Episode 21

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Published on:

24th Oct 2023

Crisis Communication With Paul Omodt

We’re hitting home with this episode of Communicate Like You Give A Damn. Host, Kim Clark is joined by Critical Communications Expert, Paul Omodt, to discuss the crisis communications strategies behind the George Floyd tragedy that transpired in the Summer of 2020. In this episode, we’re peeling back the layers behind the scenes of the responses surrounding the murder, including communication from the police department, the public’s cries and the challenge of cleaning up the crisis from a communicator’s perspective. Not only does Paul give his insights using his three-step crisis communications strategy, but explores the PR narrative that effective communications can offer as well as his advice on how to empower the media to tell stories in ethical and impactful ways. 

About The Guest:

Paul Omodt is the Founder and Principal of Omodt & Associates Critical Communications, a full-service communication firm based in Minneapolis known for effective communication when communication is critical to your success. In his thirty-year career, Paul has worked on some of the Midwest's biggest crisis situations as well as built the reputations of some of the region's biggest brands. Paul is an active member of the communication community and regularly speaks on communication topics at conferences throughout the country.

Find Paul Here:

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Twitter

About Kim:

Kim Clark (she/her) focuses her work on the communicator and content creator's role in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). She is the co-author of The Conscious Communicator: The fine art of not saying stupid sh*t, an Amazon #1 bestseller and the leading voice for DEI communications and social justice messaging for brands.

She speaks at conferences, writes custom workshops, writes inclusive communications guides, and consults with companies on all things related to diversity, equity, and inclusion communications. Kim is a member of the LGBTQ+ community, a cisgender woman, Native American (Muscogee Nation) and a mom of two kids with disabilities. These marginalized identities and the privileges that come with society seeing her as White motivate her daily for social change.

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Transcript
Kim Clark:

Hey everybody, Kim Clark here. And I wanted to kind

Kim Clark:

of before you get into the episode with Paul, I wanted to

Kim Clark:

kind of set up a scene a little bit here, because it's a

Kim Clark:

different kind of episode. It's not interview or conversational,

Kim Clark:

like you're used to here at communicate like you give a

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damn. It's actually more of a classroom education, on some

Kim Clark:

really specific PR techniques that Paul has a unique

Kim Clark:

background and experience in. And there may be some words or

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some references made in the retelling of his experience with

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the murder of George Floyd and working behind the scenes on the

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messaging that surrounded that, in the very city where the

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murder happens, it may be triggering for some. So I want

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to kind of set this up for you make sure that you understand

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that this is a slightly different episode. And it's

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something that we can take a lot from, there's a lot to process

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and digest and learn from. So thank you for listening. And

Kim Clark:

here's Paul. Hey, hi, everybody, thank you so much for returning

Kim Clark:

to communicate like you give a damn. So today, trigger warning,

Kim Clark:

we're gonna be talking about a time that changed a lot of

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people's lives, a lot of levels of awareness. It shaped and

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shifted corporations. It's changed how we saw each other

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when we were starting to come back into offices and work

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environments. And it was in the summer of 2020 when George Floyd

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was murdered. And today's guest was in the middle of it all,

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from a PR narrative messaging standpoint. And we're going to

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get an idea of behind the scenes of what that was like what

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happened, what needed to be fixed. And he has takeaways that

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all communicators can use, that he pulled from that experience

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and that his previous incense experiences that would benefit

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us all from a crisis communication standpoint, but

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also in a proactive strategic communication standpoint. So

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just want to let people know that we're going to be talking

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about some stuff here. And it's primarily it's going to be from

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the communicators lens, but it's on a pretty serious subject. And

Kim Clark:

with that, Paul, thank you for being here. And I would love for

Kim Clark:

you to introduce yourself to everybody.

Paul Omodt:

Well, Kim, thanks for bringing me on to your

Paul Omodt:

platform and to have this chance to interact with your regular

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viewers. i My name is Paulo mod and I grew up in Minneapolis,

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and I think that's important to this story. I grew up in the

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city of Minneapolis, I went to Minneapolis Public Schools, I'm

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very proud of the fact that I went to the public schools in

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Minneapolis. I'm from a big family, but I'm also from a

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police family. And so a lot of people knew my last name through

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the lens of either my grandpa, who was a St. Paul, longtime St.

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Paul Police Officer or my dad, who is the county sheriff in

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Hennepin County, in Hennepin County encompasses Minneapolis

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in the suburbs. And so, you know, it's the largest county in

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Minnesota, and my dad was Sheriff for about 28 years. And

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so what that does to you as a younger person, we grew up with

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a police scanner going on every floor of our house, okay, so if

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you grew up in the 60s, as a son of a cop in the 70s, police

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scanners were a normal function of your house. And so we learned

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very early on how to listen to calls coming in, because you

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heard the phone calls coming into dispatch, and then you

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would hear what was dispatched out. And then your dad could

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come home at the end of the day or the end of the shift and tell

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you how things went. And then we had pieced it together by

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looking at the newspaper or the TV station or the radio

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interviews, to see how all the communications came together and

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what the narrative was. And so in a lot of ways, I was kind of

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born to this the work I do about filling in those very

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comprehensive puzzles of communication. The thing I don't

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want people to take away from the introduction is this

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dichotomous thinking I think people think they say oh, you're

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from a police family therefore x right? Or, or or you stood up

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for George Floyd when he was murdered, and I use the word

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murdered. Right? And so you must be that. And I think we have to

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kind of think about that tension we hold as communicators so we

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don't get labeled one way or the others because you can be both

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and things right? You're not either or, and I think 20 times

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we take the position especially as our society becomes more kind

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of contentious on the on the edges here, that that you feel

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like you have to play on one side of the other. But I think

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in a lot of ways good communications can bring people

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together good communications can help things in society or in our

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world. Get better. And I think one of the things that impressed

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me I saw you speak in Toronto at the IBC conference was your

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message about being a courageous communicator. And I think there

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comes a time where more of us have to take that stand, and put

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our skills to use and not be afraid to move forward with it.

