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Paul Barton and Sean Williams joined host Shel Holtz for conversations about these topics:

• Paul recalls how PetSmart, where he worked at the time, reacted to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
• Since 9/11, have companies gotten any better at communicating with employees during crises or emergencies?
• Its acquisition of Rockwell Collins gives United Technologies an opportunity to do well what many other companies don’t: communicate with employees the change they’ll experience as a result of the merger.
• Equifax has done a terrible job of communicating its data break even if it has checked off all the boxes. (And we haven’t heard a thing about how they’re communicating to employees.)
• Executives and HR managers agree that a strong culture is important. Leaders think they already have one. HR managers aren’t so sure.
• All collaboration is communication, but not all communication is collaboration. Yet too many collaboration tools are being used as if they’re for more general communication.
• Tech correspondent Dan York has a question for listeners: What are you using for editorial calendars for WordPress sites?
• A listener asks if it’s possible to set up a Facebook Live session exclusively for people who pay to watch it.

Connect with our guests via Twitter at @PaulBartonABC and @CommAMMO.

Links to the source material for this episode are on Contentle.

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

About today’s guest co-hosts:

Paul Barton, ABC, is business communications consultant who combines fresh thinking with decades of experience. Before beginning his solo practice as Principal Consultant at Paul Barton Communications and Phoenix Public Speaking, he had a successful 20-year career leading internal communications at six fast-growing Fortune 500 companies in multiple industries. Those experiences led him to write the book Maximizing Internal Communication. Paul is a long-time and accredited member of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), and he is a frequent workshop presenter on internal communication, crisis communication, and public speaking. Paul also is a “serial adjunct-preneur,” teaching courses in business communication and public speaking at several colleges in the Phoenix area. When not working, you can find Paul enjoying life with his family and playing guitar.

Sean Williams is Vice President and Practice Lead, Education and Internal Communications, at True Digital Communications. Before joining True Digital, Sean was the owner of Communication AMMO, Inc. Williams has held executive communication posts at National City Bank, KeyCorp and The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. He also provides managerial communication training through Face2Face Communication, which he acquired from Joe Williams Communications in 2015. Earlier in his career, Williams was senior consultant for Williams, where he expanded the strategic planning, research, and consulting practices, and led and refined the Face2Face program with companies including First Energy Corp., KeyCorp, the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Merck, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Prudential and Lucent, training literally thousands of managers in the innovative and highly rated program. He also is an adjunct professor of Public Relations at Kent State University, and has created graduate classes in PR Measurement/ROI and social media measurement for Kent and another university.

About Shel Holtz

Shel Holtz, ABC (Accredited Business Communicator), is director of Internal Communications at Webcor, a commercial general contractor headquartered in San Francisco. Before joining Webcor, Shel spent 21 years as principal of Holtz Communication + Technology. In addition to integrating technology into communications strategies, his expertise includes strategic communications planning, change management, organizational culture, business initiatives and communications research. Full bio