Transcript – Episode 3 – Crisis and DE&I Communications

Rena:

Hello and welcome to The Arena. I’m Rena Lewis, founder and chief strategy advisor at Signature Intentions and host of The Arena podcast. In today’s episode, I am delighted to have as my guest gladiator, John G Clemens. John is currently a crisis communications consultant at Tala, a global PR communications and crisis management firm based in the UK. He’s also an adjunct professor of PR and communications at UNC Charlotte and the founder and principal consultant of Clemens Communications. A former journalist and magazine editor, John has built his impressive career with a wide range of award-winning and impactful strategic employee communications and engagement programs through executive level positions held at fortune 500 companies, including AT&T, Marriott International, Raytheon Company and Walmart, along with nonprofit organizations, including the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies and the International Association of Business Communicators, where he is accredited and was named am IABC fellow in 2012. He also received his accreditation in public relations from the Public Relations Society of America, which is where our paths crossed, including his being a panelist during my panel review presentation as part of my own APR process. And he kept me on my toes by grilling me with great questions that reflected his depth of experience, expertise, and passion for communication. So I can say without any reservations that John is someone who cares deeply about our profession, the current contributions that we make to the organizations we serve and paying it forward by helping others along the way. Again, I’m so very pleased to have him here with me in the arena today. Hello, John, and welcome.

John:

Hello Rena. It’s so good to hear your voice again. Thank you for inviting me and I’ll pay you later for that introduction.

Rena:

Well, the check will be in the mail and I take all forms of payment. Then let’s get started with you telling us perhaps a bit more about the journey that led to your illustrious career in communications, please.

John:

Well, it really goes back to being a young man. I’ve always had an interest in communications and storytelling and in high school I took a journalism elective course that changed the course of my life because quite honestly, I wanted to be a veterinarian and I took this news journalism course and the teacher said, you know, you’re really pretty good at this. You ought to consider it. And that’s what I did. And it became my major at Seton hall and Syracuse universities. And I later became a journalist followed by a career for over twenty-five years in PR and communications.

Rena:

It’s interesting that you took the journalist route and approach that is becoming even more prevalent and in business storytelling and content creation today, which I’m sure has been helpful. Yeah?

John:

Yes, definitely. I think I learned discipline. I learned how to do research. I learned how to write on deadline. I know I learned how to listen effectively and actively to the people I was interviewing. And I think that really, really helped me in my career as a communications professional.

Rena:

I’m sure. In addition to that life altering journalism elective that you mentioned, has there been someone in particular personally or professionally who inspired you doing your career and how so in terms of any enduring advice, guidance, or just mere admiration?

John:

Well, the admiration or love is huge and it may sound corny when I mentioned who it is, it was really my mother. She has always served as a reliable source of inspirations, spiritually and professionally and emotionally. And she always told me that son, you can be whatever you want to be. And I believed her. So I had an excellent counselor and mentor early on. And then I had an executive supervisor who basically gave me wings to lead and I embraced it from that point on. And one of my personal heroes is Paul Robeson, who was an extraordinary individual, as you know. He was an athlete, he was a singer and actor, was a political activist and really a Renaissance man. And he’s always served as a prime example of a hero and a leader and someone I like to aspire to be.

Rena:

Well first let me say that there is nothing at all corny about recognizing your mom for instilling you such aspirations at a tender young age and beyond. I applaud her and the executive supervisor who gave you your professional wings. I recall Nelson Mandela once said it never hurts to see the good in someone. They often act the better because of it, or they will rise up to make you right. And you have obviously been soaring since then, John. And I think, yeah, Paul Robeson was an impressive man also for me. And tell me what you think in the black pioneering actors arena. It has to be Sidney Portier.

John:

Oh, definitely.

Rena:

Yes. And not just for being the first black man to receive the Academy award for best actor, but for how should I say setting his bar higher? I mean, he broke barriers with his amazing talent, spoke out about racial prejudices and intentionally defied racial stereotypes during a time when it took extraordinary bravery to do so much like Paul Robeson.

John:

Exactly. He stood tall and he represents a man of integrity for me.