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And I do think that that thing is something we're so used to

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kind of being speaking from a corporate voice or a non human

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voice, that it's okay to be human. And it's okay to live in

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tension. And it's okay to change our mindset. And it before I

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cuddled throw back to one thing I've changed in the last two

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years, when I write a crisis plan, or engage in a crisis with

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a crisis client, I now put strategy number one is to learn

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to live with discomfort, the fact that if you don't learn to

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live with discomfort at the upfront, right, if you think

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everything is just gonna go swimmingly without any type of

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pushback, you're probably gonna be wrong. And so I've been

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telling my client, hey, we are going to get through this, we

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can use strategic communications to help us get through this. But

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strategy number one is to learn to live with some discomfort.

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And that's okay, it's okay to live in a little bit of tension,

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we will use strategic communications to get us to

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where we need to go. But it's not always gonna be easy, and

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it's not going to be pretty. And we'll have to change what we

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think and what other people think, as we go through it. And

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so I tell my clients, we are imperfect people on an imperfect

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path. But if we have a good vision to where we want to go,

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we'll get there. And that's kind of kind of my background is my

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life changed a lot on that may 25 2020, when that happened?

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Because it really called into question what I thought and

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believed about my hometown.

Kim Clark:

That dissonance. Yes,

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that was jarring. And Kim, If I could describe that

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moment of dissonance just to think about this. It was

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Memorial Day, right? So it's a Monday, and it's a day off. And

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we had just had a barbecue dinner at our house and cleaned

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up. And I was just kind of sitting. And I kept getting

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things on my phone. And it was from people I knew saying, Have

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you seen this? And it was a video of George Floyd being

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murdered essentially. Oh, my gosh. And I was I mean, this was

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literally within 20 minutes of of the the video, right? And my

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first thought was, well, where the heck is this going on? You

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know, it didn't occur to me that this was Minneapolis. And then

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two more people sent me the same video and they said, are you

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working on this, and I'm like, I literally watched that video two

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times before I picked out the fact that Oh, my God, this is

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Minneapolis, this, this is where I grew up. And I immediately

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kind of started doing the things that I do as a communicator, I

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looked at what was out there in the media, I looked at social

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media, and I found it was at cup foods. Now cut foods is a well

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known kind of South Minneapolis, convenience store for lack of a

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better word. But it's across the street from a park where I grew

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up playing sports. So after a game, you would ride your bike

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or, you know, and get Gatorade or whatever. And everything just

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it just felt so weird to me to know that this happened there on

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a spot that I was familiar with. But worse yet, it happened in

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Minneapolis. And that was that moment of dissonance of this

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happened someplace else, not here, this type of abject kind

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of racism if you want to if you want to turn what happened just

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out of a racial element to it because there was a racial

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element to it, that someone did this in broad daylight. And a

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man literally begged for his life in front of children. And

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they suffocated him. And so you see that in that moment of it,

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you're you're literally in disbelief. And the sad thing is

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Kim, at that moment, I had, I've been doing crisis communications

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for over 30 years here in the Twin Cities, and I grew up in

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it. So I tell people, I'm 57 years old. I've been doing this

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for 57 years, right? My my thought process was this though,

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I have done big events in the Twin Cities in terms of protests

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and when things go wrong. So the Superbowl had protests, and I

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was in charge of the protest kind of interactions. The Twin

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Cities, Marathon has had protests. And I've been in

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charge of the, you know, handling the protests and

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setting about First Amendment zones and all those all that

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multi jurisdictional things. You work with police and fire and

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ambulance to make sure everything's safe and sound. And

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the messaging is all lined and all that stuff. And so we've had

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big events in the twin cities that have used, you know, people

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like me to help calm them down. And my first thought was, oh,

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this is great. And not great. But hey, I know there's a deep

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bench of people here who who know how to handle something

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like this. And that was probably my first mistake was that those

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people were equipped in that moment to put communication

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strategy into play. And they very clearly did not. And so

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what I was gathering was, you know, okay, we'll give we'll

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give the city of Minneapolis and its PR people and the county and

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its public relations people and it's out reach people 24 hours

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to see what they can do. And it didn't get better. In fact, it

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got worse. And there was a total void of communication. And so I

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grew up in Minneapolis, I just live outside the city now, but

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but both my boys live, my adult children lived in Minneapolis,

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two brothers, two sisters live there. And like a lot of family

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and friends still live in the city boundaries. And you're

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watching this and everybody's calling you going, like, what

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are your friends doing to stop this? You know, from a

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communication standpoint, like how are they in the first night

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came? You know, and you saw that the police station get burned

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down? Right? And that's a jarring image, no matter if

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you're pro or anti or whatever you are. It's a jarring image.

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And that signal something that this was bigger than than just

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this little incident?

