What I do.

Building Better Relationships Through Effective Communication

I help organizations to identify issues that affect their operations and reputations. I then assist in addressing those issues through effective communication. This includes research, planning, implementation and evaluation of professional communication programs.

The process starts and ends with listening, not speaking.

I work with senior executives to assess the condition of their organizations' relationships with critical internal and external audiences, by listening to those audiences with appropriate research techniques.

I use this information to plan what's needed to meet each group's expectations for the organization's performance as an employer, supplier, citizen and neighbor. I build unique communication programs to let each of these audiences know how the organization is performing in the public interest and to meet their expectations. Then I listen again to see how effectively the communication worked and how we can further shape the policies, actions and communication of the organization.

This is called effective communication. Effective communication builds better relationships.

Brief History

Menu of Services

You'll get top-10 search-engine rankings or I'll refund your fee.

If you take the steps detailed in the report I will create for you, your Web site will be listed in the top 10 results in the search engine of your choice. You choose the keywords. This guarantee is valid for one full year after your purchase. The cost is only $189 per report.

Of course no one can guarantee top-10 rankings except the search engines' programmers. But the proprietary software analysis system I use has a success rate greater than 98%. So this guarantee is a safe bet for you and me.

Finally a tool that would dissect the top websites and tell me exactly what I need to change. This was a God send! I made the edits and to my surprise within a week or two I started ranking in the top 30 for items I never ranked for. And I recently ranked top ten for some other keywords related to my site."

This site, www.GreatDesigns.com (not the real name) wanted to capture a high Google ranking for "Philadelphia graphic design firm." We compared the Web site's main page to the main pages of the ten Web sites that, today, hold the top-ten organic-search result positions in a Google search for that phrase. Comparing more than 30 factors, we delivered more than 60 pages of specific, actionable advice. When just a few of the recommended changes had been made — in about 30 minutes — the site went from having absolutely no chance of being in the top Google results to a 62% chance.

This custom report tells you, in specific terms, exactly what you need to do to improve your search results.

Here are just a few comments from users of this of this proprietary analysis.

"My very first attempt brought me to position #1 out of nearly 400,000 sites.  Incredible, thank you" 

"My website was lost in a sea of competitors.  I could not find it by searching for keywords related to what I sell.  PPC ads were costing me a small fortune, but it was the only way I could get any customers at all, and the amount of product I sold didn't nearly cover the d costs.  My site was costing me money everyday.  I totally re-designed and refocused the way my site was built.  I now have quite a few top ten placements on Google for very competitive search terms."

"My website today is #1 for Google, Yahoo and AOL."

To order your custom report, visit the store.

Here are a few examples of my specialized copywriting work.

• Wrote, for a bank CEO, a one-hour equity analyst presentation for the annual analyst meeting. (This assignment, by the way, was given and completed in 5 days, including a weekend...)
   
• Ghosted a "career reminiscence" piece for the chief executive of a chemical products company for the 50th anniversary issue of Chemical Week magazine.
   
• Based on interviews with executives of a Bristol-Myers Squibb subsidiary wrote a profile piece for a leading trade magazine.
   
• Substantially re-wrote speeches, for publication, originally delivered by senior executives of Du Pont Merck and Glaxo.
   
• Wrote, for FMC, and am now licensing to other companies a full-color, illustrated 30-page manager's workbook, Managing Change: How to Plan and Implement an Effective Employee Communication Program.
   
• I have written countless feature articles, speeches, PowerPoint presentations, news releases, employee communication pieces such as Q&A documents, annual reports, brochures, direct mail pieces and Web sites

Here are a few examples of my consulting and planning work.

• Developed a communication plan to support a $90 million implementation of electronic medical records for a major healthsystem, based on in-depth executive interviews and an extensive literature review.
•  
• Collaborated with senior management of a large hospital to develop a special-purpose employee and community communication program to mitigate any negative impact of the hospital's program to recruit nurses from the Phillipines.
   

  Directed the joint communication planning process for the proposed consolidation of two major urban hospitals in a Northeastern city; process included several Community Relationship Check-Ups, facilitating team meetings, writing a two- year communication plan and presenting research and plan to joint board of directors steering committee.
   

• Developed audience- and issue-specific communication programs for a variety of companies, including opinion-leader communication programs for hospitals.
   
• Developed, managed and directly serviced the internal and external communication plans for a major subsidiary of a Fortune 500 company prior to, during and following the company's top-to-bottom re-engineering project.
   
• For Chemical Products Group of a Frotune 100 company, undertook a variety of project-planning initiatives in support of the director of Public Affairs including how to structure and support the employee and community relations functions at the plant level.
   
• For scores of clients, during a 30+ year career, have developed full-scale, research-based communication programs for specific purposes in support of marketing communication and corporate communication activities including product introductions, management of major crises, corporate identity and others.

