Study on Persuasive communication

The Effective Employers’ Organization
A series of “hands-on” guides to building
and managing effective employers' organizations
Persuasive communication
Making the voice of business heard
How to design and implement more efficient strategies,
techniques and tools of communication
Copyright © International Training Centre of the International Labour Organization 2010
This publication enjoys copyright under Protocol 2 of the Universal Copyright Convention. Nevertheless, short excerpts may be
reproduced without authorization, on condition that the source is indicated.
Applications for authorization to reproduce, translate or adapt part or all of the publication should be addressed to the
International Training Centre of the ILO, Viale Maestri del Lavoro 10, 10127 Turin. The Centre welcomes such applications.
Persuasive communication
ISBN 978-92-9049-545-1
First Published 2010
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Contents
SECTION ONE How to use this guide 5
SECTION TWO Communication by employers' organizations 6
SECTION THREE Reputation management: mission, vision and values 8
SECTION FOUR Strategic communication plan and key messages 17
SECTION FIVE In-house communication and communication with members 36
SECTION SIX Internet communication 42
SECTION SEVEN Communication with the media 49
SECTION EIGHT Interview techniques 56
SECTION NINE Presentation techniques 63
SECTION TEN Crisis management 67
SECTION ELEVEN Bibliography 73
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I. Section One
How to use this guide
“Persuasive communication” belongs to the series
of “The Effective Employers’ Organization”
hands-on guides published by the ILO Bureau for
Employers’ Activities and the Programme for
Employers’ Activities of the International Training
Centre of the ILO (International Labour
Organization).
The present guide aims primarily to assist
managers, officials or directors of employers'
organizations in less developed countries, or those
with economies in transition, to develop an
effective, professional approach to their
organization’s communication, both in-house and
external. Moreover, these guides can be a source
of valuable advice both for leaders of regional and
sectoral organizations responsible for representing
the interests of employers and for those of national
employers' organizations in industrialized countries,
especially if they wish to evaluate their current
approaches and practices.
Persuasive communication is designed as a
reference source on best practice in
communication. Obviously, everyone has to adapt
individual practices to the culture, the situation on
the ground of each country or community in which
they operate. But communication has common roots
in human organizations and the fundamentals
remain, whatever the region of the world in which
they develop. Therein lies the richness and beauty of
communication: it is universal!
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Best practice
This is ‘theory', but theory derived from long
practice. It gives you a solid foundation for
mastering each topic. It is sometimes illustrated
with diagrams and charts to help you put it into
practice.
Exercises
Exercises can be used individually or in groups, so
that you can learn quickly before you start for real.
Best practice checklists
At the end of each section, these lists allow you to
see where you stand compared to best practice.
Use them to improve your personal practice.
II. Section Two
Communication by employers’
organizations
“I communicate therefore I am”
Now that with a simple click of the mouse, anyone
can make their voice, opinion, dissent or criticism
heard in a city, region or country, or indeed all over
the world, it is no longer possible to exist ...
without communicating.
Public relations, a discipline that focuses on
creating a positive image of organizations, emerged
in the middle of the last century because
companies had discovered how far the media
influenced their business environment. It was no
longer possible for them to ignore public opinion or
new consumer advocates like Ralph Nader, a
“media personality” who did not hesitate to use the
media to stir citizens up. Access to the media
(often called the ‘fourth estate') had become an
obvious tool for companies to use: a way of
influencing the environment in positive ways to
safeguard their economic progress.
The discipline has skyrocketed, not because of
fashion, but by simple necessity. It is better to talk
about yourself in your own words than to let others
do it for you, using their own words.
An employers' organization speaks on behalf of its
members, and therefore businesses, vis-à-vis
public authorities, trade unions, the media,
academia, civil society and non-governmental
organizations. It expresses opinions, negotiates
bills, conducts studies and takes joint initiatives
with other organizations. It is therefore clear that an
employers' organization is first and foremost a
business ... a communication business!
We now have half a century’s hindsight with which
to decide on the fundamental laws that make a
communication actually contribute to an
organization’s interests. They are simple but
extremely challenging: the communication must be
consistent, coherent and systematic.
Communicate, don’t improvise
Consistent: appropriate to the issue and the field
of interest of the people to whom it is addressed.
For example, talking about political issues on
television without linking them to their impact on
everyday life makes little sense to citizens.
Coherent: it must fit into a framework, a logic that
is expressed in its length and timing.
For example, if you regularly change your opinion,
and show yourself to be opportunistic, you lose the
credibility essential for people to listen to you and
believe you.
Systematic: the world of communication is always
in motion. It never stops. What is true today may be
different tomorrow. To make a real impact on public
opinion or on the groups you are targeting, sending
a single message once is not enough.
For example, to persuade politicians to change a
law, you should tackle the issue through different
channels of communication, through various
opinion makers and over several months.
Become real communication
professionals
In the following sections, you will learn, step by
step, how to become an organization that uses
effective communication to guide your action
towards full satisfaction of your members.
In the following sections, we go into different
aspects of communication by employers’
organizations.
Section 3: Reputation management
Find out first of all why the reputation of your
organization is interwoven with the success of your
efforts, and learn to build it up using the raison
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d'être of your organization, a vision of the future
and values that guide your action.
Section 4: Strategic communication plan and key
messages
Knowing that communication must be consistent,
coherent and systematic, learn to build a strategy
and a communication plan, and to set out key
messages.
Section 5: In-house communication and
communication with members
How to ensure effective communication within your
organization. Knowing that a reputation is built from
the inside out, it is vital to become true
professionals. You will also discover current best
practice in communication with members and
potential members.
Section 6: Internet communication
This new form of communication is taking
precedence over traditional communication. Your
toolkit for electronic communication is laid out in
this section.
Section 7: Communication with the media.
How to develop and maintain lasting relationships
with the media.
Approaching them in a professional manner.
We illustrate practical ways to use each tool best,
in line with your objectives.
Section 8: Interview technique
You cannot improvise an interview, unless you like
risks and disasters. Unfortunately, they are legion
... often due to lack of preparation. In this section,
you learn to master a highly effective interview
technique that has been devised ... by journalists
themselves, for use in all circumstances.
Section 9: Presentation technique
Your organization is a communication enterprise.
But how can you convince your interlocutors of the
validity of your action, your arguments, your
proposals? Here, too, there is an infallible
technique, based on how our brain works. Again,
for use in all circumstances.
Section 10: Crisis management
Overcoming a crisis by communicating.
Unfortunately, we do not always live in a tranquil
world. A crisis can occur without warning. It may
call into question the reputation of your
organization, that of your members, or that of an
official. Since “preparation is half the battle”, you
will discover in this section how to prepare for any
eventuality.
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III. Section Three
Reputation management: mission,
vision and values
A reputation for what?
Look around you. Do you have an opinion about the
other organizations around you? Is it positive?
Negative? How do you see the government, the
unions? How do you see the media? How much
confidence do you have in any particular leader?
In fact, without realizing it, we have ‘ready-made'
opinions on the world around us. Sometimes those
views stick to reality. Very often, they reflect only a
portion of reality or truth. But, in any case, they
clearly influence our assumptions and thus how we
relate to others.
It was discovered in the 1980s that some brands
had ‘sympathy capital’, which helped them to sell
products and ensured consumer loyalty. Over time,
this phenomenon has spread to businesses and
organizations. Some firms have high ‘trust capital',
which allows them to function better than their
competitors. For example, it is easier to attract the
best people on the market if the reputation of your
organization is positive and strong. Such
organizations are more resistant than others to the
vagaries of the market. They have easier access to
capital and to policy-makers.
In short, a good reputation can significantly boost
the performance of any organization, in all its areas
of activity! That is so true that a new discipline has
been created in the field of communication:
reputation management.
This discipline was developed by a forerunner,
Charles Fombrun, in collaboration with the Harris
Interactive company, starting in 1997.
The idea has been scientifically analysed. It started
with a question. Do companies that continually
perform better than others and therefore have a
strong reputation in the market have specific
features in common that account for their success?
By analysing nearly 40 companies, Charles
Fombrun was able to establish that a reputation
was made up of 23 (identifiable) attributes along
seven dimensions. Each attribute can be
measured, and the author was able to develop a
‘reputation quotient' which measures the firm's
reputation and links directly to its performance in
relation to all its stakeholders.
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What applies to a company applies to an
employers’ organization. Your organization’s
reputation can help open doors, lobby, attract new
members, keep current members, work with
international organizations, etc. It is thus also
capital to nurture consciously and continuously,
through principles and behaviour shared by all staff.
The attributes listed above are not all applicable to
your organization.
Take performance. That of your organization will
instead be reflected in its ability to influence the
society around it, in its weight as a body to turn to
when discussing and drawing up new policies, in
how pro-active it is in analysing economic and
social developments in your country. But the
overwhelming majority of attributes apply to your
organization.
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Attribute Dimension
Innovative
First onto the market
Acts quickly for change
Innovation
High quality
Innovative
Value added
Defends its products / services
Products and services
Capitalizes on market opportunities
Excellent leadership
Clear vision of the future
Vision and leadership
Well managed
Good employer
Talented workers
Work environment
Outperforms its competitors
Demonstrated profitability
Low-risk investment
Growth prospects
Performance
Committed to good causes
Respects the environment
Treats employees well
Social responsibility
Open, transparent
Behaves ethically
Honest in its dealings
Governance
1. Review the list of attributes and possibly adjust the performance.
2. Evaluate each individual dimension. What mark out of ten would you give your organization on
each of the significant attributes? Compare the scores. What are the reasons for the
below-average scores (less than 5)?
3. Do the same exercise with some people you know well among your members, opinion leaders
and journalists whom you think particularly highly of.
4. Compare their views with yours. Do you see areas to improve?
A SIMPLE EXERCISE TO DO WITH SOME COLLEAGUES,
WHICH CAN HELP YOU THINK ABOUT THE
REPUTATION OF YOUR ORGANIZATION.
How to build a reputation
A reputation is built with patience and
determination, starting within the organization.
Indeed, an organization or business can be likened
to an onion: different layers overlap. Without the
inner layers, the outer layers would not exist.
Let us take an employers’ organization and look at
it from outside, as a neutral observer. The first
thing that we see are the tangible, visible
elements: website, publications, newspaper
articles, television interviews, seminars, etc.
Is that enough to give me an opinion about it, to
create a reputation? No. I may have a partial and
superficial view, but I lack the ‘depth' to endorse
its ideas or not. The layer of visible items is not
enough to create a reputation for the organization.
So dig into the next layer. Here we find all the
organization’s activities and ‘battles' on important
issues that concern all of human society. We also
find all the activities of the organization which are
often only partially known, or even unknown, by its
members or by outside audiences. By taking into
account the visible elements and the activities, I
can already get a more complete idea of what the
organization stands for. But is it enough to create a
more sustainable bond between me and the
organization? No!
I am still missing some elements before I can put
my long-term trust in the organization, before I can
really endorse what it stands for and what it does.
I can only find those elements at the heart of the
organization, in its raison d'être (its ‘mission'), in
the vision it develops to meet changes in society
and the values it embodies and defends.
A reputation is created from the very heart of the
organization. It is rooted in the rationale for it,
unfolding through a clearly articulated and inspiring
vision, and takes on real values. Together, these
form the personality of the organization.
This personality will influence how the employers'
organization intends to defend the interests of its
members, how it carries out its activities by
translating them into concrete action on the
ground.
It is all of these elements (the whole onion) that
will build the reputation of the organization and
make it endure.
In building the reputation of your organization, the
first step is to define its “personality”. This has
three core elements:
¢ The organization’s raison d'être (also called its
‘mission')
¢ The organization’s vision, which is itself
composed of two elements:
¢ strong and ambitious major objectives
(“BHAGs” – see below);
¢ the values that the organization promotes.
We will explore these different components in the
following pages.
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putation Re
1. Raison d'être: the organization’s
“mission”
The raison d'être is your reason for existing. Why
was your organization created? What is it supposed
to do? In other words, the mission statement is a
succinct description of what the organization sets
out to achieve.
The raison d'être is mainly for the staff of your
organization, thus for in-house use, even if it is found
in many documents and media, such as your website.
The mission must hold good for at least 15 years.
It is the very foundation of your existence, so it is
built to last! Whilst it is good practice to review the
mission statement periodically against strategies
and work programmes, this is primarily to check
whether the work programmes are in line with the
stated mission of the organization.
Has the purpose of your organization been defined?
Have you done the definition exercise?
The second “hands-on” guide to building and
managing employers’ organizations published by
the Bureau for Employers’ Activities of the ILO,
which focuses on strategy, includes a section on
developing a mission statement (p.9)
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It is best to do the exercise in groups, with several colleagues, and possibly also one or more members
that you think especially highly of for their openness and their creativity. We recommend limiting the
number of people to six.
A simple but effective method is to ask the question ‘Why do we exist?' Then we ask the question why
another three times in a row.
1. Why does our organization exist?
Everyone taking part puts their answer on a document you have prepared beforehand. Go through
the answers and turn them into key words on a chart.
2. Why?
Then ask each participant to give you the ‘why' behind their answer. Let them all work individually,
then go through each answer again and turn them into key words on a chart.
3. Why?
Repeat the previous step, again asking why they gave their previous answer.
4. Why?
Repeat the previous step, again asking why they gave their previous answer.
At this point, if you get this far, you have reached the quintessence of your raison d'être. Is there
a consensus in the group on the most important key words?
Use all this material to do a first draft of the mission in A FEW KEY SENTENCES. Have them
endorsed by the group members. If they are happy with your few sentences, be sure that your
mission will hold water with everyone. Experience shows that it is unnecessary to hold a
referendum among the staff or your members to validate this work. You would not come out of it
any the wiser!
EXERCISE: DEFINE THE MISSION
SOME TIPS:
Your mission must be written in clear and
simple terms. It should be easy to remember.
All your staff ought to be able to identify with
it, because it is to inspire all of them in their
daily work. At any time, your staff must be able
to refer to it and decide whether they are
acting in line with it, for it underlies all the
action of the organization.
2. A vision, so you know where you are
going
Successful and ‘visionary' organizations have set
out their vision of the future, how they want to face
it, the ways in which they want to commit
themselves, the paths they intend to follow, the
results they want to achieve. The vision allows you
to anticipate an uncertain future with certitude.
In other words, the organizational vision is a
statement of overall objectives and guiding
principles and as such is not subject to frequent
revision.
Visionary organizations know where they are going!
They succeed like no others in making their
objectives attractive to their members and their
staff.
The goals to achieve in the 10-30 years ahead are
big and bold.
Authors James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras, who
scrutinized the success of visionary companies,
talk about “Big Hairy Audacious Goals” (BHAGs).
These BHAGs are all challenges that mobilize
people. The challenges are both tangible and
energizing. It is possible to focus on them. The
BHAGs, variations on the organization’s ambition,
must be clear.
They give a positive impetus to going beyond
yourself to attain the common objectives of the
organization. They are bold, and remain valid
despite the potential turnover of managers
responsible for achieving them step by step. They
therefore hold good for generations of staff. The
BHAGs act as catalysts for the energy expended by
the organization and guide the whole organization
towards the same ultimate goal.
A vision reflects the motivation of staff to invest in
the organization. It forges the spirit and culture of
the organization. In it, we also find the social,
moral, ethical and behavioural commitment of the
organization and its staff. Whatever the personality
or charisma of the Chair or CEO, the vision goes far
beyond their imprint. Visions thus outlast
generations of leaders. In business, they transcend
many life-cycles of products and services.
The authenticity of the vision must give staff, and
all members, too, direction, inspiration and vigour
with which to carry out the tasks of the
organization. It must be motivating.
The vision is neither an exercise in futurology nor
creative brainstorming, whatever one might think. It
is the translation of the attitude of the
organization towards changes in society and the
needs that stem therefrom.
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To set out the vision of your organization, we recommend that you use a mixed group of staff and
members selected to represent the lifeblood of your organization.
¢ Step 1. The “pillars” on which to build your vision.
Decide in a group what are the trends that will most affect your members in your own country over
the next 10 years. These will be the ‘pillars' on which you build your vision.
¢ economic developments
¢ social change
¢ political developments
¢ other.
Create a group of 3 or 4 people to work on each development. Through research, discussion and
debate, each group identifies as concretely as possible the phenomena, developments and
highlights that will exert most influence over the future of members.
At the same time, each group proposes concrete objectives regarding each significant
development.
This task may take several weeks.
It is often helpful to meet opinion leaders, prominent academics, journalists and other key
individuals whose profession or function gives them a clearer picture of developments.