Kim Clark:

I think it was that building. Correct me if you

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know, if I'm not if I'm not remembering correctly, but I

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believe it was one of the walls of that building that somebody

Kim Clark:

spray painted. Are you listening yet? Right,

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exactly. And Kim, you're absolutely right. And

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here's, here's again, you know, you look at anything in terms of

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crisis communication, and this is thing I drill into all my

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clients is the first hour is a critical hour, right? Get your

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communications strategy set, pick your framing, pick your

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messaging, make sure you've got everything in place in that

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first hour, because the golden hour matters. And if you look at

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what the city of Minneapolis and the Police Department put out in

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that first hour when that happened, their first press

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release indicates that a man had a medical incident was taken to

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the hospital. Now when the public sees that, and they see

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the videotape, it's night and day difference as to the

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narrative, we see the narrative, and how they could have that

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thing of saying this was a medical incident without all the

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intervening issues in there. That was, you know, that first

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lie, first misstep, set everything into motion, because

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people have good conscious, as I say, saw that and said this, how

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can this be in my city? And this is what we've been telling you?

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Are you listening to us that this is what we face every day?

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And again, for me those that dissonance as as a as a white

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person? I never faced that, right, in terms of interactions

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with public safety people. And, you know, are you listening? No,

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they weren't listening. In fact, instead of listening, instead of

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using communications to build those channels, we watch them

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utterly failed in that regard. And so that's

Kim Clark:

how did you get involved? Well, so what was what

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was the trigger for you? Well,

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so I mean, again, understand that happened on

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Monday, Tuesday night, things get even worse. On Tuesday

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night, the first statement, any buddy have any kind of import

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within the city map was made was at three in the morning. And

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that's when the mayor of Minneapolis came up, because I

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kept saying, Oh, they're going to come out, don't worry about

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it, you know, I don't need to get involved because they're not

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a client of mine, currently, you know, I don't have a

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relationship with that current regime. And then, then you're

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into Wednesday. And the same thing happens. And again, people

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are calling me saying, what are you going to do? And I'm like,

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Well, I'm gonna go help clean up in the morning, like everybody

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else, grab a broom and clean up Lake Street, or whatever it was.

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And literally, on Thursday night, this was, you know,

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nights into it. I turned to my wife, and I said, I can't sit

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and watch this anymore. You know, I cannot be on the

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sidelines of this anymore. And I said, How early Can I call the

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governor's office on Friday and start rattling some cages?

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Because they're this is, this is there's no end in sight to this.

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There was no communication strategy, there was no outlet

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for people to kind of express themselves. So on Friday

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morning, I did call the governor's office, I called a

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friend from the governor's office who had worked with on

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again, big events. And I said, if I can, I don't want to use

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bad language on the podcast, but I said, What the f are you

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doing? What is your plan? And the response was, Well, we think

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we're doing great. And I kind of said, well, let me just tell you

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this, in my opinion. And I've written about this, and I and I

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always joked I stayed calm. I said, You guys are you guys are

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committing professional suicide. You're kidding. political

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suicide, you're committing societal suicide here. Because

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you don't have a path forward with your communications. You're

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not doing well. You need to take a hard look at this. And you

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need to bring in some experts to help you. And my friend said,

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Well, what would you do? I said, Give me an hour to write your

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plan. And if you disagree with what I lay out in my plan, you

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can tell me to go away. And you can watch your city burn,

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because that's what we've been doing. And so literally, what I

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did is I called for people that have done this kind of higher

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level communications stuff with me. I called each of them and I

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said, Hey, John. Hey, Ted. Hey, Laura. Hey, Bob, will you come

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and help me with and they also absolutely, we can't believe

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what we're seeing. So we got into Google Docs and rewrote a

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plan. It took us about an hour we each took a section and we

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wrote it, and I sent it to the governor's office. And they

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said, Okay, tag your it, can you embed two people into our center

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into our ops center. And so we did. And so we embedded and

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again, remember, this was still COVID time, so you kind of bring

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five people in there and either had to be distancing and all

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that kind of stuff. So two people got embedded in the OP

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center for the state to give communications advice. And we

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knew that we weren't going to call it every shot, right? We

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knew that. But we knew that we could, with the skill sets we

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had, we could be the trusted advisors in the room. And so we

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invited two people there, and the rest of us were out and

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about, literally, we had monitoring. Again, when you're

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managing big events, you have to have monitoring systems. So I'm

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monitoring stuff on social media, my friend, you know, John

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and Ted are doing the same thing. So we can see everything

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that's going on. Interestingly, you know, I found unicorn riot,

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which is a kind of independent media source that just went out

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and put up cameras at the hotspots and let them run. And

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you could just see what's going on, there was no editing to it,

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there was no whatever. And those producers went out there and set

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up cameras. And so we had great intelligence there, you can also

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tap into the, the Department of Transportation cameras, the

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traffic cams, if you know how to do that they're the public

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documents, essentially, we were watching things on public public

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venues to see what's going on, so that we could help

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communicate better. And so from that Friday on, we started being

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embedded into the service and helping them with strategy and

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helping them with things that seem so simple to you and I as

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communicators, and should have been simple to them as

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professional communicators, but weren't. And so we started

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encourage them a strategy number one is to involve experts, you

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should never manage your own crisis. If you're in crisis, the

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worst person to handle it is yourself. And they were all

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taking this extremely personal. And so they don't have a clear

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line of sight as to what's going on that comment when I said,

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What do you guys do? And they said, We think we're doing fine.

