A Very Brief Primer on Repentance and Apologies, Genuine and Not
In the last issue of Crisis Management Today, we offered “The Basics of Saying ‘I’m Sorry’” with reference to Peter Sandman. You can find those basics below. But in this issue, we introduce another way of looking at apology, this time from Rabbi Richard Block, who writes: Genuine repentance has 3 basic components: recognizing and […]
Social Media Monitoring by Government Agencies – A Fine Line Between Privacy & Public Safety
[By Scott Juba] Social media monitoring and surveillance is a fact of life in today’s twenty-first century communication landscape. It is a near certainty that every person reading this has had their online communication monitored. In many cases, companies and brands track what customers and competitors are saying about them online and then use that […]
On the Ground in Cleveland During the Republican Convention
In a video produced by the Ohio Department of Public Safety, here’s what Cleveland looked like from ground level during the recent Republican National Convention. As the Washington Post said: They told us there’d be riots. Instead, we got a street party. You can see that video here. NOTE: The part about the convention starts at […]
As Profanity-Laced Video Leaks, Outlets Grapple with Trump’s Language
From Poynter: Open microphones have often left politicians and other powerful people red-faced and apologetic. But The Washington Post’s decision Friday to publish a video of Donald Trump explaining how he kissed and groped women pushed some newsrooms to dance around the graphic language while others took it public unedited. Because Trump’s attitude toward women […]
Body Language at the Second Presidential Debate
From The Washington Post: It’s not our faces that tend to offer the strongest clues about what we are feeling, but rather our bodies. In fact, the more intense the emotion, the more difficult the human face becomes to read and the more telling and accurate body language seems to become. That’s what a team of […]
I Muted Donald Trump & Hillary Clinton During the Debate. I Still Knew the Score.
We’ve told people for years that HOW you say something is more important than the exact words you use. Last week, the New York Times watched the first presidential debate with the sound off. The idea was simple: to test the theory that what presidential candidates say during debates is less important than what they look like […]
Trick or Treat! Outrage Masquerades as Principles in Crisis Management
Why are organizations punished in the Court of Public Opinion for violating ethical principles when they have not broken any law? Dr. Peter Sandman, a preeminent risk communications expert, says when an issue sparks outrage (and we see plenty of organizations pilloried in social media by outraged trolls every day), society becomes desperate to blame […]
Crisis Management: Faced With Trump’s Relentless Attacks, Ford (Finally) Has A Better Idea
By Thom Fladung Hennes Communications During Monday night’s presidential debate, Donald Trump once again made Ford Motor Co. the poster child for corporate flight from America. “So Ford is leaving,” Trump said. “You see that, their small car division leaving. Thousands of jobs leaving Michigan, leaving Ohio. They’re all leaving. And we can’t allow it […]
Hypervigilance and the Digital Age
Keywords: Cyberterrorism; Hypervigilance; PTSD; Abstract: This paper discusses the development of a hypervigilant culture within the U.S., with attention-grabbing low-frequency incidents overshadowing the far deadlier but less sensational every day risks. While we now live in a modern world where people are living longer, free-er, and richer than ever before, more of us have become […]
Responding to Reports of Sexual Abuse of Students, Past and Present – The Convergence of Attitudes and Expectations
From our friend and colleague, David Wolowitz… Recently, the responses of independent schools to reports of past abuse of students by faculty have received intense scrutiny by the news media, social media, survivors, victim’s lawyers and alumni. Why is this happening now? I believe we are in a period of cultural change in which there […]