Increasing Organ Donor Registrations – One Status Update Away

ABC news released an exclusive story today around Facebook’s new tool to help organ donors share their donor registration status. Having been deeply embedded in the organ donation community in the past, I can say that this is a huge accomplishment for the thousands of advocates who work tirelessly day in and day out to help save lives and promote the cause.

Recently, I blogged about the power of the “nudge” and how a seemingly small change in everyday activity can generate desired impact on target audience behavior. Through the power of Facebook’s news stream and a quick commitment to updating a life event (and adding a personal story if so desired), the issue now has fuel to take center stage and grab attention in a whole new way. It’s of course still personal choice to add the info, but yet another great reminder of the powerful impact a platform such as Facebook can have in driving impact.

Kudos to Team Facebook and Donate Life America for heightening the issue. Be sure to check out the video below.

The #BCConf12 Takeaways

I have just returned from two enjoyable and informative days in Phoenix at the International Corporate Citizenship Conference organized by Boston College. Over two days, 600 CSR professionals from businesses of all types, sizes and industries discussed and shared best practices from their corporate citizenship programs. I wanted to share a few reflections from the conference.

• There is no one size fits all model.  Some companies are able to integrate CSR and volunteerism in a more mandatory way, while others must build internal alignment and support.  The CSR function can reside in Marketing, HR, Communications, Operation or Strategy.  The realities of the employee base, the channels of internal communication that facilitate or hinder alignment, the size of staff, and the reporting structure all vary and reflect the unique histories and cultures of each corporation.  It’s valuable to see how other companies integrate CSR, but ultimately, it has to fit your own company’s culture.
• It is helpful to make CSR benefits clear and tangible – and in some cases, ambitious – for internal stakeholders.  Heather Lofkin Wright from PwC talked about the value of “fewer, bolder goals” as a way of driving internal alignment and creating an easier way for all stakeholders to understand – and therefore communicate – about the company’s efforts and impact. Riva Krut from Praxair shared a story of how a chart illustrating progress on sustainability prompted an almost breakthrough of understanding of where the company was and what could be accomplished.  Understanding and speaking in a way that resonates with your internal audience is important.
• Communicating the CSR story requires all channels, an authentic voice and ongoing engagement.  Many companies use all the available channels to engage and educate their employees about CSR, including content on an internet, employee newsletters, corporate sites and employee townhalls. Externally, owned, earned, social and stakeholder channels should all be used as a way to communicate impact of programs.  CEO support and communication can be very valuable in elevating CSR and setting the right tone. Microsoft’s Brad Smith underscored the value of speaking in one voice – and moreover, a human and authentic voice – to build support, explain a company’s program, and connect with stakeholders.  
• Change is a constant and therefore it’s valuable to step back and refresh programs and approaches.  Many companies talked about how social media created a new imperative for transparency and engagement. New mergers, new realities of the market place or industry or new platforms in social media are all opportunities to refresh, readjust and realign as needed.  On the panel I moderated both Jennifer Silberman of Hilton Worldwide and Nicole Rustad of Disney spoke about the value of stepping back periodically to ensure the program is matching realities of evolving companies.
• There’s still little consensus on the terms we use, but shared value models dominate.  Dave Stangis from Campbell’s Soup acknowledged that we may never get to a single term – and debating that might be slowing us all down.  Some companies prefer to take the social out because that seems too philanthropy focused.  Mary Capozzi from Best Buy noted that they put out a sustainability report and use it as an opportunity to educate on all the meanings of the term.  Lee Ballin of Bloomberg LP noted their company uses “Corporate Social Opportunity” to better reflect the benefits of CSR rather than the requirements or obligations.  Despite the variety of terms, it’s clear that companies are adopting a shared value approach and have the most traction with engaging leadership and stakeholders around the idea of doing well by doing good.

You can read the online conversation from the panels by searching the #BCConf12 hashtag on Twitter.

 

Boston College's CSR Conference

I am excited to be attending the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship Conference today and tomorrow in Phoenix. The event draws over 600 corporate CSR professionals and opinion leaders together for conversation, presentations and thoughtful reflections on the many dimensions, challenges and rewards to corporate citizenship programs.

I’m facilitating a panel tomorrow on how companies can pursue strategies that link reputation and citizenship activities. The panelists are Jennifer Silberman, Vice President, Corporate Responsibility, Hilton Worldwide and Nicole Rustad, Corporate Citizenship Program Director, The Walt Disney Company. It promises to be an excellent discussion.

As I’m sure the panelists will speak to, citizenship building efforts can be enormously helpful to strengthening reputation and enhancing brand equity. Yet, it’s also not without its challenges in managing stakeholders and driving internal engagement and support. We’ll talk about how their corporations – both large and iconic brands – approach CSR and citizenship strategies.

I’ll be asking a number of questions of the panelists. Are there any topics you’d like us to cover?