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I'm like, Are you crazy, right? You weren't doing fine. Look at

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the world's watching you. They're watching you implode.

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And they thought they were doing well. They shouldn't have

Kim Clark:

been this is a point that I want to remind people

Kim Clark:

like take notes, he's gonna go through the key takeaways. And

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so that was the first one, don't manage your own crisis. I just

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want to make sure everybody in crisis, take notes, take notes,

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and be mature enough to involve experts. You know what I

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mean? Sure, we're dealing with the people in the governor's

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office and his cabinet. But it's okay to tad bring in people who

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might know more than you do. Right. And, and they, to their

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credit they did. Now they had lots of missteps along the way.

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But, but eventually they said, Okay, we're gonna listen to

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these people. And again, I tell my clients, you're one agree

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with every one of my ideas and everything I write for you or

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whatever. But at least you're getting the perspective of

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someone who knows how to bring us through this. And so right

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away, we started kind of infusing messages. And, Kim,

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here's the kind of the crazy thing about dealing with a

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crowd, right? I look at any crowd or mob or whatever you

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want to call that was going on, in terms of an adoption scale,

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right? You look at anytime there's, you know, you introduce

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a new ice cream, you introduce a new Apple Watch, there's always

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kind of a wave of how decisions get made by people in that

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consumer group or whatever, however you want to call it. We

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knew between zero and 3% of that population, were kind of the

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early adopters were the kinds of people who would be most prone

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to do something. We knew there weren't if I just say that the

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crowd was, you know, 10,000 people, we knew there weren't

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10,000 people who were going to do be doing violent things and

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burning down buildings and all that kind of chaotic stuff that

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was so harmful, right? We knew about 3% were, and I think that

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number held true when you look at the number of people who were

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arrested, right? They were prone to violence. Our job was to stop

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that 3% from going from the candidate innovator early to the

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early adopters, which is the next like 10 to 15% of the

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population. And we already saw day after day that the next

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group of people is becoming more emboldened because they saw that

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first group that doing it. So the first thing we did is we

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worked with the police to identify the professional

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protesters who had come from other parts of the US really,

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you can pick them out because most of them brag about going to

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go protest someplace or going to do anarchy. So we knew they're

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anarchists that came in and you can find them, the funniest

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thing came. Anarchists are incredibly organized for people

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who believe in anarchy. They will brag about, hey, I'm going

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to Minneapolis to make my mark or I'm going to go do burn X, Y

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and Z. And we were turning those people into the police because I

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needed to take out that 3% That was making things worse. And so

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we stopped the adoption scale essentially by by working kind

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of behind the scenes to find that there's a number of

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different ways you do that with just with Facebook posting, by

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knowing this audience pretty well of dealing with Protesters

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a lot. There's people that do this kind of as their hobby or

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as their whatever, and some are peaceful, some are not. And so

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it's about finding those people that are saying that they're

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going to do something that's violent. And stopping that,

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because that is one thing, I think universally, that was

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unhelpful was to have those people in the audience. And so

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we were putting messages out to the police to say this is where

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they're going to be. Because what we knew they were doing in

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the crowds was that they would get a crowd going in a certain

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neighborhood. And then they would go peel off from the crowd

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when the police came to the crowd to go do something wrong,

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when there was no people looking right. And so they're very

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clever kind of a cat and mouse game. But we were out thinking

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them because they were bragging about what they were doing. So

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the next thing we started to do is to look at it as an adoption

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scale, and cut out the most violent people so that we could

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have people protest legitimately. I mean, there is a

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legitimate reason to protest. I mean, let's, let's be honest, we

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should have all been out there protesting that we should have

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been doing it peacefully, and that burning down police

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stations and all that other kind of stuff. But there is

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legitimate need to outlet. So the next thing we started to do

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was, you know, one of the strategies I talked about was to

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empower the media to tell our story. They had not pitched the

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media, any story so far. So on Friday, we started pitching the

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media on how to how to get peacefully arrested. How do you

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do that. And so we had three, three stations, TV stations, in

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the newspapers, do a story on Hey, you want to go protest, and

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it's your conscious to get arrested for this, here's where

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you can go do it peacefully and not be harassed essentially. And

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you know what happened that day on Friday, that's when they

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started in people lined up to kind of get their, their their

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right to be arrested. As crazy as that sounds, we had to tell

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people how to do that. If you go here, you'll be fine. You won't

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be mistreated. And so we empowered the media to do those

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storytelling and through social media. The other tip I talk

Unknown:

about and things I've written and stuff is I really have to

Unknown:

throw shade at the police for this. They took their best and

Unknown:

biggest megaphone to help calm this down, and they turned it

Unknown:

against themselves. And they did that by targeting reporters. Not

Unknown:

only they target reporters by arresting like they arrested a

Unknown:

CNN reporter doing a live shot one day on the air. Think about

Unknown:

you remember that right? And just how jarring that is someone

Unknown:

who is trying to calm things down and you come and arrest him

Unknown:

on the air.

