Leading Through Change with Melissa Agnes

Welcome to episode #052 of The Crisis Intelligence Podcast, with Melissa Agnes and Monika Lancucki. When the company Monika Lancucki worked for went into receivership, they knew they were in for a crisis management challenge. Adding to the challenge, Monika and her team were only given three days notice before the receivership needed to be publicly announced – two of which were weekend days. Withi...

Welcome to episode #051 of The Crisis Intelligence Podcast, with Melissa Agnes and Jeff Reeb. Jeff Reeb is the Director of the Office of Emergency Management for the County of Los Angeles. Jeff and I met after I gave  my TEDx talk  earlier this year. While having a conversation with Jeff about LA County’s current strategies for effective emergency management and crisis communication, we thought th...

Welcome to episode #050 of The Crisis Intelligence Podcast, with Melissa Agnes and Garth Rowan. From female reporters being spontaneously and continually harassed during live reporting, to individuals making mistakes caught on camera and ending up losing their jobs as a result of the footage going viral. We’ve seen some extreme cases of online shaming in the past few years, often resulting in onli...

Welcome to episode #049 of The Crisis Intelligence Podcast, with Melissa Agnes, Karen Freberg and Kristin Saling. Karen Freberg and Kristin Saling are more than sisters, they’re research colleagues. They recently conducted an academic study to determine the characteristics and attributes that make a good crisis communication message on social media. When I discovered their research, I knew I had t...

Welcome to episode #048 of The Crisis Intelligence Podcast, with Garth Rowan and Melissa Agnes. I recently had the great honor and privilege of giving a TEDx Talk in the City of LA. The topic of my TEDx talk is “The Secret to Successful Crisis Management in the 21st Century”. In this week’s episode of The Crisis Intelligence Podcast, I did something a little different from what I usually do. My go...

Welcome to episode #047 of The Crisis Intelligence Podcast, with Melissa Agnes and Roman Gaponenko. Global events, from the Olympics to the Oscars to a global crisis that impacts the world at large, present unique challenges when it comes to crisis preparedness and crisis management. Last week, in  part one  of this two-part podcast series with Roman Gaponenko, a social media and content strategis...

Welcome to episode #046 of The Crisis Intelligence Podcast, with Melissa Agnes and Roman Gaponenko. Global events, from the Olympics to the Oscars to a global crisis that impacts the world at large, present unique challenges when it comes to crisis preparedness and crisis management. Roman Gaponenko, a digital strategist who has worked for global agencies, had the opportunity to be a part of the 2...

Welcome to episode #045 of The Crisis Intelligence Podcast, with Melissa Agnes and Curtis Midkiff. The American Red Cross is known for their amazing, life saving emergency management and humanitarian work. A big part of their success is due to their evolutionary mindset and corporate culture that empowers them to change and adapt with the times. What has always fascinated me are their extreme capa...

Welcome to episode #044 of The Crisis Intelligence Podcast, with Melissa Agnes and Maanit Zemel. Does your organization email Canadian stakeholders? If so, have you developed a CASL Compliance Policy? If you haven’t,  you may be in store for some serious repercussions . Canada’s Anti Spam Legislation (CASL) came into effect in July of 2014 and it seems that since it came into effect, the Canadian...

Welcome to episode #043 of The Crisis Intelligence Podcast, with Melissa Agnes and Tad Milmine. Those of you who know me and follow my work, know that bullying is a youth-affecting crisis that touches my heart. Every once in a while  I write about this growing issue  and do what I can to provide helpful resources and strategies for educational institutions and law enforcement. That said, I was rec...

Welcome to episode #042 of The Crisis Intelligence Podcast, with Melissa Agnes and Roy Reid. Proactively building trust with your stakeholders is a profound crisis preparedness strategy (amongst other things). But in order to build outrageous trust, you need to begin by working from the inside out. An organization that focuses on building a corporate culture of trust with both their internal and e...

Welcome to episode #041 of The Crisis Intelligence Podcast, with Melissa Agnes and Dave Carroll. In 2009, Canadian musician Dave Carroll published the first of three videos telling the story of how United Airlines carelessly broke his guitar. This video, as I’m sure you recall, was titled “ United Breaks Guitars ” – and it created a media frenzy that a) sent United Airlines’s reputation down a dow...

