We are all professionals. As professionals there is one cardinal rule of talking to the media (or if you ask my grandma, anyone): never lie. Don’t outright lie. Don’t tell a half truth. Don’t try to be cute. Don’t parse the truth. Don’t lie. All that does is make your audience mad and make them...
It can be incredibly difficult as a business to publicly admit that you made a misstep. Savvy executives and communicators know the importance of making a timely mea culpa statement that demonstrates ownership and empathy, and clearly outlines steps being taken to support impacted consumers and...
At Kith, we often say that a crisis does not develop your leadership skills – it reveals them. It also reveals what type of creature you are: warm blooded or cold blooded. Now, obviously, humans are warm blooded as a matter of biology, so what we’re really asking you to consider is more about...
Few words bring a C-Suite conversation to a screeching halt like, “We need to think about litigation.” Instead of killing the conversation, it should start a conversation … between the legal team and the communications team. Attorneys’ primary goal is to limit their clients’ exposure to legal...
If you’ve spoken to me for more than five minutes, you know I’m Canadian – also American – but I was Canadian first and very proud of it. Every stereotype of Canadians includes that we like to say sorry: to each other, visitors, inanimate objects, and so on. Move away for a while and you’ll...
Let’s be clear. You can’t win an argument against Crazy. Once rightfully relegated to the lunatic fringe, Crazy abounds today – it is everywhere. Crazy is encouraged, fanned, inflamed, and carried to new converts by the magnifying lens that is social media. Sadly, organizations that value their...
Have you stuck to your New Year’s resolutions? I didn’t make any this year. Instead, I built a plan that will build on small changes throughout the year. January has been a focus on slowing down. But even with my change of thought, it was pretty hard to ignore the barrage of ads about weight loss,...
There have been some really great dissections of the #KyteBaby crisis response. Jeremy Tunis and Eleanor Hawkins to name my favorites. But for all this great analysis, I want to dive a little deeper into how this could have been prevented. I see there are three points: It’s a commonly held...
The public’s expectations of corporations and brands are higher, and writing a check to a cause or saying “that’s not our lane” won’t cut it anymore. Even a well-crafted statement is not enough. Actions must follow words.
Critical takeaways The book ‘Crucial Conversations’ is a great guide to managing high-stakes conversations but it also provides useful guidance for crises. Many of the same techniques the authors advise for critical conversations can be used by crisis communicators to shape messages - externally...
As we continue to face the daily uncertainty of how this pandemic will unfold, there is one thing we know for sure. Companies will continue to make extremely difficult decisions in the weeks ahead and will be faced with communicating those tough decisions to those who matter most. This webinar...
We are now entering the third or fourth week of messaging around corporate response - the “mushy middle phase” as we referred to it in our previous webinars. On the third webinar in Kith's COVID-19 Communications Series, Bill Coletti shares observations on how companies are using the A-B-C...
Is your organization prepared to respond to a crisis and protect its hard-earned reputation? Take our quiz and find out!