Such a joy to be back IN PERSON for a presentation at the National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA) annual seminar last week. It reinforces how important face-to-face communication is in building relationships and cementing our learning. My colleague John Lyday, APR, Fellow PRSA and I presented on the challenges and strategies needed to say …
Last week I had the pleasure of moderating a panel at the PRSA Northeast District Conference called, “Pearls of Wisdom From PR’s Road Warriors.” One of the things I value most about my membership in the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) is the willingness of our members to share their experiences (as well as …
Triggering events, whether created for us or by us, can create a fissure in the current behaviors and beliefs of stakeholders. These fissures, if smartly managed, can help transform an organization’s culture. Even before the trauma of the last year, healthcare was reeling from a bevy of changes and pressures. Nursing shortages, changing business models, …
Read more “Using the Triggering Event of COVID to Impact Culture Change”
Here in Massachusetts, Gov. Charlie Baker has launched the #MaskUpMA campaign to raise awareness and stimulate behaviors that will reduce the spread of COVID-19 in our state in the coming months. His collective efforts to guide the public’s behavior during the pandemic follow the 4-Step Public Behavior Change Model, based on the work of leading …
Read more “#MASKUPMA: APPLYING THE BEHAVIOR CHANGE MODEL TO COVID-19”
There are four basic ways organizations can offer their social responsibility talents in times of need: Philanthropy: Donations of money and in-kind services. If you’re Bob Kraft of the New England Patriots, you can send your private plane to China to pick up PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) in the form of N95 masks for healthcare …
As with any crisis situation that an organization faces, things may quiet down and even get resolved (as in a strike), but there will likely be additional issues to consider in the aftermath. This is particularly true for this pandemic – even as it continues, other issues will rear up, case in point: Amazon’s strikes …
Read more “So What Now? Anticipating Fallout Issues In The Aftermath of COVID-19”
What is known about how humans process risk and crisis remind us that not every member of a stakeholder group is at the same point in their understanding, acceptance, processing or action steps. In fact, most are likely ricocheting daily, if not hourly, between these waypoints as they deal with the mental and emotional toll …
Here’s what happens when you are NOT proactive and DON’T LISTEN to customers … I’m afraid Boston Sports Clubs are about to learn a painful PR lesson. While many gyms communicated proactively to customers that they would be halting billing and freezing memberships, Boston Sports Clubs went out of their way to make it …
Read more “A Case Study In How NOT To Build Relationships With Customers: Boston Sports Clubs”
For those of you who are not familiar with the Pan-Mass Challenge, or the PMC, it is the largest single athletic charity event in the country. This 2-day cycling event, founded by Billy Starr in 1980, engaged 6800 participants and raised $63 million for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute last year. People …
Isobel Parke was born in 1926 in Dorset, UK, the 3rd of 5 daughters of Charles and Jean Hamilton Gordon Parke. She graduated from the Winsor School, Boston, MA, and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, UK, with a degree in History in 1947. Isobel worked for a short time at the UK Ministry of Education. After …