Anyone who has ever worked in an organization knows about the “grapevine”—the informal rumor-mill where fact and speculation mix together to breed various strains of truth, half-truths and outright misconceptions.

Strategic, open communications can reduce the grapevine’s activity and influence. This is even more apparent, and important, as companies and their stakeholders (including employees) engage more in the range of communication channels powered by social media tools and platforms such as blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Companies today are looking to join in the conversations occurring within and outside of the company walls. Those conversations can change and move rapidly, which makes it more difficult for company “spokespersons” (either formally designated or ad hoc) to be a trusted participant if they haven’t spent time engaging with others.

Some of the bigger challenges occur in times of change, when information may be less available or less readily shared, and the unknown can seem more apparent and more ominous. Does that describe the situation at Hewlett-Packard, following the sudden resignation on Friday of Mark Hurd, HP’s chairman, chief executive officer and president? (Read more in my previous post.)

A few HP executives have been quoted in articles appearing online. For example, in the U.K., a Guardian newspaper’s online article quoted HP’s general counsel Michael Holston as stating that Hurd engaged in a “systematic pattern” of submitting falsified financial reports to hide a “close personal relationship” with a former HP contractor.

The official HP blog, Data Central, on Saturday offered scant information other than a retread of the corporate statement published on Friday. It stated that “Comments are closed for this post and will not be published.”

Let’s hope that the communications internally at HP were much more transparent. After all, Hurd was not universally loved within HP for his tough business decisions that led to thousands of job cuts over the years. How will HP’s communications staff manage this time of change?

That was exactly the topic of a session led by HP communicators Robin Andrews and Desiree Sylvester in 2005. It was titled, “Keeping employees focused and engaged in times of change,” and it was delivered on the day before Hurd accepted the IABC EXCEL Award at the IABC International Conference in Washington, D.C.

Much of what Robin and Desiree shared in that presentation could hold true today, such as the “communication challenges”:

• Balance focus on delivering day-to-day business vs. change
• Manage leaks in the media
• Everything said internally was expected to be shared externally—very difficult to give employees additional or advance information

Check out the presentation and then let’s see what surfaces from HP’s employees. Will they feel like their feelings and opinions have been heard?

Another more minor observation. I had noticed that on Friday, the day of the Hurd resignation announcement, the HP site was not completely updated. Although the press release was posted under HP’s News Releases section, the company leader page still indicated that Hurd was in charge.

On Saturday, the site was updated to indicate that Cathie Lesjak
was named interim chief executive officer and would remain chief financial officer.

I first met Mark Hurd at the 2005 IABC International Conference in Washington, D.C. He had just joined Hewlett-Packard as its CEO and president, after a successful stint in a similar role at NCR. In fact, Hurd was being honored as the recipient of IABC’s EXCEL Award for his support, encouragement and practice of exemplary communication.

It saddened me to read the news article on Friday under the headline, “HP CEO Hurd resigns after sexual-harassment probe.” To be clear, an investigation by HP’s outside legal counsel and its General Counsel’s Office, overseen by the HP Board determined that no violation of HP’s sexual harassment policy occurred. However, it did find that Hurd violated HP’s Standards of Business Conduct. Read the official statement on the HP website.

As I reviewed some notes I took during Hurd’s address at the 2005 conference, the irony of some of his comments and statements jumped out.

• He had begun his remarks, following a warm applause by the audience, with the comment, "As CEO, you aren't used to hearing people say nice things about you."
• Hurd later told the audience that the term "fired" originated from an incident that involved two early leaders at NCR. Quick summary: NCR head John Patterson allegedly punctuated the termination of Thomas John Watson, Sr. by having Watson's desk taken outside and set ablaze. Hence, the phrase "fired."

I’ve since found many references to the origin of the phrase, “fired,” that don’t point to NCR. It may be another example of Hurd’s misunderstanding of information—like HP’s Standards of Business Conduct.

Two other Hurd comments from his 2005 EXCEL Award address stood out to me today:


• The CEO can't replace the relationship of front-line employees with their immediate supervisors, he said. "The CEO can provide a context [to] try to bring clarity."
• Hurd later said that as he would "promote, demote, recognize and reward people, I tell 30,000 people what I value."


As a highly visible CEO, Hurd has sent a message to his employees with his misconduct, and I hope that it doesn’t erase the good that he did for HP. I also hope he uses this as a lesson in what to value most as a business leader and champion of communication excellence.

What context and clarity can Hurd’s interim successor, Cathie Lesjak, bring to company employees? In my next post, I’ll look back at a presentation on employee communications made at that same 2005 IABC International Conference by HP communicators, and then compare that with what has been communicated in the past couple of days following Hurd’s resignation.

