A Little Discouraging

Two weeks ago, the following letter to the editor was printed in our local newspaper:

I was somewhat disappointed that a resident would think of the work we do as less than essential, but I also recognize that it’s my responsibility to help people understand why we have a communications function. It’s obvious that the writer saw the function of our Community Relations department as being a hindrance, rather than a help to our residents.

We all believe that the reason we are here is to promote transparency and encourage participation with the City of Reno government. We strive to make certain that residents are able to hear and understand the decisions made by policy makers, have knowledge of City codes and regulations, and are able to access services and products that the City makes available.

Seeing this letter made me realize that it would be easy for someone to assume that we are trying to sell a version of the City’s story that paints the staff and elected officials in a good light, or are trying to spin issues in our favor. They may think we are there to protect powerful interests. Or that we have an agenda that we’re trying to push.

She was right about the need to balance this function in the face of major organizational downsizing, of course. We recognized that the size of our Community Relations division was a “nice to have” function, a luxury we could no longer afford to maintain at the levels we once had. As mentioned in my previous post, we have reduced our department by eight positions since January and are operating at a much reduced level.

Community Relations was cut by more than 42%, where other departments were cut by about 25%, and public safety by 11-12%. That makes sense, given the importance of public safety. And we may reduce even more through attrition and staff reassignment.

We still have the call center, so people can call one number to ask questions, provide feedback, or enter a service request. We still have two Community Liaisons who work with the Neighborhood Advisory Boards and act as ombudsmen to help residents who are having challenges. And we still have three communications people to answer media questions, keep the website maintained, produce occasional videos, monitor social media sites, write blog entries, run town hall meetings, and provide the public with accurate and timely information about the City.

My goal is to provide what I consider an absolutely essential service: access and transparency of local government to its constituents.

You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf

Last week was tough for all of us at the City of Reno. Beginning on Wednesday, we reduced the number of positions in the City by 208, a reduction in force aimed at balancing this year’s budget, a big chunk of the City’s 1,300 person workforce. Of those, 101 were filled, full-time positions.

After letting four of my own staff know that their positions were being eliminated, I reviewed my notes and then headed to the lobby to face all three of the local affiliate’s news crews. I barely remember the interviews; I was still grieving the loss of my friends and colleagues. It was difficult to watch later that evening, but I did, as I was worried about how it came off.

I guess it was as good as could be expected, under the circumstances. As usual, however, I thought of much better things that I could have said as I sat watching the broadcasts.

It was the second layoff this year, the first being just last January, when I had to let our Strategic Communications Program Manager, a Community Liaison, and one of our Graphic Designers go. That took us from 19 to 16.

This time it was another Community Liaison, the other Graphic Designer, a senior call taker from our call center, and our Television Technician. At the same time, our most experienced Public Information Officer announced his retirement, a position we will not be able to replace. That leaves 11 staff members in Community Relations: one Public Information Officer; our Television Production Manager; the Web Services Manager; a Community Relations Manager who oversees the call center, along with three call takers; two Community Liaisons; my assistant and myself. A great team, despite the recent losses, but much, much smaller.

We’ll be reinventing ourselves, as well as preparing for another possible downsizing on July 1, 2010, the start of the new fiscal year. We’re focusing our efforts on low- and no-cost efforts, including social media, media relations and public affairs programming, and public relations.

Each of us will be evaluating how we spend our time and what the best investment of our meager resources will be.

I was impressed with the professionalism of the folks that I gave such devastating news to. Each understood that the decisions were not personal, but that the revenues couldn’t support the current staffing levels.

I’m also impressed with the great attitude of those who remain—their spirit of public service is unwavering, even in these uncertain times.

While the waves of change crash all around, we find strength in focusing on our commitment to create transparency, reinforce our credibility, and provide access to our constituents. Sometimes it helps to remember why you chose to work in government communications and how we make each of our communities better through our daily efforts.

I’d like to thank all of my colleagues, those who are seeking their next adventure and those who remain, for showing me what commitment, service, and true courage is.

