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Top of Mind Thursday August 16, 2018: A Sad Spotlight
This week a Pennsylvania grand jury released a report that said more than 300 predator priests had been abusing over 1000 victims over a period of more than 50 years.
This comes 3 years after the release of the Oscar-winning movie Spotlight, which focused on similar allegations against a priest in the Boston area in 2001. The current report is stunning in both the breadth of the victims and the length of time this was allowed to go on unfettered.
Growing up in Northeastern Pennsylvania, many of my friends were practicing Catholics. They went to church regularly and were fairly immersed in their religion. Now I wonder how many of those people were abused and molested by the religious leaders that should have been there to protect them? How many of them have spent their lives harboring a secret that they knew would only be ignored if they told the truth about their assailants?
Many victims are coming forward to say bringing this out in the open is part of the healing process. I hope each person and family affected can heal as best possible from this trauma. I also hope religious institutions will take the steps necessary to confront this behavior as soon as it occurs, rather than sweeping it under the rug.
The #MeToo movement is helping victims of sexual harassment and assault confront and remove their assailants. It’s up to us to continue to shine a spotlight on these types of crimes. The uglier they are, the more important that they are exposed to bright light.
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linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
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Top of Mind Thursday August 9, 2018: Back in the Saddle Again
Yesterday, I walked into a Trader Joe’s store in Los Angeles to buy a few groceries.
By itself, there’s nothing unusual in that. Except that less than 3 weeks ago, this particular store had been the site of a hostage situation where an interaction between the police and the gunman resulted in the death of a Trader Joe’s employee.
What happened in the two weeks between that event and the reopening of the store a few days ago, is what’s unusual.
The company closed the store to not just clean up the aftermath of the shooting, but to implement a long-planned upgrade to the front checkout section. In addition to grief counseling, they gave all employees additional vacation pay for the time the store was closed. On reopening day, they brought all employees back in to reacclimate, but also brought in a crew from another store to man the registers and help customers.
Today, the store looks like any other Trader Joe’s, with the exception of one small space upfront with a memorial to the murdered employee and notes of support from TJ’s stores around the country. And it’s still as difficult to get in and out of the parking lot at rush hour as ever.
In the 60 year history of the chain, Trader Joe’s had never dealt with the death of an employee onsite before. They had no playbook for this kind of event. Yet, they built on a culture of engagement and trust to do the right thing to help employees get through a horrific situation, and to strengthen the relationship between the chain and its employees, as well as its customers.
Kudos to Trader Joe’s for doing what needed to be done to get back in the saddle again.
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Contact me to find out how to get heard above the noise.
Limited time to devote to marketing? Check out our weekly Just a Moment for Marketing videos. They only take a minute.
Check out our marketing thought leadership podcasts.
Check out the new video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday August 2, 2018: Too Hot to Handle
Wildfires have become an expected hazard during the summer in California, due to extended droughts and temperatures that are at historical highs.
The brave men and women who fight these fires for a living are well-trained and equipped with the best tools to save lives and limit property damage. But this year’s fires are confounding even the experts.
Near the northern CA town of Redding, record hot ground temperatures combined with extremely low humidity have enabled a situation where the fire creates its own weather system–almost like a tornado cloud that extends thousands of feet into the atmosphere. This means the normal strategy of fighting the fire by air isn’t possible.
It also means firefighting forces have to quickly regroup and find new ways to contain this next generation of fires. In Yosemite, for example, ancient sequoia trees are being wrapped in fireproof material to help shield them from an approaching blaze.
What these experts DON’T do is keep using techniques that aren’t working. And they never say, we can’t fight it, let’s just walk away. They keep at it, adding various approaches, until they find a way to first contain, then extinguish each blaze. Then they study the situation afterwards to learn how to incorporate best practices into future fire situations.
How many times in our businesses do we try to fight proverbial fires by throwing the same thing at the problem–even when it’s clear this has no effect, or maybe even makes things worse? How often do we give up and say, let’s just walk away, instead of digging in and trying to come up with new and creative ways to address the issue?
Take a lesson from those on the front lines in what’s now a war on wildfires. Keep focused on the goal and be creative–the alternative will leave you badly burned.
To subscribe, please click here.
Contact me to find out how to get heard above the noise.
Limited time to devote to marketing? Check out our weekly Just a Moment for Marketing videos. They only take a minute.
Check out our marketing thought leadership podcasts.
Check out the new video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Just a Moment for Marketing: Guilt by Association
Linda asks: With whom is your brand connected?