- Use the power of personal storytelling: Aetna President & CEO Mark Bertolini captivated the Techonomy audience when he told a personal story that had helped him shape the future direction of his company. He described how he had spent over a year managing his 16-year-old son’s daily hospital care after he was diagnosed with an incurable cancer, and experienced first- hand the unconnected nature of the healthcare system. His son is the only person to have ever survived this cancer. He used his personal experience to improve the quality and cost of healthcare through technological innovation. Mark’s remarks demonstrated for me the power of storytelling. Using real-life personal examples that exemplify brands, societal issues or great successes, drive a personal connection with the audience. Not only is it engaging and interesting, but it also provides authenticity.
- Engage employees to build communities: In an increasingly connected world, it’s important to create and nurture communities both within and outside the organization. Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh described how the company asked their 1,500 employees for ideas for their dream campus when they moved to a new headquarters outside Las Vegas. Surprisingly, the number one request from employees was for doggy day care, so this idea evolved into the much bigger idea of creating an entire community around the campus that blended in and fused with the city in downtown Vegas. Soliciting employees for ideas and engaging them in a common purpose can build a tremendous feeling of goodwill which in turn results in a more motivated workforce. More and more corporations are catching on to the power of an engaged workforce, as this translates into positive outcomes for an organization, including higher profitability and productivity.
- Review and reset your crisis management process: According to Craig Mundie, Senior Advisor to the CEO of Microsoft, we should all be super-worried about cyber-crime and what he calls weapons of mass disruption. Not that these threats are so different from those in the physical world, but they are amplified. Current issues and crisis communications systems may need a refresh to ensure organizations are aligned and well-prepared to get ahead of impending issues. This means re-thinking what could possibly go wrong, activating systems that can help predict potential threats, preparing teams using computer-based, real-time simulations and ensuring swift, strategic responses to prevent issues from escalating and provide rebalance. The pressure of a rapidly changing environment combined with the speed and proliferation of new channels makes an issues reset worthwhile.