Nevada Interactive Media Summit

On Saturday, March 6, 2010, Reno’s Web Services Program Manager Kristy Fifelski gave a presentation to a full room at the Nevada Interactive Media Summit called “The New Look of Interactive Government.” Questions from the audience mostly were about policies for implementing social media and managing comments. Her presentation follows.

New Look of Interactive Government

View more presentations from Kristy Fifelski.

Ready for Anything

One tool that many governments could use on a regular basis—but few actually have—is a crisis communications plan. Also known as an issues management plan, the basic idea is to have a process and policies for responding to crises that ensure that you are as effective as possible when time is short and the stress level is through the roof.

These plans tend to be very generic, as the kind of issues you may have to deal with can vary widely from incident to incident. This is also different from an emergency communications plan, which sets rules for responding to incidents that impact public safety. A crisis is an incident that threatens the reputation of your organization, rather than people’s welfare, although sometimes it can be both, as in the case of a hazardous materials spill.

Some examples from my experience include the arrest of an elected official, the discovery of employee embezzlement, a union vote of “no confidence” in an individual manager, or a lawsuit involving staff. In each case, the issue arises quickly, usually without warning, and results in immediate media and public scrutiny.

Having a plan that helps walk you through the process for each issue can mean the difference between successful resolution and major missteps that impact your organization’s reputation. It can help you feel more confident in responding to the crisis as well.

The plan should include sections that walk you through the following elements of crisis response:

• Situational analysis
• Audience identification
• Communications response
• Message development
• Tools

Situational Analysis

The first step in your plan should be a template for developing an understanding of the crisis. Find out the facts of what happened. Make sure you understand who the affected parties are. Typically you’ll start with a description of what happened—the sequence of events—and then identify the people and organizations who were involved or who are affected by the crisis.

Next, find out what the organization’s operational response is going to be to address the situation.

Then you’ll want to identify the issues at stake and how the incident impacts the organization’s reputation. Think in terms of the consequences of what has happened. These strategic considerations are very important, as they will guide you in developing your messages.

Lastly, you’ll want to identify what you don’t know and need to find out.

Audiences

You’ll want to determine which audiences you should be talking with to address the incident. Start with the victims, the other people involved or affected, the media, your employees, perhaps the entire community. It will depend on the incident, but be prepared to think through who your key audiences are.

This information will help you decide which tactics and tools to employ.

Response

One of the most important aspects of crisis communications is the initial response. Be prepared to respond as quickly as you can after determining what happened and be as honest and forthcoming as possible. Share what happened so that people know the full story, then describe what the organization is going to do to remedy the situation and what steps you’re going to take to make sure it doesn’t occur again. Take responsibility for the things within your organization’s control.

Make sure you know who will be talking to the media and is responsible for developing the messages.

Messages

Based on the incident and the operational response, determine what themes you want to get across. These are one or two generic ideas—like “our top priority is public safety”—that you will use whenever talking about the situation.

Next, develop two to five messages about the situation that help explain what happened, its impact, and your organizational response. Keep them simple and direct.

Your plan could include sample holding statements or outlines that will help guide you during the crisis. You can forget even the most basic things when everyone is hounding you for answers. Set yourself up with all the tools you might need.

Also, try to anticipate possible questions and have an answer ready, even if it’s something like: “We haven’t been able to identify that yet, but we’ll let you know as soon as we do.”

In evaluating your messages, make sure what you’re saying is accurate, credible, truthful, and empathetic. Ask yourself if they reflect the values of your audience.

By planning this way, you’ll be able to be more effective in your media relations and public outreach efforts.

Tools

In addition to the media, what tools does your organization have at its disposal? What trained staff, communications assets, or partnerships can be used in the response?

You may also want to design a worksheet to keep track of key decisions and actions taken in response to the incident, so you can later go back and analyze how the response unfolded.

During a crisis, people always feel more comfortable seeing a live human talking about what happened and giving firm and credible information about what is going to be done about it. Don’t hide behind news releases or web posts. Be prepared to identify experts, leaders, or other credible sources to get your messages across.

