many – organizations don’t do even this bit.

Talking of simple things, well, it goes without saying that holding statements have a life. A minute longer than the ideal (decided, unfortunately, entirely by the recipients) can open up another battlefront for the team – that of public ire about the team’s ‘professionalism’ etc.

Unlike the holding statements, actual crisis communication cannot be developed in advance. No one can ever predict completely what turn a crisis might take the next hour. Therefore it is mandatory for the entire crisis management team to be at the top of the awareness about the developing crisis situation and keep monitoring, enhancing crisis communication efforts.

Unless absolutely impossible (undesirable), transparency and continuous notifications is the key. There haven’t been too many instances in the history of the human race of people complaining of too much communication about a developing crisis.

Finally, all of the above would be futile if the team doesn’t learn from the crisis – and its management. POST-CRISIS ANALYSIS would reveal that there is no such thing as ‘it won’t happen to me’ or ‘I’ve got everything covered’. No, you can’t have everything covered at all times, and yes, it could happen to you.

The key takeaways of the analysis should be the performance of the crisis communication strategy both from the concept and execution aspect, and the performance of the crisis management team. A good appraisal should be good for an immediate reward for the personnel. A bad one should work as a good lesson in crisis communication management.

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Change Communication Communication LinkedIn

How Good are You at Communicating Change?

The article was first published here.

In another reflection of changing times in India, a lawmaker of the current Indian government has put emphasis on something that is generally discussed at progressive corporate organisations – change communication.

Speaking at the valedictory function of Mid Career Training Programme for Senior Indian Information Service officers (IIS) at Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad, India’s Minister of Information & Broadcasting, Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Shri M Venkaiah Naidu said that the Narendra Modi government places ‘communication as a critical cog in the wheel of change‘.

He said three very interesting things at the function:

“To bring about a change always creates a dissonance in the governance process.”

“The (current federal) government in the past two years has embarked on a program of communication innovation-adopting methods, seeking spaces to ensure last mile connectivity to the people.”

“The objective is to plug the gaps in the government’s communication approach in areas of content design, social marketing, branding, impact assessment and weaving technologies in the digital age.”

This is a refreshingly different approach from a government in India, after decades of top-down monologue-oriented official communiqués. Those, of course, work(ed) brilliantly in a bureaucracy led system that cherishes status quo. But rarely, if ever, in heralding a change.

How well the current administration is able to walk the talk of a comprehensive communication roadmap remains to be seen. But going by – probably the best in the world – responses on Twitter by, for example, India’s Minister for External Affairs, Smt. Sushma Swaraj, and Minister for Railways, Shri Suresh Prabhu, the start has been good.

It would take another couple of terms of successive governments for the system to finally institutionalize good communication – especially that related to change – in Indian polity.

But it should take a much smaller period for you to implement the ‘Change Communication Good Practises‘, so to speak, in your corporate organisation.

Here, we are talking about ‘change’ in general – from the perspective of general communication requirements of internal, corporate, and marketing communication, among all other.

The principal facilitator of good change communication is the ability of the team behind it to understand how people (employees, partners, clients, consumers) perceive and respond to change. Our collective experiences over the years tell us that most people are reluctant for change because they see change as a force that disrupts their cosy corner of the world.

Hence, it is imperative for the change communication team to have the intellectual and emotional proficiency to appreciate and segregate the resistance to change, its sources, and silos – and devise communication answers (read ‘strategy’) for the response and/or resistance to change or the anticipation of change.

The first step towards achieving that is understanding the roles and responsibilities of the leaders, communicators, and people-facing personnel during the execution of change – whether in an intra-organisation sphere or those related to the markets.

Though it sounds elementary, it takes some effort and practice to ensure that the entire team consistently remains on the same page with regards tactics, channels, and techniques that are to be used for communicating change.

At the same time, and this is extremely crucial, the team has to realise that no can have a complete handle over the entire curve of the impending change.

This realisation has to be compassionately passed on to the recipients – while making sure that the team itself realises that it is communicating amid an open-ended, unpredictable change, which would require them to be ever flexible about the nature and frequency of their communication.

Some changes, for many, unfortunately, are not open-ended and unpredictable – and are precisely the kind of changes that makes people fear change in general. In other words, sometimes, change indeed stands for a bad news that has to be communicated.

