Module 7

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Module 7 Stakeholder/Partner Communication

• Deborah Grigsby Smith
• State of Colorado
• Director of External Communications Homeland
  Security

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Bird flu hits Florida
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Stakeholders and partners

• Stakeholders have a special connection to you and
  your involvement in the emergency (Can be
  internal, external)
• Interested in how the incident will impact them
• Partners have a working relationship with you and
  collaborate in an official capacity
• Are interested in fulfilling their role in the
  incident and staying informed

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About stakeholders

• Not all stakeholders are created equal
• Some love you
• Effort to reinforce that love
• Some hate you
• Identify and prepare to respond appropriately
• Some ride the fence
• Chance to increase support/criticism
• Some may even swap sides mid-course
• Can stem from existing stakeholder controversies

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Stakeholders

• Employees
• Families
• Retirees
• Board members
• Clients/customers
• Community leaders
• Elected officials
• Unions
• Labor organizations

• Legal advocates
• Competitors
• Media
• General public
• Other businesses
• Natl/local/tribal counterparts
• Students
• Volunteers
• Donors

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Trust and mistrust

• Stakeholders judge the response to an issue based
  on trust
• Trust is based on consistent behavior is the
  natural consequence of promises fulfilled
• Mistrust is an outgrowth of the perception
  promised broken, values violated
• How does your organization fulfill trust?

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Consequences of mistrust

• Recommendations are ignored lives and property
  at risk
• Resources wasted
• Policies circumvented loss of control
• Opportunists prey on the trust gap
• Hard to accomplish your mission

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Why jump though hoops?

• Ensure you get information from the people you
  need
• They represent a variety of points of view
• Also gives you a chance to share your point of
  view as well (prevent misunderstandings)
• Improve your organizational performance
• Also can serve as a force multiplier for your
  mission, cause, or program

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The five big boo-boos

• Inadequate accessibility
• Not returning phone calls, missing appts.
• Lack of understandability
• Jargon, acronyms, ambiguous, too technical
• Lack of energy in response
• No sense of urgency
• Timeliness (too little, too late)
• Perceptions of arrogance
• Stakeholders not valued

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When stakeholders are upset

• Four elements are crucial
• Speed of your response
• Avoid creating more problems during crisis
  resolution
• Accept responsibility
• Acknowledge the emotional context

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When harm has occurred

• Stop doing whatever is causing the harm
• Apologizeif appropriate and when it can do the
  most good
• Seek feedback, make it better
• Try not to do it again
• Nothing happens until you communicate that it is
  happening

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Conspicuously bad mistakes

• Deny the problem exists
• Shoot the messenger
• Silence
• Respond with evasions and half truths
• Selectively tell the story
• Over-tell the story
• I perspective
• Point fingers

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So how do I deal with all this?

• Start with a crisis communication plan
• Do as much in advance as possible
• Fact sheets, stock photos, press release
  templates, stakeholder surveys, key messages,
  draft statements, media training
• Develop PIO partners within your stakeholder
  communitiesand share information
• Participate in major exercises, plan your own

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Be forthcoming with info

• Try to be two steps ahead
• Anticipate their concerns and questions
• Be ready with well-crafted answers
• Coordinate your messages with others
• Consistent messages across the board
• Your stakeholder may be someone elses as well
• Never let them see you sweat
• Keep confusion and power struggles out of the
  limelight

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Assess stakeholder reaction

• Define
• Your advocates
• Your adversaries
• Your ambivalents
• Estimate/prognosticate
• Who is likely to be involved what they want
• Estimate necessary level of management
  involvement and plan for it
• Focus on key stakeholders reactions

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Methods to communicate

• Designated Web page for partners and stakeholders
• Calls from management/leadership
• Periodic updates
• Reciprocity with newsletters

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Develop partnerships

• Do this BEFORE the crisis
• Create a partner contact list
• Draft a plan for partner communication during a
  crisis (e-mail alerts, twice daily faxes, etc.)
• Collaboration on press releases if appropriate
• Be cautious, this can foster an increase in the
  risk of leaks.
• Negotiate the same for your organization
• Clearly know each partner organizations
  leader/authority/approval process.