Unknown:

They were also shooting rubber bullets at reporters on purpose,

Unknown:

even when they knew they were reporters. And I mean, the

Unknown:

reporters were for the most part neutral parties just trying to

Unknown:

cover something in here, you had the police. And so legitimately,

Unknown:

there were several heated discussions within the app

Unknown:

center to say, You better stop shooting at reporters because

Unknown:

you need them. They are part of your solution here, you better

Unknown:

empower them. And so when you look at what happened during

Unknown:

that we, we empowered people who weren't mainline hard news

Unknown:

reporters, to go out and do stories, because we knew they're

Unknown:

good reporters and that good rapport with people. And so we

Unknown:

empowered like there's a channel for WCC, to CBS reporter a

Unknown:

sports guy to go out and do stories on how to get arrested

Unknown:

and things like that he did phenomenal, and became like a

Unknown:

almost a folk hero, because of how folksy he did that. And we

Unknown:

empowered a guy from Channel Nine to do the same thing. So we

Unknown:

were pitching him the stories and here's how we're you can go

Unknown:

shoot this story, here's how you can tell this story. And so all

Unknown:

of a sudden, we had this mega megaphone, called the media to

Unknown:

help us during the media. And so you know, the strategy of

Unknown:

walking toward the media in crisis can kind of seem jarring

Unknown:

to some people because the media is the enemy. But in this case,

Unknown:

the media was the ones we needed to tell the story. Unless the

Unknown:

police wanted to be out there, you know, weeks and weeks later,

Unknown:

you know, on riot lines, you needed those reporters. So we

Unknown:

empowered them to do that. The other thing we had a strong

Unknown:

discussion on is this is one of the things that I when I do a

Unknown:

crisis training. The first thing I talked about is my three step

Unknown:

process, which is to claim it, name it frame it, that first

Unknown:

part of it is to claim it is who's in charge of this. And

Unknown:

that's always a problem. And in this case, we had we had the

Unknown:

mayor of Minneapolis and the governor of the state of

Unknown:

Minnesota, pointing fingers at each other as to who was kind of

Unknown:

in charge and their people the same political party. Right. So

Unknown:

this isn't a partisan statement. This was two adult males arguing

Unknown:

over whether the paperwork was filled out right to call in the

Unknown:

National Guard whether this was done right to do something and

Unknown:

they're throwing Barb's at each other, as opposed to being

Unknown:

adults and saying, Hey, this is who needs this is the structure

Unknown:

that needs to take place. This is the group that's in charge of

Unknown:

this. This is our crisis. This is what we're handling. This is

Unknown:

what you need to handle. And so it's what we call the claim of

Unknown:

the crisis. Who is this to manage, because once you claim

Unknown:

it as yours, no one else's. And if it's if it's your duty to do

Unknown:

that, if you are the only person who should be doing that, you

Unknown:

should be in charge of it. And we saw a lot of this kind of

Unknown:

finger pointing and kind of grandstanding as opposed to

Unknown:

being an adult and figured out, I do this, I do this, you do

Unknown:

this, you do that. And so we had some tough discussions, led by

Unknown:

the people in the ops center to say, you just need to be doing

Unknown:

this right now. And so one of those other things we talked

Unknown:

about is claiming the crisis the right way, who's in charge of

Unknown:

this? Who's going to make this message? And who do we empower.

Unknown:

So what that leads to, once you do that is that you can then the

Unknown:

other strategies is, is using aligned voices to tell the

Unknown:

stories and when I say aligned voices, it would have been

Unknown:

really great if Minneapolis Police and Fire had gotten along

Unknown:

and could talk to each other and communicate effectively with

Unknown:

each other they call it, it's been really great if the

Unknown:

Minnesota State Patrol could have done the same thing with

Unknown:

the Minneapolis Police Department or the St. Paul

Unknown:

Police Department. But they could not speak with an aligned

Unknown:

voice. They hadn't, even though I've done and that like the Twin

Unknown:

Cities, Marathon is run between the two cities, right? So you

Unknown:

have to coordinate between two different counties, two

Unknown:

different cities, you know, multiple neighborhoods, all this

Unknown:

stuff. You're doing 26 mile race through all these cities, you

Unknown:

can do that if you care to do it. But they could not speak

Unknown:

with a live voice, the same message at the same time through

Unknown:

multiple channels. And so we worked with them heavily on that

Unknown:

Friday to say this is the message for this hour. The

Unknown:

second thing, the other thing we started to set was a regular

Unknown:

cadence of, hey, you know what they have to know when the mayor

Unknown:

is coming out to give a press conference and the governor and

Unknown:

the fire chief? And, and so we put them on a regular cadence of

Unknown:

press events. I mean, how many people can do you think are

Unknown:

watching the press event with the mayor that first night at

Unknown:

three in the morning? Right? What impact did that have of

Unknown:

waiting until the city burned down to come out make a

Unknown:

statement. No one knew what to expect. No one ever is waiting

Unknown:

for someone and they had to wait till 3am. That's kind of

Unknown:

ridiculous. And so we put them on a regular cadence of

Unknown:

communication, talk about this, extend the story, tell people

Unknown:

what you need them to do. The funny thing is, if you tell

Unknown:

people what they need to do, or what they can do, you give them

Unknown:

a vision, they're likely to follow it. If you give them

Unknown:

nothing, right, you don't feed it, they'll tend to do whatever

Unknown:

they want. And that's what we saw those first three days,

Unknown:

there was no guidance. So if you were into the protests, you just

Unknown:

kept doing whatever you want it. But then you think of the people

Unknown:

that were kind of stuck in their homes, like my my two adult

Unknown:

children, my brothers and my sisters, you could not get the

Unknown:

police department to return your call if the house down the

Unknown:

street was burning down, to come out and put out the fire because

Unknown:

they weren't answering calls. They weren't communicating at

Unknown:

