Book review: Everyday Communication Strategies
Amanda Coleman's Everyday Communications Strategies provides advice on proactively managing issues in corporate communication.
Prevention is better than cure - and if a crisis situation is often described as a car crash, this book is all about avoiding collisions.
A preventative approach runs through Amanda Coleman’s Everyday Communications Strategies: Manage Common Issues to Prevent a Crisis and Protect Your Brand.
Coleman’s pedigree in crisis communications is unrivalled, having been the Head of Corporate Communications for Greater Manchester Police. Her previous book Crisis Communication Strategies, drew on her two decades of experience.
In this latest offering, Coleman takes us through every step of what she terms issues management – the methodology behind how, on a day-to-day basis, you can run your comms to identify niggles or proto problems before they snowball.
She summarises, “Issues management exists at the centre of the public relations professional’s world and for many years it has been seen as a mainstay of the work undertaken…if we get issues management right, then we can hopefully avoid heading into a crisis that threatens to damage a business.”
And be warned, practitioners following this advice will need to roll up their sleeves because there’s a lot of work involved in making the ride look smooth to outside observers.
Coleman takes readers to the most granular of details, breaking down every situation and task into its smallest components.
These include identifying issues, ethics, word choice, working with traditional and social media, effective decision-making, and learning. She rounds off the book by considering five incident scenarios, demonstrating to public relations professionals how to put theory into practice, before concluding with a review of the key learning points.
Each chapter includes a useful real-life case study analysis – reviewing a situation, how Coleman would have handled it and key learning points.
The functional writing style is suited to the material, exemplifying the practical aims of the author and Coleman is a big fan of lists and step-by-step plans. The model assess; analyse; articulate; act is a good example and is typical of her desire to bring order and method to communications.
Some of the advice might be described as commonsense and yet time and again, organisations fail to apply seemingly obvious measures that would’ve prevented a world of pain.
Coleman’s manual is reassuringly comprehensive. It’s particularly suited for practitioners in a junior or hands-on role or specialists looking to move into a more corporate role, where they need to have an overview of all the areas in their scope, how they work, and what their team should be doing.
Taking Coleman’s advice on board will have your communications team operating like a high-performance machine, providing a guide, that, through managing issues effectively every day, should help avoid those crisis events.
Everyday Communications Strategies: Manage Common Issues to Prevent a Crisis and Protect Your Brand
Amanda Coleman
2022
Kogan Page
£19.99
About Claire Munro
Claire Munro Chart.PR, CMktr is an award-winning communications professional and manager with over 15 years of experience in Scotland’s environment and housing sectors.
She’s on the Committee of CIPR Scotland and has a CIPR Diploma in Internal Communications and the AMEC International Certificate in Measurement and Evaluation. Claire is both a Chartered PR and a Chartered Marketer.