At this time of crisis, transition, introspection, and intentional listening, words matter. In a series of webinars hosted by VBSR, we found the takeaways from the “Communications in the Era of COVID-19” session to be universally relevant – applicable beyond the pandemic and beyond our individual businesses. Two tidbits feel especially relevant to align actions with words.
“The gap between your corporate strategy and your social media strategy is shrinking. Today forward, everything that we’re doing should be run through the lens of whether or not we would tell this story on social media.”
Presenter Katie Wight urges businesses to run all decisions through a filter to do a values-check. This is a lesson in self-evaluation – both for businesses and individuals. Everyone does not live his or her life in the spotlight, but what if we did? If each of our actions were broadcast, do they tell the story of what we stand for and how we intend to impact others? While possibly painful at times, that level of self-awareness is the only path forward during this time of human need. Being a part of positive change to protect and honor the lives of our fellow human beings requires introspection and sometimes a breakdown of our closely held beliefs and practices.
“Employees may feel threatened by changing dynamics during a pandemic.”
While this focuses on employees during a pandemic, this can and should be expanded — how all human beings may be feeling at this time, during a pandemic and amidst a national awakening to systemic racial oppression resulting in violence and deaths. Presenter Joseph Ingram points to how we can better frame the important messages we need to convey to minimize “threat responses” and find ways to elicit “reward responses.” He provides helpful examples that show how to do this in your business. I feel inclined to broaden this to think of how my language might be changed in communicating with any person, stakeholder, ally, critic, friend in need, etc. ‘Intent versus impact’ is an important distinction that cannot be understated, especially now when each of us must be greater than ourselves, greater than our business, and greater than our immediate reach to make this world better for everyone.
VBSR and this session’s presenters have generously shared this slideshow presentation that contains many insights and takeaways that can help reframe the way we think about doing business right now. And hopefully how we individually approach our world. Please visit the VBSR website for the slide deck or to watch the entire presentation.
VBSR presentation given by Nicci Micco of Mamava, Katie Wight of KW Content, and Joseph Ingram of Joseph Ingram.co
By: Stephanie Clarke