Like most things in life, there is no one correct way of communicating bad news. But personally, I believe that we could learn from the fraternity that lives with the prospect of delivering bad news on any given day – the doctors.

As someone who belongs to a ‘cancer family’ and has interacted with doctors exhaustively in the context of my late father’s cancer diagnosis and treatment (in vain, the second time), I believe there is no communication as nerve-wracking as that between a terminally ill patient – or his/her caregiver – and the doctor in charge.

Identifying the significance of the subject, the American Medical Association (AMA) first included principles related to the delivery of bad news in its code of conduct almost 150 years ago.

American doctors Michael W. Rabow and Stephen J. McPhee developed a model in 1999 about ‘Techniques for Delivery Bad News Well’ that is represented by a simple mnemonic ABCDE.

ABCDE stands for  ‘Advance Preparation‘, ‘Building a Therapeutic Relationship‘, ‘Communicating Well‘, ‘Dealing with Patient and Family Reactions‘, and ‘Encouraging/Validating Emotions‘.

It is obvious what ‘bad news’ the medical fraternity refers to.

In our case, we can define bad news as any news that either proposes to bring about or is perceived as bringing about far-reaching and/or negative change in the current circumstances of the recipient of the news. In other words, the universe might be different, but the underlining principles of ABCDE work just as well in public policy and corporate governance communications.

Eventually, what really matters is your attitude and approach towards the recipients of your communication (if not actually being that, you should at least come across as being compassionate towards the people who stand to be affected by an impending change), the clarity of your communication, the safeguarding of privacy (related to issues like internal appraisal reports, if not the non-disclosure in public of the ‘pink slip’ itself), and the freedom for the recipient of change communication to question you, and get answers to his/her questions.

It’s not hard really but really needs heart.

How good are you at communicating change?

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Corporate Communication Entrepreneurship Featured LinkedIn

Dummies Guide to Internal Communications

internal_communication

At the absolute basic level, the solitary purpose of ‘internal communication’ is to make sure that everyone in the team remains ‘on the same’ page at all times.

From the organizational perspective, it helps unity of purpose and action – leading to a unified goal of success for everyone. The employees, on the other hand, consider themselves a worthy part of the narrative when they hear company news much before the world hears it – just as, and more importantly, when they feel that their communication with the organisation is a dialogue and not a directive.

Fortunately, the prerequisites for that overall agreement are just as uncomplicated:

  • Clarity of (purpose of the) message in either or every (vertical + lateral) direction;
  • Catalytic medium for a clear message (some mediums are more suited for some purposes);
  • Correct consumption of message (precise understanding of and action upon the message by the staff);
    and most importantly,
  • Command structure walking the message (if the CEO is messy, no amount of communication can extract discipline from the subordinates)

In other words, Internal communications ought to facilitate decision making at the top via quality ‘floor feedback’ and encourage employee participation and output via clear and compassionate responsibility delegation – leading to overall benefit of the organization, the management and the employees.

It goes without saying, however, that though elementary, the aforementioned, quite like preparation of a project report, takes planning, practice and passion. The only favourable difference is that preparation of ‘internal communication’ blueprint is principally a process of adapting a singular message to its finite modes of delivery – within the finite realm of an organisation:

| A | Formal Face-to-Face Meetings | – |

Unless we are talking of a really small organization (< 50 personnel), face-to-face meetings don’t actually mean one-on-one between the management and individual staffers. The exercise can be split into the usual brackets as follows:

  • Management Meeting (@ CEOs, group heads, division heads et al)
  • Select-Group Cross-Divisional Meeting (@ lateral and vertical core representatives of divisions)
  • Workgroup or Divisional Meeting (@ intra division / group meetings of stake holders)
    and finally, the
  • Entire Organisation ‘Mission & Vision’ Meeting (@ entire strength of the organization)

| B | Informal Face-to-Face Meetings | – |

Anything informal is – or at least ought to be – much lighter. It holds true for informal face-to-face office meetings too. It is difficult to pin down ‘informality’, but here are some of the more obvious ones:

