Two fingers to Putin, grab a blanket!

Am I the only one that has noticed the big temperature drop?

For the last week the house (yep, we are still home working!) has been absolutely freezing – after the dog walk first thing your body is still warm, but after a while you can feel the cold starting to creep into your bones.

While it is the easiest thing to fire on the heating in the house or turn on the electric rad in my room, instead I am reaching for a blanket, draping it over my legs and saying out loud..,

“F**k you Putin, you aren’t going to get any of our money!”

….and besides, why not wrap up and help to reduce our carbon emissions, which is something we should all be doing when we can?

Greg

Greg is a partner at Fuzion Communications, a full service Marketing and PR agency with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

A very simple gesture of a handshake to diffuse a hostile situation

I was standing at the ATM on the South Mall in Cork and suddenly from behind me I heard a booming voice “Excuse me, excuse me”.

When I turned around it was a guy on a bike shouting at people to get out out of his way as he sped through.

One of the pedestrians quite rightly had an issue with this speeding cyclist who should have kept his racing for the road and suddenly the two of them were arguing.

The cyclist was way out of order so I jumped to the pedestrians defence.

“He’s right, what are you doing racing on the footpath?” I said.

Suddenly he’s in my face, a tall guy, one of these triathlon types, dressed in black from head to toe.

“What’s your problem, tell me, tell me-I was being polite, I said excuse me”

I responded “You were roaring, and besides, you shouldn’t have been cycling on the footpath”

He came closer to me and repeated what he already said. I repeated what I said and he repeated what he said, getting closer again. This was only going to escalate.

I looked at him and told him it was a waste of time talking to him if he couldn’t get the point about cycling on the footpath and I turned to walk away.

He came after me and once again he was repeating what he had already said “What’s your problem, I was being polite”

This was pointless …I looked at this tall guy, all fired up and from nowhere I found myself offering my hand to shake his. This could go either way, but it was one way of breaking the cycle (pardon the pun!)

He looked puzzled for a second and then met me in a handshake. I said “hey man, calm down, it’s a Friday”

He smiled and said “you are right, that’s what I call great conflict resolution! “

He then hugged me and said he probably shouldn’t have been on the footpath and we both wished each other a good weekend and parted ways.

My spontaneous gesture surprised even me, and I was amazed at how quickly it diffused something that could have easily turned ugly.

It turns out a handshake is hard to resist as we are programmed to treat it like a gesture of kindness or friendship – try it !!

Greg

Greg is a partner at Fuzion Communications, a full service Marketing and PR agency with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

Darnella Frazier and George Floyd

Something huge happened on the 25th May, 2020 when Derek Chauvin and his “diligent colleagues” murdered George Floyd by crushing his ability to breathe, which resulted in his unnecessary death.

Unfortunately and very sadly this incident had happened many times before with black people in the United States where there still is a colossal problem with racism, which was clearly made worse by the hateful divisive rhetoric of Donald Trump who gave extra oxygen to this raw hatred, in some way justifying and even encouraging these actions by the perpetrators.

While the incident was unbearable to watch and quite inconceivable to a world audience, what made it “huge” isn’t that it happened, it is that we were able to see what happened with our own eyes.

While these policemen are all now equipped with body cameras (for transparency reasons and protection) it clearly makes no difference to their actions as their superiors are ignoring the evidence, but thankfully they can’t ignore what “we” record and what we are able to publish.

The George Floyd case is very similar to the equally shocking Ronald Greene “lynching” by police in Louisiana two years ago, where police footage has only now come to light (it was leaked) to show he was murdered and not involved in a one person car accident as reported.

In the case of George Floyd, 17 year old Darnella Frazier took out her mobile phone and was inspired to record the shocking incident that she was witnessing with her own eyes and she posted it on Facebook for us all to see.

Poor Darnella broke down in court because of the guilt of not being able to do more, but in truth what she did created a huge moment in time, one that will hopefully change our world for the better.

While I have many issues with where social media is going between the “selfie” perfect world scenario on one side and the vitriol on the other, with a smartphone and a public platform you too have the ability to change the world.

A regular 17 year old going about her business with her 9 year old cousin did that on the 25th May.

