IN PARTNERSHIP WITH:

Center for Coordinated Assistance to StatesCCAS

Developing a Communication Strategy

Multi-System Collaboration Training and Technical Assistance Program

Webinar #7September 23, 20152 p.m. – 4 p.m. EDT

Kathy Bonk, Executive Director, CCMC

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IN PARTNERSHIP WITH:

Center for Coordinated Assistance to StatesCCAS

Who is around your table?

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH:

Center for Coordinated Assistance to StatesCCAS

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Housekeeping

•Place your phone on mute to eliminate background noise

•Speak directly into the phone when talking, the webinar is being recorded

•Use the chat box on the right side of your screen to ask questions

•Feel free to engage other sites in questions as they are presenting information

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH:

Center for Coordinated Assistance to StatesCCAS

MSC-TTA upcoming activities

• Final Work Plans Due to Training TeamSeptember 23rd

• Webinar 8: Site-Based PresentationsOctober 6th @2pm-4pm Presentation slides due September 30th

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IN PARTNERSHIP WITH:

Center for Coordinated Assistance to StatesCCAS

Today’s Presenter

Kathy BonkExecutive Director

Co-FounderCommunications Consortium Media Center

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH:

Center for Coordinated Assistance to StatesCCAS

Agenda

1.Messaging Matters2.Developing a Proactive Collaborative

Strategic Communications Plan3.Be Prepared – Reacting to a Crisis or

Backlash

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MESSAGING MATTERS

Values-based Messaging and Framing

Best Practices for Strategic Communications Plans

Developing and Communicating Messages

1. What are your goals?2. Who is the audience?3. Appeal to values: why do I care?4. Describe threat to values.5. Offer solutions.6. Address urgency and consequences of

action.7. Give people something to do.8. Have an anecdote or story, using images.9. Anticipate attacks.10. Be repetitive.

Safety Family

Commitment

Collaboration Experience Responsibility

Respect

Well-Being

Self-Confidence

Community

Protection

Dedicated Cost Effective

Accountability Service

Prevention

Integrity Education

Fairness Quality

Partnerships

What Research Suggests: From the FrameWorks Institute

• People use mental shortcuts to make sense of the world.

• People look for cues to help them “file” new material; they ask: is this a story I know?

• People get most information about public affairs from the news media which, over time, creates a framework of expectations, or dominant frame.

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Communications is Storytelling.

“Understanding means finding a story you already know and saying, ‘Oh yeah, that one.’”

“Once we have found (the) story, we stop processing.” – Roger Schank

The Power of Stories:

• Storytelling is both an art and a science.

• Stories reflect – and evoke – core values and widely held beliefs.

• Storytelling has become the norm for most mass media. Reporters say: “I need to put a face on the facts for my audience.”

The Storytelling Challenge:

• If the focus is just on individual, the audience can conclude that it is a personal problem or success story without a broader public solution or a “bringing up by the bootstraps” situation.

• Or worse, the policy solution is so overwhelming for the individual that their eyes glaze over.

Levels of Thinking

• Level One: Big ideas: equality, responsibility, respect, safety, fairness, opportunity, life choices, education

• Level Two: Issue-types: mental health, child welfare, juvenile justice, foster care, child abuse, domestic violence, education reform, health care, drug and alcohol abuse, homelessness, crime, gun control

• Level Three: Specific policy proposals: 4(e), case management reform, team decision-making, resource families, minors’ rights, independent living, data driven management objectives, MST, FFT, DYRS, FCA, DHS, DCFS, WIC, Results Based Accounting/Outcome

(As developed by George Lakoff for the Frameworks Institute)

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Open the Right Door

• Agencies too often operate at level three.

• But the public is usually up at level one.» Can we open the conversation at level one?» What frame or door should we open to get the

conversation started down a path that produces support for our policies—even in the face of opposition?

• Prime the conversation with the right level focusing on one or two ideas.

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Messages are Heard or Glazed Over

• Issues are relevant to target audience when messages are based on core American values» Entitlement vs. Self-Sufficiency (Teach a “man” to fish)» Juvenile Delinquents vs. Troubled Youth» Practice Reform vs. Safety and Well-being» Child care vs. Early Education

• Speak in a language target audiences understand.

• Play to strengths: family, community, and helping people help themselves with education and training as top values. Understand the values debate.