Rena:

Yes. So I think the takeaway here for all of us is that believing in someone and demonstrating that belief in our words, and our actions can certainly have a powerful and lasting impact. So thank you for sharing your sources of inspiration. So now let’s talk about Tala. What is their Ram purpose and your role in helping them to achieve it?

John:

It’s global crisis management and training firm, as you mentioned earlier, based in the UK and we help clients help themselves and effectively manage a range of business crises, largely in the food and beverage industry. And I serve as a virtual consultant and help accompany provide guidance on crisis management and support crisis simulation training here in the United States for their clients who are based here.

Rena:

Well, you talked a lot about, and you clearly have a lot of in the arena experience in crisis management. And I’m wondering if we could delve deeper into that area specifically in the spirit of, if you fail to plan you plan to fail, what does a good crisis management plan look like? Meaning, you know, what are the key components that can be applied across a broad range of crisis situations that companies may be faced with?

John:

Ooh, that’s, that’s a very good question. Well, the best way to avoid a crisis is to prevent it. If you working for an organization as they communicate, or you should be looking at that company in terms of what could go wrong and planning for that potentially happening and developing a strategic crisis communications plan. And in that basically consists of looking at the crisis holistically. Do you need to bring together the president of the company, the HR executive, the legal executive, or is it something on a smaller scale? But generally, crises are of such a nature that you, you need to bring together all of those executives to help you in your planning. And part of that plan includes key messages. What are you going to say to employees, shareholders, the community media. You need to plan for that and have strong, strategic key messages that you can share.

John:

Looking at all the audiences, some of which I’ve named you need to have tactical approaches to addressing the crisis. And when it all is said and done, you definitely need to debrief and determine what went right and what went wrong. And I know when I was a communicator for a large defense contractor Hurricane Katrina happened, and we had a number of employees in the New Orleans area. And my role was to coordinate between headquarters, I worked for one of the larger divisions, coordinate between headquarters, what was happening with our employees. Also developing telephone trees to ensure that I could reach key people in New Orleans who would share information with their dispersed employees, setting up a recorded line with the president of that division would record messages as well as myself to let all of the employees in that division, as well as the corporation know what was happening with our employees, almost round the clock. It required a lot of energy. It required writing announcements. It required coaching our president on what to say and when to say it and how to say it. It was a very holistic approach to resolving the crisis or working through it to resolution.

Rena:

That’s wonderful. So the cadence in my mind is solve a problem before it becomes an issue, solve an issue before it becomes a crisis, which then leads to effectively responding to a crisis. All of which requires proactive management in different ways. And what I also heard you say or imply is that responding effectively to a crisis is really about being proactively prepared for such an occurrence. So when all hell breaks loose, and folks are asking, you know, what do we do in that moment, where adrenaline, understandably, maybe rushing in the case of hurricane Katrina, you know, you have a robust plan in place that was created when calmer heads prevailed with the right people in the room. Did I get that right?

 

John:

Absolutely correct.

 

Rena:

Terrific. Any other key points that you want to make about people who may be faced with having to put together a crisis management plan in their own organizations?

John:

Well, to communication professionals. I think there are some key tactical approaches that you need to keep in your arsenal, things that you always need to do, such as being prepared for what are you going to tell the various audiences that your company or your organization addresses. But also remain calm. Everyone is watching you, and I know it’s a stressful time, but you need to be the calm in the storm, the voice of reason to ensure that everything goes smoothly and that the crisis resolved as soon as possible.

Rena:

Very important point, very important point. And that gets back to your earlier point about making sure that to help you remain calm, you have something in place that you can go to. You have a go-to resource that will help you, you know, that checklist that you mentioned, making sure that you have all the boxes ticked for responding appropriately to that crisis. And knowing when you also, John, say that, knowing that there are no perfect plans just as there are no, there’s no perfect crisis situation. So but if you create them proactively with the right level of flexibility embedded into them, it’ll give everyone that sort of collective mindset for successfully navigating our crisis response with that deliberate calm that you mentioned as well as protocols and intention. And we’re certainly much better off with one in place than without line. Would you agree?