Greg

Greg Canty 

Greg Canty is a Partner of Fuzion Communications who offer Marketing, PR, Graphic Design and Digital Marketing services from our offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

The Covid Grind and the Covid Police

“Roll those sleeves up, get stuck in and have a great week #WinHappy” is my usual Monday morning tweet, my little mantra, which being honest is as much for myself as it is for anyone else to get into the right frame of mind as we begin another work week.

I’ve been tweeting that since during the last recession and it has served me well.

As I tweeted it this morning I felt like a fraud because I was in an awful mood, which didn’t quite match those words.

Of course it’s this whole Covid thing with a few other run of the mill  “life” things layered on top – nothing serious I promise, but without a doubt there is a little Covid cloud sitting over my head today, as well as this feeling like a grind.

Dee spotting my mood tells me quite rightly to stop arguing with people on Twitter as this is where she sees some of my poor mood coming out – She is right of course, as I get upset reading about the latest idiotic thing that Trump has done and when I increasingly see what I am calling the “Covid Police” – for some reason we have all started finger pointing and judging:

– Gina Murphy and Leo Varadkar at her Hugos Restaurant getting lambasted by the social media “hoards” for not sufficiently social distancing in a photo even though she was wearing a visor (she’s a great gal, struggling to make a living in these awful circumstances and has gone to huge lengths and cost to reopen safely). Covid Police..

I had to jump in!

– The Leeds United manager getting lambasted for not setting a “better example” when he went to a person who was in a wheelchair in the crowd who was waiting for him and hugged them – of course it’s not perfect but it was a huge, touching gesture. They have just been promoted to the Premiership, which to devoted fans is an absolutely colossal life moment. Instead of just appreciating the very touching human moment, allowing a spontaneous human reaction in the middle of this Covid grind, we instead jump in, point out the grave error and judge… As I said, Covid Police!

I had to jump in!

– The Professor posting a picture of himself proudly walking around a West Cork town on a sunny afternoon wearing a mask and commenting on the people who aren’t wearing them. Why wear one walking around in the fresh air? I felt this was subtle finger pointing at those of us who are finding this difficult and judging (for the successful months of curve flattening we were told there was no need)

I had to jump in! (This was genuinely a nice interaction but an Irish gal in America jumped in and accused me of all sorts including having no empathy). Covid Police!

This is an extremely difficult time for all of us as we are all processing it differently.

People are confused, people are in fear, people are trying to hold onto some piece of normality, people are trying to find brightness wherever they can get it, people are trying to protect loved ones, people are trying to protect their livelihoods, and people are trying to manage their mental health.

I think it’s really important that we do have empathy and we shouldn’t start finger pointing and judging others at this time as it isn’t easy.

Sean Moncrieff describes feeling a “low level depression” in an article he wrote for the Irish Times a few weeks back, and I get what he is talking about.

We’ve just had our Monday morning catch up call with the team and that interaction has brightened me up as it always does – I’ve taken longer writing this post than I meant to, but I wanted to capture these strange feelings at this weird time so that I can look back later, when we will have hopefully forgotten what it felt like.

Roll those sleeves up, get stuck in, have a great week, be kind….and most importantly, mind yourself

Greg

Greg Canty is a Partner of Fuzion Communications, a full service Marketing, PR, Graphic Design and Digital Marketing agency with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

 

Authority is a privilege

I had just dropped my son off in town having brought him to say “Hi” to my mum from her driveway on a Sunday afternoon in the middle of all of this COVID lockdown.

I was glad to be out and about, and decided to take the long way home to extend my rare excursion in the car.

Brendan told me that there was a coffee shop that was open at the bottom of Barrack Street (Cork), so I decided to pop down that way. There were a few standing outside in a queue so I passed on that option and went about my journey home.

I was on Proby’s Quay with a plan to turn right and head out home via Western Road but there was a one-car tow truck pulled in just before the turn right, so instead I opted to swing left past Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral and take the College Road route instead.

As I swung left I noticed that the reason the tow truck was there was they had been stopped by the Gardaí – their car was in front of the truck, just before the traffic lights. Bad place to pull someone in I thought.

I drove up the hill and took a right onto Gillabbey Street where I had to stop as the lights were red. I was really surprised to see two Gardaí pull up alongside me in their car, gesturing to wind down my window.

Were these the same Gardai who just seconds ago were in front of the tow truck? If it was the same two, they must have been quite determined to follow me I was thinking.