The working groups will engage in prospective research and synthesis that, in turn, will lead your
executive committee to decide on the attitude of the organization toward its changing work
environment.
¢ Step 2.
Use the proposals to decide on your BHAGs.
These objectives may be either qualitative or quantitative.
Qualitative examples:
Pharmaceutical company: Make every effort to ensure that every citizen can maintain, achieve
and/or recover the highest level of overall health.
American university: Become the Harvard of the West Coast.
Distribution company: Ensure that the poor can afford what the rich buy.
Quantitative examples:
IT company: Double our turnover every 5 years.
Service company: Reach 100,000 customers and a billion-dollar turnover in 10 years.
¢ Step 3.
Once your BHAGs are well defined, write them in a motivating and powerful form. They must
inspire those who read them. They will then be broken down into annual action plans that, year by
year, will guide the evolution of your organization, which has become a ‘visionary' one.
See also Guide II (Strategy) on building and managing employers' organizations published by the
Bureau for Employers’ Activities of the ILO (page 33).
EXERCISE: SET OUT YOUR ORGANIZATION’S VISION
3. Values to guide action
The third key to creating a strong personality that
will distinguish your organization and build its
reputation is values that are shared and embodied
by all employees.
You adopt values because they challenge you and
because they allow you to do your work in the best
way. Not for the sake of fashion.
In other words, these are the beliefs or guiding
principles shared by all, e.g. “quality outputs and
value for money services”.
It is interesting that the values quoted in most
companies today by the employees themselves are
respect, openness and team spirit (being involved
in the work).
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In this case, too, it is not a matter of creative brainstorming or of copying values from another
organization. If values are not really felt by your staff, you will never form a strong personality that will
build up your reputation.
Do the following exercise with your colleagues, ideally in a group of up to five people. If there are more
of you, then have two groups working at the same time. There are 9 chances out of 10 that the two
groups will reach the same conclusions!
Session of +/- 4 hours altogether.
Question 1. State three values that guide you in your private life, and are the most important ones to you.
¢ Give each one five minutes’ thinking time. Ask each participant to write down (with a marker, in
capital letters) each value on a large-format (12.5 x 7.5 cm) “post-it”. Collect the “post-its”.
Go over each, and ask each participant to explain their choice. Stick them on a flipchart. Put
similar values together. Focus discussion on them.
Question 2. State the 3 values that are most important to you in your working life.
¢ Do the same as for question 1. Stick the “post-its” on another chart.
¢ Do you find values that are common to private and working life?
¢ If so, put them together on a summary chart.
Question 3. From the “summary” values, ask participants to choose three core values, which, if they
were no longer present, would lead them to leave the organization.
¢ Each participant may vote by putting a tick next to each of the three values they select.
¢ Remember the three values that attract the most votes. These are the ones you will adopt for
your entire organization.
But the exercise does not end here!
For your values to induce the desired behaviour, you have to tie them in with rights and duties. This makes
the values concrete, and you will see that, on the ground, that is the only way to change behaviour.
Ask the group to assign 3 specific rights and 3 specific duties to the 3 values they chose.
EXERCISE: DISCOVER YOUR ORGANIZATION’S VALUES
For example:
An organization finds that taking the initiative is a
fundamental value for the future. Taking the
initiative means more risk. If I take the initiative five
times a day instead of once, I may make more
errors than in the past. With rights and duties, too,
we will need to stipulate that I have the right to
make mistakes, but the duty to report them all, so
that others do not repeat them. Otherwise, nobody
will take the initiative any more, and the value will
remain just a concept on paper.
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CHECKLIST OF BEST PRACTICE
IN REPUTATION MANAGEMENT
Mission
q The mission of your organization is set out formally
q The mission is succinct and comprehensible to everyone
q The mission is communicated in-house
q The mission is communicated on your website
q The mission is subject to in-house debate whenever you devise a communication strategy
q The mission is communicated and explained to all new staff
q The mission is communicated and explained to all new members
q There is a document that explains each sentence in the mission in more detail
q The mission is used to evaluate the results of all your communication annually
Vision
q The vision of your organization for 3-5 years is set out formally
q The vision is built on ambitious qualitative or quantitative targets (BHAGs)
q The vision is succinct and comprehensible to everyone
q The vision is communicated and explained in-house
q The vision is communicated on your website
q The vision is subject to in-house debate when you set the annual communication strategy
q The vision is communicated and explained to all new staff
q The vision is communicated and explained to all new members
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q There is a document that explains each sentence in the vision in more detail
q The vision is used to assess the results of all your communication annually
Values
q The values that guide your organization are set out formally
q The rights and duties connected with each value have been set out.
q The values are communicated in-house
q The values are communicated on your website
q The values are communicated and explained to all new staff
q The values are communicated to all new members
q The values are included in individual appraisals (human resources policy)
q The values are used to draw up a code of conduct to guide all your communication
IV. Section Four
Strategic communication plan and key
messages
Developing a communication strategy
The key to any effective communication strategy
lies in three words: consistency, coherence and
system. Your organization has many goals. Does it
have to reach them all at the same time? Some
goals are very short-term, others longer-term.
Managing communication is therefore primarily
managing priorities and constraints. Priorities in
terms of action and outcomes, constraints on time
and budget.
To ensure consistency in communication, we will
first try to understand the audiences to whom we
are talking. What do they think of us? Do we have
strengths to highlight or weaknesses to
compensate for? We need to know our organization
well and to use this knowledge in preparing all our
communication activities.
The coherence of the communication will be
ensured by referring constantly to the mission,
vision and values of the organization. These guide
your approach whatever the subject. Coherence will
translate into key messages that will underpin any
communication.
Finally, the system really necessary to obtain any
result will be provided by the communication plan.
Being strategic is to know yourself in order to
make better progress.
Before you get down to strategy and a
communication plan, it is good to know how your
organization is seen from outside.
There are several ways of collecting opinions about
what you are and what you do.
The following are the best practices, from the
simplest to the most complex and costly in time
and money: systematic evaluations of actions, a
‘log book' of opinions, press analysis, SWOT
analysis, focus group and opinion surveys.
Systematic evaluations
When you take any in-house or external action,
make a systematic, objective assessment of your
action, allowing participants the opportunity to
comment after the meeting through a simple and
anonymous questionnaire. Five questions are
usually enough:
¢ Was the announced topic well covered?
¢ Did you find what you were looking for? If not,
please explain.
¢ Do you want other issues to be covered in the
future? If so, which?
¢ Do you know the employers' organization?
¢ Did the action strengthen the participants'
capacities?
‘Log book' of opinions
A ‘log book' is comparable to a ship’s log, in which
the captain records the salient features of each
day: strength and direction of the wind, wave
height, vessels encountered, on-board events
(illnesses, accidents, etc.). Thus recorded, these
facts are useful if there are problems, because they
make it possible to establish the exact conditions
affecting the vessel at a specific time. Moreover, by
browsing through them, the captain can get useful
information for the onward journey. The log is like
the crew’s memory and the ship's surroundings,
which are constantly changing.
For your organization, it is also useful to note
regularly important points made by the wide variety
of people you meet: from the world of politics to the
economic and social world, members, opinion
leaders, etc. In the course of a year, you amass a
huge amount of opinions, advice, criticism,
encouragement and more.
As the saying goes: "Words vanish, writing
remains". All you need is a small personal
notebook in which you regularly write down
whatever seems useful and important for your
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organization to remember, and share it with your
colleagues regularly. By noting the most important
ideas, you create this ‘log book' of opinions that
will serve you well for further thought.
Press analysis
Press cuttings are another very useful source of
information on the image of your organization. We
refer you to the chapter on evaluating your
communication, page 33, which deals with this
subject in depth.
SWOT analysis
Every 2 or 3 years, do a SWOT analysis of your
organization. It will help you prepare communication
better afterwards, because it will bring out your
priorities in terms of image and reputation.
SWOT analysis has already been discussed
extensively in the Guide II (Strategy) on building and
managing employers' organizations, published by
the Bureau for Employers’ Activities of the ILO
(page 14) . We shall limit ourselves here to a quick
glance at it.
Simple tips to keep in mind during your SWOT
analysis:
¢ Be realistic and objective when you evaluate
your strengths and weaknesses.
¢ Be specific (precise). Do not go into too much
detail. Your analysis is effective only if it is
concise, simple and short.
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Do this analysis working in groups. Give everyone time to answer the questions first, then share the
points of view.
Strengths
¢ What are the strengths of my services?
¢ What are the strengths of my organization?
¢ What are the strengths of my staff?
Weaknesses
¢ What are the weaknesses of my services?
¢ What are the weaknesses of my organization?
¢ What are the weaknesses of my staff?
Opportunities
1. Opportunities arising from the political
environment
¢ What current or future developments
generated by the political environment are an
opportunity for my organization?
¢ What current or future events have a positive
impact on my organization?
2. Opportunities arising from members
¢ What new developments or events can
increase the members' interest in my
services?
Threats
¢ 1. Threats from the political environment
¢ What current or future developments
constitute a threat to my organization?
¢ What current or future events have a negative
impact on my organization?
2. Threats linked to members
¢ What new trends or events may reduce or
eliminate members' interest in my services?
EXERCISE: DO A SWOT ANALYSIS
OF YOUR ORGANIZATION
Focus groups
This technique is very useful for getting the opinion
of target audiences on your past action, but even
more so on future action that you want to test.
Put together one or more focus groups of no more
than eight people (to ensure plenty of interaction).
Depending on the issue you want to deal with, a
group may be composed of individuals who
specialize in the subject or else are representative
of the target audiences you want, and can therefore
be made up of very different people. The only
requirement is that the people in the group are
interested in the subject matter.
The idea of this approach is to get the participants
to speak freely about the key ideas that you have
prepared in advance.
A key idea is a fairly short sentence which makes a
proposal about which you wish to know the opinion
of the participants.
It is chaired by a facilitator, who asks questions
and makes sure that everyone is heard. The
facilitator will go more deeply into some answers,
put conflicting opinions into perspective and ensure
the smooth running of the discussion. This will
ensure that the topic is exhausted by the end of
the discussion.
The facilitator does not express his or her personal
opinions, because that might lessen the
spontaneity of the discussions. It is a good idea to
appoint a facilitator who is ‘neutral' about the topic.
A discussion lasts no more than an hour and a
half. A colleague will also be present and note all
the ideas and opinions expressed during the group
session. The facilitator and this colleague will
produce a written summary no later than the day
after the discussion.
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3. Opportunities arising from the
socio-economic context
¢ What social changes favour my organization?
¢ What economic developments offer new
opportunities to my organization?
3. Threats from the socio-economic context
¢ Are there any adverse social developments for
my organization?
¢ Are there economic developments that are
harmful or detrimental to my organization?
= List of issues to be strengthened
and to be highlighted in communication
= List of issues to be improved.
How? Through communication, lobbying
Opinion survey
You can poll a representative sample of your target
audience. In this case, you are looking not only for
qualitative answers: you want to quantify the
opinions. These surveys are done using forms
(sometimes via the Internet) or by phone.
Note that this process must respect the rules of
statistical sampling and that the questions must
meet specific criteria in order not to elicit
responses that skew your survey. In short, such an
investigation is a matter for specialists, which
makes it expensive.
But it remains a useful tool in some cases. For
example, a survey of the political world concerning
your organization and your action may prove useful.
There are 3 types of survey:
1. Quantitative surveys, with ‘closed' questions.
People answer just by checking a box.
2 Qualitative surveys, with ‘open' questions.
People can express opinions and reactions.
3. Mixed surveys, mostly quantitative but also
qualitative.
In general, charges for surveys depend on the
number of questions and the type (closed/open).
Summing up, to define your organization's strategy,
you need to:
¢ analyze stakeholders' perception
¢ analyze your environment
¢ define your core communication objectives
¢ draft your strategic communication plan (see
below).
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You want to know how your organization is seen as a lobbyist by your members.
You decide to form four focus groups to cover the various activities undertaken by your organization.
Your three key ideas are:
1. The government is preparing a bill that will raise the minimum wage by 5%. Do you know about this
project? What do you think of it?
¢ With this first issue, you open a debate on the relationship between the authorities and your
members. Take good note of the reactions. See if your members are very concerned by the
government policy, whether they have an idea of what you can do, and what image they have of the
authorities.
2. During the last three years, our organization has lobbied the authorities to change a bill four times. Do
you know on what issues? And with what outcome?
¢ This more precise question about your organization will let you know whether your members know
about your lobbying and possibly if they like it or not.
3. Do you feel that the employers' organization has real political clout, and that it should continue,
intensify or reduce its lobbying? Why?
¢ This last question will give you precise opinions on your lobbying. With everything that has been said
before, this will give you a wealth of comments for subsequent analysis.
N.B. It is better to start with general key ideas, so as to broaden the subject as much as possible. Do
not start with a specific question about your organization. That often blocks the participants. Moreover,
once the group has warmed up, discussion becomes easier.
EXAMPLE: FOCUS GROUPS
Strategic communication plan
A communication plan enables you to structure your
different communication activities. It allows
coherent, synchronized implementation of all forms
of communication, both external and in-house.
A communication plan cannot be improvised. To get
it right, answer the following questions first. They
will help you set your goals:
A. Why do you want to communicate? What are
your goals for this year in terms of action on the
ground, projects to develop, support or defend?
What are your priorities in terms of reputation?
B. What messages do you want to get across in
your communication plan?
C. Who are your target audiences?
D. What methods will you use? What
communication tools?
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You have set your long-term BHAGs, but your
communication objectives for achieving them
must be precise. We talk about SMART
goals: specific, measurable, attainable,
realistic, time-bound.
Specific:
An objective must be specific, clear,
understandable and unambiguous. “You
need to improve” is too vague and imprecise
to produce results. What exactly is
expected? What is “doing better” or
“improving”? A precise objective helps you
know where you are going, and direct your
action accordingly. It is, moreover, easily
measurable and therefore verifiable.
Measurable:
Not being able to measure progress towards
your goals is like moving forward blindly
without maps or compass. That is not
motivating for anyone. “I want to learn
English” is a vague goal, not easily
measurable. In contrast, “When an English
counterpart calls me, I want to understand
who is calling, what they want, and be able
to put them through” allows for easy
measurement of when the goal is reached.
Quantify the results you seek.
Attainable:
Goals should be reasonable and accessible
to those who need to reach them. If setting
the bar a little higher is an incentive to excel,
in the long term, unattainable goals are a
disincentive. Wanting to move mountains,
without taking into account the
imponderables, the unexpected, and purely
material means (resources, budget and time
available) is doomed to failure.
Realistic:
Keep your feet on the ground. We all dream
of winning a lot of money without getting
tired or taking risks, or staying slim
effortlessly, or being eternally young, but we
know it is mere utopia. Instead of setting an
unrealistic goal like “I want to overcome my
fear of public speaking overnight”, go for “At
the next congress, I will make a presentation
in public to boost my self-confidence”.
Time-bound:
An objective has a beginning and an end. It
has a specific length. Without scheduling,
your objectives may get lost under the
mountain of things to do, and fall into
oblivion. Setting a deadline creates a sense
of urgency that gives an impetus to take
action, thus increasing the possibility of
achieving the objectives. In addition, a well
prepared schedule listing all sub-goals and
intermediate milestones makes it possible
to track progress. And to congratulate
yourself on the progress already made.
Which is an excellent source of motivation
and an incentive to keep on until you reach
the final goal.
WHAT ARE YOUR ORGANIZATION’S COMMUNICATION OBJECTIVES?
What messages do you want to
incorporate into your communication plan?
You have set out your mission (see page 11). You
have identified the values that are dear to your
heart. You would like people to associate those
values with you spontaneously. This means that
every action you take must demonstrate those
values. They must be reflected in all your
endeavours to lead your organization in the desired
direction.
Use the vision to devise messages that reinforce
the image you want to have. These messages must
convince decision-makers, policy-makers, public
opinion, captains of industry and other
‘stakeholders' of the seriousness of your
organization.
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Goal Target Audience Key Messages
Enhancing our image as a strong,
social organization
Government
Leaders of political parties
We represent the vital economic
and social forces in the country
We are the preferred partner for
raising living standards in the
country
Our information is credible and
up-to-date
It is the best source of data with
which to assess future policy
Media Access to our sources of
information is free.
We will provide journalists with
secure access to our sources.
This will enhance the quality and
relevance of their articles
(...)