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Public Relations programs begin and end with research.

As this basic communication planning model demonstrates, public relations programs depend upon research for planning, monitoring and evaluating communication programs. (For an extended discussion of the current state-of-the-practice, please visit this entry in my blog.)

These are examples of research services I provide to my clients.

Secondary Studies

Secondary research involves examining the literature or other information sources such as news media reports or an organization's Twitter streams to answer specific questions.

Example: I have conducted news media analyses, for several clients, to answer specific management questions about relationships with certain media and reporters. For example, to convince one CEO who believed the leading industry-publication to be biased against the company, content analysis of media reports demonstrated that while the publication was rigidly unbiased in its reporting, "negative" material about the company was contained almost exclusively in the quoted commentary of equity analysts. This led to a program to improve analyst -- not media -- relationships.

Example: For a major bank planning a corporate re-engineering project, I answered key questions, through reviews of primary studies, such as: "What role does trust of management play in employee support of the company? How is support demonstrated by employees? What are the factors that contribute to job satisfaction? How is it measured? What are the behavioral components of "trust" and what specific management actions can be taken to improve trust and credibility?"

A communication program-planning workshop

This is an all-day, facilitated program to develop full-scale communication programs in issue-driven and urgent circumstances. (See the workshop description for details about this program.)

Example: A large healthcare company convened leaders of its industry from around the United States to plan the industry's collective response, through its professional association, to pending legislative and regulatory threats. The workshop resulted in engaging a professional search firm to identify a Washington-based PR/lobbying firm and a multi-million investment in a public affairs program to avert the threats.

Benchmark studies of best practices

Traditional benchmark studies of best practices combine primary-research techniques, such as in-depth interviews, site visits and surveys, and secondary-research techniques such as aliterature reviews.

Example: As part of its ongoing public accountability program, the hospital Association of Pennsylvania commissioned a study, Building Relationships with Community Opinion Leaders: Why, Who and How. The report drew on an annotated bibliography produced by a noted public relations academic and researcher, a self-administered survey of "benchmark partners" who were identified by prominent authors and other experts as representative of current "best practices," and in-depth interviews with CEOs and other senior officers of 13 member hospitals. The study was distributed to all of the member hospitals.

Example: A healthcare system commissioned a study, Best Practices: Organizing a Public Affairs Function as part of an effort to reorganize its in-house functions to place greater emphasis upon building relationships with legislators and regulators at the state and federal levels. The study report was based on in-depth interviews with the senior government relations officers of eight major health systems.

In-Depth Initerview-Based Reports

For a major urban university's school of business, I conducted an interview study among major employers in the school's region to determine employers' needs, expectations and reactions regarding a proposed change of the school's MBA program from "generic" to industry-specific.

Best practices white papers and issue briefings

Best practices research is often entirely based on secondary-research techniques, chiefly reviews of existing research and scholarship on a particular subject, and produced as a white paper.

Example: A major financial institution engaged us to consult with the executive steering committee that was responsible for conducting a re-engineering of a major subsidiary company. One product of this assignment was white paper about Best Practices in Employee Communication, which focused on preparing the steering committee for the challenges they would face in terms of employee morale and productivty when the re-engineering was completed.

Example: A large healthcare system commissioned a white paper, Hospital Price Transparency, to demonstrate current trends and impending legislations and regulation that is driving the need for healtghcare systems to provide comparative pricing information about their services.

Example: I conducted, analyzed, reported and presented best practices benchmark studies for a major bank (the use of technology in corporate communications functions) and a major industrial chemical manufaturer (the structure and organization of chemical company public affairs operations.)

Employee Opinion Polls

I have designed, conducted, reported and presented the results of full-scale employee surveys for three major corporations.

Public opinion polls

Public opinion polls employ scientific sampling methods to accurately portray the opinions of an entire population based on a selected sample of the population within a specified margin of error.

Example: A large healthcare system engaged me to conduct a poll that would measure the success of certain marketing programs and to learn more about factors leading to the selection of hospitals. The study was based on 2,847, 14-minute in-depth telephone interviews with adult residents, 35 years of age or older, living in five specific georaphic areas. The sample screened-out journalists, hospital employees or volunteers, physicians and hospital directors and trustees.

Example: I Conducted an "overnight" survey of 800 18+adults and 150 community leaders in a targeted state to guide the communication planning process for an acquisition bid made by a company after another takeover offer was already in play.

The Relationship Check-Up©

A Relationship Check-Up© is a proprietary method I developed for assessing the state of an organization's relationships with key internal and external constituent groups, whose expectations must be met to win their support for the goals and objectives of the organization.

