Prioritizing & Responding to Events of the Day

by | Jun 5, 2020 | from the Director, OpEd |

Each Wednesday at 10am EST, we host a Weekly Communication Support Check-In to share best practices and discuss with each other how we are communicating differently (or the same) during the current social and health crisis. Here are some notes from this week’s meet-up that may help you navigate what’s most important to communicate now.

Act Now.

For this week’s post-meeting article, I’m going to cut right to the Takeaways because our focus was all about prioritizing and knowing what to do in such a chaotic and uncertain time. Action speaks louder than words, so it’s more important to keep communicating and not get stuck in analysis paralysis.

TAKEAWAYS:

When trying to decide what and how to communicate, here’s a short checklist:

  1. Support the people who are depending on you to do what you always do. Don’t get lost in the communication overload to the point that you don’t do the basics. Keep moving on anything you already do and do more of it. What is your “Stewardship Zone?” Make that the #1 priority.

  2. Be explicit about visionary understanding from your perspective as a Steward/Leader. Yes, we need to all be communicating and acting right now, but we also need the context and the hope that makes it meaningful. What’s happening now that you can see going somewhere else? What needs/gaps are you seeing from your leadership perspective that need to be activated the most?

    – When communicating about the here and now: Provide context and education

    – Keep communicating about the future too: Talk about the aspirations even if you are having a hard time fully seeing how they will come about. The “how” isn’t important for aspirations. They are starting points.

  3. Remove barriers that keep communication flowing. It’s easy to lose track of time when you are trying to get things perfect (a whole week can go by while you are crafting your public statement about what’s happening int he world right now). Raising challenging issues might reveal some internal conflicts in yourself and your organization (might? most likely will!). Be ready to start addressing those, but don’t let that work get in the way of keeping communication flowing.

RESOURCES:

Join the Weekly Communication Support Zoom on Weds @10am EST

Communications Field, Message, Public Image Works