EXAMPLE OF KEY MESSAGES:
‘Stakeholders' are the individual or collective parties
affected by a decision or project. These parties,
internal or external to the enterprise in its broadest
sense, are concerned with its good operation in
terms of social responsibility. The internal
stakeholders include managers and workers (both
white-collar and blue-collar).
External stakeholders include:
¢ the public authorities (local bodies,
governments, etc);
¢ economic agents (chambers of commerce and
industry, creditors, shareholders, investors,
banks, fund managers, insurance companies);
¢ pressure groups, consumer associations,
environmental protection groups, heritage
groups, residents’ associations,
non-governmental organizations;
¢ suppliers, members and clients.
We owe the notion of stakeholder to a
new ethical demand by civil society,
which insists that organizations take into
account the social, financial and
environmental impact of their activities.
Some stakeholders are critical to the
survival of the organization, which cannot
lose their support without jeopardizing its
performance or its sustainability.
Knowing who those stakeholders are is
crucial to you.
STAKEHOLDERS
What is communicated must be backed up by
facts, by the action taken by your organization. The
reputation of your organization depends on it. Make
sure that your action matches your words: keep
your promises.
Choose simple messages. Do not overwhelm the
recipient with a flood of information. Be satisfied
with one or two messages at a time.
Tailor information to each target group
What kind of information is likely to interest your target audience? We have identified some issues that could
help you in your search.
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Target Group Type of Information
1. The government representing your environment
(legal, economic, social)
Interests of:
¢ the members whom you represent (e.g. re
taxation, import duties, export duties, level of
training, infrastructure [roads,
telecommunications, ports, railways] etc.)
¢ society (the community)
¢ country (the population)
Your organization advocates these interests to the
authorities and official bodies
…
2. The world of politics Interests of:
¢ the members whom you represent
¢ society (the community)
¢ country (the population)
Your organization becomes their spokesman to
the authorities and official bodies
...
3. Public opinion
(The media as a vehicle for your communication)
Awareness
Crisis communication
Interests of:
¢ society (the community)
¢ country (the population)
Awards won by your organization if in line with the
sensibilities and interests of the general public or
its readership or audience (health, ecology,
education, quality of life, etc.)
...
EXAMPLES:
¢ Our organization innovates (or our members innovate).
¢ Our organization adds value.
¢ Our organization creates or provides jobs (or our members do).
¢ Our organization attracts new investors (or our members do).
¢ Our organization is attentive to the environment. It contributes to sustainable development.
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Target Group Type of Information
4. Your current and future members New services, improvements
Awards won by your organization
Press articles or TV broadcasts covering your
activities
Stand or attendance (conferences, debates) at
fairs and exhibitions
Campaign to recruit new members
...
5. International organizations (NGOs,
international institutions, etc.)
Interests of:
¢ civil society (the community)
¢ country (the population)
Awards won by your organization, if in line with the
sensibilities and interests of international
organizations (health, ecology, education, etc.)
Press articles or TV broadcasts covering your
activities
...
6. Economic partners (donors, banks, investment
funds, insurance companies, investors such as
multinational companies, etc.)
Useful economic or social information (files on the
economic impact of certain sectors of the
industry, craft or trade)
Awards won by your organization
Stand or attendance (conferences, debates) at
fairs and exhibitions
Press articles or TV broadcasts covering your
activities
...
7. Your staff and job applicants Corporate culture (mission, objectives)
Recruitment campaigns (skills, education level,
etc.)
...
8. Unions Useful economic or social information (files on the
economic impact of certain sectors of the
industry, craft or trade)
Interests
¢ society (the community)
¢ country (the population).
Know your target groups
Once you have identified your target groups, go on
to analyse each target group. Identify and establish
the profile of each one, with its own characteristics
and behaviours.
Your answers will guide your choices of
communication tools and messages to convey.
They will help you to set your priorities and to know
what communication actions to take, aware that
others like you are seeking to influence the same
target groups. In such a fraught context, your
information will be severely tested. It has to stand
out, attract the attention of the target and
challenge it (affect it). Your information will have
twice the persuasive power with concrete
arguments.
As it is important to analyse how your organization
is perceived from outside, do not hesitate to ask
openly when you contact stakeholders. Examine all
the press articles that speak about you. And
analyse their tone. Make sure that their vision of
your organization coincides with your vision of it. If
you detect significant differences, your
communication plan must include corrective action
to change the perception of your key target
audiences.
What features should you consider when you
communicate with each of those target groups?
¢ What are they sensitive to?
¢ What are the topics to avoid in order not to
offend them?
¢ What means of communication do they prefer?
¢ How can you contact them (personal contact,
individual interviews or an official delegation)?
¢ How can you get their attention?
¢ How can you awaken their interest?
Adapt your communication approach to the specific
features of each target audience. Businessmen
have little time for you. They want to go straight to
the point. They prefer summaries backed up by key
data. Policymakers like to have complete, well
structured records.
So, not rhetoric, but concrete and precise
information on what your organization or its
members stand for and can do for everyone they
deal with or who comes to them.
This is the famous principle of “What's in it for
me?” We might go on to say, ”That’s all fine and
dandy, but personally, what is the point of my
speaking to your organization? What are you going
to do for me?” You must try to translate each of
your services into benefits for the recipient.
Finalizing the communication plan
The mission, vision and values have no more
secrets from you. You have done a SWOT analysis
of the organization, you have set out the BHAGs,
you know your targets, you have an idea of
priorities in terms of communication for the year. It
is important now to translate all that into a
strategic communication plan with a budget.
A comprehensive communication plan is twofold: a
general communication plan (timetable), often
annual but sometimes quarterly, very visual,
incorporating all actions, and a more detailed file
(a ‘worksheet') for each communication action.
The communication plan (timetable)
This allows you to see at a glance how intense your
communication activity over the year is. It gives you
an overview of communication activities: what
message is sent to which target group, and when.
Simply placing each action on the calendar for the
year can show you whether it is realistic in terms of
effort (workload, number of staff free at that time,
time available, etc).
Your annual plan will be a kind of dashboard for
you.
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COMPREHENSIVE COMMUNICATION PLAN
STEP 1. ACTION LIST
First of all, list the main actions you intend to take in the coming year (your organization's own
initiatives).
¢ The actions you will take in response to developments or situations that could have an adverse
effect on the activity of your members or your own organization.
¢ To achieve your BHAGs.
Be attentive to what may emerge for the future of your members and your organization. Put up your
antennas. Look at what is happening in society and giving rise to changes in the law, regulations, etc.
For every action, focus primarily on the target groups that are essential to its success.
¢ Action that you must continue to take. This fits into a longer-term plan. Action that started earlier,
that has worked well and that you want to prolong. Make sure that such recurring action is still
effective and fruitful.
¢ Did you get what you hoped to get out of it?
¢ Are the target groups still interested?
¢ Is complacency setting in?
¢ Action by others (partners, official bodies) with which you could associate to achieve your goals.
E.g. Taking a stand at a trade show or participating in a debate held by a university.
STEP 2. SET A BUDGET
For each proposed action (recurrent or specific to the coming year), make a budget estimate. What
budget must you allocate to it? How much must you provide?
Confirm the action if it fits in with your budget. This means making choices.
OBJECTIVE
DECISION
MAKER(S)
COMMUNICATION ACTION
TO BE TAKEN TO PERSUADE
DECISION MAKER(S)
BUDGET TO
PROVIDE
BUDGET
VALIDATION
Recurring activities
-
-
-
Activities for the coming year
Development 1 :
Development 2 :
Development 3 :
Development 4 :
Development 5 :
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¢ Set your priorities among the actions validated in terms of budget. You cannot juggle everything. You
must split your actions over the year to use your resources and means best.
STEP 3: DRAW UP A DETAILED FILE FOR COMMUNICATION ACTION
¢ The link between the overall plan and specific actions is a detailed file (a worksheet) which will
become your daily working tool. This file contains all aspects of each communication action: when to
communicate, what to communicate, to whom, by what channel, what means of communication,
how often, etc.
You can build your own ‘models' (usually in Excel). These frameworks are easy to fill in.
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Action :….
Objective: ....
Date
(Deadline by which the action must be taken)
Frequency
(Number of times that this particular action is to be repeated)
Target audience
(People that you wish to reach through this action)
Message
(Content of message to convey to achieve the objective. The ‘why' behind the action).
Channel of communication
(The ‘how' of the action to convey the message. By what means will you inform your target
audience?) Examples: information session, training, newsletter, meeting.
Sender
Is the head of the employers' organization speaking on its behalf? Or a particular
department? Or your spokesperson?
Equipment to provide, documents to prepare.
Potential constraints to take into account?
Evaluation criteria?
Communication action worksheet
You can build your own ‘models’ (usually in Excel).
These frameworks are easy to fill in.
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The legislation, both at national, regional and local is not very favourable for creating a new
company.
There are about 12 processes to go through. That costs a lot of money, both to get the permissions
and for the mandatory deposit of a minimum amount of capital. It takes a long time, because it
involves seven different bodies. Your request: to simplify procedures and reduce delays so that
more entrepreneurs can start their own businesses.
Your communication strategy is not to attack the government directly and frontally, but to create a
favourable climate of opinion first.
Only then will you descend into the arena and make clear the point of view of businesses when you
meet all the parties affected by the problem.
Finally, through a range of actions, you will try to mobilize other groups who might back up your
demand: your members’ staff, unions, opinion leaders, prominent institutions, etc. This approach
will build a coalition in favour of your proposal, and increase the pressure on politicians and
government, and hence your chances of success.
You will need to decide and organize logical steps to meet your priorities:
¢ Have a third party, a neutral academic of great renown in your country, draft a ‘white paper', an
analysis that shows in black and white how the current procedures discourage many
entrepreneurs and hinder the creation of wealth (and jobs) for the country.
¢ Set out your organization’s position in a well-documented file, to serve as a press kit, but also a
statement.
¢ Organize a communication campaign.
PRACTICAL EXAMPLE
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ACTION 1: Press conference to raise the issue
Objective: To inform policy makers and public opinion of the implications of current
problems in setting up businesses.
Date:
press conference on (date)
Target audience: government officials, members of parliament, business people, trade
unions, opinion leaders
Key messages (= communication objective): the process of setting up new businesses
should be simplified, because by stimulating entrepreneurship we enrich the country and
create jobs.
Source: Professor Jones and the head of the Federation
Channel of communication: business and economic media
Materials needed: a white paper, press release, press kit, statistics
Constraints: Because the issue is new to the country, you will have to get your independent
expert (Professor Jones) to explain why many current procedures are unnecessary
Worksheet
Material to provide,
documents to
prepare
By whom? Deadline
Person
responsible
Budget
needed
Evaluation
criteria
12-page white
paper*
= calculation of the
expected effect of
simplifying
procedures
(* Written by a
neutral third party
who has high
credibility)
Written by a
team headed
by Prof. Jones
of XY
University
10/02/2010 Mr A $ 10,000 Must present
data on the
impact in terms
of creating
wealth and jobs.
Press kit for the
press conference
(including press
release)
Mr A 03/03/2010 Mr A/Ms B $ 130 See press
conference
Press conference at
XY University
Federation
spokesperson
and Prof.
Jones
05/03/2010 Ms B/Ms C $ 2 000
¢ Presence of
most national
newspapers.
¢ Articles
should reflect
our position.
¢ Min. 3 TV
interviews
¢ Min. 5 radio
interviews
Prof. Jones
interview
Prof. Jones 10/04/2010 Ms C Travel
(means of
transport) by
Prof. Jones
goal = three
magazines:
¢ 1 economic
¢ 1 specializing
in social
issues
¢ 1 women's
magazine
(working
women)
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Material to provide,
documents to
prepare
By whom? Deadline
Person
responsible
Budget
needed
Evaluation
criteria
File, including the
white paper
Mr A 03/03/2010 Mr A/Ms B $ 130 Must present
data on impact in
terms of job
creation.
Activities
to organize
By whom? Deadline
Person
responsible
Budget
Evaluation
criteria
Organize round-table
discussions with
each political party
Federation
spokesperson
30/04/2010 Mr A/Ms B $ 1,000 Number of
favourable
majority votes
Meeting by a
delegation with the
Prime Minister and
the Minister of the
Economy - official
presentation of the
white paper
Federation
spokesperson
30/04/2010 Mr A $ 300 Prime Minister
puts our request
on the
government
agenda
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ACTION 2: Face-to-face meeting with the government and political parties
Objective: To lobby politicians in the governing party or coalition; to encourage them to open
discussions on the subject. (Key messages = communication objective): facilitating company
start-ups will create additional wealth for the whole country. It will also stimulate the creation of
many jobs and thus benefit the people. We propose reducing 12 steps to two steps, and the
number of bodies involved, now seven, to one.
Source: The Federation
Channel of communication: formal and informal meetings. We are targeting the top five
decision-makers in each party in the government.
Materials needed: a white paper, press kit, statistics
Constraints: Because the issue is new to the country, we will also have to consider the reactions
of trade unions in our field.
Worksheet
Material to provide,
documents to
prepare
By whom? Deadline
Person
responsible
Budget
needed
Evaluation
criteria
Article in the
company's in-house
magazine, also put
on the Intranet
Communication
Manager
Communication
Manager
03/02/2010
and
04/05/2010
Mr A/Ms B - Article on the
Intranet
Clippings of media
coverage of our
actions outlined in
our in-house
newsletter
Communication
Manager
07/03/2010
and
15/03/2010
and
10/04/2010
and
10/05/2010
Ms B - Press review in
newsletters
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ACTION 3: Dissemination of information on the proposal by the employers' federation
Objective: Raise the awareness of staff and members of the positive impact of the creation of
new businesses. Make them ambassadors for our cause.
Source: Head of the Federation
Channel of communication: intranet, newsletter, etc.
Key message: Stimulating the creation of new businesses by making procedures less complex
and lengthy will, in turn, stimulate employment.
Worksheet
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Summary
Evaluate your communication
When you communicate, it is important to know
whether your communication is effective and,
whether it has achieved its goal.
¢ Did the message reach the audience?
¢ Did the audience acknowledge the message?
¢ Has the audience understood the message?
¢ What has it learned?
¢ After getting the message, has it is taken the
action envisaged?
Scan the press (continuous press
monitoring)
Make the time, every day, to survey everything that
is published or broadcast about you: newspapers,
magazines, trade journals, the Internet, TV and
radio.
In some countries, there are companies that cut
press articles out for you. At your request, they
harvest items containing key words (such as your
name or the name of your chair, director or
spokesperson, or the name of your product or
service). In other countries, everything is available
via the Internet. In that case, you can search using
key words.
Some also offer a complete transcript of reports,
debates, or excerpts from TV news or radio that you
specify. Alternatively, pick up your scissors and cut
out your own articles, and scan the Web for
information published about you.
Insist on receiving the cuttings before 10 a.m.
Thus, if you need to take action without delay, you
will have a little more time to get organized and
respond. Circulate information in-house without
delay, every day, once you have the press cuttings.
Analyse the news articles
¢ Analyse the impact of your communication in the
press.
¢ While it is always good to monitor what they say
about you in the media, this is especially so
after a press conference or a press release.
¢ For each previous communication action,
analyse the cuttings about you and the scripts
of what you said on the radio or TV (except
advertising, of course). This evaluation is both
quantitative and qualitative.
Quantitative :
A press conference is successful if the journalists
you want actually come.
External environment
analysis
Internal
organization analysis
Strategic plan
Actions
Means
Communication
strategy
Communication
plan
Communication
actions
Devising a communication strategy and plan
How many journalists were present? Which media
do they work for? How many newspapers, journals
and magazines have passed on your information?
How many articles have been published in the wake
of your press conference? How many readers does
this medium have (coverage in terms of audience
by each medium)?
How much space did they give you, by volume
(number of lines, number of characters, amount of
air time)?
Qualitative :
A newspaper article or an interview is considered
successful if it accurately reflects your positions.
Are your key messages in the articles and
publications? Do they make positive, negative or
neutral comments about you?
¢ Make an annual assessment, too
Assess your communication action annually,
counting the number of publications or citations by
topic or by month, looking at coverage by each
medium. As to the content analysis of articles
dealing with you, see if you notice any
development, or a trend taking shape in the
background.
Feedback for continuous improvement
Ensure continuous feedback on action taken and
correct your aim if necessary.
Although it is not easy to measure the success of
an action objectively, it is essential to assess your
communication, be it in-house or external. The
experience gained will be useful for future action.
You will gain in both time and efficacy.
At the very least, do an in-house 'debriefing'. This
requires neither money nor special skills.
¢ Have we achieved what we set out to achieve?
¢ What were the reactions?