Welcome to episode #040 of The Crisis Intelligence Podcast, with Melissa Agnes and Zahed Amanullah. As I described and discussed in  this blog series , ISIS is a petrifyingly brilliant communicator and recruiter. But countering violent extremism and propaganda can’t only fall on the shoulders of our government agencies, for multiple reasons. The good news, is that there are private organizations o...

Welcome to episode #039 of The Crisis Intelligence Podcast, with Melissa Agnes and Martin Waxman. The digital landscape continues to evolve, but it has also been mainstream long enough that it has begun to settle as well. For example, the way in which we navigate online has become customary enough that we can begin to understand behavioral trends. And understand these trends we must, if we want to...

Welcome to episode #038 of The Crisis Intelligence Podcast, with Melissa Agnes and Nick Morgan. Every conversation is two conversations, says Dr. Nick Morgan, President of Public Words. The first, being our spoken words and the second being our body language. In fact, our body language – that second conversation – speaks very loudly to the unconscious mind of those we’re communicating with. So lou...

Welcome to episode #037 of The Crisis Intelligence Podcast, with Melissa Agnes and Trushar Barot. In 2014, Ebola spread quickly throughout West Africa. In the second half of last year, BBC World News decided that they wanted to position themselves as a voice of credibility and leadership in this global crisis. Yes, that’s right. A world news organization wanted to help fight the crisis of Ebola. A...

Welcome to episode #036 of The Crisis Intelligence Podcast, with Melissa Agnes and Garth Rowan. Crisis simulations are an amazing way to test your crisis plan and strengthen your team’s crisis communication skills. I’ve been conducting crisis simulations for a few years now and the results that they bring to my clients never cease to amaze me. That said, I often get asked questions like “how do I...

Welcome to episode #035 of The Crisis Intelligence Podcast, with Melissa Agnes and Laurent Gaildraud. Rumors have existed since the beginning of human behavior. A good rumor is deep-seeded and hypnotic. A good rumor can launch an organization or public figure into a crisis that is not terribly easy to manage or overcome. But what makes a good rumor and how can your organization best protect itself...

Welcome to episode #034 of The Crisis Intelligence Podcast, with Melissa Agnes and Tom Iovino. As a Public Information Officer (PIO) or spokesperson for an organization, dedicating time to developing real, authentic relationships with reporters is an essential part of, not just your job, but your crisis preparedness. It’s a strategy that takes time, effort and genuine authenticity. It’s also a str...

Welcome to episode #033 of The Crisis Intelligence Podcast, with Melissa Agnes and Brad Phillips. When it comes to crisis media training, there are so many questions that people (whether it be spokespersons or the communication and leadership teams) seek answers to. The truth is that your company spokesperson’s toughest task will be to communicate on behalf of your brand in a crisis – when the sta...

Welcome to episode #032 of The Crisis Intelligence Podcast, with Melissa Agnes and Daniel Noah. Within this episode of The Crisis Intelligence Podcast, Daniel Noah from the National Weather Service in Tampa Bay, delves into some specific strategies that the NWS has been using to communicate with their community in times of emergency.  This episode of The Crisis Intelligence Podcast discusses: What...

Welcome to episode #031 of The Crisis Intelligence Podcast, with Melissa Agnes and Whitney C. Gibson. Dealing with and removing internet defamation and other damaging content from the internet is a big challenge for countless professionals and organizations these days. In this episode of The Crisis Intelligence Podcast, Whitney C. Gibson, an attorney who specializes [...] The post TCIP #031 – Deal...

Welcome to episode #030 of The Crisis Intelligence Podcast, with Melissa Agnes, Chris Anderson and Bruce Anderson. As hi-tech enters every phase of our corporate, professional, and private lives, people and organizations are exposed to problems caused by technology in the hands of others intent on causing harm. For the first time in history, we [...] The post TCIP #030 – Cyber Investigation When T...

Welcome to episode #029 of The Crisis Intelligence Podcast, with Melissa Agnes, Captain Chris Hsiung, Tim Burrows and Louis Hayes. Law enforcement, as an industry in the United States in particular, is in the midst of a major crisis. Between what happened in Ferguson, New York, Phoenix, Cleveland, California… this crisis continues to spiral out [...] The post TCIP #029 – Managing the Law Enforceme...