Refreshing your organization’s communications strategy in the New Year
Houses can be destroyed by catastrophic events like hurricanes, tornadoes and wildfires. But more often than not, the seemingly smaller issues—like a tiny leak that goes unnoticed or a slow shift in its foundation—can slowly but surely bring a house to ruin.
Similarly, we have all seen organizations brought down by a sensational scandal. While it is painful to watch those situations unfold, many organizations experience a far less dramatic downfall when issues bubbling beneath the surface go ignored. Inevitably, the consequences of inaction reach a boiling point, and an organization’s mission and success are threatened.
The best crisis management tool is taking steps to prevent one altogether. In other words, keep your house in order.
5 ways to keep your house in order:
- Implement guardrails. Guardrails help protect an organization’s leadership and its staff from missteps, harm and accusations. They can help create safe, healthy working environments for everyone who is a part of your organization. While implementing guardrails and related policies has always been wise, the groundswell of #MeToo and #ChurchToo has made these types of organization-wide guidelines nonnegotiable. When followed consistently, these policies help strengthen your staff culture and fortify your organization’s reputation from the inside out.
- Hold (regular) performance reviews. Performance reviews are beneficial for teams in any industry. Not only do they provide the chance for team members to set and maintain goals together, but they also give leaders the time to hear directly from staff on challenges and opportunities. This valuable feedback can help defuse simmering issues and ensure your staff members remain brand advocates and don’t become adversaries.
- Conduct a communications audit. If you’re not routinely examining how and what you communicate—taking stock of ways you might improve—you are certainly missing growth opportunities, but you may also be putting your brand reputation at risk. By reviewing what’s working well and what’s not, you can avoid communications silos and often get ahead of sensitive issues before they become full-on crises.
- Consider a vulnerability assessment. Every organization has vulnerabilities. What’s important is to identify them so you can better understand risks and reduce the probability of threats. Enlisting outside counsel can help you pinpoint these areas of concern. We’ve conducted vulnerability assessments for a variety of churches and ministries. No matter the type or size of the organization, one principle remains true—when faced with either public controversy or behind-the-scenes struggles, your response, tone and preparation (or lack thereof) all constitute your susceptibility to potential problems.
- Be mindful of your online reputation. Your organization’s reputation is your most valuable asset. Conducting an online reputation audit is an effective process to determine what is being said about you online and how your brand is being represented. We recently conducted an online reputation audit for a national ministry, analyzing their digital footprint—including several websites, numerous online conversations, and more than 4,000 social posts and 150 social media profiles associated with the organization. Our findings established an important baseline for their brand and game plan for improving their reputation moving forward.
Challenges will arise, but being aware and prepared can help you mitigate the issues. Guardian is here to support you as you assess your brand’s reputation and communications strategies, and help get your own house in order.