¢ Has there been any criticism?
¢ Have there been any compliments?
¢ Possible areas for improvement.
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CHECKLIST OF BEST PRACTICE:
COMMUNICATION STRATEGY AND PLAN
The annual communication strategy
q Is set out 'officially' in a document
q Is described in terms of organizational goals
q Takes your vision into account (includes a component related to your ambitious goals - BHAGs)
q Is communicated to all departments
q Includes an analysis of your environment (SWOT analysis)
q Includes an analysis of the needs and expectations of your priority target audiences
q Specifies key messages
q Integrates all existing communication channels: conventional (mass media, meetings, ...) and
Internet (e-zines, e-mail, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.)
q Includes an evaluation phase
q Includes a budget
q Is reviewed, verified and re-validated every six months
Communication plan
q Is set out 'officially' in a document
q Includes useful criteria for evaluating each action
q Includes an assessment phase for each action
q Includes a clear statement of responsibilities for taking each action
q Has a specific budget assessment for each action
q Is monitored weekly
V. Section Five
In-house communication and
communication with members
This section is devoted to communication within
your organization and communication with your
members. It starts with 'best practice' in very many
employers' organizations.
1. In-house communication: what
is said outside must be known
inside
In-house communication is a separate
discipline from organizational
communication. It must therefore be
developed as professionally and as
rigorously as external communication.
How can you build this factor that is so important
for the reputation of the organization (see Section 3
on reputation) if staff are not made aware of the
daily life of the organization, its struggles,
successes, difficulties and challenges?
Who is responsible for in-house
communication?
It all depends on the size of the organization. In
general, someone is put in charge of updating and
monitoring an intranet, if there is one. This person
may be the same as the one dealing with external
communication.
In the largest organizations, there is often someone
on the human resources side who can act as a link
between in-house communication, in-house
information and, for example, staff development
(training, appraisal, etc.).
What is important is to have at least one person
who takes responsibility for monitoring 'formal'
in-house communications closely, particularly by
managing information sources (intranet, in-house
newsletter with editorial board, archives, etc.) and
team-building or other events for staff. We are
talking here about 'formal' communication that is
managed centrally for the entire organization. This
generally accounts for some 20% of in-house
communication.
But the primary responsibility for in-house
communication falls to ... the staff themselves. In
any organization, 80% of in-house communication is
generated, organized and developed by department
heads, executives and the management. Such
communication is mostly informal, but it is good to
structure it in a very practical, no-nonsense way:
short weekly department meetings, more general
monthly meetings and so on.
The watchwords of in-house communication are:
¢ access to information
¢ sharing of information
¢ exchange of information and opinions
¢ feedback.
Access to information: Intranet
The primary source of in-house information today
has become the intranet. Accessible and easy to
update, this information tool (not a communication
tool, and it will never replace in-house
communication) is well worth the investment of
time and money because it is fast, instant,
structured and effective.
Setting one up requires a little thought at first, but
it is worth it! Remember, especially, to update your
intranet regularly! To do so, make someone
responsible for 'cleaning' it regularly.
Some advice on setting up your intranet:
¢ Divide the items in a very specific way that
makes them clear to everyone: news,
publications, innovations, administrative
information, staff (new arrivals, weddings),
training, press cuttings (scanned or in electronic
format), etc.
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¢ Make sure everyone can indicate their
'favourites', so that they can be kept informed
of news in the areas of interest to them.
¢ Make short summaries of the information in
each section. Provide links for those who want
to learn more.
¢ Some parts of the intranet can be protected and
made accessible only to authorized persons
through a code. You decide whether you want to
reserve some information. Usually, everyone has
access to everything, because there are other
ways to handle confidential information.
Sharing information, views and opinions
In this area, be practical and down-to-earth. Many
organizations use the following tools:
¢ Each department runs a weekly meeting,
lasting no longer than one hour. This meeting is
generally open to everyone in the department,
though there are exceptions. You decide. Items
to discuss:
¢ What operations is the department currently
undertaking?
¢ What actions and negotiations are coming
up? Who negotiates what?
¢ Current and new topics.
¢ News: events planned, discussion of hostile
newspaper articles, taking of positions.
Each participant is responsible for their own notes.
There is no formal report on the meeting.
¢ A monthly meeting is held for all those who
have positions of responsibility in the
organization, lasting no longer than an hour and
a half. Items to discuss:
¢ Summary of ongoing operations within the
entire organization.
¢ New topics in preparation within the
organization.
¢ Specific issues concerning the life and
management of the organization: specific
developments, organization of work, etc.
A brief report is drawn up and published in the
in-house newsletter.
¢ A monthly in-house newsletter contains all the
information disseminated at the monthly
meeting and makes it accessible to all.
Key points in the newsletter:
¢ Comment of the month: an editorial
expresses the opinion of your organization on
a specific fact, change, etc.
¢ News: burning topics are briefly described,
as is action taken by the organization.
¢ Life of the organization: specific actions that
have been particularly noticed by the
members, the press, staff, events, etc.
¢ Announcements of births and marriages.
N.B. If you already publish a newsletter for the
outside, it is unnecessary to repeat the content
in-house. Make sure everyone can get access to it
via the intranet. On the other hand, you could give
information already sent out an in-house slant.
Most organizations have an editorial board for their
in-house newsletter, including a representative of
each department. The role of this committee is to
discuss the content and provide editorial material
for the newsletter.
Informal communication and feedback
Let us be clear: communication within your
organization will be even more effective if you
practise openness and transparency amongst
yourselves. Sharing contacts and sources of
information, together with regular informal feedback
on all aspects of your action will strengthen the
position of everyone in the organization. Together,
we are truly stronger!
PRACTICAL ADVICE
1. To enhance the skills of your managers, we
suggest you run a course on the processes
of lawmaking in your country. This will allow
everyone to know and understand better
when and how to influence
decision-makers.
2. When you hire a new manager, do not
hesitate to share existing contacts with
policy-makers, influential journalists and
opinion-leaders with that person. This will
make it much easier for the new person to
set up an effective network of relationships
and will immediately improve your
organization's lobbying.
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2. Communication with members
Communication with your members also calls for a
strategic approach, and then for you to develop
the right communication tools.
We therefore begin by asking ourselves some
questions before taking action. Only then will we
set up the tools. In this chapter, we talk about
communication tools whose effectiveness has been
demonstrated by many employers' organizations.
We conclude with some tips from the experience of
many officials of employers' organizations in
communicating with members.
A strategy for communicating with
members
Each country has its own specific context. Each
employers' organization has its own priorities and
challenges. You therefore need to do some
strategic thinking on communication with members,
and use it to guide your choices.
¢ What are your specific goals?
¢ Recruit new members?
¢ Win the loyalty of current members?
¢ Boost the knowledge and skills of members
through training?
¢ Mobilize members to deal with specific
issues?
¢ Other
It is vital to think about this and to prioritize your
list, because you will end up with a series of
different objectives. What are your three-year
priorities? What are your priorities for the current
year? Set them, because they will be useful when
you come to decide on the financial and human
resources you need to maximize the value of your
action to members.
¢ What are your resources?
¢ Your financial resources may restrict your
chances of developing specific
communication tools. You know that a
website has become indispensable. Despite
its relatively high set-up cost, it will allow you
to reach all your target audiences, especially
current and future members, very cheaply.
The experience of several organizations has
shown this: the mere fact of having a
website has allowed them to boost the
visibility of their organization and, almost
immediately, increase the number of
members, sometimes by hundreds. This
quickly pays off part of the investment.
¢ A useful piece of advice on investment in
communication: do not 'sprinkle' what
you can afford over a multitude of tools or
actions. It is best to limit the tools and
actions so that you can give them the
resources that will make them a success.
When you choose a tool or action, go all
the way!
¢ Your human resources are just as important
as financial resources. Communication with
members normally comes under your
in-house and external communication
manager. Do you have such a person on
board? If not, go and get one! Ideally, this
person will come from the world of
journalism or other types of communication,
will write well, be good at summing things
up, and have the ability to put themselves in
the place of the target groups with whom you
communicate. This person will create an
appropriate communication strategy once
your overall strategy has been set.
Tools for communication with members
¢ Database
Without an up-to-date database of all your
members, you will have great difficulty
communicating effectively. All your members have
different interests. Their fields of activity are very
different. The first concern is thus to set up such a
database and update it every month. An Excel
document is good enough to start with.
Useful sources for updates:
¢ Contacts and data left by the members on
your website.
¢ Annual data sent to each member with a
request to confirm or update.
¢ Website
A website has become the primary tool of
communication with members for the majority of
employers’ organizations. For several years now,
employers' organizations in some countries have
allocated part of the budget to having a site with
enough resources to make it professional and
effective. They have not regretted it!
The next section, page 42, is devoted to this type
of contemporary communication.
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Give your members secure access to specific items
such as:
¢ a list of all your organization’s services to
members
¢ specific administrative forms (or links to
sites where those forms are kept)
¢ questions for a specific department
¢ training courses, with registration form
¢ events, with registration form
¢ reports, analyses and documents produced
by your organization (or others) to download
¢ press cuttings (all your press releases
should already be on your site).
These items make life easier for your members and
really help their daily working lives. But then, how
do you know what your members look for in terms
of information or services? It is not always easy to
meet a multitude of sometimes very different
expectations. However, it is imperative to do so if
you are to keep your members in the organization!
You need to do this research regularly:
¢ an annual analysis of the key words used to
search within the section reserved for
members
¢ questions from members using your site
¢ a survey via your site: invite members who
click on to the secure part to answer a few
questions (usually no more than five,
because a user does not have much time!)
¢ Are the topics clear and accessible?
¢ Are the texts understandable?
¢ When you navigate, do you usually find
the information you want?
¢ Are there any improvements you would
like to see?
¢ User profile (age, position, frequency of
use)
¢ a survey via e-mail using a list of questions
(rather expensive; often done every three
years, expanding the questions to cover the
whole of the organization’s activity)
¢ regular feedback on training and other
activities for members
¢ feedback when a member phones about a
specific topic: through questions that ask
their opinion of the information available on
your site
¢ a panel: invite 6-8 members to a meeting
during which you ask about their
expectations and what your organization
provides. You can hold such meetings for
every sector in your organization.
¢ E-zine (electronic magazine)
We recommend that you read section six on
electronic communication and e-zines. It gives you
a comprehensive overview of the specifics of this
new form of communication.
An electronic magazine is the 'digital' version of a
publication. It is created by putting pdf files of
individual pages together, adding animation
features, and placing them on the Internet for
people to read using a normal browser.
Features and benefits:
¢ It can be set up very easily and is cheap to
produce.
¢ It has the look and feel of a paper
publication.
¢ You can give it an index so that readers can
go directly to a particular article or page.
¢ It can be downloaded as a single document,
which helps to make it known to others
through a link.
¢ You can insert links (key words) in the text to
a website.
An electronic magazine is in essence concrete,
short and to the point. Its main objective is to keep
your members informed of current issues,
activities, actions and services; in short, the life of
your organization in interaction with them.
Tailor the frequency of your e-zine to your time and
resources. In general, fortnightly is enough to keep
up with the news.
Organize your e-zine into clear sections, and limit
text content to the essentials. A good editorial rule
is the following: announce your subjects in the
e-zine, expand them on your website.
¢ Road shows
The road show has its roots in the United States.
When presidential candidates wanted to get known,
they used to roam the country by train, stopping
from town to town to get about and make
themselves known.
Today, the term is used when an organization
decides to leave its walls and reach out to its
members and potential members across the
country.
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A road show has always involved a presentation of
your organization followed by questions and
answers and closed by a drink or cocktail party that
allows everyone to get acquainted.
Who to invite
We advise you to invite members and potential
members in the town or region you are visiting. By
mixing them, you will boost everyone’s satisfaction
with your initiative. And there is nothing like having
current members recruit new ones by their
enthusiasm.
What to present
Always start with a current social or economic issue
which closely concerns the city or region you are
visiting. Only then make the connection with your
activities by showing what your organization does
for each of its members.
We suggest you use the structure and the advice in
Section Nine, “Presentation technique”, page 63.
¢ Mail shots
Mailing hundreds or even thousands of potential
members with a link to your site and an invitation
to join your organization can be helpful, but do not
expect miracles.
First, you need access to reliable databases with
addresses that have been checked. This requires a
financial investment. Furthermore, you need an
out-of-the-ordinary talent for written persuasion to
attract the readers and induce them to click on to
your site.
Typically, this tool is targeted (e.g. at a specific
sector of industry, or the medium-sized enterprises
in a region) and can be effective, but you should
only expect a return of a few per cent, if all goes
well.
¢ General annual meeting and annual report
Your annual general meeting provides an
opportunity to take stock of your activities, and the
annual report which follows is a useful document
with which to build up your reputation among your
external target audiences, and also among your
members.
Your members could get a preview on the day of
your meeting: a summary of major achievements
and future battles in a special edition of your
e-zine.
Moreover, the annual report contains a factual part
about your organization: action taken, work,
publications, analyses, etc. In short, you list what
the organization has done to fulfil its vision and its
objectives.
This report can become more than a summary of
your past activities. Why not choose a particular
topic each year, and go into it with testimonies,
short essays and photos inside your report? The
topic could justly relate to what your organization
sees as the heart of its concerns for the following
year.
The topic will generally be one that is in the news
and reflects the human side of the economy and
society. You could devote the issue to your staff
one year: an opportunity to spotlight those who
serve the members and society as a whole.
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IN-HOUSE COMMUNICATION AND
COMMUNICATION WITH MEMBERS: CHECKLIST
In-house communication
q You have a person in charge of in-house communication
q You have a procedure for informing any new member of staff about all aspects of your business
q Departments organize a weekly update meeting
q Your organization holds a monthly general in-house briefing
q You have an intranet which staff can consult
q For big organizations: you have a monthly in-house newsletter
q You have a system of regular feedback that allows you to listen to your staff and meet their
needs.
Communication with members
q Your database is complete
q You have a procedure for updating the database regularly, and a person in charge of doing so
q Your organization has a website
q Your website has a secure section for your members
q You have specific sections for members, listing miscellaneous services, documentation, events,
training, frequently asked questions, etc.
q Your organization sends an electronic newsletter (e-zine) regularly (at least once or twice a
month) to your members
q Your website tracks what members search for on it (visitor profile)
q You analyse members' communication needs (survey, feedback at events) annually
q You hold local meetings (road shows) with your members and potential members once a year.
VI. Section Six
Internet communication
Traditional communication is a
thing of the past.
The information cycle has changed a lot and,
logically, so have the rules that govern it. Instant
access to information on the World Wide Web has
fundamentally changed the situation. Consumers of
information have direct access, without having to
go through channels of information that filter the
information before passing it on.
Until recently, the only way for an organization to
ensure the dissemination of its messages to the
public was to write a press release and try to get
journalists to convey the message. Journalists and
editors inevitably had a role in relaying information.
Much depended on their willingness to give you
press space or air time. You had no option other
than to convince the media of the importance of
disseminating your information.
That time has gone. The media no longer have
control over information. It flows freely in “real
time”, without intermediaries and without the time
to process it.
Bloggers interact directly with businesses,
commenting on their news. The media are still
present, but no longer exclusive. They have to look
for new ways to justify their existence, primarily by
putting information into context and identifying
major trends.
Why communicate via the Internet?
Websites, information portals on the Internet,
extranet or intranet are easy ways to meet your
target audiences’ demand for rapid and effective
answers to their questions at any time. You
strengthen their trust in you and ensure their loyalty
to you by meeting their wish to get the response
they expect.
¢ E-mail: individualized communication via the
Internet (a digital personal message)
¢ E-zine: a digital message to a group of several
people
¢ Chat: instant individual communication ('live')
via the Internet
¢ SMS: information over mobile phones or special
Internet sites
¢ Peer networks: public virtual spaces, digital
communities that coalesce around shared
interests.
The World Wide Web is a dynamic, ever-changing
world, which means that information on websites
goes out of date very quickly. It therefore needs to
be updated frequently. Managing a website is a
continuous process and requires daily action.
Preparing to communicate on the Web:
the initial phase
Set yourself clear objectives and devise a precise
plan of attack.
¢ What goal do you want to achieve? Ask people
both inside and outside your organization about
this, so that you learn what needs they have
that you could meet. Get an overall vision of
your project.
¢ What resources do you have (time, money,
skills, expertise)?
¢ When you fix your budget, take into account the
in-house cost (e.g. the time you or your
colleagues will spend on setting up and
monitoring your website).
¢ Make a list of specifications that the website
must meet (requirements, graphic design,
guidelines, procedures, publication standards).
