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

 "I highly recommend David for any public relations/communication project. He is a great listener, planner, writer and communicator. He brings his strong skill set and knowledge to the table along with a great sense of humor."

Rose Mili is corporate communications manager in the External Affairs Department of Christiana Care Health System.

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.
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• 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.

Planning a communication program or campaign is an art and a science.

The science is in the planning process, the art is in the content.  It's impossible to find the art without the science.  Yet so many communication "planning" processes start with a clever tactical idea and some vague goals or, worse, they're cobbled together in response to a management directive such as "get our name out there to the public."

As a public relations educator and judge of countless regional and national public relations programs, I've evaluated far too many communication "plans" that set-out to "educate the public," "generate excitement," and "position the client as a leading provider of solutions in the insert-your-product-here space."

There's no shortage of communication planning models in the public relations literature.  Yet for many reasons (that could be the subject of another workshop) many organizations seem unaware that they exist.  So I've developed a structured workshop that provides a communication planning team with the science they need to discover the art.

Through a straightforward, rigorous, facilitated structure, the workshop drives the communication team through a step-by-step process that starts with defining the problem or opportunity the plan is supposed to address. Depending on the core competencies of the participants, the extent to which the actual communication plan is developed during the workshop itself will vary.  In every case, the participants leave the program with a "ready to go" framework to complete a specific communication plan with the appropriate communication professionals in the organization.

Contents of the Workshop

• Define and prioritize the issues
• Analyze Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT). 
• Identify, segment, profile and prioritize audiences. 
• Develop message platform(s).
• Set goals and (if appropriate and possible) objectives.
• Develop strategies. 
• Develop tactics and evaluation methods.*
• Identify partnerships and alliances.
• Identify staffing and resources.

*Rarely developed in the workshop itself because additional research is almost always required. However, participants are provided with tools for use after the workshop.

"David Kirk is a consummate public relations professional whether your need is public opinion research, issues management, communications planning or strategies for leveraging social media.   David's wide range of experience and interdisciplinary approach to communications are uniquely suited to today's business environment.   He offers informed, results-oriented consultation."

Michele Schiavoni is senior vice president of External Affairs for the Christiana Care Health System.