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Our Framing Challenge:

• If the frame doesn’t fit the facts, people usually will reject the facts, not the frame.

Why Frames?

• Tell us what this communications is ABOUT

• Trigger shared and durable cultural models or meta-messages

• Signal what counts, what can be ignored

• “Fill in” or infer missing information

• Influence decision outcomes

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH:

Center for Coordinated Assistance to StatesCCAS

GROUP DISCUSSION

QUESTIONSCOMMENTS CONCERNS

OBSERVATIONS

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Developing a Proactive & Collaborative Strategic Communications Plan

BEST PRACTICES

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Issues Media Curve

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Strategic Communications Planning Guide

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Vision and Goals

What do we want to achieve?

How will we know we’ve achieved it?

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Identify Target AudiencesWho needs to be informed, persuaded or mobilized?

Segments of the community Parents, students, youth,

volunteers Influentials: UN or agencies Policymakers: elected

officials & bureaucrats Change agents: community

leaders, advocates & activists

Media: journalists & bloggers Legal: attorneys, judiciary,

reformers Academics: schools of public

health, education public policy

Foundations, business & corporate partners

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Develop Messages for Target Audiences

Involve policy and substantive experts

Assess past news coverage

Gather the facts and research

Visualize the “ideal” story or outcome

Develop message box or memos

Repeat, Revise, Repeat

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Messages Should Be

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• True

• Believable

• Emotional

• Supported by the facts, but not just facts, add compared to what?

• Framed to win

• Aligned with more powerful issues

• Visual for television and web sites

• Repeated over and over

Develop and Train Spokespeople who:

Target audiences will find credible

Have personal stories to tell

Recognize the importance of the media

Watch and read media

Are willing to be trained

Are disciplined to stay on message

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Message Box

Three or Four Key Supporting Message Points

 Overview of Issue in Big Picture/Values Language

Summary of Specific

Facts/Problems

Why Action is Needed

Action Steps for your Audience

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CentralMessage

Critical Elements for Outreach

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• Message development and framing

• Strong written materials in one page, 3-5 page summaries, full reports or books

• Reporter-friendly Web sites

• Local mainstream and new(er) social media

• Editorial and op-ed strategies

• Visuals and good television stories pitched to reporters on a regular basis

• Radio strategy (AM and FM) news and talk

• Cultivate a reporter corps and develop a beat

• Made-for-cable events and forums

Tools of the Trade

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• One-on-one relationships with journalists

• Press briefings

• Press conferences

• Press kits and written materials, on-line and on-paper

• Editorial board visits

• Op-ed placements

• Radio news feeds and podcasting

• Video feeds and webcasts

• Audio news conferences

• Paid advertising and PSAs

Quick Response and Damage Control

• Coordinate a media monitoring and quick response team including opposition research

• Develop a plan for same day, appropriate response

• Challenge reporters who are inaccurate or mislead readers/viewers

• Ombudsmen strategies

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Internal Communications

• Be inclusive with staff by showing them you respect their ideas.

• Include them in the strategic planning process.

• Show you are a good listener.

• Acknowledge the difficulty of their work.

• Build on successes of the past and learn from a crisis

• Don't tear everything down and start over – this approach can lead to resentment.

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Internal Communications

• Identify rising leaders and align with them.

• Use the strategic plan as a reference document to show resistant staff what the community expects the system to do.

• Send staff copies of positive media articles.

• Ensure that you stick to your message and repeat it over and over and over. Why? Some staff won't really hear the message until having it said to them several times.

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GOOGLE: Social Media Video – The Social Media Revolution

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8

Social Media: FRIEND?

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Social Media: FOE?

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Social Media: The Balancing Act

Resources

Reach

Reputation

Reliability

Round-the-Clock

Repeat, Revise, Repeat

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GROUP CONVERSATION & COMMENTS

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IN PARTNERSHIP WITH:

Center for Coordinated Assistance to StatesCCAS

Be Prepared – Reacting to a Crisis or Backlash

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Start with the basics.

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Phone Who answers the phone? What are the protocols for reporters?

Computer Monitoring and returning e-mails

that can reappear in strange placesInstant Google Alerts to track breaking news

TV & Tivo Local media review 24/7

Cable

And more…

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Find out and Stay with the facts.

