"Having issues" is rarely a good thing; it implies having a deficit that needs filling, whether the issues are health, personal, mental or marital.
For better or worse, PR professionals end up coming to the proverbial dinner table in the middle of a big fight. It's about mediating, managing or repairing. But when these needs and
responsibilities are synthesized in a global context, issues management comes into play.
Issues management is the process of aligning organizational activities and stakeholder expectations. Issues managers should have experience in government, legal and public affairs, and regulatory
compliance.
Put into more topical terms, Richard Laermer (who will be inducted into the PR News Hall of Fame on November 8), CEO of RLM PR, demonstrates issues management in action.
"What's happening now is that issues - like global warming or CEOs being thrown into jail - come up, and companies are automatically part of it," he says. "Take Toys 'R Us. It's managing the
issue of toy recalls, and, even though it's not directly their fault, its employees need issues management training to understand how this situation came upon them, and all the different areas they
need to address, from vendors to manufacturers to customers."
When the issue is on a scale far beyond your company's/client's area of expertise, but still inevitably impacts corporate reputation, customer loyalty, financially success or credibility,
communications professionals must be able to be jacks of all trades, and masters of some.
"This is about knowing all of the issues that surround your industry. It's incredibly urgent that people who want to do issues management know a little about everything - celebrities, culture, Al
Gore, oil - everything," Laermer says. "As long as you are smart and well-informed, a company can actually get good PR because they become the go-to people."
With that strategy of omniscience in mind, consider the following tactic for getting there:
-
Don't limit yourself to personalized news: "When you only do personalized news [via RSS feeds, etc.], you are missing out on 99.9% of the issues in the world," Laermer says. "The only
thing that works in issues management today is being culturally relevant. That's when you become a resource for your company, for journalists and for bloggers." Instead of scouring the Web for news
that appears relevant to your business (or your personal interests) on the surface, be sure to include national and global news sources into your repertoire.
Less More Is More
When your client/management brings you in to tackle an issue that's bigger than the both of you, be completely comprehensive in your preliminary research. For Sydney Ayers of Ayers Strategic
Public Relations, fair housing metastasized into issue facing one client, the Colorado Civil Rights Division (CCRD), who approached her firm with the challenge of addressing new fair housing issues
without abandoning its traditional focus of employment discrimination.
"While the fair-housing issue has existed for decades, Colorado's explosive population growth in the '90s has outpaced fair-housing education and compliance," Ayers says. "It's a complex, multi-
faceted issue."
To tackle this beast, Ayers' team built its strategy's foundation on research, which included more than a dozen meetings with key individuals and focus groups with state agencies to identify the
important sub-issues at stake; the team also retained a local research firm to develop a phone survey (conducted in English and Spanish) to determine public knowledge and support of fair housing
laws.
After their research revealed a significant difference in the knowledge of the law between Colorado's general population and its minority community, an education-based strategy was developed and
implemented. Thus, the preliminary research was key in identifying which direction should be taken, as "issues management" represents an issue's overall impact, rather than its effect on specific
segments of business.
But, despite the often unwieldy nature of issues at large, Ayers recommends staying laser-focused on the sliver of community on which an initiative is focused; otherwise, you run the risk of
getting caught up in a problem that is both nascent and uncontrolled. (For a specific strategy to honing focus, see sidebar.)
"To ensure the proper focus, a secondary strategy [for CCRD] was to keep all communications as simple and direct as possible, despite the far-reaching and complex nature of the fair housing
issues," she says.
And, keep your audience in mind and translate the big issue into a sharp message about what it means to them.
"Break it down. De-jargonize it," Laermer says. "Do we understand what we're saying here, or are we just talking?"
Don't Overlook the Digital
"Thanks to the blogosphere, an issue can explode overnight," Laermer says. "That's why, now more than ever, you have to be dead-on about what you say."
Because an issue can erupt without notice online (a la the digital rights management debacle from earlier this year), communicators must keep their ears to the group and focus on transparency
above all else.
"The big failing of PR people is a lack of responsibility," Laermer says. "Number one, everyone is responsible. It's not just about crises. It's about everything." PRN
CONTACTS:
Richard Laermer, [email protected]; Sydney Ayers, [email protected]
Mind Mapping Your Way Out Of An Issue
When you are facing a massive issue that has a textbook full of real-world implications, cropping the big picture into a manageable concern is essential, both for your own sanity and that of your
client. That's where mind mapping comes in.
"Mind mapping is a nonlinear tool that helps organize, brainstorm and prioritize based on your audience," says Carol Preston, senior consultant of CommCore Consulting Group.
To build a mind map, start with a blank piece of paper. Then draw a circle in the middle, which is divided into two halves: the first is your key message/issue, and the second is the audience
takeaway/implication for them. Emanating from this are lines that connect to smaller circles, which represent the sub-issues. These are the key areas that will propel you back to your key
message/issue.
"[Mind maps] pull together salient points," explains Preston. "Pages and pages of notes grow cold very quickly."