all. And so here you had people forming their own communication

Unknown:

network within cities using Facebook Live and Facebook feeds

Unknown:

and neighborhood, you know, neighborhood apps to communicate

Unknown:

with each other because there was no one from a fiscal

Unknown:

capacity to do that. And so we started seeing those

Unknown:

communications channels to have, hey, we know this has been

Unknown:

dispatched here, or hey, this firetruck will be in this

Unknown:

neighborhood there. And, you know, trying to better

Unknown:

coordinate that to people who weren't part of the protests,

Unknown:

you know, they might they, they were just trying to go about

Unknown:

their lives, and figure that out. And so we start peeling all

Unknown:

that back and adding some structure to it. And then you

Unknown:

start having some messages in there. In part one, those

Unknown:

messages you've brought up was, we have to be listening to this,

Unknown:

we have to take this seriously. This is this is not something

Unknown:

and so we needed to do a more of a better job of community

Unknown:

engagement. And there's there's this concept that I that I do in

Unknown:

my class is called proximal communications. And proximal

Unknown:

communication says that those that are the most deeply

Unknown:

impacted by things, you know, so if you think of a circle of

Unknown:

concentric circles going out, those in the deepest circle,

Unknown:

should have the most personal channel of communications to

Unknown:

them. That means that you get out of your car, that means that

Unknown:

the governor gets out of his office and you go meet with

Unknown:

people face to face, and you have a presence with those most

Unknown:

directly affected. And we had to have, tell people that you will

Unknown:

be listened to and you will be in a dialogue. Otherwise, they

Unknown:

are shouting into the void and getting angrier and angrier when

Unknown:

they're not getting that. And so the concept of proximal

Unknown:

communications. We started to empower that on Friday and

Unknown:

Saturday. And what that looked like is that we were getting

Unknown:

volunteers from a lot of different walks of life to say

Unknown:

how can I go help? I'll be a listener. I will go be a good

Unknown:

role model out in these out in the city and on the streets. And

Unknown:

this was clergy. This was business leaders of all stripes,

Unknown:

colors, politics, this was Minnesota Vikings, Minnesota

Unknown:

Twins, Minnesota Wild hockey players, right? These were

Unknown:

people from acting and music and stuff, the vibrant kind of art

Unknown:

scene in Twin Cities. What do we do? We said, we're gonna have

Unknown:

you guys out and we spread them out throughout the city, to be

Unknown:

listeners to be role models to say, hey, our organization

Unknown:

understands we'll be listening to this. And you look at some of

Unknown:

the Minnesota Vikings players really stepped up, you look at

Unknown:

Matt Dumbo, who's a wild hockey player, person of color, who

Unknown:

really stepped up and said, Hey, I'm there with you, I face this

Unknown:

too. I'm a stand up and I'm going to help you rebuild Lake

Unknown:

Street after was burned down. That's a different element that

Unknown:

you can program into a response. And you have to give those

Unknown:

ladies and gentlemen credit for that. And the clergy who started

Unknown:

to go out. And so that other thing, that proximal

Unknown:

communication is that you put people, when people are in pain,

Unknown:

you have to meet that pain with a person. It can't be through a

Unknown:

tweet, right? That sounds really obvious. But it's really hard to

Unknown:

go out there and interface with people in public that way. So

Unknown:

other our other lesson was to get out from behind your, your

Unknown:

kind of your bunker, right, whatever it was, and get out

Unknown:

there and engage with the people to do that listening, because

Unknown:

people were in pain, rightfully so. And that's a clear lesson.

Unknown:

And Kim, there's, there's another lesson if we got time to

Unknown:

kind of wind up the story a little bit. We had gotten things

Unknown:

kind of calm down Friday and Saturday. And there was a there

Unknown:

was a kind of a prayer service on the 35 W bridge on the edge

Unknown:

of downtown. And so the 35 W bridge, if you remember was a

Unknown:

bridge that collapsed a couple years prior it collapsed one

Unknown:

day, sent cars down to the bottom of the river and you

Unknown:

know, lots of kind of mayhem and death. So that rebuilt the

Unknown:

bridge, it becomes kind of a gathering spot. And so there was

Unknown:

a big prayer service there and the fight the funny the

Unknown:

interesting thing to me was my wife and daughter were there.

Unknown:

They're there for the peaceful kind of prayer service to

Unknown:

literally let's let's listen to each other, let's come together,

Unknown:

whatever your whatever point of view on this is, but let's be

Unknown:

people first. And this people are there on the bridge, mostly

Unknown:

on one side of the traffic lane because the bridge was closed.

Unknown:

And all of a sudden, this gas tanker truck comes onto the

Unknown:

bridge, as people are still on the bridge. And it's coming

Unknown:

across the bridge and there's there's the you can watch the

Unknown:

videos of it online, you can see the pictures of it. And you

Unknown:

know, the the truck comes up over the hill, the bridge is

Unknown:

kind of goes up and it comes to a stop and they pull the guy out

Unknown:

and he gets the crap beat out of him by the by people that were

Unknown:

on the bridge. And then people settled down and said not here's

Unknown:

the thing about crisis communication, right? The

Unknown:

initial thought, the Speaker of the Minnesota House, so the

Unknown:

number three person in Minnesota State government structure

Unknown:

tweets out immediately that this is Russian terrorists. Right? So

Unknown:

you exactly the exact reaction. And so we're they're running

Unknown:

things, and we have our people embedded in the App Center. And

Unknown:

we're told that the director of public safety isn't going to

Unknown:

make a statement declaring that this is indeed Russian

Unknown:

terrorism. And I said, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold the phone, we

