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Local Voices

Be Prepared! (Part 1)

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld famously explained to America: “As we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know."

Similarly, wizened nonprofit communications professionals are familiar with the things that frequently (inevitably?) go wrong, and we try to prepare ourselves. For example:

The bulb in the projector will blow just as the PowerPoint begins. So we bring with us a spare bulb; a spare projector; a spare power strip; enough spare extension cords to wrap the Earth twice; three flash drives with back-up copies of the presentation; 100 extra printed copies of the presentation; those 27 copies of the presentation we accidentally stapled in all four corners but, who knows, we just may need them…  and the entire presentation hand-written on index cards.  (Be prepared!)

A name will be misspelled in the annual report. A funder, a volunteer, the photographer, our beloved congressman? Well, we don’t get to pick which one… it just plain happens. So, on “back-from-the-printer” day, we already have our “We are so sorry…” template letter of remorse and sheer grovel ready to go. We do have other damage-control arrows in our quiver, but we know they are unsound, unaffordable, or simply pointless. Reprint the entire job?  Oh, yeah -- Is the petty cash account up to $10,000 yet? Insert a corrected page into the printed reports?  Easier just to hand-scrawl “We Screwed Up!” in neon pink across all the front covers and call it a day. Correct the name in the online edition?  Well, digital is the bomb and all, but the printed annual report is the real annual report, right?

So we must a-p-o-lo-g-i-z-e. (Be prepared!)

But what about our “unknown unknowns?”

I’m talking about the things that we can’t possibly anticipate, that we know we don’t know about, because the random factor in life is pretty darn huge.

A local, much-beloved sports legend we’ve never heard of passes away and the 10-page tribute to him in the “newspaper of record” wipes out coverage of our Very (Very) Big Event. Who knew to know?

A horribly obscene comment slips past every security setting on our Facebook page and announces itself to the world. And we can’t delete it. And the online help-line is of no help, and there is no email address, and there is no phone number, and our nephew who knows all about Facebook is away for the month at a “no-screen-no-cell” adventure camp in western Montana. Who knew to know?

Yikes!  But…

In the face of unknown unknowns, are we really so helpless?

Next:
Be Prepared, Part 2: Foreseeing the Unforeseeable

Robert Slate, a West Hartford resident, is Content Marketing Director for Hartford-based Influential Designs Center for Communications, which specializes in design and content development for nonprofit organizations. Learn more at www.influentiald.com or by calling (860) 216-1115.



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