Lobal Warming

News of the global financial crisis finally made its way to our brilliant offspring who fortunately are not business majors.  They asked recently if we’re headed toward another great depression, what this means to them (they’re slightly self-absorbed), and to our family and friends.  We talked about the need to avoid credit card debt, suggested that they continue working while in school, encouraged them to drive/consume less (i.e. cut out the alcohol), conserve more and save money.  Simplistic?  Of course, but we broke down a complicated issue making it relevant and actionable.

Communicators should be asking similar questions.  What does this situation mean to us in our work?  What affect might it have on our organizations? What about our employees, shareholders and customers? What’s our role?

My trusted adviser and dear friend Les Potter said in his blog that our primary role is to “help our publics understand what is happening and how it affects them.”  Knowledge of business is key, said Les, but it’s “critically important to explain the complex in clear and simple ways in order to effectively communicate with sometimes frightened audiences.”

We’ll focus on some of these issues in IABC’s publications, and provide more context in an upcoming teleseminar.  But what can you do now? First, do your homework.  Read about the global financial crisis and make sense of it. Understand what it means to your organization and audiences.  Show your audiences how it could affect them and what they can do.  And tap your IABC network as we’re all working through these issues.

Now I’ve got a few bills to pay . . .

This entry was posted on Friday, October 10th, 2008 at 1:23 pm by Chris Grossgart and is filed under Financial. Tags: communicators' role, financial crisis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.