John:

Absolutely, Rena. That flexibility, that word you use is key, as well as a resilience. I think that’s also an important trait or characteristic when you are dealing with a crisis, because as you mentioned, you never know what’s going to happen, but you still need to be ready to address it.

Rena:

Yes. And I also want to pick up off of a point you made earlier too, in terms of you know, making sure we have the right people in the room and getting people together to plan. What strategy have you found to be helpful for engaging executives in that proactive crisis planning process, particularly those who may think it’s not necessary. This is a waste of my time. And if something happens, we’ll figure it out. Then has there been something that’s been particularly helpful to you to make sure that the right people are engaged at the right time in crisis planning?

John:

I think it’s preparation going back to an earlier comment that I made. I think you cannot wait until you have a crisis to take executives through a crisis. You need to have crisis drills. You need to have crisis training. You need to point out some areas where some things might go a little wrong if we don’t do “X”. I think it’s all in the planning. Don’t catch them off guard. They need to be familiar with crisis planning and management and communications. And that way they are instantly on board, instead of you put them in a situation that they’re uncomfortable with, that they’re unfamiliar with, and that’s when things can really go wrong when you really need them on your side.

Rena:

Yes. There’s nothing like using the, what I call the shock factor of those, you know, what you call this, the, the drills or the, what if scenarios and with real life examples, to get folks to see the possibilities and the potential business impact of what such an occurrence could have on our organization. So scenario planning for the plausible list of events with flexible preset response modules, I think are really good because things don’t always happen exactly the way we would ordain them. But it can be extremely helpful in having that, what you mentioned the predetermined checklist for mitigating those risk and, and the worst possible outcomes on numerous levels.

 

John:

Absolutely.

 

Rena:

 So now we are heading John towards the end of 2020, a transformative year. That will no doubt live in infamy for so many reasons. We find ourselves dealing with a sustained global health crisis and injustices caused by systemic racism that has led to a myriad of other things. Do you have any thoughts about, you know, what this year of events of this year and any thoughts about, you know communications around the reality of what we’re facing today?

John:

Oh, well, on COVID 19, I think we are living through a real time case study, a real time crisis case study of what to do and what not to do. I think this is a call to arms for all communication professionals to really be in there and serve as leaders and counselors to their employers and their companies and their organizations, because we are needed more now than ever. It requires leaders to step up. They need to be more empathetic, need to show more humility. They need to be able to say I don’t know, but let me find out, and they need to instill trust in their employees because every day there is something new and everyone is on edge. So I think for our profession, it’s an incredible opportunity to prove ourselves as being credible professionals, to help organizations recover and on the whole area of systemic racism and just racial and social injustice.

John:

I think it’s a time to have that conversation, unfortunately, with the George Floyd tragedy. It has raised ante in terms of discussion and conversation, but we need to have it. And I think here again communications professionals can serve as Sherpas to guide their organizations in the right conversations because it’s very, very sensitive. And when I was working in corporate America for some fortune 500 and even fortune 100 companies the issue of race was discussed through diversity and inclusion organizations, but it never really deeply discussed. And I will tell you, I have had some micro inequities against myself from ignorant leaders and ignorant supervisors, but you work through that. You figure out that and know that you are stronger than your situation and you move forward. And many times you have those difficult conversations at the risk of your career sometimes. But if it’s meant to be stated that there is a problem here, I think it’s incumbent for anyone to speak up women, people of color, people of different religions, those who are disabled. I think it deserves to be brought and put on the table if there is a problem.

Rena:

Such great points, John, and thank you for sharing that. I think and I think you’re absolutely right. It is we have a responsibility and an opportunity to not only have the seat at the table, but have a meaningful voice at the table to help our executives and our leadership team really deal effectively with particularly DNI initiatives and communications surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion at this pivotal moment in our history. And I really absolutely agree. What do you think, at some companies I’m thinking some companies have a designated sort of chief diversity officer or diversity equity and inclusion officer sometimes that kind of falls under the umbrella of HR. Sometimes it falls under the umbrella of the communications person. Regardless of what type of organization you may be employed at.

