Keeping the Lights on In a Crisis (or, How many internal comms pros does it take to change a lightbulb?)

So many of us internal communication pros have been All Coronavirus, All the Time in recent days. Understandable, and necessary. Our organizations need us, and it’s our time to step up and show them the power of what we do.

At the risk of getting the virtual stink eye from you, dear reader, for giving you one more thing to think about, let’s not forget one of the key tenets of crisis management: Keeping the Lights On. In other words, as annoying as this might sound right now (sorry!), we can’t forget our day jobs.

In your abundant spare time (Ha!), go back to your annual plan and check what you were planning to do right about now before the world went haywire. If it can be postponed, great. But some things can’t or shouldn’t be put off, and even in the midst of this crisis, there are some things we still need to do to help keep our businesses running and our people informed and engaged.  

That annual employee awards program? May seem trivial right now but it could give people a morale boost.

Feature stories for your intranet on interesting projects or employees? We still need to keep our intranets fresh, and boy, it would be great to have new content that’s not Coronavirus-related.

A regularly-scheduled Town Hall? People still like to hear what the organization is doing, especially in a crisis.

Keeping the Lights On helps move our organization forward and provides a sense of normalcy during turbulent times. It’s another way we can be there for our organizations and each other.

How many internal comms pros does it take to change a lightbulb? All of us.

​Let me know how you are keeping the lights on at your organization. And as always, reach out if I can lend a hand. 

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