Every major issue or crisis you face not only poses a significant reputational risk but also consumes time and resources that would be better spent on activities critical to building your institution’s reputation.
If crisis management is about managing potentially high impact and/or unexpected events, issues management is about getting ahead—identifying and managing longer term and perhaps slower-moving issues that can have a significant and corrosive impact on the reputation of your institution.
Our Issues Management Program is designed to help you begin to build reputation, as a fundamental strategic input, into decision-making. We help you take the same stakeholder-centric approach that is critical to effective crisis management and apply it to day-to-day decisions using the following steps:
- Issue Identification
- Options Analysis & Decision-Making
- Stakeholder Engagement
The essential challenge—and, ultimately, the promise—of an Issues Management Program is to nip the smaller and more manageable issues in the bud before they can blossom into a full-blown crisis. It’s a chance to break a vicious cycle. We like to think of it as installing smoke detectors so you can stop fighting fires!
An Extra Perk:
While an Issues Management Program primarily helps an institution manage downside risk, it can also help identify tangible opportunities to collaborate, build new relationships, or create new solutions. These opportunities can help meet stakeholder expectations by driving value to the organization.