I heard this phrase for the first time on the James O’Brien radio show the other day. And it really stayed with me for two reasons.
by Darren Caveney
The phrase can work on many levels but for sure it can apply to our personal lives. Things you began doing as a favour, to be kind or helpful but which ended up just becoming the norm. Not necessarily recognised or appreciated. I can think of examples personal to me, I bet you can too.
But it was really on a professional level that this struck a chord.
I’m thinking specifically of this period in history where comms teams and pros are working in a ‘post Covid-crisis mode’. Where, in some organisations the weight of expectation on how comms can and should work (during the eye of the storm) has now become the expected day-to-day duty of a comms team.
I have spoken to many people this year feeling this demand and expectation. It’s blunting their effectiveness and, in some cases, their mental health.
I was chatting to an excellent comms manager last week who said he “felt like a crisis comms person every week now”.
And that isn’t right or healthy.
These past five-years have been the hardest time ever to deliver communications. From Brexit to Covid, the cost of living crisis to Ukraine, and more recently the Queen’s death it’s been unrelenting. There were no comparable times when I was an in-house head and director of comms. I feel I got lucky.
But it’s Covid which really caused expectations to soar. Teams delivered incredible work with a mix of smart skills, professionalism and over-long hours. We all said that it wasn’t sustainable. But, in some organisations that kind of delivery, volume and, therefore, hours are being expected to continue – whether knowingly or, more likely, unwittingly – by leaders and managers who think that that crisis comms mode can now just become how all business is delivered.
Well it can’t be. And my belief is that the organisations getting this wrong are some of the ones now experiencing a loss and turnover of staff. And, in what has become a buoyant jobs market, job seekers have more choice than ever over potential employment, opened up by the opportunities of home and hybrid working anywhere in the country and beyond.
In contrast, I have been whole team mentoring with several comms teams this year, where comms leads have been keen to prioritise both mental health and wellbeing and review their demand pressures versus the agreed priorities. I’m about to begin this process again now with a new team and it’s just the most important work we can be doing right now and way more important than any training course, workshop or webinar you could attend.
This expectation cycle is a risk. And, as any risk manager will tell you: The best way of managing the risk is to remove the risk.
Today’s favour is tomorrow’s duty should really read:
Today’s favour is tomorrow’s risk and which needs recognition and careful management.
It’s not as catchy but it’s much more critical.
Darren Caveney is creator and owner of comms2point0 and creative communicators ltd
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