I dropped my window to get an accusation hurled at me “You broke a red light!“.

I was astonished and very confused by this as I knew it was not true and was wondering why they were making such a false claim.

“It was amber when I went through, it was not red” I replied firmly

These two clearly didn’t like being disagreed with..”We saw you, it was red”

Pardon the pun about this disagreement about colours but there was no “grey” here and I was in no mood to agree with something I knew was wrong.

“I didn’t go though on a red, it was amber” I repeated.

The Garda who was driving then barked across to me “Do you think it’s ok to drive through on an amber, do you, do you?“.

“I don’t break red lights” I repeated.

These two were now really annoyed with me.

“Go through the lights and pull over” I was instructed.

The Garda approached my window, put on his blue gloves and asked for my licence, which he inspected and then he walked around my car checking the tax and insurance and everything else.

He once again came to my window and handed me back my licence, scribbled in his note book and told me I would be receiving something in the post in so many days. To be quite honest, I’m not really sure what he said.

At this stage I was really upset and felt that I was being picked on for some reason. I was minding my own business on this quiet, nothing COVID lockdown Sunday and from nowhere I get this “treatment”.

Were they chasing a quota of fines, did the interaction with the tow truck just a minute earlier wind them up, did this guy with a big mop of curly hair driving a nice car look suspicious and they needed an excuse to pull me over or was it just hassling for the sake of hassling?

I said to the Garda that I felt I was picked on for some reason and he denied it. I repeated my accusation and that was the last of our interaction.

A week later I still can’t figure it out, but what I do know is that it really upset me being accused unfairly of something I didn’t do, and I do know that it left me with a really bad feeling towards these Gardaí and in truth a very unhealthy, unreasonable feeling towards Gardaí generally – is this what many of them are like?

(I know that’s not true, but this is what I was suddenly feeling)

Up until this point I was four square on the side of all Gardai doing such Trojan work at this time, with the difficult job of maintaining social distancing and basically keeping us all safe. I couldn’t believe how disgusting and wrong it was for anyone to abuse a Garda doing this work and to those who actually spat at them…I’m sorry, they deserve the worst.

Now, I thought about how other people must feel if they are accused unfairly, the damage that must cause their mentality, including that legacy feeling towards authority.

My little interaction was a tiny thing, but I certainly know how it felt, so what must it feel like to people who are being picked on all of the time because of where they live, how they look or the colour of their skin?

In the following days I read some media reports on social media about the Gardai telling the employees of Debenhams who were protesting peacefully and clearly maintaining their social distancing to move on.

Without knowing the details I had already decided who was wrong here and I found myself retweeting “The Gardaí should butt out and let people who had been wronged to protest peacefully“.

Authority is a powerful thing, it is a privilege to those who have been given it, and it should always be exercised carefully, respectfully and honestly.

When this doesn’t happen, everything falls apart.

Greg

Greg Canty is a Partner of Fuzion Communications, a full service Marketing, PR, Graphic Design and Digital Marketing agency with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

 

 

It pays to be an asshole?

At some point in time the penny dropped that it makes you look like a really great, authoritative person if you are abrupt, rude and condescending to others.

Whatever happened in your past, this was a lesson that you learnt along the way, this was a trick that seemed to get you up that corporate ladder to the lofty position that you now hold.

Was this a parent, a mentor or a boss that taught you this great way of going about your business?

It makes you look big and everyone you deal with look and feel really small and this might actually inspire them to do more for you and maybe even do this from a position of “fear”.

This will really work won’t it??

I just had the “pleasure” of some time in this persons company (we all know at least one) and I am predicting the very worst for them and their role and the collateral damage that they will leave in their wake.

The clock is ticking..

Greg 

Greg Canty is a Partner of Fuzion Communications, a full service Marketing, PR and Graphic Design agency with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

 

Expressing what you think of others..

Sometimes when you make your feelings known about others it can end up saying even more about you than it does about them:

Be careful what you say online..

Greg Canty 

Greg Canty is a Partner of Fuzion Communications, a full-service agency that offers Marketing, PR and Graphic Design services from our offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

 

The same ticket but not the same

We were on the North East Corridor train heading out from Penn Station in New York to Metro Park in New Jersey to spend a few days with my brother Colin and his family.