¢ Invest in content management software. This
will make it much easier to update your content.
Website content
We strongly advise you to use your website not just
to make your information available, but to create an
interactive platform.
Use your website to exchange information with your
members, with other organizations, etc. Provide
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separate areas on your website. Divide pages
reserved for your members with a password (for
secure access) from those accessible to everyone.
At present, we are seeing a craze for 'blogs' and
'forums'. However, only follow this path if you have
the resources, because they require heavy
investments of time.
Find out what type of information people who read
your site search for.
Profile the users. Do they seek very specific
information? Are they interested, but have no
specific requests? Are they specific target groups
such as the media, politicians or your members?
There are three distinct ways you can determine
their profiles.
¢ Focus groups, with whom you have an open
discussion on topics that interest them, the
questions they have, the desires that motivate
them. Ask them about the type of information
they wish to find on your website.
¢ Surveys. Ask Internet users who surf your
website if they are satisfied and have found
answers to their questions.
¢ Task analysis: carefully watch the surfers who
view your pages. See if they find them easily, if
the content holds their attention. See where
they click. Note all the steps they follow.
Question them, even orally, when they finish
consulting your website.
Writing for the Web: a whole new style of
writing
Writing Web pages is very specific. Make your
authors aware of this. Ask them to follow the
advice here.
¢ Opt for short, simple sentences. Be brief,
because it takes 20-30% more time to read on
screen than on paper. This already demands an
effort by your reader. Do not add to it.
¢ Your paragraphs should not exceed one third of
the screen, or 10 lines.
¢ Focus on facts and figures, as users seek
factual data above all.
¢ Users do not read the text displayed on the
screen word for word. They scan, they browse.
They search for key words.
¢ Competition on the Web is enormous. If visitors
do not find the information they want in no time,
they look elsewhere. They move on to what their
search engine offers as other sources of
information. Forestall 'zapping' by making it
easy to navigate your site. Make sure that
people can find things fast.
¢ On your pages of text, make sure you have clear
titles that sum up your message. This is all the
more important because search engines use
your titles to direct Internet users. Find key
words that characterize your activity, and place
them immediately in your introductory text.
¢ To get listed and included in the top rankings of
search engines like Google, you need to identify
key words and phrases that characterize you,
that are important to you, to your members, to
your country. By key phrases, we mean several
words put together.
¢ Very often, the user types into the search
engine a combination of 3 or 4 key words to
refine the search. So start with key words that
come to mind when looking for information
relating to your activities. If you use words that
are too vague, you will have little chance of
being listed on the first page of results found by
the search engine. Once you have compiled a
list of your key words and phrases, check
whether you figure at the top of the search
engine’s list of results. Enter your own key
words to see whether it is easy to find yourself.
Before you launch your website, you can even take
the lead in getting listed (without waiting for a
search engine to come across your site and list
you). You yourself can register your website with
search engines.
You can also ask other sites to install a link to your
website. You can contact official bodies (e.g.
government agencies) and ask them to list your
site on theirs. Link up with as many sites as
possible so that you increase the chances that
someone will click on to your site.
Make yourself known to index sites, directories and
portals. This will increase traffic to your website,
and hence the visibility of your organization.
Some free websites offer to register your website
with many search engines, professional websites,
directories, indices, etc. One of them is
www.submit-away.com/top-search-engines.htm,
which covers the majority of English-language
search engines.
¢ Prioritize intuitive navigation (i.e. clear, flowing,
inherently logical). Choose the wording on the
buttons that send you to other pages carefully.
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¢ Make sure that users understand directly where
a link will take them, and what information they
will find by clicking on it. Make sure that the
links lead to the right page.
Your press releases can also generate significant
traffic to your website. To the point that they are
sometimes the most visited section of a website.
Have a special section on your site for all your
press releases. and monitor the number of times
people visit that specific section. On your home
page, announce your latest press release, with the
date and a link to it. Again, there are websites that
will distribute your press releases on a large scale.
They forward them to online media such as Yahoo,
Google and Lycos. Here are four of them, tailored
to the Anglo-Saxon world. See if they cover your
country, and under what conditions.
¢ www.businesswire.com
¢ www.prnewswire.com
¢ www.prweb.com
¢ www.marketwire.com
When writing press releases, therefore, be sure to
put links into your text. That way, when they go on
the Internet, people who read them can learn more
by clicking on your links.
Make your home page lively. Vary the emphasis,
giving news pride of place (e.g. presentation of a
new member, a new tax measure, a law coming
into force, a new procedure, a visit by a delegation).
Send out a 'newsletter' via the Internet
Digital newsletters or e-zines are increasingly
successful. This is because of their low production
cost and their effectiveness in attracting the
attention of your target audience to your activities.
In addition, they make wide dissemination
possible. Caution: in some countries, the law
requires you to obtain the written consent of
recipients before mailing. Check whether this
applies to you.
An e-zine is a useful tool for winning your
audiences’ loyalty and getting them to visit your
website regularly. Make sure, therefore, that your
newsletter makes them want to learn more by
clicking on the links provided in your e-zine. These
links lead interested persons to your website,
where they will find more information.
See your e-zine as an invitation to visit your
website. Highlight site news, and announce new
additions. Keep your e-zine short. Go straight to the
point. Have it provide a summary of the information
held on your website. A few key words can put the
information in a nutshell and generate a desire to
learn more.
Given the importance of constantly updating your
website, it is logical that the frequency of your
e-zine should be either weekly or fortnightly rather
than monthly. But make sure you do not send your
e-zine out unless you have something new to offer.
When you update the content of your website,
send out your e-zine. Regularity is good, because it
forces you to update your site accordingly. Bring
together the pieces of information to highlight in
your weekly or fortnightly e-zine.
Tips
Shaping the layout of your e-zine is not expensive.
The investment is all the more worthwhile because
it makes you look very professional. Some systems
can even go further: readers indicate on a form the
content they are interested in and want to receive.
But experience shows that few readers actually
bother to set their own criteria.
¢ Contact information for people who have asked
to receive your e-zine, or who have registered
online on your website, can go into your
database. The information you collect can
inspire you to refine the content of your e-zines
to your audiences.
¢ Nothing is more irritating than to receive
unsolicited e-mail. This 'spam' is a plague in the
view of a growing number of Internet users, who
see it as violating their privacy, and who
therefore delete any unsolicited e-mail without
even reading it. Make sure people can
unsubscribe from your e-zines easily (one click)
at any time. And give the people on your files a
way to modify or delete their profile on your
website. This might reduce the number of
subscribers to your e-zines, but at least you
know that you actually reach those who are
genuinely interested in what you are doing.
¢ On the other hand, nothing prevents you from
doing a one-off mail shot to people who might
be interested in your activities.
¢ At the end of your e-zine, add a link for people to
forward your e-zine to an acquaintance who
might be interested. Do the same on your
website by adding a button to click to
'recommend this site to others'. Word-of-mouth
is still always a great way to make yourselves
known. Exploit it by making the task of your
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ambassadors who recommend your services to
the people around them as easy as possible.
¢ When you design your e-zine, and when you
decide on the content, think about your target
audience. Topics, distribution, etc., vary
depending on the type of audience. Not all of
them look for the same thing. So consider
sub-folders, e.g. “Investors”. Another avenue to
explore: have different versions of your e-zine
which cover specific topics. You could thus
have both a more general e-zine and a version
dedicated solely to legislation.
¢ Do not try to make your e-zine all-encompassing.
No need to try to cover all the services you
perform as a federation. Too much information
suffocates the reader in a mass of undigested
data. To keep an overall view, limit yourself to a
small number (5-10) of subjects that you
mention briefly in your e-zine and expand on your
website. If you want to get away from the
classical topic-based structure, you can instead
focus on the company of the month (the one
which shows the best results or which stands
out from its competitors), significant new
legislation, etc. This is fine as long as the
information is well structured.
¢ Strike the right balance: inform and entice.
Arouse curiosity. Informing is good, but see if
you can provoke a reaction from your readers by
playing the interaction card. If you announce a
trade show or seminar, offer tickets to attend to
the readers who are the first to react. Push your
readers/members into action. See if you can
back up this kind of action with simultaneous
announcements in your other channels of
communication (magazine, e-zine, banner and
specific page on your website, your office - e.g.
displays in the reception area).
¢ Make sure that your audience immediately
recognizes your e-zine among a hundred others.
Have your layout stick to specific styles,
typography, etc. Make sure the layout is
attractive, with a strong visual effect and your
logo. It is best to associate your e-zine with a
specific image. Thus, the reader who comes
across this design in other sources of
information will link it to your e-zine. These
references reinforce the synergy among your
various means of communication. Make sure
that your audiences clearly identify where they
can find certain kinds of information. Make their
search for information easy.
¢ Writing an e-zine is very different from a printed
publication. This is simply because reading a
text on screen is more difficult than on paper.
As a result, users fly over text on screen. They
scan it for key words, whereas they would read
a text printed on paper more linearly, looking at
the entire text. Complex sentences, long
paragraphs and passive sentences reduce
on-screen readability. Bear this in mind.
¢ Monitor the number of subscribers to your
e-zine. Since they can unsubscribe or
recommend your e-zine to people they know,
their number will give a good indication of the
relevance of your actions and your initiatives.
Put all the data on subscribers to your e-zine
into a CRM (customer relationship management)
programme. This will help you target direct
marketing actions (e.g. e-mail marketing or a
sponsorship campaign).
If you want to surf with the latest technology,
invest in an RSS (really simple syndication)
system. Imagine ... as soon as news appears in
an area of interest, subscribers to the RSS
service receive it immediately on their mobile
phone or in their e-mail box in the form of a
headline, two sentences of introduction and a
link to a site. Yours, for example.
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Advantages and disadvantages
of a website or an electronic newsletter
J Whatever your message or your target audience, you control your own communication process,
from drafting to dissemination.
J Continuous (website) or regular (newsletter) communication.
J Quality content that meets the needs and expectations of your target audience. They will come
back to your site regularly or willingly read your newsletters to keep abreast of your news and your
activities (agenda). This means you need to update your site: you must feed it, renew the
information. An out-of-date website gives a bad impression and no-one will look at it again.
¢ A newsletter is suitable for target groups that you already know.
¢ Your website must primarily showcase your activities to anyone who does not know you yet.
However, your website will also offer specific pages (secure or not) to those who follow you
more closely and regularly.
As an example, consider the case of a restaurant which uses the Internet to present its
management, its staff, its location, and, for the regulars, its dishes of the month.
J Global communication
Your e-mail newsletter and your website bring together a wealth of information.
¢ The website is similar to an online library, with archives and news items. Put information on
your website about everything that makes up the life of your organization (at least the part you
want to show the general public and highlight). Include links to all articles about your
organization, and publications (reports, brochures, catalogues, etc).
At any time, day or night, people can find information on their most common questions, without
having to contact you (saving you time). All this wealth of information is accessible at any time,
even outside office hours. They can also find practical information like the address of your
offices, opening hours, full contact information (phone, fax, e-mail), a map and your organization
chart.
In addition, you can have a specific section with links to other useful websites (municipalities,
federations, chambers of commerce, etc). Readers appreciate having all the information at their
fingertips.
¢ The newsletter brings together several highlights of your news: for example, upcoming
meetings, planned activities, new staff, new regulations that have an impact on your operations
and those of your members, procedures explained, new buildings or new services.
Useful information and information that does not date can then be stored on your site in an
archive, accessible by a search engine inside your site.
J Instant communication
People who want more information about your services should not have to wait until your offices
are open. They will save time if they can find the information they need immediately. And you will
be less bothered by requests for trivial information.
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L Expensive
Creating and designing a website costs a lot because you must turn to outside experts. They can
also lay out your newsletters.
You then have to put at least one in-house person in charge of feeding the website with
information, bringing it alive, continuously updating it with new information and removing
information that is obsolete or of no interest. This person will also gather information to
communicate through the newsletter. He or she will write the text (writing for the Web is special: it
is short and concise). They must have enough technical knowledge to send out newsletters and
adapt content online using the space provided for that purpose by the company that developed the
website at your request. They may change the site to some extent: including pictures, titles, text.
On the other hand, when it is time to change the form of the website, he or she will turn to the
company that designed your website.
L Uncertainty as to the addressee
¢ You do not know who will visit your website, at first.
You can choose to secure part of your site, accessible only by using a personal, individual
identification code ('login') and a password. You can then select which of your contacts (e.g. all
your members) get access to the secure part.
This may lighten your administrative burden, because each member can view their user profile
and read information about it directly. They can tailor the information they wish to appear there.
¢ You can choose to whom you send your newsletters. So you target your information. However,
remember that your recipients can forward this information to their contacts. Be mindful of the
confidentiality of information transmitted.
L Content quickly outdated
Given the immediacy of the Internet and of newsletters, new information drives out old, and is
itself quickly outdated. Hence the importance of keeping your information constantly up-to-date.
The information contained in your newsletter must be on your website at the same time. If
warranted, it may remain in the 'archive' of your website (if the information is still useful to those
who view your pages on the Internet).
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CHECKLIST OF BEST PRACTICE
IN INTERNET COMMUNICATION
q Your website mirrors the general graphic style of your organization (colours, logo, typography,
etc.)
q Your URL (Abbreviation of Uniform Resource Locator, it is the World Wide Web address of the
site) is listed in all communication supports
q Your site is listed on major search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc.)
q Your site registers what people search it for (visitor profile)
q Your home page has a heading called 'news' that draws attention to each item of news (press
releases, agreements, events, etc.)
q You make an annual analysis of visitors to your site
q You make an annual analysis of your visitors’ needs
q You make an annual analysis of your site’s informative and communicative value
q You “rejuvenate” your site every 3 years
q Your texts include key words with links to further reading
q You never use more than 5 bullet points at a time
q The texts do not occupy more than one third of the screen (or 10 lines)
q Your site has links to other organizations, your members, etc.
q Your site has a secure section for your members
q Your site has a multi-media library where you archive all your organization's communications
(press releases, reports, electronic letters, e-zines, etc.)
q Your organization distributes an electronic newsletter (e-zine) regularly (at least once a month)
q You regularly list discussion forums that are relevant to your activity
q You regularly take part in discussion forums
q Your organization is in 'social' or 'professional' networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.)
VII. Section Seven
Communication with the media
Disseminating messages through the media is an
inexpensive and very effective way to influence
opinion. Most media are easily accessible. They
offer a wide audience (or readership). Some very
specialized media offer very targeted audiences. So
check if there are already specialized media (e.g.
professional or economic media) that target the
same audiences as you.
Radio = 100% speed, 60% emotion and 40%
information
The strength of radio is its speed. You can react
immediately. But it is also fleeting and ephemeral.
It is instantaneous. People forget what they have
heard faster than what they have read. You need to
weigh your words. You only have a few words, a few
minutes, to get your message across. It must be
clear, direct and understandable. Your words have
to fly, and hit home directly.
TV = 90% emotion and only 10% information
The strength of TV is its pictures. Hence, emotion.
If you want to broadcast a message on TV, make
sure you use pictures that support and illustrate
your words.
Daily press = 80% information, 20% emotion
The strength of print is its content. It is possible to
argue, to expand on a point of view, whereas radio
and TV require you to stick to basics, to say
everything in 20 seconds or one minute. You can
go much deeper with the press. You can explain
your point of view in detail, qualify what you say,
clarify things, and add figures. You have the chance
to recall facts, and to put things in context. It is
ideal for changing the views of your target audience
and getting your issues from public debates on to
the agenda of the economic and political world.
Weeklies and periodicals = 50% information, 50%
emotion
Magazines are especially suitable for in-depth
analysis and full features on major societal issues.
They let you expound your thought in even greater
depth. Pictures, and hence emotions, come into
play a bit more, and so here we have a ratio of 50%
information to 50% emotion.
Example. You want to raise public awareness of
the importance of not imposing new tax measures
related to energy consumption.
¢ Press conference: present your point of view,
get the issue into the news. Involve all the
media.
¢ Magazine interviews, in which your view
confronts others: you defend and argue your
point of view with well-chosen examples. They
illustrate your words and speak to the public's
imagination.
¢ TV interview with one of your members. What
they say affects the audience. An
emotion-based sequence strengthens your
overall message.
¢ A detailed and rational article in a financial
journal known for its reliability. In this article,
you state calmly, with supporting figures, the
impact the tax measures proposed by the
government would have.
To communicate effectively with the media, you
have to know them, just as they must get to know
you. You must know how they work, how they are
organized. Bear this in mind. Adapt to their
schedules. Contact them via the communication
channel they prefer.
