Defending the Accused in a Sex Crime
To Defeat A Bully, Take Away Their Ammunition
To Defeat A Bully, Take Away Their Ammunition. Politics can be brutal. If you run for office, you should prepared to face your toughest critics and have your dirty laundry aired. As a serious candidate, knowing the bad choices you made, you can pre-empt your opponents attacks by addressing your negatives and turn them into something positive.
The Meaningless Apology
Crises happen! Products are recalled, natural disasters strike and scandals pop up more frequently than we would like, but they happen. Other than being prepared for the unexpected, how quickly and meaningfully a company, public official or even a spouse responds will determine how quickly trust is restored and people can move forward from blame to fixing the problem.
It's Time For Trump To Embrace Conflict
Politicians must confront those that disagree with them, just as the protestors are confronting the candidates. They can leverage the protester's comments in their favor and use it to help rally a crowd that is there not to be won over, but there to rally behind the candidate. In fact, the protestor can be used to drive home a point.
Don't blame the messenger!
If we don't trust those whom we elect why should we trust their spokesperson. According to the 2015 Edelman Trust Barometer, in the US, more people place their trust in business before government. To gain the public's trust and avoid difficult situations like those that have emerged in Flint, Detroit, Baltimore, Cleveland and other cities those that we elect have to start to listen to those they represent and communicate with the people affected directly.
Restoring the public's trust after a crises
Crisis just don’t just happen, they evolve. Just like hurricanes do not suddenly appear, they are given time to gain momentum or dissipate. A forest fire does not start out as an inferno, it starts out as a brushfire. And a terrorist attack does not just happen, the terrorists plot, plan practice and kill.
Embrace The Boycott To Show You Want To Be A Part Of The Change
Movies are created to share stories, advocate for change and start a conversation about what life is like, can be like or should be like. While the Academy failed to celebrate the rich diversity our movies bring and honor those behind and on the screen, it is providing a forum to discuss diversity and inclusion. But frankly, we are beyond that discussion and Hollywood should be WAY beyond that.
WHEN THE PERSON BECOMES THE PROBLEM
An Effective Recall
Limiting Reputational Risks When Information Is Breached
Businesses today do not have the luxury of waiting 30 days let alone thirty minutes to notify its stakeholders of a breach in cyber security. CEOs along with the CMO, CIO and CLO must work to create effective and swift protocols to deal with data breaches to limit legal liability risk and risk to the company’s reputation.
After Scandal, Your Reputation Can Be Fixed
A Plan For Community Engagement
Conflict is inevitable with any high profile project. However, a carefully structured dialogue could offer a more effective and durable method to resolve conflicts and build consensus around controversial or often complex projects.
If project teams for high profile projects, such as a new international border crossing, a jail, new stadium or arena or a large mixed-use development are serious about seeing their vision a reality while contributing to the community, an effective strategy would be to engage the community and other stakeholders early in the process.
The community benefits when everyone is engaged
The community benefits when everyone is engaged. From the design stage to the public process in securing permits, in addition to raising capital and targeting potential retailers and other tenants, constant engagement is vital to the success of any high profile project.
Developing strategic relationships “early-on” helps minimize risk and helps anticipate barriers to seeing projects to their completion. Effective communications is vital to the public’s understanding of the project and the governments involved in helping the project move forward. Therefore, the company or consortium leading the project should be in control of the process and be proactive with their messaging and outreach.
ATTACKED! What you can do to protect your REPUTATION
One Tip For Elected Officials -- DON'T AVOID THE MEDIA!
It is the role of media, to investigate, to inform and to drive change in the public arena. Many reporters have a lot invested in developing these stories. Chances are, by the time they get to you, their stories have already been written and produced. They are simply looking for a quick visual and a soundbite.
5 Tips To Limiting Vulnerability To a Cyber Attack & Other Crises
The public matters: Stakeholder Engagement
In siting a project, such as a large scale mixed-use development or a high profile project such as a wind farm, pipeline or even WalMart, it is vital that the developer and construction team seek and obtain input from the community early on in the process and aggressively work to educate the media and other key stakeholders on their plans.
In representing such "public" projects, reaching out to the public must become a vital part of the process, otherwise, the project may be at jeopardy from the start. The community should feel like their voices are being heard and listened to. This will improve the chances of the developer realizing their vision and help strengthen their position to seek financing or investors.
In the example of windfarms, I was retained to represent an 1800 MW off shore wind proposal in Southwestern Ontario in Lakes Erie and St. Clair. In one day, I led 7 public engagement meetings and the public was anything but supportive. They could have been if they were involved early in the process, rather than reading about in the newspaper. Because they read about it they were more emotional about the project than in understanding the big picture and how the developer leading the project was interested in working with the community and their plans for working with the community -- but that message was never heard. So while we listened and responded to their concerns, the project was never implemented. It was not implemented due to regulatory changes in the province, not because of public opinion.
I also represented a deep injection well, several years after the project was in operation and already cited for environmental violations by a previous owner. The new owner retained me to help improve relationships with the community to better understand the deep injection process and impact or lack thereof, this project would have. So I invited the community into their facility to see the cite first hand, to appreciate the technology and see the depth of safeguards and systems they had in place to avoid future problems.
Whether directed by law or not, stakeholder engagement is a necessary part of the process, particularly with renewable energy projects. In these type of projects it is important that the community have any necessary information to the project and have an outlet to ask questions, whether it is through a website, twitter feed or in person meetings. In fact, before a project ever begins it is a good idea to engage key stakeholders in a thoughtful dialogue so you know what you are getting into and can anticipate issues and responses. While we knew we would not get the community's support, we wanted to let them know the new owner was aware of their concerns and willing to work with them.
There are other examples, from large scale mixed-use developments set to transform a city to environmental justice issues such as the storage of petroleum coke along a major H20 Highway in the Great Lakes, but they all need a strategic strategy to educate a community, listen to their concerns and engage them rather than avoid them. The public needs to be a part of the process. By engaging the community, a developer will have an easier time going to the Mayor for support or getting the city council to agree on their proposal, long before they ultimately need their support.
Developers are quick to announce projects and share renderings of new buildings. Often however, they build up hope and good media, only to get sidelined by government that stands in the way of implementing a vision. To make the vision a reality, developers should go to the community first, find the community groups they need for support or at least become aware of their concerns and plan accordingly. This will also improve the developers position to seek financing or investors as it helps tell the project's story.
In other words, for a project to be successful, creating a strategy that engages the pubic early, with sufficient information will help build trust, enhance your reputation and improve understanding of the project to help reach desired outcomes. Successful local engagement, will help improve or overcome any legal and regulatory challenges standing in the way so the next time someone announces a project, it won't be because the public's opinion is not on their side.