UPDATE 5/14/2010: Follow the Twitter conversation with the hashtag #braudtalk

I’m hosting Gerard Braud‘s Friday Free Media Training Teleseminar. The fun begins at 11 a.m. CDT. Sign up here

This series of teleseminars is helping to raise awareness of his new book, Don't Talk to the Media.

Braud’s tour and communication “lessons learned” about Hurricane Katrina were one of the highlights for me when I attended the 2007 IABC International (now World) Conference in New Orleans. He is savvy, experienced and very entertaining.

Join us and bring your questions!

I happened to see on Yahoo! that today is World Press Freedom Day.

According to Yahoo!:

World Press Freedom Day (May 3) was created in 1997 to “promote the free flow of information and its activities in the interest of press freedom, media independence, and pluralism” and to raise awareness of the dangers faced by journalists who are harassed, imprisoned, and even killed for telling the truth. Unesco hosts an annual event which serves to remind governments of their duty to respect and uphold the right to freedom of expression—print or the Internet.

Bloggers are included in the list of journalists being celebrated on the Yahoo! site, including:

• Wael Abbas - Egypt–Blogger and human rights activist who blogs at Misr Digital
• Amira Al Hussaini - Bahrain–Journalist, editor, and blogger
• Yoani Sánchez - Cuba–Philologist and blogger known for her critical portrayal of life under the Cuban government

I thought it was interesting and slightly amusing that Wael Abbas was the first journalist listed by Yahoo! under the heading, “Celebrating Journalists.” Yahoo! had shut down two of his Yahoo! email accounts, calling him a “spammer.”

To all of my friends in journalism, today is your day. Write on!

Here is an Easter greeting to you.

Many people think of Easter in a secular way, Easter bunny, egg hunts and the like. The original meaning remains the best.

It may seem old-hat and boring, even for those who picked today (Easter Sunday) as one of the two days per year when they graced the inside of a church.

I’m fairly realistic, so I don’t look at this day as the actual day when Jesus Christ, through the power of God, rose from the dead. That awesome event happened one time, more than 2,000 years ago.

I’m more excited about the fact that Jesus is still alive today, and will be for eternity. What’s more, anyone who accepts his free gift of grace can have the blot of sin removed from them, and receive eternal life through faith in his atoning work.

Whew! A lot for some of us to consider. Many doubt that this took place, and doubt that Jesus’ life, death and resurrection mean anything to them.

I pray that you consider the evidence, and make an informed decision. Whatever you decide is your business, of course.

My desire for you would be that you experience life in the Lord.



Make your own free digital greeting card

In the past couple of days, terrorist plots have been in the news, indirectly targeting two innocent faith groups which have to once again see that people don’t understand some very basic concepts.

The first terrorist plot was launched successfully on Monday, March 29, when twin suicide bombings of the Moscow subway system killed 39 people and wounded scores more. The attack has been blamed on “Muslim extremists” in the Caucasus region.

The second terrorist plot was nipped in the planning stages over the weekend, when nine “apocalyptic Christian militants,” who were plotting to kill law enforcement officers in hopes of inciting an antigovernment uprising, were arrested in raids in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana.

The link in those two separate terrorist events was the belief that political change needed to be made through violence, and that the violence was approved by the God of these Muslim and Christian terrorists. Nothing could be further from the truth, and these terrorists couldn’t be further from true Muslims and Christians.

The time has come to sit and resolve all problems by dialogue, and to completely abandon violent ways using guns and bombs. Islam never says you should fight with another person. This concept is wrong.

That is a quote by Maulana Jameel Ahmed Ilyasi, secretary-general of the All-India Association of Imams and Mosques, during a visit to Israel, organized by the American Jewish Committee’s (AJC) India office. Ilaysi arrived as part of a delegation of Indian Muslim leaders and journalists, and his organization represents half a million imams, who are the main religious leaders of India’s 200 million Muslims.

So he was the voice of reason for a large organization of Muslims, when asked to address Hamas’s call for jihad to destroy Israel. Ilaysi said,

I believe in peace and this is the message I take. I don't believe in anything that destroys another country.

That view would be applauded by the millions of Christians who are in the midst of Holy Week, a time for reflection and recognition of the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I imagine that the Lord is saddened by statements taken from the website created by the recently arrested militants:

A motto, “Preparing for the end time battles to keep the testimony of Jesus Christ alive”

and a quote:

Jesus wanted us to be ready to defend ourselves using the sword and stay alive using equipment. The Hutaree will one day see its enemy and meet him on the battlefield if so God wills it.

According to a news article in the March 30 New York Times,

Chip Berlet, a senior analyst at Political Research Associates, a liberal-leaning nonprofit group that tracks far-right networks, said the Hutaree’s philosophy was drawn from a populist strand that fuses fear of a conspiracy to create a one-world government with a belief that a war is imminent between Christians and the Antichrist, as described in the Bible’s Book of Revelation.