Rena:

What are some of the key things that we can bring to that conversation about diversity, equity and inclusion, particularly when it comes to answering the question, so what do we do? What do we do about this and how do we go about what I’m in counseling clients that I’m talking to these days it’s really about, well, what do I do next? And I don’t want to make a mistake, and I want to say the right thing, I want to show support. With kinds of things that you’re counseling your clients or your client organizations about in this arena.

John:

Well, I have not had the opportunity to counsel them on diversity, equity and inclusion yet, but I think in terms of Tala that some considered this, a crisis that it will come up or it may come up. And I think it begins with education and awareness that people need to understand what the racial landscape looks like. In corporate America, that issue, and several others are not high profile until something happens, but there needs to be an understanding and awareness of what is going on in my organization. How did it happen? How can we avoid it? And then yes, what do we do next? That means having conversations, that means looking at your human resources policies. I know some companies in their employee handbooks, they say that employees need to assimilate and become a part of the organization. Well, I don’t necessarily agree with that.

John:

I think people need to be their true selves, their authentic selves, and not necessarily assimilate and become part of the organization where you are basically in kind of an acting role, you’re doing what the company says you should do, as opposed to being your true self in the organization. And so that’s another thing that they should do is look at their employee guidelines or their handbook or how they think employees should act. And then also examine their culture. And culture to me is how we do things around here. And you need to decide, do you want to do things the way this company says, if it’s not going to change, or do you want to leave and go where your skills and your knowledge is appreciated and valued. So there are decisions that employees have to make and their decisions that executives and those in charge of the company need to make. And there needs to be a meeting of the minds to fully understand what those next steps should be, because there’s not going to be the same at every organization. And yes, you are going to make some mistakes along the way, but having your communication professionals in place and that diversity leader in place and having executives who are through awareness and teaching and understanding are now woke, you can make some amazing things happen.

Rena:

I really like what you said about the being, bringing your authentic self and not feeling as though you need to present another self to the company that you’re working at. Another sort of life altering, to use your term, experience for me in this area was earlier in my career when I worked at American Express, one of the greatest companies that in my mind genuinely walked their valuing diversity talk then, and now I had the great privilege of serving on Ken Chenault’s, who’s an exceptionally great man and leader, his diversity advisory council with folks from all representations. And we went through what was called the sort of train the trainer program, meaning that we were trained to train others throughout the country on how to facilitate having diversity discussions with their teams and the company hired this extraordinary external consultant.

Rena:

She was a black woman. I can’t recall her name. Gosh, I’m going to remember it later, but she was fierce, John. I have been through several similar programs since then, but no one has come close to her level. I mean, she spent a few intensive days stripping us down individually and collectively to our core. There were tears, anger, resentment, joy, all kinds of experiences and perspectives, and it was enlightening and regulatory. And to this day, even more relevant, the things that I learned. But that was when I really began to understand what this work was all about personally and professionally, and I’ll forever be grateful for that experience. I also like what you were saying about you know, bringing, it’s almost like, and tell me what you think about this, making sure that we’re starting internally, that before we go any, before you go external with any message or anything, let’s take a look at our own house or our own backyard and make sure and face the facts or the reality of where we are as an organization in this initiative, where in this area, where do we want to be and making it a business imperative where we are going to map out based on the data that we find, where is it that we are, where are the areas that we can do better?

Rena:

And what are our intentions in terms of how do we map out what we’re going to do to reach that, to reach that milestone or milestones. And so a specific plan and treating it like a business imperative in terms, instead of this is a nice thing to do, but this is something that is you know, a business strategy or business and treating it as such with budgets, with resources with a team that can bring in value or add value to make sure that we are in our communications, getting it right. Being respectful, being empathetic, being, which is what you mentioned. So making sure that our communications and our campaigns reflect or messages, et cetera, reflect our words and our actions.

