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Having just a few extra minutes to monitor a situation can mean the difference between good and bad crisis management. The so-called assessment moment is at the crux of a free report from PR News and DataMinr, a real-time information discovery company.

Since he took office, President Trump has managed to sidestep the expectations typically placed on leaders in how they present themselves to the media. Though he may receive criticism from those who disagree with his policies, he has retained ardent supporters, while many CEOs are stepping down for infractions like a flubbed statement or a poorly-handled crisis response. Trump might be an anomaly in that fashion, but he also provides some valuable insights—both positive and negative—into how communicators and their senior leaders can deal with the media.

CEOs and board members spend much time worrying about and discussing risks to growth, though a new study from Deloitte indicates they lack strategic plans to counter the risks they’ve identified, such as disruptive technologies and cyber events, which lead the list. The study also shows brand reputation and culture are receiving too little attention.

It’s still tough for some American communicators to tell just what all of this means for us, at least until we start to see some consequences from GDPR’s enforcement. Those consequences will arrive by end of year in the form of sanctions, though, according to European Data Protection Supervisor Giovanni Buttarelli.

It’s obvious that the professional life of a communicator is harried. That’s why we’re always looking for the latest technology to make us more efficient. Yet sometimes doing things without the speed technology affords might result in better work. A PR pro finds using pen and paper to write first drafts is superior to working on a computer.

Regulators already are calling for an investigation into why a Google+ data breach that was discovered in March was made public only this week. Google claims the breach was minor and did not warrant sending an alert to users, though the data of 500,000 might have been compromised. A Google blog post, though, seems to want to hide the data breach, too, creating bad optics for the company.

That hissing sound you hear is the Edelman Trust Barometer dropping like a lead zeppelin. The main culprit this time is Google. Did you read its Oct. 8 blog post? In “Project Strobe: Protecting your data,… Continued

Lawsuits are a part of doing business, which is what makes litigation PR such a crucial part of the overall communications industry and part of every brand’s communications strategy.

But now it’s happening to your brand. You know a suit is being released publicly later today. It’s potentially damaging.

So, what should you do?

Despite the demand for transparency, traditional thinking still holds that when brands receive bad news they should do their best to keep it quiet. When a brand disrupts this pattern and amplifies its bad news, it becomes newsworthy. This describes the case of a gunmaker that issued a press release when its bank refused to continue doing business with it.

The idea that most Americans have lost the ability to speak civilly to each other in these uncertain times may not be Robert Reich’s alone, but he offered an imperative specific to the 2,500+ communicators at the international PRSA confab—in an age when people don’t know how to talk to each other, or how to listen, it’s communications pros who must act as stewards and promoters of civility. “You are people who set the tone very much for what we and how we communicate,” Reich says. “And there is now a vitriol, and anger in the system. We are not communicating.”