Don’t AssUme Anything.

Collaborative Strategies

• Clients, families, or youth

• Employees

• Contractors/Partners

• Governor’s Office, County Commissioners, Mayors

• State Legislature

• Advocates

• Public/Community

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Environmental Scan

You and the Stakeholders

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Your Communication Strategies

Who Needs to be Involved?

• Communication technician: Writer, editor, project manager

• Communication facilitator: Listener and information broker, liaison between organization and stakeholders

• Problem-solving facilitator: Collaborates with other managers to define, avoid, and solve problems strategically

• Expert prescriber: “Hired gun” to make PR problems go away

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Environmental Scan: Media Backlash in a Crisis

What’s the Situation?

Key Questions to Ask Yourself:

• How did you find out about the story, situation or crises?

• How fast can you (should you) respond?

• Do you have all the necessary information to respond or make a strong statement, or should you wait until all the facts are confirmed?

• Who will speak for the agency?

• What is the media behavior? How many reporters are working the story?

• What is the public/community reaction?

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Environmental Scan: Media Backlash in a Crisis

What Gets the Most Attention?

Child/Juvenile Death

Child AbandonedOvercrowding & Bad Conditions

“Celebrity” perpetrator

Child/Juvenile Injury/Accident

Child AWOLUntreated Mental Illness

Divorce/

custody

Infant Roll-over RunawaysDomestic Violence

Agency/

employee wrongdoing

Child/Juvenile Crime

Home Alone Substance Abuse Lawsuits

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Environmental Scan

Remember Agency Realities

• Agency exists to serve public.

• To be effective, agency must have impeccable reputation and community support.

• In free society, media are watchdogs.

• Public provides financial support. Agency must perform and be accountable.

• Agency has a responsibility to tell its story—and a right to be skillful at it.

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Communicating in a Crisis

Preparedness

• Responsive communications/media relations

• Prevention/Risk assessment

• Early warning

• Crisis team, as needed

• Crisis plan/procedures

• Communications and Operations strategies for crisis management

• Debrief, learn and improve

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Communicating in a Crisis

Early Warning

Internal tracking for situations that are:

•Illegal

•Hazardous

•Wasteful

•Unethical

•Against mission, mandates, policies, procedures

•Damaging to agency image

•Likely to attract negative public/media attention

Immediate internal notification of:

•Death/injury

•Threats

•Police involvement

•“Celebrity” perpetrators

•Wrongdoing (employee, foster parent, child, etc.)

•Lawsuits

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Communicating in a Crisis

Crisis Management Team

Permanent Members:

• Commissioner

• Communications Director

• Deputy Commissioner

Situational Members:

• Supervisor

• Caseworker(s)

• Probation Officer

• Other insiders with case knowledge

• Legal counsel

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Communicating in a Crisis

Crisis Procedure

• Business hours and after-hours protocols

• Rapid crisis team meeting: facts and strategies

• One or two seasoned spokespersons

• Key messages: tone, big picture, details, lessons learned

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Communicating in a Crisis

Crisis Danger Grid: Everything is NOT a Crisis

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Communicating in a Crisis

Strategic Objective

Provide enough details to convince journalists, editors, and the public that your agencies….

•Did all that it should and could?

OR

•Is accountable, contrite, and prepared to improve?

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Communicating in a Crisis

Baseline Strategy

• Be accessible and forthcoming.

• Tell the truth.

• Tone: Acknowledge situation, show appropriate emotion.

• Big Picture: Establish context, educate if possible.

• Details: Accept or deflect responsibility, support with facts.

• Lessons Learned: Describe future preventive strategies, if appropriate, announce policy changes.

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Communicating in a Crisis

General Tips

• Never underestimate a crisis.

• Never lie or be defensive.

• Personalize your agency.

• Explain what you do and the situation.

• Respond quickly.

• Never say, “No comment.”

• O.K. to say, “I don’t know. I’ll find out.”—then do it.

• When you goof, confess and repent.

• Stay ahead of the story

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH:

Center for Coordinated Assistance to StatesCCAS

GROUP DISCUSSION

For More Information, contact:

Kathy Bonk, Executive DirectorCCMC, Communications Consortium Media Center1300 I Street NW #400EWashington, DC 20005202-326-6767kbonk@ccmc.org

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