I’ve been studying the Book of Revelation with another member of my church and our youth pastor. For you non-Christians, let me assure you that it doesn’t state that anyone is to stockpile munitions and be ready to “fight for Jesus.”

Actually, Revelation is clear that the final battle against Satan and his deceived followers will be fought and won by the Lord. No sword-wielding human fanatics will be necessary.

When you read news accounts about “Muslim extremists” or “Christian militants,” please don’t help fan the flames of religious intolerance by spreading the lie that these idiots represent the Muslim or Christian faiths.

As a follower of Jesus Christ, I believe that Easter symbolizes forgiveness, rebirth, and God’s saving power. It is a victory over sin and death, which cause so much harm in people’s lives.

This Easter Sunday, I’ll be thinking about God’s saving power, and the destructive forces, like extremists and militants, that distort the true meaning of the holiday.

Peace.

March is National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, and I participated today in an awareness presentation at work, led by our local American Cancer Society representative. I still find it hard to believe that people resist examinations that could save their lives, but some of the other attendees talked about their own hesitancy, or that of a loved one.

According to the Colon Cancer Alliance, Colorectal cancer is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death in both men and women in the U.S. The American Cancer Society estimates that nearly 50,000 people died of colorectal cancer last year, representing about one-third of the new cases of that cancer that were diagnosed.

The sad fact is that 80% of all cases of colorectal cancer can be prevented with recommended screening–which too many people avoid. Colorectal cancer is one of the most detectable and, if found early enough, most treatable forms of cancer. Over 90% of those diagnosed when the cancer is found at a local stage (confined to colon or rectum) survive more than five years.

I’ve never had colon cancer, but people I know and love have, including my mom and one one my best friends, Don. My mom had a cancerous polyp removed, and with minimal follow-up treatment, has remained cancer-free for several years. Unfortunately, my friend Don wasn’t so lucky. Years ago, he had a section of his bowel removed to try to stop the spread of a cancerous polyp. We thought that the cancer was caught early enough, but Don died in 2005 after battling cancer that spread throughout his abdomen.

No one likes the screening tests that detect potential precancerous growths early, but they are a walk in the park compared to dying of cancer. I’ve seen it more than once, so believe me.

It was lunchtime on Friday, and I was surfing various media websites, when I took a decided left-turn at the South Idaho Press in Burley, Idaho. Feeling somewhat morbid, I decided to check out the local obituaries, where I came across this interesting notice:

Frederico Bernal (Fred) III "Grand Pizzle,"
Frederico Bernal (Fred) III "Grand Pizzle," of Burley, funeral at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Hansen-Payne Mortuary, 321 E. Main St. in Burley; visitation from noon to 4:30 p.m. today at the mortuary.

I have no clue as to what a Grand Pizzle does, but surely Burley is suffering the loss this week.

While attempting to uncover the duties of a Grand Pizzle, the closest I came to an answer actually extended the mystery. I discovered that someone has created a LinkedIn profile for a “Lord Pizzle,” Grand Poopah at Prestige Worldwide, in the Toronto area. Perhaps a distant cousin?

I may have to investigate the Toronto lead in-person this summer, when I attend the IABC World Conference in Toronto.

In the meantime, any suggestions from you as to the value of a Grand Pizzle in society?

Communications pro Allan Jenkins, from his base in Hjelm Bay, Møn, Denmark, sends a tweet calling the Danish daily Politiken “complete wimps” for apologizing over the publication years ago of unflattering editorial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

Link to story

Was it cowardice, or common sense? If an axe-wielding extremist broke into your home because you posted a comment or cartoon that might be considered “offensive,” or continued to plot ways to kill you, would you be willing to die for freedom of speech? Really?

Why then, do I hear and watch so much “humor” and “editorial comment” knocking the Christian faith, but just about zero directed at Islam? Why do people think it is acceptable, even in the workplace, to use “Jesus Christ” as a swear word, but those same people wouldn’t think of substituting “Prophet Muhammad”?

Christians don’t blow up innocent groups of people, and they don’t grab an axe to attack people who disparage their Lord, Jesus Christ.

Should they? It seems to work for Islamic extremists, at least in Denmark. Allan might think his local journalists are wimps, but maybe they are realists. And maybe we are, too.

A few days before Christmas, I read David Murray’s blog post about a fundraising effort to cover nontraditional treatment for a family’s terminally ill wife and mother. I thought about other people who had died after placing desperate hope in some unproven, promised cure: Farrah Fawcett, whose battle against anal cancer included treatments in a German clinic to boost her immune system, and my own sister, Annette, who died 18 years ago from breast cancer.