  • Drop-ins (mostly top brass visiting ‘the floor’ but can also be about select few invited for a (non classified) management brainstorming)
  • The Water Cooler Meeting (rarely between the absolute top and the ground level, but fairly effective for levels just about similar or thereabouts)
  • Lunch / Breakfast / Coffee Meetings (between a convener and a small group of stake holders)

| C | Electronic | – |

  • Voice (Phone-in and phone-out @ both the leadership and the staff)
  • Social Media (an internal social network site or a closed group on platforms like Facebook etc)
  • E-mail, including mass group mailers
  • Intranet, including sharing domains like Google Drive, Wikis etc
  • E-newsletters
  • Podcasts (as in an organization wide radio talk, Q&A etc by a designated person every week)
  • Videos (either for the above purpose or to share motivational, educational films @ company objective and targets)

| D | Print and Display | – |

  • Continuous Vision and Mission Docs (explaining new targets and changes @ original vision)
  • Newsletter (preferably with ample – if not majority – space for employee voices)
  • Bulletin Board (especially about forthcoming events, targets and, most importantly, changes)
  • Anonymous Suggestion Box

These are just the broad boxes that you need to tick for effective internal communications. You don’t have to subscribe the exact forms. The form would eventually be decided by the nature of your organisation and the purpose of the activity. Remember, the idea is to facilitate precise, coherent and well-timed flow of information across the hierarchy.

Finally, let’s end this concise guide with one last basic bit of truth:

None of the aforementioned internal communications activities sit in a box; they are all eternal processes – like an invigorating fresh water stream.

This tutorial was published on LinkedIn here

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Entrepreneurship Featured Indian Subcontinent Journalism LinkedIn

So Long, Sabeen Mahmud

sabeen

‘Friend’ is a rather strong word, but I believe Sabeen Mahmud and I considered each other almost that – despite not being in touch lately. We had first got talking in 2006 due to our common links then with The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE).

A few years into my own business, I was just about testing TiE organization waters via ‘a mere’ ordinary membership of TiE Ahmedabad (India) Chapter, while she was already, among other things, a guiding light of the Karachi (Pakistan) Chapter. But that didn’t stop her from signing off her first email in her uniquely unassuming, unpretentious style: “32 – non-procrastinating female bachelor (what in the hell is a politically correct alternative to spinster, btw?)”

Last night (April 24), two gunmen on motorcycle pumped five bullets into her body while she was on her way home in Karachi. The attack took place shortly after she hosted a talk event titled ‘Unsilencing Baluchistan’, about the issue of human rights in the province that has played host to a bloody separatist insurgency for many years.

As per the New York Times, Sabeen agreed to host the discussion after it had been canceled at a private university in Lahore, “reportedly at the behest of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Directorate”.

But this piece is not about the politics surrounding the tragedy. Reflecting the DNA of this platform, this remembrance is about Sabeen’s unshackled entrepreneurial spirit.

Though she was already established as COO of Beyond Information Technology Solutions – b.i.t.s, a J Walter Thomson (JWT) associate company, her fierce independent streak reflected in no form better than the place she nonchalantly named The Second Floor (T2F) – “because it was housed on the second floor of a nondescript office building”.

But there was no nonchalance involved with the purpose of the space. Sabeen was clear about what she wanted T2F to be: ‘A community space for open dialogue’.

To gather context about the initiative, read this by NPR’s Dina Temple-Raston:

“If you were in Greenwich Village or SoHo in New York, this would sound like more of the same. But this being Pakistan, the Second Floor is unusual. When lawyers demonstrated after then-Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf fired dozens of senior judges in 2007, demonstrators planned their next moves at the Second Floor.”

One of the more notable recent events of T2F was Pakistan’s first ‘Hackathon’ in 2013 – a weekend-long event with about ten teams focusing on solutions to civic problems in Pakistan.

Organised a few months ahead of the country’s parliamentary elections, the event featured a diverse group of people, from coders, civic planners to private sector executives.  After brainstorming about Pakistan’s three dozen odd problem areas, the selected participants got down to working on nine targeted issues that could be solved with workable, effective apps.

Such was the aura of the enterprise that the administration was more than excited to be a part of it – especially since some of the apps were about identifying, tabulating and reporting government infrastructure and delivery inefficiencies.  Other solutions ranged from crime mapping to emergency services.

Yes, apps for governance delivery – in a region where the latter is still largely non-existent!

But then that’s what set her apart.

A self-confessed ‘tech addict’, she was a ‘Mac snob’ to such an extent that she often gave Steve Jobs credit for shaping her “anti-establishment, anti-war, pro-freedom worldview”. It wouldn’t be too much of an exaggeration to say that design and technology were an extension of her body.