Interaction among media
The first readers of newspapers are ... journalists.
They are constantly in search of subjects, checking
that they have not missed a fact, an event, a
scandal. There is constant interaction among all
the media. You should know this, because when a
piece of news is released, it is quickly picked up by
other journalists and amplified. Better act quickly if
the news is about your own organization!
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The press release
The objective of a press release is to provide
succinct information to journalists responsible for
disseminating information.
Your press release should be:
¢ Short: maximum one A4 page, ideally 2000
characters (including spaces).
¢ Precise: go straight to the point.
¢ Title that says what it is about
¢ The first five lines (= the “lead”) should
summarize the information.
¢ 3-4 paragraphs giving more details of the
items mentioned in the lead. Always start
your press release with general data and end
with the details. And always put the most
important news at the beginning.
¢ Quote: highlight a comment by a person
(from your organization or talking about your
organization), as in an interview. This quote
sums up your point of view well, or arouses
curiosity, because the words chosen speak
to the reader (through a comparison or key
figures that make you think).
¢ Your identification: a short description of
your organization, its importance, its
activities, etc.
Example: “The employers' organization
represents the interests of 678 companies
with 7,002 employees all over the country.”
¢ Accessible: Use terms that everyone can
understand.
¢ Identifiable: It is important that we can clearly
identify you as the issuer. The name and logo, if
any, of your organization should be included. On
the other hand, avoid mentioning the name of
your organization too often. That irritates
people.
¢ Dated: Specify the date and place of issue. If
you send your release out in advance, but you
do not want journalists to divulge your
information until later, on a specific date that
you tell them, state this clearly in capital letters:
'EMBARGOED until (date). Please respect.'
¢ Interactive: Do not forget to indicate the name
of the contact person responsible for answering
press questions. This person can collect
requests for information and interviews, and
pass them on to the official spokesperson for
your organization. Provide your contact
information (phone, fax, e-mail).
¢ Tell journalists how to get supporting
photographs. Get photos ready for them, both of
leaders of your organization and ones that
illustrate your news (e.g. pictures of your new
buildings, your new products, the official
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¢ 5 am, presenters and journalists at radio stations leaf through the newspapers and dispatches
from news agencies.
¢ 7 am, they broadcast their news bulletins.
¢ 8 am, the editors of TV channels determine the topics to be covered that day.
The editors of newspapers also rely on radio news reports to choose the issues to give priority to.
They scour their newspaper competitors, which have different perspectives on certain items in the
news. They also read news from news agencies.
Throughout the day, radio stations continue to send out news bulletins updated with the latest
information.
¢ 1 pm, TV channels make their news broadcasts.
¢ The newspapers check whether there is anything that has escaped them so far.
¢ 7 pm, TV news again. The newspapers follow them and put their editions to bed at 8 pm. The
papers are printed overnight and distributed in the early morning to newsagents, news stands and
subscribers. These newspapers will be read by radio journalists at daybreak.
¢ The loop is thus completed. The information is relayed throughout the day by the various media,
which constantly take into account the way the information is processed (content, approach) by the
other means of communication.
EXAMPLE OF INTERACTION
presentation of an award that your organization
has won). The ideal way is to make the photos
available on your website (possibly a secure part
of your website, protected by a password and a
log-in). Journalists can then download them.
Give them the address of your website if you
have one.
¢ Make the journalists’ work easy. Soften the
task up for them. Make it so that they only have
to regurgitate your statement. Journalists are
often overwhelmed with work. They appreciate it
when they can simply repeat at least some of
the text of press releases. Write the press
release like an article ready to be published as
it is. Write in the style of the media into which
you want to get your message. Write the text
from the point of view of the recipients.
Consider what is important to them. Take care
over spelling and presentation.
¢ Who to send your press release to.
If you send it by e-mail, paste your press release
into the body of your e-mail. Do not send your
press release as an attachment.
Keep an up-to-date database of freelance
journalists or those with links to mass-market or
specialist publications, to the local, regional or
national press who:
¢ have contacted your organization (inquiries);
¢ have already published articles on your
activities;
¢ write about your sector of activity.
The press conference
Organizing a press conference is not very
expensive, but it calls for serious preparation.
Whatever the original purpose of your press
conference (to showcase your organization, your
services, your views on a social issue), you must
first make sure your subject is topical.
The advantage of a press conference is that you
can present a subject to a wide audience and
generate a lot of questions. These questions will
probably be the same for most journalists. Answer
them in batches by holding a press conference.
The choice of a date for your press
conference
A press conference can take many forms. It is up to
you to decide which will be the most effective.
A press breakfast works well when business
journalists have a lot of work and press
conferences (when companies are publishing their
financial results), as does late morning (11 am),
which allows daily press, radio and TV journalists to
go over your information in the course of the day.
The advantage of a press breakfast or lunch is that
you are at the table with the journalists, so it is
less stuffy than a formal press conference, where
you are in front of reporters lined up in rows. The
contact is more friendly.
At a press breakfast or lunch, you give each
reporter a copy of your slides, so they can follow
easily.
Choose the date of your press conference
according to the schedule of your speakers and
the likely schedule of the journalists.
Suitable speakers are:
¢ Your official spokesperson
¢ The project head
¢ Witnesses (members, clients) or partners with
whom you work (as long as their testimony or
information matches the subject of your press
conference). They add credibility to your speech
by talking about what your services or your
cooperation bring them.
¢ A politician or a recognized opinion-leader
(possibly).
¢ A third party who can summarize what your new
service does for people.
The location of the press conference
Holding the press conference on your premises
allows you to show off your organization and offer
direct access to all your in-house resources. Check
whether your premises and infrastructure are up to
it. If not, rent a hall.
Make sure that, as well as the room in which you
make your presentation, there is a lobby where you
can provide refreshments or a hot drink for those
who arrive in advance. For individual (radio/TV)
interviews, choose a separate room, well insulated
from noise.
Be ready to receive the journalists a good half-hour
before the advertised time.
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The invitation to the press
The printed, audiovisual and electronic invitation to
the press (general, regional, specialist,
professional) must include:
¢ the subject of the meeting (brief description of 5
to 10 lines that makes people want to learn
more)
¢ the date
¢ the time
¢ the place
¢ the speakers
¢ a map
¢ your e-mail address and phone number, so that
they can register with you (3 days in advance, at
the latest).
Preferably add a registration form that can be
completed easily, and sent to you by fax or post.
Clearly state your fax and phone numbers, and
your postal and e-mail addresses. Specify the
deadline for registering.
Reminders for the journalists invited to
your press conference
Do not expect journalists to respond to your
invitation. You will need to remind them by phone,
two or three days before your press conference.
Ask if you are listed on the agenda of the editorial
teams. That is already a good sign, because
editors often make decisions on the morning itself,
depending on the news-value and available staff. It
is up to you to show that the message of your
press conference is worth the trip. Your invitation
must be persuasive about the importance and the
'new' nature of the information that you will be
giving.
The day itself
Get to the facts fast. Do not blather. Be clear and
concise: a maximum 30 minutes of presentation
and at most 20 minutes for questions and
answers. You can set an example by putting (to
yourself) 2-3 questions at the end of your
presentation. The journalists will then be more
inclined to ask questions themselves.
Right after the conference, nothing prevents you
from giving individual interviews (in a separate
room).
The press kit
Your press kit will contain:
¢ the press release
¢ photos you have selected (people, events,
buildings, products)
¢ the history of your organization (key dates) and
a detailed explanation of its sector of activity
(key figures on your 'core business'). Add a
five-line description ready to be copied
unchanged
¢ information about your new service, your new
procedure, etc. (illustrated with photographs or
drawings)
¢ detailed quantitative data (reports, statistics)
¢ CVs (curriculum vitae) of speakers at your press
conference, including third parties (members,
customers, partners)
Informal meeting with the press
You can also get together with journalists with
whom you have a relationship of trust to discuss
topics related to your business. When you feel it is
appropriate that they know and understand your
position, consider holding an informal meeting.
Be sure to prepare your presentation. Provide the
journalists with handouts, even if the goal is not to
get published. The objective here is to present your
views to reporters that you respect and who have
followed you for a long time. Or even to rally
journalists to your cause.
Remember that the reporters are free to publish an
article afterwards that sets out your point of view or
situation. So use 'off-the-record confessions'
sparingly.
The position paper
This is a document summarizing the opinion or
attitude of your organization on social issues such
as global warming, the country’s economic or social
policy, the government's priorities, debates within
society.
This document allows you to put down on paper
messages to convey to anyone within the
organization who might have to communicate on
the subject. It means you can be sure that your
vision will be known to everyone in-house and that
the message they broadcast will be uniform and
consistent.
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¢ Devote no more than five paragraphs to each
subject.
¢ Because these documents are closely related to
the news, you must constantly update them.
¢ See also what facts in the news require a
position on your part.
¢ Take the trouble to inform your members about
your positions. They will better appreciate the
action you take to defend their interests and will
also echo your point of view if they are
interviewed by the press.
¢ As these documents are for a wide audience,
you can make them available on your website.
Press trip
There is nothing better than to take a small group
of hand-picked journalists on a press trip, inside
your country or abroad, for getting to know them
better and building relationships of trust with them.
A conference, a forum, an economic mission, a
visit to several of your members, etc., are all useful
for such junkets.
You travel together and you spend time together,
which gives you ample opportunity to get
acquainted.
In most countries, the journalists’ travel and board
are at your expense. You invite them with no
guarantee as to what they will publish, or even if
they will publish anything.
To provide proper guidance to the journalists, the
recommended proportion is one person from your
federation to each group of three journalists.
Be very selective in your choices, because the
investment is heavy. Even though you are not sure
of media coverage, experience shows that
journalists give you a good 'return' in terms of
coverage. The articles are generally longer,
seeming to justify the time spent on the press trip.
Advantages and disadvantages of a report
(article, interview, feature) in the press or
a broadcast on radio or TV (report, interview, debate)
J Credibility of media deemed neutral
Journalists make themselves liable. They are therefore critical, and verify your sources, as well as
the merits of your statements.
That is a plus for readers, who can rely on the information reported by the medium with confidence.
An article has great credibility, and gives credibility to your message, which will gain impact.
J Information that requires you to be clear, precise and concise
Journalists pass on your information. They are intermediaries between your organization and the
general public. If they ask you questions, it is because they want to understand you and to pass on
what you want to communicate as clearly as possible. Take care to be clear and credible.
Otherwise, they may water down or transform your messages.
You lose control of your communication as soon as you hand it over to them. It is up to you to
ensure that you do not misrepresent yourself, by being very clear and precise.
J Low cost
On average, a press conference attracts three media. If it is successful, it attracts a dozen
journalists.
Whether three or ten media turn up, it costs the same (your PR work, the conference room,
invitations, maybe a caterer or photographer).
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L Dependence on journalists’ goodwill
You are not paying the piper.
You do not control the content of the article, nor the date of publication, nor the length of the
article, nor its surroundings when it is published (advertising or another related article).
L Duty to convince the journalists
You must be very convincing to encourage the reporter to pass on the information. Otherwise you
will miss out on a large audience. The stakes are high. Journalists will only devote a news article
to you if they deem it interesting to their audience. It is up to you to show them that it is
(highlight the advantages for their readers, listeners or viewers, plus news-value).
Hence the value of making their task easier (a well-written press release that can be re-used
virtually unchanged - copy and paste).
L Limited lifetime of an article (daily, weekly). Readers rarely look at articles they have already
read.
L One shot
You cannot publish the same article twice. You can at best make sure that several media speak
about you at around the same time, for added effect. This will make you "ubiquitous".
L Each medium has a specific audience
Only certain people will read the articles about you. How do your target groups get their
information? Make sure you are in the media they consult and read!
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CHECK-LIST OF BEST PRACTICE
IN MEDIA RELATIONS
q Your organization has a person skilled in communication/media relations
q You have an up-to-date press list
q You have a procedure for updating the press list regularly
q You know the leading journalists in your country personally
q You have been trained in doing interviews with the media: TV, radio and the press
q The people in your organization who are often sought by the media have had specific training in
interviews with TV, radio and the press
q Your press releases are dated, and written in the form of a lead and a body of two or three
paragraphs of text; they include a standard paragraph about your organization, and the name and
telephone number of a person to contact for more information
q Your press releases contain hyperlinks (for subjects that appear on your website)
q Journalists can download photos from your website
q You monitor press articles daily and distribute the results within your organization and among
your members (website)
q You hold press conferences on topics that might generate a lot of questions
q Two days before a press conference, you phone those who have not yet responded to your
invitation with a reminder
q Whenever you hold a press conference, you distribute a press release and a press kit to each
participant. You then send these documents to the journalists who did not come
q Press conference: you limit presentations to 20 minutes or less, and allow time for questions
and answers
q At a press conference, you prepare for the questions that are most likely to be asked
q You write a 'position paper' on any social issue that involves your organization
q You systematically distribute your 'position papers' to your members
q You evaluate every major press action quantitatively and qualitatively, and release the results of
your actions annually (e.g. number of press cuttings)
VIII. Section Eight
Interview techniques
The media are partners worth favouring. Think of
them as a conduit between the public, civil
society and your organization. They inform citizens
of activities that you run. Through the media which
pass on your key messages, you influence public
opinion. At the same time, decision-makers,
investors and politicians rely heavily on what the
media echo.
Logically, this exchange of information goes in both
directions, between civil society and your
organization, via the media channels.
When we discussed the 'stakeholders' in an
organization, we saw that the media represent civil
society and its values. And civil society demands
that companies and organizations behave ethically
and responsibly. That is to say that companies and
organizations are accountable for the social,
financial and environmental impact of their activity.
If they fail in this duty, the media, whose primary
purpose is to inform their audience, are sure to
question them about it and ask them to explain.
Whenever you talk to the press, TV or radio, you put
your image at stake.
This is a paradox: if you make a mess, you damage
your reputation. Without advance preparation, the
effect on your image can indeed be disastrous. And
you will have the devil of a job to get back what you
have lost. On the other hand, if your performance is
brilliant, you boost your image.
So it is worth the effort. See your reputation as a
valuable but fragile asset, just waiting to grow
through actions that are well thought out and well
prepared.
Preparation, the key to success
Preparation is the key to success. It is
indispensable. You must be ready to handle any
unexpected question from a journalist. If the media
ask you to explain, you cannot but respond.
Avoiding comment is a false step, very damaging to
your image and reputation.
The better prepared you are, the more you will gain
in confidence and so become even more
convincing.
For the sake of professionalism, therefore, prepare
yourself. How? Identify journalists; get to know the
media and their audiences.
Practise how to answer any questions that may
arise at any time. This chapter will show you the
technique to follow for successful interviews. It is
estimated, in fact, that good preparation accounts
for more than 50% of the success of what you say.
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“What are your questions to my answers?”
An interview is not an examination. It is an opportunity for you to convey a message ... whatever the
question! Before each press conference he gave, Henry Kissinger, American diplomat, Secretary of
State under Nixon and winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1973, started meetings with these words:
“What are your questions to my answers?” Do like him. He felt that the questions allowed him to
communicate his information. He saw the interviews as windows on the world – on his world.
GENERAL RULE: IF YOU ARE NOT PREPARED, DO NOT GIVE INTERVIEWS
Radio and TV interviews
Why not start with the most difficult ? For who can
do the most can do the least ... The TV interview is
a dangerous exercise if improvised. It is complex. It
involves managing not only the message (= the
words), but also all the non-verbal aspects.
Managing your image is not easy. Like climbing
Everest, it takes serious preparation and training,
using proven techniques.
What is true for TV applies broadly to radio
interviews and a fortiori to press interviews. We
shall point out a few differences in the pages that
follow.
Your interview has two important aspects:
¢ Information. This is the journalist's work. It is
he who supplies the information.
You are not there to give information during
the interview!
You will have taken care to brief the journalist
before the interview (see page 60 on how the
interview unfolds).
¢ Illustration. This is your task as the interviewee.
You are expected to show a certain attitude
toward the problem and its solution.
The word 'attitude' also implies 'commitment'
and 'emotion'.
During the interview, you must personally
demonstrate your organization’s commitment.
Stick to that role.
Illustrate your organization’s views. Show that it
is willing to communicate and that it is taking
action. Back up your words with concrete action
that you are taking.
Express your organization’s attitude to the
issue.
If journalists believe that you lack the courage of
your convictions, they will force you to react.
They will push you up against the wall with ever
more aggressive questions. When you answer
such questions, feel free to show your emotion.