John:

Absolutely correct. And I just like to add that within the past few months after the Floyd situation, we’ve seen some really public actions by major companies, either offering scholarships or they’re going to do a lot of diversity hiring, bringing in people of color and women and the disabled and others to ensure that there is a good DE and I mix, but I, I really want to see meaningful action. What are you going to do inside? We’ve seen what you’re doing outside, what you’re going, what you’re saying, you’re going to do, but what are to your point, what are you doing inside? What is the meaningful action? And I’ve actually created a hashtag on LinkedIn where now it just pops up when I populate a post, Meaningful Action. I really want to see meaningful action. And what does that look like a year from now? We’ve seen the big splashy actions, but what about a year from now? Are organizations really going to embrace DE and I, and make a difference and show meaningful action for me? That’s the question.

Rena:

You’re absolutely right. And holding each other accountable to those actions and embedding those actions into current processes, like putting it in performance appraisals, making that an MBO or an objective that you’re going to achieve. And you’re going to be held accountable for achieving those objectives when it comes to DE and I action areas and getting people involved in those decisions that are going to affect them. And so I really like your, I like your meaningful actions. I like the, making sure that we have the metrics in place, making sure that we have defined goals, making sure that it is embedded throughout all areas and functions and leadership and leaders across the organization, and making sure that everybody’s holding everyone else accountable for achieving those. Because it’s an iterative process. You’re not going to do it overnight. No one, no company is going to achieve it overnight. You are continuously learning and incorporating those learnings back into your sort of process for continual improvement. And so it is indeed a journey, but it is one that can be defined upfront with measurable and meaningful data and metrics that we can hold our ourselves accountable for and message out accordingly.

John:

Absolutely. And embedding all of that in the culture and how we do things around here.

Rena:

So true. So true. Terrific. Thank you. So talking about, again, we’ve talked about helping executives understand the value of crisis communications. What about helping them understand the value of communications in general? Any strategies, any tried and true strategies you have in that area that he loves that you’d like to share?

John:

Well, just to build on my earlier point, I think it’s important to educate executive leadership on the power of communications through strategic communication planning and execution with tangible, understandable results. When you can show what has been accomplished and how you did it, executives can become more supportive and dependent on your council. I think is important to show business leadership that you understand the business as well, and what keeps them awake at night. And I know that’s a cliche, but it’s really true. My credibility depends on it. And I think it’s also important to be transparent with your clients, be straight up with them and also have an opinion and avoid a subservient yes, to whatever they ask or want. That is not going to help you in the end. And it’s going to lessen your credibility overall. And that means developing a relationship with the executives and developing trust, not just going to them when you need them, but go in and sit down and talk to them about their areas of expertise.

John:

In human resources, what are the issues that you’re dealing with? How can I help you? Tell me what’s happening? What are some of the trends that are happening in HR? Do we need to be sending any messages to our employees, or can I support you through internal digital content or hard copy or embedding something in the president’s speech about new human resources guidelines, or laws that are coming down the pie? I think that was smooth the process. If you show them that you are there to partner with them and support them and help them be successful, you will be successful.

Rena:

Yeah. Really good point. Talk a little bit more about that. I think that is such a big point in terms of our really becoming that valuable strategic business partner, rather than someone who is just executing on what someone is asking us to do, but really adding more value and being courageous enough to, as you said to counsel, to give them great counsel. Which I think really just helps to position us as that valued and trusted business partner. So yeah, I totally agree with that. I also think I like what you said in terms of understanding the business and learning the language of the business and aligning our contributions to business strategies and using results, as you said, metrics and measurable, you know, metrics that really reflect how your company is really, how your company defines value. How about any other sort of key lessons that you’ve learned and learned along the way?

John:

Well another, for me a key lesson is having trust in your team, building a strong team to support you. I’ve worked for companies where the focus has been on individual efforts, but I’ve worked for more companies where the collaborative and team work effort is what it’s about. It’s not about you, it’s about us. It’s about the team. There is no I in the word team. And I think it’s important to have professionals who, again, who you can trust, who know what they’re doing, that if something happened to you, you know your next in line can step up and do the job. And I know from my own experience that there are some supervisors who may be insecure with putting that much trust in their teams, but I think your team will even be more successful if you will trust them to do the job that you hired them for.

Rena:

Do you have any special experiences or examples that you’d like to share with us?