Once during a visit to her maternal uncle (‘Mamoo’) in London, she found herself without connectivity for some reason. “Didn’t mean to not respond – have been in London with no Internet access. […] I tried dialup but his phone line felt like it was from the sub-continent… Any other city and I would have fallen ill but London!!!!!!!! So much to do and see that didn’t miss the lack of connectivity much,” she wrote to me a few days later.

Over a period of 8 years, T2F hosted over 800 events – reaching the current average frequency of about four events a week. The events include corner meetings for independent political candidates, symposia on culture, technology and society, tele-conferencing with exiled leaders and thought leaders from across the world, talks, readings, standup comedy, film screenings, concerts, technology workshops, art exhibitions and pretty much everything that it was approached for. A large number of those events were streamed live, tweeted in real time and digitally recorded for archives.

But it is not about numbers. It is about entrepreneurial spirit being put to effective use in the social sphere.  She once told me, “Street art adds colour and intelligence into a city, without changing the infrastructure”. The context was our conversation about mixing her expertise in design and technology and my understanding of civil engineering and media to good use towards a better society.

With tributes pouring in from New York Times, Pakistan’s current and past leaders and countless admirers on the social and mainstream media, one thing is clear – she added an awful lot of colour and intelligence to her society, despite her abridged stay therein.

“Hatred is inexplicable yet so rampant and accelerating at an appalling pace. You’re right, film/cinema is a potent medium. I’d love to try my hand at it – soon, hopefully” – she once wrote to me.

“It was good to hear that you’re open to the idea of making cinema. Maybe one day we can make a joint production – a lavish musical. What say ya? 🙂” – I had joked back.

Maybe some other time; so long, Sabeen Mahmud!

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Entrepreneurship Featured LinkedIn

Thinking Aloud: To Found or to Not, a New News Product

linkedinpost

As I grapple with the initial, broad mapping of content and technology architectures of a news journalism product that I plan to launch in India, I must admit that I am unusually distracted by the state of brand equity – and the consequent future – of the product category itself.

In the global context, the most recent push for the sobering deliberation came through the fall from grace of the much admired NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams. In an on-air apology, he lamented that a ‘faulty memory’ had led him to falsely claim that he faced intense enemy fire while riding in a U.S. Army helicopter in Iraq 2003. His helicopter was a good hour behind the helicopter that actually did.

Appearing just another unintentional or deliberate error of judgment in isolation, the context around the ‘helicopter incident’ is summed up well by Rekha Basu, columnist for The Des Moines Register, in her writing ‘Williams adds stain to media credibility’:

Decades ago, news anchor Walter Cronkite, with his steady, reassuring presence, gave Americans of all persuasions a trusted ally even when he brought us bad news. Now, at a time when universal trust in any news source — or anything else, for that matter — is a vanishing commodity, Williams had it and he blew it. And it will be harder for anyone in this business to build (emphasis mine).

The example is not about my suggesting that news media hasn’t been gradually battling a fall in credibility. Far from it; Williams just revealed himself to be the latest name in a modern day game in which news credibility is defined by means of either the popular or the partisan.

As an Indian, disbelieving television news anchors feels more like an instinct that evolves as a part of the growing up process – if it is not the government controlled newsroom, it most probably is the corporate house dictated one.

The broad difference between the two is that while it is easy to arrive at the discount percentage for India’s sole official / government news channel, it becomes impossible for anyone to know the extent of the ‘shaping of news’ under the guidance or pressure of principal advertisers / sponsors of news media vehicles.

Case in point with regards the latter is the ongoing ‘Essar links’ saga, which concerns alleged planting of stories in influential news media by senior journalists on behalf of Essar Group, an Indian multinational with interests in steel, energy, infrastructure and services sectors.

Alongside, even as I write this, newsrooms in New Delhi are abuzz with stories about a document of the country’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) that suggests out of ordinary funding arrangements of a media house – and the corresponding fretting of the big-ticket journalists and anchors who benefited from it. Expect an ivory tower or two to come down in India this summer.

You would think that it would be big news in India. But the only place where it is buzzing right now is Twitter – that new platform / medium for news as it happens. The rest of the country shall, as in the past, never learn about the details. It doesn’t care either, perhaps.