Cancer is ugly and scary. This year, about 562,340 Americans are expected to die of cancer, more than 1,500 people a day, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS). Cancer is the second most common cause of death in the U.S., exceeded only by heart disease. In the U.S., cancer accounts for nearly 1 of every 4 deaths, according to the ACS statistics.

While cancer is ugly and scary, its treatment can be even more grim. Chemotherapy with its nausea, hair loss and other side-effects. Mastectomies and other surgeries. Radiation.

All for what? The 5-year relative survival rate for all cancers diagnosed between 1996-2004 was 66%, up from 50% in 1975-1977. So even with progress in diagnosing certain cancers at an earlier stage and improvements in treatment, one-third of all people in the U.S. who were diagnosed with cancer in 2004 aren’t alive today.

That’s why people like the Wieland family fight like hell to beat cancer. When someone you love has cancer, the first response, after the tears, is to stay positive and to expect to defeat the cancer. Unfortunately, studies show that a positive attitude doesn’t extend the life of a cancer patient.

Of course, support groups can affect quality of life, but the threat of death from cancer-related causes can open the door to long-shot treatments and no-shot money wasters dangled by charlatans.

As research intern Krystal Wilson said in an October 2007 online article for the American Council on Science and Health,

The popular guideline of staying positive while going through something as difficult as cancer diagnosis and treatment is unfair and very demanding of patients, and it is good to see a scientific study set the record straight. Even more critical is making sure that one uses science-based information while tackling a cancer diagnosis instead of falling prey to widespread mind-over-matter miracle cures promoted by quacks out to exploit desperate people.

That’s why I had mixed emotions when I read Murray’s post and checked out the “Lana’s Hope” site. I want to help the family in this small way, by spreading the news about the fund-raising effort. I want Lana to get those long-shot treatments that just might cure her cancer.

On the other hand, I want this emotionally drained family to avoid being taken by charlatans on the hope of a fake miracle cure. But I understand what’s driving them.

In the fall of 1982, I was living in a two-bedroom apartment in Aurora, Colo., just outside Denver, with a former college journalism buddy. I had called him the previous August from Decatur, Ill., where I had just decided to leave my job as a reporter at the Decatur Herald & Review. I told him that I had decided to move to Colorado “to see the mountains.” I was pleasantly surprised when he called me back later to say that he would go with me!

My friend, Bernie, quickly secured a nice position in the call center of a national check security firm. I was more focused on partying, and had floated through some low-paying, no-future “jobs.”

One day, the phone rang. It was my sister, Annette. It was about three months after she and her husband had their first child, a son. Annette was reaching out to her younger brother, to offer some encouragement.

During the phone call, Annette mentioned that she had been having some inexplicable back pains. A voice in my head said, “Tell her that is a sign of possible cancer.” But I pushed that thought aside; I mean, how weird would I have sounded, scaring my sister with the idea of cancer?

A few weeks later, I learned that Annette did indeed have breast cancer, and she needed to begin chemotherapy. I decided to move back into my parents’ home shortly afterward, stating that I wanted to be there to support Annette. The larger truth was that I needed the support of my family just as much.

Annette and her family went through a lot of ups and downs in the next eight months before she died on June 1, 1982. I later referenced that time in a song I wrote titled, “Cells of Fear”:

I watched a friend die of cancer.
You know, she never ever once asked the answer to why
Her life had to end that way.
As the months went by, her body witherin',
At the end it was me that was shiverin'
Standing there with nothing to say.

At the end, I'd just sit there and stare.
For her to die so young, without any hair,
Oh it just wasn't fair.

Oh the world will never seem fair.
The Truth can't reach you there,
While you're engrossed with those little cells of fear.

Near the end, as the cancer spread to Annette’s brain and lungs, choking her breath and stealing her sight, her family was desperate.

My mom told me that Annette’s husband had paid a fee and expenses to bring a “faith healer” from somewhere in Canada. “Don’t you say anything,” my mom sternly told me through tears. “This might be Annette’s last chance.”

I couldn’t help but glare at the “faith healer” as she was escorted past me in the hallway outside of Annette’s hospital room. I wasn’t going to watch the “show,” even if I had been invited. I wasn’t going to be invited because my unbelief might affect the potential “miracle,” some of my family thought.

So I spent a few minutes alone in the hallway, until the procession left Annette’s room. I may be making this up, but I have a partial recollection that someone commented that Annette was now “in God’s hands.”

I believe that she was always in God’s hands, and he did the merciful thing when he ended her suffering. That’s the way we deal with cancer: Expect to beat it, then if we don’t, hope to limit the suffering with a quick death.

I hope that Lana’s family raises the money to pay for the treatments they desire for Lana. If the treatments provide her with a longer, more enjoyable life, that would be a blessing.

I pray, as well, that they don’t fall victim to charlatans, dangling empty promises of hope. That is a curse.