John:

Oh, I have many. One that I’ll share with you is when I worked at Marriott International, the global hospitality company, they were planning to offer benefits to employees, same sex partners. And I served on a global benefits launch team, and we were charged with learning about best practices from other global companies that were offering partner benefits. And so I conducted research found companies that were offering these benefits, and I researched these companies. I called, interview their HR representatives, and researched online data and information. And my final report to executives and the entire launch team proved beneficial in the decision to move forward on Marriott’s launch of same-sex partner benefits. And I also led and successfully manage the merger of Ameritech and SBC communications many years ago. And at that time it was the second largest business merger in the United States, some 70,000 employees in a five state region. I prepared the Ameritech leadership, my team and the external PR agency as day one approach for the merger. And that was very successful because it involved or required detailed planning, executive consultation, team management, and execution based on research and input from a variety of internal sources. And I dare say a bit of risk.

Rena:

Yes, yes. Any other advice that you would give to up-and-coming or even experienced communications professionals around driving more valuable and becoming indispensable at their companies?

John:

Well, for those who are coming into organizations, graduating from college or very new to the profession, I would really say, be an asset to your supervisor, not a liability. Work closely with them, ask them how you can help them. Listen, actively really pay attention to what they’re saying so that you don’t have to go back to them to ask them to repeat it. Be conscientious. Go the extra mile and stay a little later if you have to. I’m not encouraging working all weekend and working all hours of the night, but sometimes you may have to stay a little longer to accomplish a goal or to complete a project. And I know your supervisors would appreciate it. So always be an asset to your supervisor and to your company overall.

Rena:

Really good advice, really good advice because if you align with your supervisors objectives, it becomes a win-win and to have them be your objectives really becomes a win-win. I also like what you said about listening for understanding being conscientious. I like what you said. I like that. And also being curious too, being curious and being that lifelong learner of cause things are changing dramatically in our industry and with the tools and the techniques and the strategies that we use. It’s an exciting time in one sense, because we have this plethora of great new tools and technology to help us do what we’ve always wanted to do much more, faster, quicker, and more effectively these days, more effective these days than ever before. So that’s an exciting part of our industry. And so what I heard you say was also just keeping up. That the way to be a great asset is to really make sure that you’re on top of your game and you’re bringing the best practices to your, to the organizations that you serve.

John:

Yes.

Rena:

So what are your, what are some of your favorite go-to resources to keep you informed and battle ready?

John:

Ooh, favorite resources. I have to tell you, there are a lot of books out there, and I have friends who are writing books left and right about communications. But actually, I rely on them directly. I go right to my professional friends for advice and finding out what are the latest trends in technology. If I don’t understand them, I’ve been in this profession for over 25 years. And all the people I’ve met, if I don’t understand something, I know they have the answer. So I immediately go to them. I do not read a lot of communication books, but yet I do read many because I teach. I teach at the University of North Carolina Charlotte, which requires that I stay on top of different PR issues and tactical approaches. But for the most part, getting deep down and truly understanding, I go to my professional friends.

Rena:

That’s a great resource. I really appreciate that. And I think that having someone who you trust and who’s been there before and who can give you different perspectives, I think is really, really, very helpful. Well, and also organizations, we’re part of the Public Relations Society of America, have great resources and webinars and on demand learning experiences that they make available and just our own networking experience. Things like that I think are also really very helpful.

John:

No, I, I totally agree. The Public Relations Society of America, the International Association of Business Communications, Women in Communications, the American Marketing Association, there are so many great resources and organizations out there where you can learn what’s happening real time by attending the meetings and becoming active, which I am. So I’m really glad you brought up that point.

Rena:

Well, thank you. Thank you for sharing yours and everything that you’ve so kindly been brave enough to share during this discussion, which I’ve enjoyed. Thank you for sharing your wisdom along with the valuable and helpful insights gleaned from your communications story, John. Much appreciated.

John:

Oh pleasure. I enjoyed it.

Rena:

Thank you. Thank you. Once again, John, it’s been a pleasure. And our audience, thank you so much for listening. We hope you found this episode worthy of your time. If so, please feel free to share it with someone who might also benefit from our discussion. And remember that you are never alone in the professional challenges and opportunities we’re facing today. And you’re always welcome step into The Arena. Thanks so much.