Unfortunately, everyone in the news media landscape knows that ‘Essar links’ are the kind of dealings that keeps many, if not most, organisations float above about 82,000 other news / journalism media titles (Source: 55th Annual ‘Press in India’ report) in India – and consequently survive for a new print.

So then, if many in media believe that ‘links’ with large business groups is part mode of ‘ensuring return on newsroom investment’; if large part of the readership today gets its news via Tweets and Facebook shares – only the 140 characters and / or headlines, mind you – rather than through purchase of the actual news sources, and most part of the society doesn’t care about who reports (‘writes’) what for whom and for what reason, how would you rate a NEW news product as a viable business proposition?

This is not an essay in pessimism. This is just to reflect upon and invite thoughts/ideas about succeeding in a scenario wherein a most vibrant product category might actually be a great platform for sowing seeds for glory but not really for reaping rewards of honest risks.

This musing was published on LinkedIn here

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Entrepreneurship LinkedIn

Entrepreneurship Shorts Series: The First Four Letters

ABCD

[The article was first published on LinkedIn here]

There’s always some distance to travel before you take the first step. It holds especially true for first-time entrepreneurs. So, it’s good practice to get A, B, C and D correct before hitting E, the first letter for every business adventure enthusiast:

‘A’ asks “A Plunge or A touch?” √

When aided by wings of a dream, life always seems much easier than what it eventually turns out to be. Nowhere does it read truer than in the life of a first-time entrepreneur. Yes, an idea can wreck your life – temporarily anyway.

So the first thing for you to decide is whether you can afford to do it full-time or bow to circumstances – both current and future – and secure your financial status first, and then begin your entrepreneurial journey – one small part-time step at a one.

Remember, in most cases, money does NOT start flowing in immediately (read ‘in the first year’). Moreover, venture capital / angel funding does not pay for your salary. On the contrary, you might have to pay for salaries of others even to get the project going.

And yet,

‘B’ beckons “Better Early than Best” √

Many a reams of paper have played host to advice about the best time to enter the market. Many of those routinely go through questions like “are you sure you want to do this (motive)”, “are you / your team capable of doing this (know how)” and “who are you doing this for / who would be your *first* customers (market)”.

Those are all extremely valid questions. But the purpose of no question should be to tie the respondent down. In fact, questions should set the respondent free with the resulting knowledge.

Also, we are way past the age when there used to be a lead period. What you are thinking is being simultaneously thought by many others. And what you believe is a perfect product, may still require a whole series of modifications – either to make the product better or just simply to suit the needs and whims of the market. So, why not get a real feedback from the market and work upon it?

But to be able to reach there,

‘C’ commands “Clarity and Crystallization” √

Once you address the ‘who’ (would do), ‘what’ and ‘why’ part of the exercise, you reach the absolute crux of the challenge – how to do it.

You would be surprised to learn just how much the ‘how’ part affects the other three aspects – and help you fine tune the idea.

Once you reach that stage, you would be so clear and convinced about your idea that you would be able to explain it to your younger sister – and her friend who you fancy – in a matter of a few minutes. That is exactly what the people who you would be meeting for finance appreciate too.

The idea is this: Can you sum up the idea – from product to customers and the process – in a single tweet (140 characters)? That restriction is not necessary, but is immensely helpful.

Example: A premium day-time vegan takeaway in CBD of New York that caters to employees of UN and other nonprofits in the neighbourhood.

In merely 125 characters (including spaces), it informs readers about the business, its location, its customers and its price range.

Finally,

‘D’ determines “Duration of the Dare” √

In our sales meetings, I often use the oft-quoted wisdom “targets without deadlines are merely dreams”. Put it in any words that you desire and it would still be true.

But my point here is not as much about tying down success to a demanding time limit as it is about you accepting and interpreting the results in time – to allow yourself to either change course or start afresh.

Late American actress Tallulah Bankhead had famously said: “If I had my life to live over again, I’d make the same mistakes, only sooner.” The thought, obviously, is not about wanting to make the same mistakes all over again but about having more time for other actions.

So, pre-decide a duration (rarely longer than 18 months) not just for *the* plan, but for that plan, its Plan B and even Plan C. If all of those fail within that duration, stop and re-evaluate – or relinquish the current pursuit. Taking a few steps back is often the first action towards acceleration.

Did you just tick all of the first four letters? Congratulations – you’re ready to hit ‘your first letter’ now! :- )