Conclusion

Be ready for anything by having a crisis communications plan before your next crisis. Remember, no matter what the issue is, it’s important to act quickly and with honesty, as attempts to cover up generally extend and worsen the credibility of your organization.

And, as always, after the dust has settled, go back and evaluate how you did. Look at the coverage, length of the crisis, and measure how you did. Then use those lessons to improve your plan.

Have I missed any important elements of crisis response? Leave a comment and let me know.

A Manifesto (of sorts)

Welcome to Inform! Engage! Inspire!

My goal is to find creative ideas to improve the ways that local governments communicate with their constituents through the strategic use of technology and design. My hope is that other government communicators will join in and help me discover the best tools and techniques to meet the challenging task of creating effective communications.

The Premise

What do constituents need from local government communicators?

At a minimum, your residents need to be informed—they want to know the latest recycling procedures, when they can water their lawn, what the tax rate will be next year—knowledge that helps them understand shared expectations for the community and how to use government services effectively.

Beyond merely getting information, they need to be engaged too.

They want to be part of a conversation. They don’t want to be just talked to, they want to be listened to as well. They want to be heard and know that they’ve been heard and see changes because of what they’ve said.

Even better, they’d like you to ask them what they want. And then to develop plans to attain what they want. Then execute those plans. Then go back and show them what you’ve accomplished.

Many of your constituents are looking for ways to get involved, to be a part of the future of their community, and they need us to help them plug in.

We should inform the community and we can help individuals engage. But we also have the opportunity to inspire.

We can create opportunity for others to make the community a better place. We can elevate what is good in our communities and address the obstacles that are holding us back.

We can help create and achieve a shared vision.

This goes beyond providing information and an opportunity to participate in what’s happening now. It’s about creating what our communities will become.

The Challenge

Today everyone is an expert media consumer. Each person spends their day soaking in a stew of manufactured experiences, strategic messages, and world-class design. They can sniff out junk in a second.

To be heard, local governments must compete with all of the content available on television, radio, the web, iPods, smartphones, PDAs, magazines, books, video games, podcasts, and on and on. Not only must we compete with content across all these media, we must do it within these media. We need to be where our constituents are, and we need to be visible when we’re there.

This is not an easy task. It requires a strategic vision, great design, and an authentic voice.

There is some brilliant work being done in government today, as each year’s 3CMA Savvy Award applications clearly demonstrate. But there is also quite a bit that is amateurish, poorly designed, poorly written, and executed in a strategic vacuum. And that is just wasted effort.

I believe it is up to each of us to raise the level of professionalism in the local government communications industry so that all government communications reach their intended audiences.

If we want to be taken seriously, then we must be serious about delivering high quality, effective, and efficient communications.

To do that we must be knowledgeable, skilled, and unafraid. We must be the thought leaders in our organizations, the ones that speak up for quality and creativity.

Communications should be a core competency of every local government—it should get appropriate resources and careful thought; it should be strategically managed and measured.

The content has to be honest, forthright, and authentic. It’s about transparency and inclusion, not spin or obfuscation. We have a duty to our constituents to serve them first.

If we don’t communicate well, other voices will drown us out—the local paper, television news, and bloggers—and tell our story for us.

We should be telling our own story. It’s a story our constituents would love to hear. It’s a story that can inspire.

About the Blog’s Name

The title of my blog came from a strategic planning workshop with my communications team in Coral Springs. We spent some time brainstorming an update to our departmental mission, which had been:

To enhance effective communication between the City and its customers through creative strategies that promote, position and impact City goals and services.

Nothing wrong with that, but we didn’t really find any inspiration in it either. It failed to create a vision of where we wanted to go and set us free to be truly creative. It was really just a declaration of the status quo.

We spent a few minutes listing words that described what we believed our role was, our vision for ourselves. Then we whittled that list down to the three most important ideas, which we would base our new mission statement on.

And that’s when we saw it. We didn’t need to craft a statement. We just needed the vision.

Inform.

Engage.

Inspire.

Something to shoot for.