Examples: I have conducted six Community Relationship Check-Ups for four teaching hospitals. The process involved in-depth interviews with community leaders, senior staff, physicians and board members; a series of employee focus groups; and audits of the institution's publications, advertising, collateral materials and publicity activities. I've also conducted "mini" Check-Ups with specialized audiences such as physicians and equity analysts for several clients.

Is social media a fad? Or is it the biggest shift since the industrial revolution?

Watch this astounding video. Then, if your marketing and corporate reputation-management communication programs do not include a robust social media component, feel free to contact me to discuss how to fill that critical gap. Our services include setting up automated Twitter programs, using proprietary software.

My work with clients in crisis is conducted confidentially. Although I would like to share examples of my work, I'm confident you will appreciate that I cannot do so. However, several clients have been kind enough to offer their perspectives on my work with them during crisis situations. For example, Marcy Kelly, vice president, Sales and Marketing, for Wedgewood Pharmacy had this to say:

“We originally engaged David in 2003. Crisis communication was his specialty, and we were certainly in a crisis. He responded immediately, freeing himself up for a meeting the following day, and arriving at the meeting thoroughly prepared with a self-study understanding of the industry, and research in hand. He helped us think through our communication needs internally and externally, performed primary research with our customers on the issue at hand, and promptly developed talking points for employees and the media. The crisis at hand could have had a significantly negative impact on our financial performance at that time, and David's work helped to avert that outcome. As a result of that, and many other successful projects over the next few years, we engaged David on retainer. He has performed a "customer relationship check- up" that is impacting our strategy development, the planning and implementation of a media relations strategy, a public affairs engagement for our industry association, and frequent copywriting projects from our Wedgewood Guide to the voice over for our online tour. David is the ultimate planner. Everything has its place within the scheme of things. When he make plans, they are detailed, logical and progressive (A before B, then B before C, etc.) Before he takes action, he has thought out all the possibilities and then decided on the most probable action to take. He loves to anticipate problems. He checks and rechecks all of the details over and over before taking the first step in the plan of action. Solving problems is one of David's greatest joys. In business, David's bottom-line is dollars and cents. He is very resourceful with money and budgets. If given the right opportunity, he can stretch nickels and dimes into dollars by monitoring and planning the details of how money is acquired and spent. I highly recommend the work of David Kirk.”

As the result of developing urgent communication programs in situations ranging from unexpected executive resignations, hostile takeover attempts, tragic deaths, evacuations, chemical spills, faulty products and a variety of other threats to companies' reputations, I can say that certain factors are almost always present in corporate crisis situations. I believe, that the list below clearly distinguishes my understanding of and approach to clients in crisis.

Common mistakes in a crisis

Clients in crisis typically ...

• ... are driven to respond to executive ego damage rather than actual damage to the interests or reputation of the organization;
• ... greatly over-estimate the role that mass media play in creating or resolving the crisis situation;
• ... greatly under-estimate the role that opinion leaders play in resolving crises;
• ... are very likely to want to take actions that will extend the crisis, not resolve it;
• ... don't speak in a way that helps to resolve a crisis;
• ... are guided by fear of lawsuits rather than what they know is the right thing to do;
• ... have one, specific and very dangerous gap in their ability to manage a crisis effectively.

If I may be of service to you in a crisis situation in which effective communication with key constituencies is vital, please contact me in confidence.

theCrisisGuy is a service mark of thePRguy incorporated

Tricks?  Or relationships? 

There are essentially two approaches to presentation and media relations coaching.  The differences are profound:    Skills-based coaching works exclusively with behavioral modification techniques. This approach trains people to adopt behaviors that are fundamentally opposed to those required to present effectively. It emphasizes “tips and techniques” over building relationships.

This inevitably results in people who are stiffer and less comfortable speaking in public because they’ve learned “right” and “wrong” ways to do everything. Worse, they can only draw upon a limited “bag of tricks” as opposed to adapting their behaviors naturally to changing circumstances. You’ve undoubtedly heard many of these “tips and techniques:” don’t fold your arms, look over the audiences’ heads to manage nervousness, compliment a question, picture the audience naked and so forth.  Skills-based coaching alone simply doesn’t produce effective speakers.

Relationship-based coaching, which I offer, is designed to help each individual participant to become aware of and responsible for his or her own presentation and behaviors in order to help him or her to use their unique talents, presence, quirks and skills to build stronger relationships — the foundation of “effective speaking.” Within the context of relationship-based coaching, “tips and techniques” are used to develop each individual’s unique abilities to build stronger relationships and are never presented or intended as manipulations of an audience. This approach produces speakers who can adapt seamlessly and powerfully to changing circumstances.  

The Typical Process for Customized Coaching Services

I will structure a customized, individualized coaching program for your organization that includes these phases:

• Assessment
• Design
• Group session
• Individual video work and coaching
• Assessment
• Assessment

I use two tools to determine which of many potential elements to include in an initial group coaching session: 

• A self test designed to determine which of four competence/confidence levels applies to each participant.
• Individual interviews following the self-test to review the results of the self-test and to determine the specialized objectives, needs and wants of each participant. In part, in the individual interviews I’ll work with the results of the self-test by reviewing the likely implications of each person’s test score. 

