In March, Dennis Woerner, Director of Marketing with the Indianapolis Zoo and Joel Zawacki, Assistant General Manager with the Indianapolis Indians were ready for the spring season, fully prepared to welcome visitors and fans back with new and exciting experiences. But they soon realized they would have to shift gears dramatically and prepare for a different kind of season with the arrival of COVID-19.
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The early days of COVID-19 were a frightening scramble for all, but nowhere more-so than the hospital and healthcare setting.
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As recent as a few weeks ago, we were still talking about going “back to normal.” But as we’ve learned and observed alongside our clients and our own staff, it’s obvious that work life and culture as we know it have been forever changed. We will “go back,” just not to normal.
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Is it possible to plan for a pandemic? A few months ago, I would’ve answered this question differently than I would today. As experts in crisis planning and communication, we have always had a robust plan of our own if a crisis should strike. When we moved to our new office in 2017, we needed to update the plan and decided to add pandemic protocols. I must admit at the time, I didn’t think we’d ever have to activate this section. Then, COVID-19 happened. And just like every business, our plan went into action.
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“In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing is nothing.” – Teddy Roosevelt In this time of almost unprecedented global crisis, I have been consistently amazed at the creative responses coming from individuals, companies, organizations and communities. When the going got tough, lots of people got going in ways that weren’t predictable.
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In the first few weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, the best leaders were those who communicated with employees with empathy, truth and frequency. Our advice to clients in the early days was the same as it would be in any crisis. Communicate with:
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Businesses everywhere are experiencing a new operational reality like never before. Jennifer Dzwonar recently joined Steve Walker’s podcast “The CX Leader” to discuss how CX professionals can be prepared to effectively manage crisis situations and help communicate with their customers.
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We do crisis. It’s what some of us do, week-in and week-out. Not the true first-responder type of crisis, but the who-do-you-call-when-things-are-looking-bad type of work. For some of us in public relations, we gravitate toward the type of counsel and work that’s needed when problems are happening, or imminent or just slightly visible in the distance. But the past two weeks have had a different flavor altogether.
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3 minute read
Organizations are run by people. So, when organizations find themselves in the midst of a sticky situation, they often react as individuals do—emotionally and with more attention on the negative than the positive. But negative feedback, even a lot of negative feedback, can create a distorted perception around a crisis and create the false impression that the overwhelming sentiment is negative.
3 minute read
While several of 2018’s major corporate PR trends – executive crises, social media tailspins and an increased focus on diversity, to name a few – carried into 2019, there are five key trends companies need to prepare for to successfully navigate their communications challenges in the year ahead.