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Continued

• Build stakeholder/media contact lists well in
  advance
• Local, national, regional
• Newspaper, television, radio, magazines
• Consider subscribing to a news push service
• www.prnewswire.com
• Update them monthly
• Good job for interns, volunteers
• Break it up into sections per week

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Community relations

• Community leader/institutions valuable partners
  during a crisis
• Help gain support, distribute information,
  counter rumors
• They are familiar, trusted, and often influential
• Reach out to them BEFORE a crisis
• Develop fast and reliable channels of
  communication
• Understand their role, and make sure they
  understand yours

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Building consensus in a crisis

• Dont try to do it all yourself
• Dont let the media do it for you
• Consider engaging a neutral third-party to speak
  on behalf of all involved (mediator, counselor)
• Focus on commonalities
• Acknowledge different views
• Assure stakeholders effort to find consensus

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Convening a citizens forum

• Can help expedite resolution to issues
• Can also fan the flames
• Professional facilitator/arbitrator may be needed
• Must include all elements of community, not just
  those that make the biggest noise
• Empower the group to act independently
• Make sure you can clearly articulate your
  decision and why it was selected over others

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Engage in quality listening

• Asking questions will help show you care
• Listen actively
• Take notes (two people take notes)
• Listen for intent (feeling)
• Listen for content (facts)
• Who is speaking?
• Qualified to give expert opinion?
• Any underlying motives or connections?
• Prejudices that will compromise objectivity?

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Dealing with an angry public

• Crisis situations often yield imperfect decisions
  that have to be made in minutes
• Complicated by instantaneous ubiquity of
  press/cell phones/leaks
• Understand anger is a defensive response
• When people have been hurt, when they feel
  threatened by risks, when they believe
  fundamental beliefs/rights are being eroded

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More on angry public

• Anger can intensify when people feel powerless
• Important to engage them, treat them with respect
  no matter what their views are
• But be careful as anger can also be a tool to
  manipulate
• Dont lecture, make it easy for the audience to
  discover the answer themselves
• If they figure it out, you dont have to sell
  them
• Ask the right questions, leave the breadcrumbs

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Let them sell themselves

• Questions to help stakeholder persuade themselves
• Open ended questions
• Then ask questions to uncover their explicit
  needs and desires
• One they purge its easier to demonstrate your
  ideas

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De-escalating conflict

• Always seek common principles upon which to base
  common dialogue
• Remain open to reason
• Strive for fairness, especially where either real
  or perceived inequality has occurred
• Work to get input from all stakeholders
• Open up as much information as possible (sans
  criminal or other protected info)

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De-escalating conflict

• Try to get as many yeses as you can. Get them
  early in the meeting.
• Reframe accusations
• Your proposal is totally unrealistic
• (Are you saying you dont understand how my
  proposal can respect citizens rights and stop the
  spread of disease?)

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Wrap-up

• Stakeholders are crucial part of your
  organization (before, during and after)
• Timely, tailored and consistently accurate
  information builds trust
• Identify all stakeholders, their anticipated
  reactions to likely crisis events
• Pre-plan communications
• Network and develop new partners BEFORE crisis
  events

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Wrap-up

• Dont try to handle everything on your own.
• Listen to your stakeholders, dont pass judgment
  (immediately)
• Know when to bring in a professional
  facilitator/mediator/neutral third party
• Dont lecture let stakeholders discover the
  answer themselves

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Wrap-up

• Seek common principles
• Be open to other ideas (but dont waffle)
• Rack up the yeses as early and as often as
  possible
• Take care of yourself and your staff during times
  of crisis (sleep, food, mental breaks)