¢ How can you get your message across to
journalists? There are three separate briefings
to give to journalists.
BRIEFING No. 1: First contact
¢ A journalist contacts you. He asks you to give
him an interview.
Know your interlocutor. Ask who you have to
deal with.
A reporter? Someone preparing a programme?
You can also use the type of document on
page71. It allows you to take note of
journalists’ questions, so that you can then
pass them on to the in-house person best able
to answer them. Taking detailed note of
questions and contact information will make
that task a lot easier.
¢ What programme or subject are they
contacting you about?
¢ Is the broadcast aired live? Or is it taped, to
be broadcast later?
¢ When will it run? Bear the time gap in mind,
so that you do not provide information or
documents that will be outdated by the time
it runs.
¢ On what channel?
¢ What is the audience?
¢ How much time do you get to speak? How
long will you be on the air?
¢ Are other people being interviewed, taking
part or speaking? Who are they? What have
they said?
¢ What will the topic be? Ask for details!
¢ On what subject and specific issues will they
ask you to speak?
¢ Why you?
¢ Why does the journalist want to raise this
issue? For what reasons?
If it comes in the wake of an article, ask for a
copy of the article if you do not already have
one. Always ask to see the journalist’s sources.
Check them out.
¢ What do they know about the subject? Check
what the journalist knows about the issue. If
necessary, give them additional information.
Make sure they understand what it is.
Remember that the journalist is not an
expert in your field. You are the expert.
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¢ Do they know your organization? If not, send
them documentation with figures.
¢ What is the time frame? When should the
interview take place?
This lets you know how much time you have to
prepare or to find a spokesperson who will take
over.
If you are not the best person to answer, advise
them to contact someone you think is well
grounded in the subject or in a better position to
give an adequate answer to the question. Put
the journalist in touch with that person.
Concerning radio interviews.
¢ Before you give your interview, ask whether
what you say is recorded immediately. Often,
the interview starts from the first contact!
Ask not to record right away, so that you can
ask them the basic first-briefing questions.
¢ Do not start the interview immediately. Ask
the reporter how much time he or she has
before the interview is aired. This will give
you time to prepare detailed answers to give
to their questions. You have the right to ask
for time to prepare.
BRIEFING No. 2: Just before the interview
During this briefing, convey your message to the
journalist. Tell them what is important to you! The
journalist will base the interview on this
information.
BRIEFING No. 3: At the end of the
interview
Ask the reporter if your message was clear. If it
was not, ask him or her to ask one last question to
give you a final chance to get your key message
across.
Three factors determine the success of
an interview:
Authority: 40%
Words: 7%
Non-verbal aspects: 53%
¢ Your authority (you are an expert, who speaks
from knowledge) accounts for 40%. The public
will show interest if you are credible in your role.
You are on top of the subject, so you are the
person best able to speak about it. But do not
fall into the trap of experts who prove unable to
make themselves easily understood.
¢ The words, or verbal communication, account
for only 7% of the success of your interview as a
way of communicating. This means that your 7%
of words absolutely must include your key
message, your goal. In addition, you may not
know what footage will be used by the journalist.
Often, they shoot more footage than they need.
They therefore choose the best moments, the
most significant statements likely to catch their
audience’s attention. Your message must be
present in each excerpt that may be seen.
¢ Your non-verbal communication, which
accentuates and confirms your involvement,
your commitment, accounts for more than 50%
of the success of your interview!
The viewers and journalists judge your level of
commitment by looking primarily at your
non-verbal communication. Your voice, your
posture, your eyes, your breathing, your facial
expressions, all reflect your level of involvement
or betray your lack of commitment.
¢ It is all about perception. Non-verbal factors
(the tone and speed of your voice,
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“What are your questions to my answers?”
¢ 20 seconds of filmed material, framing the issue: introduction by the commentator / reporter who
puts the problem or situation into context.
¢ 20 seconds to interview you or your counterpart = what is the attitude of your organization to the issue?
¢ 20 seconds of filmed material = additional arguments and information concerning the possible
solution by the commentator / reporter.
¢ 20 seconds interview with you = attitude of your organization to the solution.
STRUCTURE OF A CLASSIC TELEVISION NEWS INTERVIEW
confidence, posture, facial expressions, a
relaxed stance, and deliberate coordinated
gestures) greatly influence the image that
you put over.
¢ Rule number one: maintain constant eye
contact with the journalist! Hold their
gaze. Do not lower your eyes. Look them
calmly in the eye, 100% of the time.
¢ Rule number two: Capture the listener by
putting energy into your voice. Vary your
tone of voice; put intonation on key
words. Use stress and pauses. This
takes practice.
¢ It is not compulsory to fill a silence. Do
not attempt to embroider. Be careful not
to talk too fast.
¢ The decor should preferably be neutral, or
else in harmony with the topic. For example,
to illustrate a technological subject, you
could have a background of machinery.
¢ Pastel colours look better on the screen.
Think about this when you choose your outfit.
¢ Have a natural stance: relaxed, not tense,
with your shoulders loose and your hands
resting quietly on the table or at your side.
Keep your feet planted firmly on the ground.
Are you standing up during the interview?
Keep your feet apart, the better to anchor
your legs to the ground. Keep your arms at
your sides.
Are you sitting during the interview? Cross
your feet to keep your posture upright. Do
not fold your arms or interweave your fingers.
It is better to make open gestures. Keep
your hands flat on the table. Be yourself
regarding your body language.
Words: how to construct your key
message and get it across
On radio or TV, limit yourself to transmitting a
single message. In print, you can go for up to three
key messages.
Link your key message to the values held by a
journalist who represents civil society. The
'bridging' technique that we describe below helps
you connect everything together into a smooth flow.
Answer questions with your key messages. During
the interview, do not lose sight of your goal. Get
your key messages in at all cost. Do not hesitate to
repeat a key message consistently, regardless of
the question. Apply the 'bridging' technique to every
question they ask you.
Never, ever say: “I think that ... ” or “ I believe that
... ”. Say instead: “I am convinced that ...”.
The technique of 'bridging'
This technique allows to get your key message out,
regardless of the reporter's question, via the values
they cherish. It is very useful, especially against
hostile questions.
If you analyse broadcast or published interviews,
you will realize that journalists uphold certain
values of society that fit in with the ideology of
their medium. Through their questions, they want
to check the attitude of your organization to those
values. Thus, in the Western world, we find values
such as family, health, safety, protection of
minorities and the 'weak', consumer protection,
the environment, culture, quality of life.
Identify with the journalists the values that are
current in your country.
(See also the table on page 68)
Ask the journalists with whom you are familiar, with
whom you have established a relationship of trust,
to draw up a list of the values they have at heart,
the values they defend. That way, you will have
values that correspond precisely to the realities
and sensitivities of your country, not ones modelled
on sometimes distant Western values.
¢ Respond briefly to the question asked by the
journalist.
“No, absolutely not.” “That is not our analysis.”
¢ Then, you make a 'bridge' or a 'gateway' to the
societal value you selected during your
preparation.
¢ “What matters is ... ” “As regards ... ” “It is
important to ... ” “We care about ... ” +
formulate the chosen value in a few key
sentences.
¢ Then make a second verbal 'bridge' towards
your goal, your key message: “In our case …”
+ formulate your goal, not forgetting to insert a
concrete action.
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Press interview
The newspaper interview differs little from the radio
or TV interview, except it is easier, because the
reporter is less pushed for time. You can therefore
convey a lot more information to them, but do not
forget to prepare your 3-4 key messages, using the
technique we have just described.
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Question Short answer,
(max. 10 sec.)
1
st
verbal bridge Press values
(max. 20 sec.)
2
nd
verbal bridge
Your goal
(key message)
(max. 20 sec.)
Question 1
(and replicate
technique for
the next
questions)
“Yes ...”
“No ...”
“In fact, ... ”
“But ... ”
“What matters
is ... ”
“As regards ...”
“It is important
to ... ”
“We care about
... ”
Describe your
attitude to the
value chosen
And do so in a
few key
sentences
“Besides,”
“In this
regard,”
“In our case,
...”
“On the other
hand, ...”
Get your key
message in
+ specify your
concrete action
1. After the first briefing, decide what your key
message is. Describe it in 3-4 key sentences.
2. Then see which value of the press is
closest to your key message. Describe how
your organization is concerned with this value
in 3-4 key sentences.
PREPARATION OF A RADIO-TV INTERVIEW: VALUE AND MESSAGE
YOUR INTERVIEW IS READY! The questions are no longer important!
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¢ Prepare yourself: do not be put under pressure! Ask for preparation time. Prepare your speech in
comfort in a quiet place.
¢ Practise beforehand.
Warm your voice up. Before going on the air, do a rehearsal. Pretend to respond tit for tat to the
journalist.
Go through it aloud, if possible, in front of a mirror before going in front of the cameras.
¢ If your topic is complex, simplify, even at the risk of being less precise. And remember to brief the
journalist.
¢ Do not hide behind obscure comments, because that will only attract a further question from the
journalist.
¢ Keep confidential information to yourself.
In your contacts with journalists, be aware that you have no control over what is published or
withheld from your message.
Do not disclose confidential information. Nothing forces you to answer all the questions! Some
information is confidential. Conceal it neatly. Avoid “no comment”.
Say instead: “That is not important to understanding the problem, the issue, etc. What I can tell you
is ...” or “I cannot answer that question because it deals with confidential information. However, I
can tell you that ...”
¢ Assume that everything you say becomes official.
Be sure, therefore, of the information you give and the comments you make. Mention only figures
that have been checked and are reliable. You cannot retract later, with rare exceptions when a
journalist agrees to have a simple informal exchange of information with you. To take things back is
to undermine your own credibility.
¢ Only speak 'off the record' (supposedly off-air, with no microphones plugged in) to journalists you
have known for a long time and whom you trust. But do so with caution, and sparingly.
¢ On radio and television, use words a child of 12 could understand. Keep it simple, as you would if
you were to explain spontaneously what you do, the impact of your action and what is at stake to a
young person who had never heard anything about it before.
¢ Avoid all jargon. It will make you incomprehensible to anyone who is not familiar with your sector or
business!
¢ Aggressive or embarrassing questions
Stay calm at all times and use the bridging technique. It is incredibly effective!
Despite the nervousness and inner tension you may feel (try not to let it show), stay polite and
courteous.
Do not show aggression toward the journalist. He or she always has the last word ... in the article or
editing!
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Even if you feel aggressive, do not see the interview as a boxing match. You would lose. Both you
and the journalist have every interest in its going well. Both of you want the best interview possible:
he or she, because they want to do a professional interview and you, because you want to convey
your key messages in a professional manner. The journalist is not your opponent or enemy. They
play their role as a 'challenger' in order to inform and explain.
Avoid being on edge, on the defensive, ready to respond with animosity. Losing patience or
becoming aggressive harms your image.
But get things straight!
¢ On radio or television, do not repeat a question or accusations.
¢ Do not blame those absent. They cannot defend themselves and it will make you look nasty.
¢ What do you do if you make a mess of an answer on television or radio? Unless the show is live,
stop your answer, ask for the question to be put again. Ask them not to not use a shot that does
not suit you because you were not comfortable or satisfied with what you said. But do not overdo
this! If you are on the air, stop answering and plunge straight into your key message.
CHECK-LIST OF BEST PRACTICE
IN GIVING INTERVIEWS
q You have had special training in media interviews
q You understand and practise the saying, “What are your questions to my answers?”
q You do not accept any interview without preparation (objective / message to be decided in
advance)
q You prepare your messages using the technique of social values: 20 seconds, twice, at most, for
TV (see page 58)
q You give the required three briefings for a radio or TV interview
q You repeat your messages out loud before any radio or TV interview
q You pay attention to the principles of non-verbal communication: eye contact, intonation, hand
position, general attitude
q You use simple words (understandable by a child of 12) for all radio and TV interviews
q You analyse the interviews and draw lessons on how to do better
q You organize interview training for people in the organization who are likely to be interviewed
IX. Section Nine
Presentation techniques
In your job, you are asked to persuade people every
day. Persuading is anything but an easy task
unless you have a proven, highly effective and
simple method to use. You will discover just such a
method in the pages that follow. Use it whatever
the number of people you need to convince,
in-house or in public.
Convince the two parts of the brain
To make a striking presentation, just apply some
scientific evidence about how our brain works. In
the last ten years or so, the scientific world has
made tremendous progress in analysing mental
processes. The approach we propose here is based
on phenomena related to persuading and
convincing demonstrated by neuroscientists.
Be brief!
First thing to know: you cannot persuade people by
the length of your presentation, but by using a
proven technique that we shall explain here. A short
presentation ensures better success. 20 minutes
are a maximum. Sustained focus is difficult beyond
20 minutes.
A human being is a complex being. Our
decision-making process has been analysed in
detail by scientists. To make a convincing
presentation, it is essential to know the main
foundations of this process.
All parts of the brain
Our brain consists of two distinct parts, each with
its areas of expertise.
Characteristics of the two hemispheres of
the brain
The left hemisphere of
the brain
The right hemisphere
of the brain
¢ Rational
¢ Intelligence (e.g. if
someone says “the
ocean”, it will ask
“which ocean?”)
¢ Language
¢ Analysis
¢ Logic
¢ Assessment
COLD, SLOW
Exhaustive verification
(with maximum detail,
step by step)
¢ Relational
¢ Associative,
imaginative
¢ Visual, global
¢ Spatial (e.g. ocean,
vast expanse of
water leading out of
sight)
¢ Synthetic
¢ Artistic
HOT, IMPETUOUS
Anticipates constantly,
no verification, intuitive
The brain likes us to reconcile the two halves, to
appeal to its two hemispheres, not to favour one
over the other. If you want your audience to absorb
your words, you must give it what each of its
hemispheres is looking for and wants to hear.
¢ Right Brain: desire for a solution: PROMISE.
Show what tomorrow will bring, how your
solution will change things and improve the
situation.
¢ Left Brain: Fear of the solution: PROVE.
Bring proof of what you say; prove your
statements with established and verifiable
facts.
¢ Right Brain: desire for action: DRIVE,
ACTIVATE, MOBILIZE.
Spell out the direct benefits of your action for
your audience. Encourage them to take action.
¢ Left Brain: fear of action: REASSURE.
Release, one by one, the mental brakes that
prevent full endorsement of your words. To be
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convincing, you need to overcome the objections
that remain to following you into action.
Insist on the easy, convenient side that needs
little effort or time to get a result. Show that
what you are advocating is feasible, realistic
and practical.
To persuade, use three types of argument
The arguments that you use must satisfy three
parts of our body. You have to talk to our ‘head’
(rational elements), our ‘heart’ (emotional
elements, linking with the audience) and our ‘body’
(action).
Three types of convincing argument: HHB
¢ 'Head' arguments: intellectual, thought,
ideas, figures
¢ 'Heart' arguments: emotional, sharing,
human
“What is in it for me?” “What are the
benefits and direct advantages for me?”
¢ 'Body' arguments: action, experience
“This is what we are going to do. We'll start
with (action).”
“Believe in my experience. It will be for the
best. It's worth it.”
“We have plenty of experience in this field. It
will help us carry this through.”
Experience reassures (see what the left
hemisphere wants to hear before deciding to
commit itself or take part).
How to build your argument
First and foremost, adapt the content of your
presentation to the needs of your audience. Who
are they? Specialists? Non-experts? Managers?
¢ Step 1: Start with the conclusion, two or three
sentences that sum it all up. Ask yourself what
you want that audience to think, decide or do at
the end of your presentation.
¢ Step 2: Expound the 'head' arguments
(intellectual, thought, ideas, figures).
Make a list of all the arguments and facts that
might support your conclusion. Only use the 3 or
4 most important.
If you use numbers, turn them into clear and
simple charts. Use only what you need to make
your point.
¢ Step 3: Expound the 'heart' arguments
(emotional, the benefits or advantages for your
audience, how they are involved).
Limit the number of 'heart' arguments. Ideally
one or two arguments are enough.
+ Use 1 or 2 examples that prove what you say
(reassure the left side of the brain).
¢ Step 4: Expound the 'body' arguments. Involve
your audience so you move them to action.
Address the right side of the brain.
'Body' argument: Suggest a maximum of two
concrete actions to deal with your issue. What
are you asking of the audience in terms of
'winning' action?
+ spell out the benefits of the action (reassure
the left brain).
¢ Step 5: Conclusion.
Come to your conclusion.