Unknown:

can't have another thing where we're saying something that is

Unknown:

so far out of the realm of whatever, we've got time to tell

Unknown:

the right story. And so part of crisis communication is to kind

Unknown:

of speak truth to power. And again, we had to step into this

Unknown:

and say, you guys, you're not going to go that podium, you're

Unknown:

gonna stop tweeting out things, or until your political allies

Unknown:

tweet out that this is terrorism. And Kim, here's the

Unknown:

crazy thing. Here's the true story of the guy in the truck,

Unknown:

is a image of really, people scattering as his trucks coming

Unknown:

through, you know, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people

Unknown:

on a bridge. You can't go anywhere because you'd have to

Unknown:

jump off the bridge into the river, right? So it's

Unknown:

terrifying.

Unknown:

The bridge came onto the highway legally, because the state

Unknown:

didn't shut down all the entrance ramps to the highway.

Unknown:

And so this truck had delivered just delivered gas. And so

Unknown:

quickly, we jumped on the mindat cameras to say, Okay, we know

Unknown:

this area, where did this truck come from? And we see that it

Unknown:

came in on Lyndale Avenue. And I'm like, Okay, let's look at

Unknown:

the cameras go back. And it just made a delivery of gas to a

Unknown:

black owned gas station on 43rd and Lyndale in Minneapolis. Now,

Unknown:

it's just so happens at the owner. That gas station is a

Unknown:

friend of mine, I called him I said Lonnie, did a truck just

Unknown:

deliver gas to you. He said, Oh, Paul, yes. I have not been able

Unknown:

to serve my customers for this whole week. No one can get gas,

Unknown:

right because no one's going to deliver to this neighborhood in

Unknown:

Minneapolis gas. There was one driver in the whole state of

Unknown:

Minnesota who said he would deliver gas to me on this

Unknown:

morning. And he was an immigrant from the Ukraine. And he's my

Unknown:

friend and I treat him well. He treats me well of all the

Unknown:

drivers only one would do it. And he came in he dropped off

Unknown:

gas so his manies customers could have them and he got back

Unknown:

start heading back and some protesters starts throwing stuff

Unknown:

at his truck so he kind of speeds quickly and goes I'm

Unknown:

gonna get out of here as fast as I can. And innocently mistake

Unknown:

goes onto the bridge. That was why I'd open, not knowing that.

Unknown:

So the true story is wanting to have a new American, right? An

Unknown:

immigrant doing the right thing and helping his, his AfriNIC,

Unknown:

their African American business owner friend to deliver gas to

Unknown:

that neighborhood, the only person who would do it in here,

Unknown:

we're calling him a terrorist, or bringing in this Russian

Unknown:

element. And so we had to speak that truth to power and say, No,

Unknown:

you cannot have that narrative. Here's the real narrative. And

Unknown:

that's, that's, again, that dichotomy of that, you know, you

Unknown:

have to live in the tension of this a little bit, but you also

Unknown:

have to be smart enough to know, okay, let's, let's check our

Unknown:

facts before we go forward here. Because that would have thrown

Unknown:

the whole thing back into a chaotic orb. If everybody

Unknown:

thought, Oh, my God, I can't go protest, because I mean, be hit

Unknown:

by terrorist bombs or whatever the thought process was. So

Unknown:

that's the kind of thing that, again, in terms of crisis

Unknown:

learnings, you have to take the time to tell the right story.

Unknown:

Right. And I think there was a much better story there about

Unknown:

what was really happening that day. As terrifying as that was,

Unknown:

it was an honest mistake, by someone who was trying to do the

Unknown:

right thing in his mind without any ill intent, a person of good

Unknown:

conscious. And again, the knee jerk reaction in the official

Unknown:

story that this was a Russian terrorists was just, it was just

Unknown:

bizarre to us that that's, again, the Speaker of the House

Unknown:

puts that out in Minnesota, it gets listened to, and we have to

Unknown:

go refute that. And the number three person and state

Unknown:

governments say no, this is not the story. And no, we're not

Unknown:

gonna let you go to the podium and make this announcement.

Unknown:

We're gonna tell a different story at the podium. Because

Unknown:

this is about goodness in society, not badness in society.

Unknown:

And that's facts. Interesting Facts, even if the facts are

Unknown:

inconvenient to what you think happened. You know what I mean?

Unknown:

It's, it's just that type of thing. And Kim's out there,

Kim Clark:

we're gonna, yeah. So we're gonna wrap up this part

Kim Clark:

one, because I have more questions for you. So there,

Kim Clark:

there's gonna be a need for a part two. Yeah. But I wanted to

Kim Clark:

ask like, and you can include your your kind of final thoughts

Kim Clark:

for everything you just shared in response to this question as

Kim Clark:

well. And it's something I asked everybody is that what does

Kim Clark:

communicating like you give a damn sound like so when we then

Kim Clark:

when there is something like this that happens at a larger or

Kim Clark:

smaller or similar scale? Yeah. What what ultimately did it come

Kim Clark:

down to that you saw was missing? And that needed to be

Kim Clark:

added? That was basically communicating like the governor,

Kim Clark:

the mayors, the first responders, etc, that they gave

Kim Clark:

a damn about what was going on?

