Commit to the Best Solution, No Matter the Source
We don’t assume at the start that we know what solution is needed, but rather commit to coming up with a variety of ways to address the issue or challenge. While there are often traditional ways to get things done, we also recognize our capabilities for new ways of getting the word out, educating, and influencing decision-makers and the public to get them on our client’s side of an issue. We want to use the most effective tools—whether it’s something we offer at Walk West or through a trusted partner—and leverage the strengths of our internal and external partners at the table to get the job done.
Our team at Walk West wants to be creative—if a formula for solving a problem works, we’ll use it, but we won’t return to it if it doesn’t. And with whatever we try, we don’t simply set it and forget it; we are getting stakeholder feedback along the way to ensure that we’re addressing the challenge appropriately.
Case in Point: a National Scare
Recently, we had one of those scary, but fun, challenges pop up with one of our clients. A national news channel was going to have a segment opposing an issue that we’ve been trying to promote with our client. While we’re working on the issue in North Carolina, we know other agencies and individuals working on it in other states. It was one of those situations where we wanted to be proactive, but we didn’t know how big of a problem this broadcast segment would cause.
In order to find our best thinking on this issue, we gathered our team to brainstorm. As we went around the table, we thought about our best ideas, worst ideas, the best we could do, and the worst we could do given the scenarios in front of us.
Share Your Knowledge, Make Everyone Better—for Next Time
While the news segment did not end up causing a big problem for our client, we learned how to be ready in case a larger issue was created at some point. We had marketing prepared as well as proactive messaging. We also had folks ready to engage live on social media during the segment, and they were able to use great messaging we had in place to dispel some myths and address some issues head-on before they arose in other circumstances.
The whole experience gave us a good framework for a rapid response since we engaged partners around the country. And what we learned, we’ve shared with others in our network. After all, we are here at Walk West to make everyone stronger and more successful together, not to keep all the knowledge to ourselves. In this instance, our team was prepared for the worst but found an opportunity to become more knowledgeable and connect with our network.