Design/Group Session

During the approximate three-week design phase, I will use the information gathered from the self-assessment and individual interviews to develop a customized four- to six-hour group training session for the participants. I will design it to deliver relevant fundamentals that apply to all of the participants, to establish basic coaching and participant-support relationships and to introduce and practice common strategies that will be developed in individual coaching sessions. This session may use some of the modules I already have developed and/or entirely new modules I’ll develop for the purpose, based on a vast body of adult-education techniques, research data and other materials I have at my fingertips. 

Individual Video Work and Coaching

Following the group session, I generally conduct a minimum of two, two-to three-hour, one-on-one coaching sessions with each of the participants:
 
The first session uses videotaping, mirror work, mocks, simulations and other techniques to give each participant the opportunity to discover and work with strengths and weaknesses in relationship-based presentation skills.  The participants will be required to do some preparation for this session, chiefly developing simple practice materials. They also will be given specific “homework” assignments to prepare for the second session.

The second session will use similar techniques to validate each participant’s progress since completion of the first individual session and to work on any issues that are appropriate to each participant. Depending on the degree to which media relations issues are relevant to a participant, I will, at additional cost, add an exercise that employs a mock interview with a journalist. This session generally also includes a before/after video review.

Assessment

Each participant will complete an evaluation of the program and his or her progress, at the conclusion of the second session. The sponsoring executive(s), of course, receives a summary of these reviews to help evaluate the effectiveness of my work. These reviews also will include identifying areas in which each person would like to do additional work. At this stage, I will give you a report that will include, if any, additional plans to address the participants’ needs.

Personal Coaching Services for Public Relations Practitioners

 You're a public relations executive in need of a second opinion from a senior colleague on issues such as recruitment, department structures or staff development.

Or perhaps you're tackling an organization-threatening issue with tools, staff and resources more appropriate to marketing communication and publicity. Or you have a periodic need for specialized guidance in communication specialties such as research and evaluation, investor relations or crisis management.

Each year, I handle scores of short-term coaching requests from other public relations practitioners, from all sorts of organizations ranging from small not-for-profits to international corporations.

If you might benefit from a coaching session, please contact me for further information. If your coaching needs relate to the concerns of a sole practitioner, you may enjoy the article at the bottom this page, 15 Tips from a Veteran of Independence.

“Son,” my dad always said, “I can’t tell you in a few minutes what it’s taken me years to learn.” Dad never met the editor of PR Tactics. So with 28 years in our business, the last 10 in independent practice, here’s the pithy list of tips for independents for which he asked. My unique credentials? I’ve made every mistake.

Forget tips, tricks and techniques.

Ironically, many of the skills that successful executives have learned to be successful are precisely backwards compared with the skills needed to present effectively to a group and to interact with news media.

This program, which is customized to the specific needs of each group and individual, is designed to help executives to become better presenters, chiefly by freeing them of the "public speaking techniques" they've learned along the way to the top. The workshop is grounded in a philosophy of authenticity, "audience advocacy" and personal responsibility. Rather than loading the participants with more "techniques" that inevitably make them worse presenters, participants learn to approach a presentation from the viewpoint of the audience. They also discover, through intensive group and personal coaching, how their own physical presence affects an audience and how to manage that effect.

The customization of the program includes advance interviews with each participant, group exercises that create meaningful work products that the group can use, mock presentations, videotaping and respectful but hard-hitting personal coaching.

For additional information, contact me.

Contents of the Workshop

Day One

• Audience advocacy
• Preparation
• Keys to success
• How presentations go wrong
• Brainstorm a presentation
• Right brain/left brain
• Opening techniques
• Flow structures
• Rehearsal
•  

• Day Two

• Culture of media
• Media relations
• What reporters want to know
• How to aggravate a reporter
• Preparing for an interview
• Q&A principles and models
• Types of challenging questions
• Paraphrase technique
• Structuring an answer
• Video demos
• Platform skills
• Listening
  Reading an audience Using PowerPoint

Day Three

• Role playing
• Demonstrations
• Videotaping
• Coaching

Day Four

• Individual, private coaching

"This was an exceptionally well-done workshop on a topic that I have heard and spoken about myself countless times in the past. Mr. Kirk's style was informative, humorous and easy-going. I highly recommend this kind of training to other employees. Nice job!"

"Great presentation and presenter. Was looking for a long boring day. However, it ended up being fun!"

"I would recommend it to anyone!" "An excellent, engaging presenter. Your obvious preparation made our day very valuable!"

"A very worthwhile experience!"