Unknown:

Right, Kim, I think you kind of hit the hit it earlier,

Unknown:

when you said, are you listening, that kind of thing

Unknown:

that you had to communicate that we are going to listen to you

Unknown:

that your voice matters, that we have to recognize that there was

Unknown:

a problem, that we couldn't say that there wasn't a problem

Unknown:

here. And I think that was kind of the reaction of, you know,

Unknown:

what happened to George Floyd kind of, quote, unquote, wasn't

Unknown:

a problem, right. And the police took it as us versus them.

Unknown:

Right. And I don't think that's the case, right? I think the

Unknown:

case was that we needed to relook everybody had to have

Unknown:

that dissonance moment where you go, like, what are we doing

Unknown:

here? It was like that moment I had when I saw the video, and it

Unknown:

took me twice to watch that. So I figured it was in my hometown,

Unknown:

right? It's like what is happening here. And so I think

Unknown:

you got to give a damn enough to say that. I might have thought

Unknown:

things wrong. I need to listen better to myself. But I also

Unknown:

think that that give a damn thing is to say, I will step in,

Unknown:

and I think a lot more people have to step into what they're

Unknown:

seeing in our country. And again, it's okay to push back

Unknown:

against the bullies, you can do it peacefully, you can do it

Unknown:

well, right? You can do it against the people that want to

Unknown:

pick on the underclass under categories, whatever, you know,

Unknown:

they want to otherwise everybody, it's okay to step up

Unknown:

and have a point of view. I know there's a larger discussion, I

Unknown:

know we're short on time we you could look at in terms of, of

Unknown:

trust in society and where it's going. If you look at the

Unknown:

Edelman Trust Barometer, what it tells you is that big

Unknown:

institutions are becoming less trusted. But things that are

Unknown:

smaller and closer in, that you can touch and feel, are gaining

Unknown:

more trust, and people expect them to have a point of view.

Unknown:

They expect them to speak up. And I think that's the

Unknown:

opportunity, no matter what you are. So you're looking to your

Unknown:

employee, your employer, you're looking to small governments,

Unknown:

you know, your local unit of government to speak up and have

Unknown:

a point of view and it's okay. We don't have to try to be

Unknown:

politically correct not to offend anybody. Strategy number

Unknown:

one learn to live with the discomfort of doing the right

Unknown:

thing. And that's okay. It might be a little sticky, but we have

Unknown:

to do it. You gotta give it and

Kim Clark:

I really, and I really appreciate your speaking

Kim Clark:

truth to power. And that's what we're going to pick up in part

Kim Clark:

two, where can people find you or continue to learn from you?

Unknown:

You know, the easiest way is on LinkedIn is to find me

Unknown:

on LinkedIn, Paulo, might I have a website, or mountain

Unknown:

associates.com, you can find me on the worldwide web. My last

Unknown:

name is not a common last name. And so it's pretty easy to find

Unknown:

typically, it's Oh, MOTD. If you type that in, you're gonna find

Unknown:

me and like one or two clicks, and I love what I do. And I love

Unknown:

empowering people through better communications.

Kim Clark:

Thank you for, you know, meeting me and talking

Kim Clark:

with me in Toronto. I'm so glad that we crossed paths so we can

Kim Clark:

we can share this experience, this life changing global

Kim Clark:

shifting experience, learning more about it from the inside.

Kim Clark:

So there's more to talk about here and I look forward to our

Kim Clark:

part two. Thanks for being here.

Unknown:

Thanks, Jim. Appreciate it. Thanks, everyone.

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About the Podcast

Communicate Like You Give A Damn
Welcome to Communicate Like You Give A Damn, where we dive deep into the world of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and explore how communicators can effectively incorporate these principles into their strategies. We firmly believe that by positioning our companies well on social justice topics and adopting a DEI lens, we play a crucial role in the success of DEI initiatives within our organizations.

Your host, Kim Clark is not only a dynamic speaker and consultant but also a co-author of the Amazon number one bestseller, "The Conscious Communicator: The Fine Art of Not Saying Stupid Shit." While the title may make you think there will be plenty of swearing, it actually reflects our passion for helping communicators understand and apply diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) principles in their daily work.

Language, communication, engagement, and a compelling vision are the foundation of DEI, and that's what we'll be focusing on. It's time to move beyond performative communication and level up our approach to truly make a difference. Each episode, we bring you incredible guests who will share their personal stories and professional approaches, offering valuable insights and strategies to help us all become conscious communicators. Get ready to take notes because every episode contains a powerful message that will create a shift in your perspective.

Language leads to behavior so it's time to step up, communicate like You Give a Damn, and build a vibrant community of conscious communicators.

About your host

Profile picture for Kim Clark

Kim Clark

Kim Clark (she/her) works with leaders and communicators who are serious about learning and applying Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) to build strong teams and organizations.

She is the co-author of The Conscious Communicator: The fine art of not saying stupid sh*t, an Amazon #1 bestseller that features The DEPTH Model (TM). DEPTH is a strategic and proactive positional framework to guide organizations on DEI and social topics and messaging.

Her career spans documentary filmmaking, agency partnerships with the Discovery Channel, teaching at San Jose State University, and leading global internal communication teams at KLA, PayPal, GoDaddy, and GitHub. She is known for her ability to facilitate sensitive yet urgent conversations to make meaningful progress in creating inclusive workplaces.

She speaks at conferences, designs custom workshops, writes inclusive communications guides, and consults with leaders and companies on all things related to diversity, equity, and inclusion communications.