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“Let’s be careful out there.” 

The line made famous by Hill Street Blues’ Sgt. Phil Esterhaus holds up 40 years later – just ask crisis expert Andy Gilman. In addition to his formal title – President and CEO of CommCore Consulting Group – Andy is the standard-bearer for communicators tasked with navigating sensitive issues. 

In his fifth (!!) appearance on EE Voice, Andy joins us to take a look at the state of things in 2024 and advises us to prepare, prepare, prepare for potential crises. He urges communicators to “get the checklist going” and identify the events that may impact businesses and their employees in the near-term future. 

“I might take a whiteboard,” Andy suggests. “And put on the whiteboard, ‘What has happened to our organization in the past year?’ ‘What’s happened to our sister and brother organizations?’ ‘What’s happened to society at large?’ Then do the comparison and ask, ‘Okay, what are we ready for?’” 

In this wide-ranging conversation on 2024 preparedness, we discuss: 

• Coaching executives and spokespeople for public appearances 
• Handling divisive social issues with empathy 
• Conveying complicated issues in digestible ways 
• Incorporating AI without losing the human element of communications 
• Fair and balanced responses to employee activism 
• Planning for dangerous event in physical offices 

For more from Andy, you can: 

• Email him at agilman@commcoreconsulting.com 
• Find him on LinkedIn 
• Check to the CommCore Consulting Group website at https://www.commcoreconsulting.com/ 

Note: The book we discussed during this episode was The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right, by Atul Gawande. 

About Sharon McIntosh

Sharon is president of And Then Communications. With more than two decades of communications experience, she has a passion for creating and executing new ideas to drive employee engagement at companies both large and small. Most recently Sharon served as PepsiCo’s vice president of Global Internal Communications, overseeing the company’s efforts to connect with its more than 274,000 employees worldwide.

About Sharon Phillips

Sharon Phillips is principal of Sharon Phillips Communications, which focuses on employee engagement and corporate communications strategy and support. Prior to relaunching her consultancy in 2014, she served as director of Global Internal Communications at PepsiCo.