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Customer reaction to a 140-character Tweet could cost you millions. And your crisis management team may communicate with an audience they know poorly.
How should you prepare?
My five-year old son sometimes creates crises. His chin flexes in determination. “No!”
In the heat of the moment, I try manipulation. “But you can only have dessert if you apologize.”
“NO!” screams Rayden. My generic efforts backfire.
I pause and collect myself. I hold my son in a warm hug. I talk about the wood airplane we’ll build this weekend. These are actions with which Rayden connects.
When we’re done, Rayden apologizes and eats dessert. I know my son. Rayden’s thought process only appears irrational. There’s a consistent thought pattern I learn by interacting with him.
Only truly understand me by loving me!
What’s the relationship with business crisis?
Today, your company operates under rules of cultural economics. Customers buy if your story about the product matches the customer’s values. And as digital technology causes American culture to increasingly fragment, you know less about key stakeholders.
Proactively develop insight about critical groups. Go beyond tactical business interaction with meaningful, socially responsible effort to fix long-standing social problems. And then translate your deeper perspective into meaningful tools and strategy before crisis hits.
As collaboration becomes critical and more challenging, effective leaders think broadly about how to understand stakeholders and proactively develop relationships.
Social responsibility inspires innovation by bringing you experiences you didn’t even know could exist. And the resulting innovation just might save you from the next evil Tweet.
Think about the people living on your street or in your building. Do you understand well the cultural references that all of them use? Is the same true of your business?
Please share your thoughts in the comments or by sending me an email: info@RodWallacePhD.Com.
Our society cannot just survive. For the sake of our children, it must thrive.
Rod
Dr. Rod Wallace is an economist, consultant, and speaker who helps businesses make more money by solving society’s problems. A Fulbright Fellow, he has led multi-organization billion-dollar initiatives worldwide and partnered with a Silicon Valley pioneer to explore the impact of Artificial Intelligence on society.
Rod speaks about how to integrate social responsibility into business to maximize profit and purpose. He highlights digital technology’s impact on society and the strategies and tools with which business can solve our big, systemic problems.
Contact Rod at info@RodWallacePhD.com.