¢ Slides
You do not need slides (or transparencies) to
persuade people! Slides are just back-up. They
do not replace the presentation as such. Focus
on your bright ideas and arguments that will
persuade your audience. A PowerPoint
presentation is just one way of presenting the
key points in your message. Make sure it
remains just an aid.
Remove from your slides anything that is not
necessary to understanding your key idea.
Focus on key words that express your key
messages.
¢ Present. Do not read what is on the screen word
for word. Your audience has learned how to read
... and does not need you to read for it.
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Prepare
Failing to prepare is preparing to fail. So make your motto repeat, repeat, repeat.
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Show your self-assurance
(self-confidence)
Show your enthusiasm Show your commitment
¢ Smile.
¢ Speak in a loud, distinct voice.
¢ If someone asks you a
question, get closer to the
person who asked it.
¢ Use gestures that show
openness (do not fold your
arms).
¢ Make eye contact with people
in the audience.
¢ Smile.
¢ Vary your intonation.
¢ Move.
¢ Use gestures that show
support.
¢ Use friendly gestures.
¢ Listen attentively to the
others. Show your interest by
signs of listening attentively.
¢ Go to your audience. Get
closer to them.
BODY LANGUAGE
¢ Greet your audience with a smile, introduce yourself, thank those present for coming.
¢ Say at the outset how long your presentation will last. “I have 20 minutes to explain /
demonstrate / present (specify your goal) to you.”
¢ Agree with your audience on when they can ask their questions. Can they interrupt you during
your presentation, or keep their questions for later during a 'question and answer' session?
¢ Say also whether it is necessary to take notes. What documentation is available? When will
they get it: before or after your presentation? If the text is detailed, it is better to hand it out it
after your presentation. On the other hand, a simple printed version of any slides can be
distributed beforehand.
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¢ If someone asks you a neutral question, or one that is advantageous to you, express appreciation
of it. Thank them. “As you rightly point out, (...)”.
¢ If you are facing a large audience, or if there is a lot of noise, repeat the question before
answering, all the more so when the question is neutral or to your advantage.
¢ Ask whether your answer is satisfactory: “Have I answered your question?” “Does that answer your
question?”
¢ You do not know the answer to a question.
¢ “To give you a proper answer, I shall have to check a few things first ... Let me note down your
question ... How can I get the answer to you?”
¢ If the question comes too early ... say: “I will be happy to answer your question shortly. In the
meantime, I’ll make a note of it.”
¢ Faced with a real objection, dig into other issues. Find a way of sending the ball back into their
court.
¢ “How often does that happen?”
¢ “Do you use that often?”
¢ “When was the last time that happened?”
¢ “Does that offset the advantages, such as ...?”
DEALING WITH QUESTIONS
CHECKLIST OF BEST PRESENTATION PRACTICE
q You always prepare your presentations starting with the conclusion and then putting forward
arguments that appeal to the head, heart and body, respectively
q You prove every argument that you make
q You reassure your audience at every call to action
q You limit your presentation to 20 minutes or less
q You limit your slides to key points
q You practise every presentation, aloud
q You apply the basic principles of non-verbal communication: eye contact with the audience, tone
of voice
q You give the people in your organization who often make presentations training in persuasive
communication techniques
X Section Ten
Crisis management
Every organization sooner or later runs into a crisis.
An unforeseen event that befalls it, a situation that
takes an unexpected turn, numbers less favourable
than hoped for, a divergence of views with the
executive committee, a serious accident or the
death of a key member ... Taking things in hand,
going on stage and facing the public then become
essential to maintaining credibility and trust.
A crisis = any event that risks damaging the
functioning and reputation of the organization.
The only thing that counts in a crisis, whether you
are wrong or right, is how you react and
communicate. You must restore confidence and
avoid misunderstandings and runaway rumours.
Easier said than done, when the crisis generates
anxiety and uncertainty. However, remember that a
crisis can also mean opportunities. Provided you
follow some basic rules.
Respond directly
A crisis has broken out? Be proactive. Do not wait
until you are forced to communicate. You would
only have to justify yourself or go on the defensive,
which is good neither for your credibility nor for your
legitimacy.
A crisis can escalate quickly. A snowball effect can
produce chain reactions that deprive you of any
further control if you do not manage the crisis
quickly. It is crucial to understand the crisis
properly and promptly if you are to keep control.
There are several scenarios:
¢ A situation in which the organization is
unprepared, surprised by a crisis appearing from
nowhere. Who could have foreseen the
explosion of the warehouse, this accident, that
fire?
¢ A crisis orchestrated by one of your rivals,
seizing an opportunity to harm you.
¢ Loss of control due to bad management, or
insufficiently strict or rigorous supervision.
¢ Crises due to several factors combined.
You can help your members who face a crisis (e.g.
a defective product deemed dangerous to public
health and withdrawn from sale). Our tips will guide
you.
Your first reaction is critical
Your first reaction determines whether the
sequence of events will be favourable or not.
If your organization has a clear vision of its goals, if
you are ready for anything, it is possible to
transform a crisis into an opportunity to make
progress towards the goals that you have set
yourself. Especially if those objectives are clear
from the start. Whatever happens, stay in tune with
your mission.
The mission, vision and values of the organization
announced on the website and through the
organization’s other means of communication make
full sense once a crisis erupts. Previously, they
seemed nothing more than harmless, almost futile
little sentences. In times of crisis, the important
thing is to stay the course, not to start searching
hurriedly for landmarks or navigating blindly in all
directions. No over-hasty decisions, knee-jerk
reactions or about-turns. The baselines that are the
vision, the mission and the long-term objectives
should be clear, otherwise it is difficult for the
organization to respond proactively to the crisis that
affects it. Without those navigation instruments,
without this rudder, your organization, caught in a
tempest, would fail to withstand the storm.
Crisis management = management of
values.
¢ In the event of a crisis, communication
necessarily means answering these two
questions:
1. What stance does the organization take, in
accordance with its own values?
2. What stance does the organization take, to be in
line with the values of society? (See also radio /
TV interview technique above and the 'bridging'
technique on page 59.)
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The communication should use factual messages
to express the stance taken by the organization
towards the problem and its envisaged solution.
How to prepare messages
Five steps lead to the message for you to
communicate. The message has four parts.
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Facts The context
1-2 values of your
own
1 value
of society
Stated factual
messages
Describe the exact
facts
Factual message
Describe the
context of the facts
Factual message
Show your
commitment to
your own values
Attitude message
Show your
commitment to
your own values
Attitude message
PRACTICAL EXAMPLE:
A major escape has taken place from a prison known for its high level of security. In its statement,
the management will express the attitude of the prison in terms of its own values and the values of
society.
¢ Its own values: technological performance. This prison has invested in high-tech electronic
surveillance.
¢ Value of society: the need for security.
This escape is unacceptable to the management.
Our surveillance systems have helped provide specific evidence to the police that will greatly facilitate
the search.
Despite all the precautions taken, it appears that the procedures can be improved further.
We will do this as quickly as possible, with an external expert to ensure complete objectivity.
This can only strengthen our ability to improve our systems continuously and therefore be extremely
efficient.
For us, public safety is paramount and we want …
Be prepared
So what is the antidote to crises? Anticipation!
Setting clear strategic objectives is one thing.
Another is to prepare for the worst. Like the
Romans said, “If you want peace, prepare for war”.
Get ready. Set up a crisis procedure to have “just in
case”. Form a crisis committee. Decide what role
each member will have in times of crisis; make a
list of key people to contact first and design a
model press release. Drill your spokespeople in
answering under pressure questions fired by
journalists on issues that put your organization in a
bad light. Simulate your reaction and your
statement in worst-case scenarios.
Ask yourself what, in theory, could go wrong or what
you could get blamed for. Put yourself in the place
of your members or clients.
Communicate in-house, too
One pitfall to avoid is forgetting to inform members,
suppliers or employees. Too often, leaders give
priority to external communication (the media) and
neglect or forget in-house communication. So they
risk facing a second crisis, this time in-house,
caused by frustration, panic or anger on the part of
key personnel or those who are on the front line but
have been left to their own devices in a complete fog.
Tell the politicians in your area
Another target is too often neglected: local
politicians. If the crisis generates a groundswell of
opposition among public opinion, local elected
officials often take it up. Politics can amplify
communication about a given event. Telling the
politicians at the outset of the causes and issues
gives you the chance to calm things down and
avoid adding fuel to the fire. Fanning discontent
and anger among public opinion will draw the ire of
all, because when an organization has caused
harm to individuals, public opinion will almost
always side with the individuals.
Show empathy to restore confidence
Within an organization, a crisis often corresponds
to a loss of trust. The feeling of trust is directly
related to competence, transparency and empathy.
If an organization loses points in terms of
competence, it must compensate with empathy.
When all goes well, competence generates 80% of
the stock of trust. In times of crisis, that falls
sharply and empathy counts for more (50%). The
public interprets signs of empathy very fast. It is up
to the organization to show such signs, first and
foremost by making an apology or expressing regret
over what has happened. The audience feels
listened to and understood. Their feelings have
been taken into account. Confessing your
shortcomings or mistakes partially disarms the
listener. This reduces anger and grievances a little.
It makes the audience feel better, less combative,
less vindictive.
Simple messages that you repeat and
illustrate
Overwhelmed by emotion, people faced with a crisis
are unable to understand your message properly.
So make it simple. Content yourself with a few key
messages. Three at most; one or two, better still.
Do not talk about related topics. The journalist
might latch on to them, forcing you to improvise,
and distracting you from your core topic. Repeat
yourself. Illustrate your remarks with concrete
examples, if possible. As long as those examples
are different, you can repeat your key messages
over and over again during the interview. Select
your example carefully – give them human interest.
Assess the media impact
Do not cry victory too soon. Take the time to
assess the impact of your communication (see
page 33) in the various media. Do they present
your point of view without distorting your words? If
you have something to add or clarify, communicate
again, in accordance with the principle of
action-reaction.
Practical crisis handling
Get ready for crises. Anticipate. Do simulations and
exercises with your teams.
Do not wait until a crisis finds you unprepared,
pressed for time and under stress.
Do it with a calm mind. The result will be far more
effective and efficient.
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Keep the Crisis Committee as small as
possible.
Limit the number of people on it. It will consist of:
¢ a management representative
¢ one of the people in charge of your legal
department (or else your outside legal adviser)
¢ your person in charge of in-house and external
communication
¢ a secretary, who will record all changes, the
action taken by the Crisis Committee and the
turn of events hour by hour.
These written minutes come in very handy later for
tracing the response to the crisis as the hours
passed, so that you can assess how your
organization handled it. It is also important for
claiming damages through your insurance.
Make sure that at all times you are equiped to
handle all kinds of crises. Examples: databases on
the press, members, staff, relevant authorities.
Bring together all contact details. Put together all
the details of contact persons to call or notify in a
crisis. This will save you having to do it in a panic,
under pressure, with the risk of errors that entails.
And you will save valuable time, which will come in
handy when every minute counts.
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FACTS
ê
The crisis manager (usually the director) decides whether or not there is a crisis.
ê
Yes, there is a crisis.
ê
He convenes the Crisis Committee at once.
ê
The Crisis Committee assesses the situation and decides what action to
take to get things back to normal (day-to-day management) and about
in-house and external communication.
The Committee decides what stance to take.
The Committee distributes tasks on the basis of checklists drawn up in
advance.
These lists also contain instructions to give staff, and specifically to
receptionists and telephone operators (media calls to go immediately to the
spokesperson).
ê
Everyone does what they have been assigned and notifies the Crisis
Committee when they have done so.
ê
No
CRISIS PLAN - SERIES OF ACTIONS:
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Here is a model that can be helpful. Distribute it in-house to people who are on the press frontline,
including your receptionist or telephone operator. It is essential that those individuals have the
instructions necessary to handle the press properly.
MEDIA CALL FORM
Date of call: _____________________________________________ Time: ____________________________
Name of the person who took the call ________________________________________________________
Name of the journalist: _____________________________________________________________________
Publication / radio or TV station / channel: __________________________________________________
Address: _________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Phone:________________________________________________________ Fax: _______________________
E-mail: ____________________________________________________________________________________
Request / Questions: (Nature, subject ...)
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
______________
Deadline for calling the journalist back: ______________________________________________________
Answered by:___________________________________________________________
Answer:__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Follow-up needed?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Request processed on: ______________________ at ____________________________ time
EXAMPLE KEEPING TRACK OF PRESS CONTACTS
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1. Do not focus on the problem, but on ways to overcome it. You will thereby find solutions
faster and keep your reputation.
2. Show that you are dealing with the situation. Do not give in to panic.
3. Stick to the facts, without extrapolation. Do not jump to hasty conclusions. Do not raise
additional problems yourself.
4. Show that you are concerned, that those affected are important to you.
5. Never lie.
6. Do not make promises that you cannot keep.
7. Avoid speculation. Honesty is often more rewarding than a wrong answer, which is quick to
tarnish your reputation.
8. No-one outside your organization knows as much about your organization and your services as
you do. You are the expert, so act accordingly.
9. Prepare for crises in advance.
10. When you are caught up in a crisis, remember the target audiences that are not affected by
it. Do not neglect them.
TEN BASIC RULES FOR MANAGING A CRISIS
CHECKLIST OF BEST PRACTICE
IN CRISIS MANAGEMENT
q You have a crisis plan in a formal 'crisis manual'
q The crisis manual was written in close collaboration with the management
q The crisis manual has been presented and explained to officials of the organization
q The crisis manual is updated once a year
q Each member of the management and each department head has a list of each other’s phone
numbers. Anyone who is involved in the management of a crisis can be contacted seven days a
week
q You have tested your crisis plan in real life through an exercise
q Your staff know what to do if a journalist calls
XI Section Eleven
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Useful organizations and websites:
The Bureau for Employers' Activities at
the International Labour Organization
(ACTEMP)http://www.ilo.org/actemp
ACTEMP - The ILO Bureau for Employers' Activities
maintains close contacts with employers'
organizations in all the member states of the ILO.
The Bureau operates from ILO headquarters in
Geneva and through a network of employers'
organization specialists in the ILO's technical
teams around the world. Its tasks are to make the
resources of the ILO available to employers'
organizations, and to keep the ILO constantly aware
of their views, concerns and priorities. It promotes
international cooperation among employers'
organizations, and runs a programme of activities
around the world.
The Bureau is available, via the national employers'
organizations, as a gateway through which
employers can gain access to some of the best
information available on human resources
development, industrial relations and a host of
other employment and labour market-related
subjects. The Bureau also runs a programme of
technical cooperation that provides development
assistance to employers' organizations in
developing countries and countries in transition to
a market economy. This work is mostly done
through projects financed by the overseas
development assistance funds of donor countries.
All the hands-on guides of the "The Effective
Employers' organization" series are available from
the ACTEMP website.
The Programme for Employers' Activities
of the International Training Centre of the
International Labour Organizationhttp://lempnet.itcilo.org
The Programme for Employers' Activities of the
International Training Centre of the International
Labour Organization (ITCILO) responds to the
training needs of employers' organizations (EOs) by
holding advanced training courses in areas which
are strategic for economic growth, good
governance, development and poverty alleviation.
The Programme offers more than 20 different
training programmes, tailored to EO managers,
professional staff and board members from Africa,
the Americas, Arab States, Asia and the Pacific,
Europe and Central Asia.
It assists EOs in meeting the challenges faced by
their members, by helping them to:
¢ Improve their services
¢ Increase their membership and resources
¢ Increase the impact and quality of their
advocacy and lobbying activities
¢ Build their capacity to be more influential on
important policy issues for employers
(employment, social protection, social dialogue,
Decent Work Country Programmes, skills
policies, etc).
A detailed list of the training offer and more
detailed information on the different activities of
the Programme are available on its website.
The International Organization of
Employers (IOE)http://www.ioe-emp.org
Since its creation in 1920 the International
Organization of Employers (IOE) has been
recognized as the only organization at the
international level that represents the interests of
business in the labour and social policy fields.
Today, it consists of 147 national employer
organizations from 140 countries from all over the
world. The mission of the IOE is to promote and
defend the interests of employers in international
fora, particularly in the International Labour
Organization (ILO); to this end it works to ensure
that international labour and social policy promotes
the viability of enterprises and creates an
environment favourable to enterprise development
and job creation. At the same time it acts as the
Secretariat to the Employers' Group at the ILO
International Labour Conference, the ILO Governing
Body and all other ILO-related meetings.
In order to ensure that the voice of business is
heard at the international and national level, the
IOE is actively engaged in the creation and
capacity-building of representative organizations of
employers, particularly in the developing world and
in countries in transition to a market economy.
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