How’s Your PR Team? Restructuring Can Be #Sad, But it’s Not Always Hard

A colleague recently shared words of wisdom with me while discussing the best way to build a solid team. She said, “Sometimes making a sad decision is easier than making a hard one.”

It made me think about our own brand promise and how we got here: The Right Team. Fresh Ideas. Solid Results. When crafting that and our core values, we discussed the order of those three commitments, but it has always been clear to me that you can’t have great ideas or measurable results without the right people in the right roles.

Does your communications team have the right people in the right roles?

A NY-based global non-profit retained us to evaluate its Public Relations and Marketing team when a new CEO took the helm. Trying to navigate the many tentacles of his new organization, he knew he didn’t have the expertise to know if that team was serving the organization’s internal and external customers efficiently and effectively.

Spending several days on site, we interviewed the entire team, shared a meal or two with some of them, and really dug into what they were doing and what was expected of them. We took account of the atmosphere in the department, and tried to find out how they each felt about their role on the team and within the larger organization. We also interviewed internal and external stakeholders.

The interviews were more like discussions, with a promise of complete confidentiality and time for candid conversation.

With a true understanding of where the new leader wanted to go, we used our findings to make very specific recommendations. In this case, a few of the staffers were simply playing out of position. Their skill sets didn’t match their jobs, and easy adjustments were made.

In another case, one of the employees in a leadership role was poorly regarded by his peers and subordinates, causing friction throughout each day, each meeting, and each interaction. The previous leadership team had been hesitant to discharge the person from his role – partly because the employee had a very sad, troubled family life. In other words, it wouldn’t be a hard decision; it was just a sad decision.

Sad decisions are hard. We’re all people, after all. However, we knew we were brought on board to tell the truth, and to help the CEO make those difficult decisions. He listened. We discussed. And he took our recommendation and let that person go. (And that person landed somewhere else quickly and successfully!)

Fast forward six months.

With recommendations made through our qualitative analysis, our Clarity Playbook, and action taken on the part of the new leadership, the Public Relations and Marketing department was functioning more efficiently. Morale was up tremendously in the department — and satisfaction was up among those they served.

Hard and sad decisions were made, but they changed the tenor of the team, allowing them to play a more integral and effective role in the organization, bringing more value internally and externally.

The Right Team. Fresh Ideas. Solid Results.     Let’s Talk.