Insights from GLOBE 2012

"In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.”  Charles Darwin

This month, members of the Weber Shandwick (Canada) leadership team attended GLOBE 2012 in Vancouver, British Columbia. This biennial conference offered a unique business-focused forum where companies, academics and NGOs participated in productive conversations to share and exchange best practices in sustainability. Over three days, delegates explored issues and defined opportunities that will propel us towards a sustainable future.

In listening to panelists and participating in discussions, four key themes emerged:

Sustainability is a trigger for innovation, competitiveness, recruitment and retention, and profitability

• Presenters were unanimous in their view that once a company embarks on a sustainability path, the collateral benefits are many. 
• Success is directly linked with the extent to which sustainability goals are embedded in an organization. Corporate sustainability values must align with business practices and operations, including the performance reviews of the management team.
• Sustainability is a suite of values. Organizations need to consider sustainability in the context of how their company operates and how it fits within the industries and community(ies) in which it does business.

New metrics are being developed to establish sr. leadership buy-in and quantify the price of inaction

• Companies are recognizing that metrics are a powerful tool to generate buy-in from senior management, but these metrics must be integrated, customized and well communicated to address their specific needs.  
• Sustainability metrics are rapidly evolving.  There is no single metric or standard that defines how sustainable a company is.  It is important to evaluate whether the measurement tools we are using today will give us meaningful long-term results 20, 30 or 40 years from now. 

Consumers must be given a choice and governments must regulate

• There is an urgent need to harmonize sustainability standards. 
• Lack of regulations or consistent regulations is the biggest obstacle to sustainability in the retail sector, according to the president of the Retail Council of Canada. 
• New business models that consider sustainable consumer practices provide a window of opportunity for companies that seek a more sustainable path. 

Collaboration is key to long-term success of sustainability initiatives

Corporations, academics and NGOs agree that meaningful change requires collaborative action and innovation. 

• They recognize the need to step out of traditional “comfort zones” and start working together.
• Corporate presenters acknowledged the importance of involving concerned community stakeholders as true economic partners in social sustainability.
• Community buy-in is an important element to long-term success in sustainability.
• There is a desire to create long-lasting sustainable economic programs/structures with local communities, rather than setting up structures that would create long-term dependency.

In addition to attending the event, we also organized and moderated a panel titled “Corporate Responsibility in the Digital Age: Leveraging New Media to Advance Sustainability.” Andrew Lane, Sr. Director of Digital Communications (WS-CAN), moderated a discussion featuring panelists from Microsoft, Dialog Design and Architecture and the popular environmental blog, TreeHugger.com. Some major points from the discussion included:

• Social media is ideally suited to engage stakeholders in a conversation on sustainability.  
• Companies looking to truly bring to life their sustainability efforts need to talk to their stakeholders about these efforts like people – a dialog for which social media channels are well-positioned.  

Join the conversation and get ready for GLOBE 2014:

• Website: Globe-net.com
• Twitter: @WSCanada, @GLOBE_Series

KONY2012. African Perspectives.

Joseph Kony is a monster – that fundamental truth is plain and simple. But that is where the simplicity stops. To gauge the African perspective of the KONY2012 film, I called Uganda and spoke to communication experts across the country. They shared perspectives that are emerging from Kampala, Gulu and points far beyond. While people in Northern Uganda hurled rocks at the screen during a recent screening, here is how my colleagues articulated their frustrations with the film:

• It is an oversimplification of a complex issue. The terror waged in Northern Uganda saw atrocities on all sides. There were clear examples where the government failed to protect its people and according to many were at least complicit in the slaughter of its people. The roots of this problem are deep and according to one expert, “will not be solved by a tweet from Rihanna or Bono.”

• It obscures what’s really needed. Before Joseph Kony there was another warlord in Northern Uganda. According to Uganda’s Daily Monitor, “The LRA is a raggedy bunch of a few hundreds at most, poorly equipped, poorly armed and poorly trained.” A military solution will stop one villain, but leave a hole for the next monster if we don’t address the health, education and development needs of the people.

• It doesn’t reflect the realities of the people. Kony hasn’t been in Northern Uganda for six years. In that time the people have been rebuilding. While Invisible Children has assisted in that effort, its film ignores the fact that today in Northern Uganda people are planting crops, touring game reserves and exhaling after years of fear. This film carelessly threatens a burgeoning tourism industry and economy beginning to find its feet in Uganda.

• It smacks of a tired narrative. The white man (albeit accompanied by his adorable child) saving Africans. It’s been done before and while a broader global consciousness is important, we need to find a new way to tell this story that isn’t so, well…patronizing.

My African colleagues share important lessons for all those who will take a page from the KONY2012 playbook:

• Create collaboratively. The video is powerful, but imagine how much more powerful it would have been if the rocks had been thrown during a test screening.
• A simple rallying cry is important; just make sure it’s the right one. Action is urgent and necessary, but let’s ensure we find the right goal.