On a commuter train to suburbia it’s hard not to observe the other passengers and wonder about their stories and their lives.

There was a guy sitting across from us, I’m guessing in his twenties dressed all in black with headphones on – every now and then he would sing along in Spanish. Many of the public signs here are in English and Spanish, which surprised me.

There was an African American guy, again in his twenties wearing a green hoodie and a baseball cap under that, also listening to his music.

An older guy sat alongside us wearing grey tracksuit bottoms and a grey top and an unusual pair of Crocs on his feet. He also had a crutch so this probably explained the footwear. He looked a little dishevelled so maybe he wasn’t having the best of days.

The ticket collector came around – he takes your ticket, then produces another ticket, punches a hole in this and then clips it behind you under a little metal clip. He does this for each of the people around us.

He comes to the guy next to us, the grey tracksuit guy, who takes his ticket from under his sock and produces it for inspection.

“Tear it in half” the ticket officer tells him. The passenger looks confused.

“Tear it in half” the ticket officer repeats, this time with a little more intent.

He looks confused and asks “Why?”

“I’m not touching that, it’s been in your sock” he says.

The poor guy in the tracksuit never felt better I’m sure. His bad day, week, month, year or decade was confirmed in front of his fellow travellers and he quietly accepted this instruction and tore his ticket in half.

The ticket officer was able to go ahead with his job without having to touch the offensive ticket.

This was an unpleasant and unnecessary exchange between two strangers and at what cost?

Would it have been so hard just to take the piece of paper from this fellow human being and treat it like all those other pieces of paper, equally and with respect?

However, we are not equal.

Greg Canty 

Greg Canty is a Partner of Fuzion Communications, a full service agency that offers Marketing, PR and Graphic Design services from our offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

United Airlines and the Costly Culture

When you hear the company name “United Airlines” what comes to mind?

When you hear the company name “Volkswagen” what comes to mind?

In both cases, you probably think of the well publicised and very damaging situations that have occurred, which have caused untold damage to these monstrous brands.

At the time of writing United Airline shares had dropped significantly resulting in a market capitalisation collapse of $570 Million.

While United Airlines was a very specific incident and Volkswagen was a very deliberate campaign of deception what they both have in common is that what occurred was not something that you could blame on “a” culprit in each company.

With United Airlines could you point the finger at the security guards who removed the passenger?

With Volkswagen could you point the finger at the engineers who were able to rig the emissions performance?

In each case, the individuals involved knew that what they did was okay with their bosses – why would they do such a thing otherwise?

In each case, their bosses knew that this was what they were expected to instruct their subordinates to do – why else would they give guidance like this?

In each case, their bosses, bosses had jobs to do and targets to meet and the expectation was that these must be achieved as a priority beyond all other objectives.

And so on up the chain of command.

The huge problem in large organisations is that very often something rotten is allowed to creep into the culture resulting in management and employees behaving really badly and eventually it just bursts through and shows its ugly face in a way that is quite extraordinarily shocking to everyone.

For example with United Airlines the initial reaction of Chairman Oscar Munoz was to apologise to other passengers for the “upsetting event” but went on to push the blame onto the 69-year-old victim Dr.Dao for being “disruptive and belligerent“!

If you ever wanted someone to confirm the rotten culture at the airline, Mr.Munoz did it in his next communication to his staff where he praised them and stood behind them:

“Our employees followed established procedures for dealing with situations like this. While I deeply regret this situation arose, I also emphatically stand behind all of you, and I want to commend you for continuing to go above and beyond to ensure we fly right”

In a strange way, he was 100% correct – they did what was expected of them in these situations and as a result, he applauded them!!

At this point in time, the airline’s reputation was in tatters and Oscar and his team started to frantically backpaddle and within three days their tone had changed and fresh press statements included grovelling apologies to Dr.Dao for the appalling treatment and a full refund to all passengers on the flight (what difference was this ridiculous gesture going to do for anyone?).

The best PR advice when something like this occurs is to come clean and apologise immediately with complete sincerity. The word “Sorry” if people genuinely believe those that are delivering the apology can go a long way to reducing the damage caused.

However, just like in the United Airlines scenario a genuine “sorry” was not possible because the culture was too rotten to even contemplate doing such a thing – the expression ‘not being able to see the wood from the trees‘ comes to mind here.

Your reputation ultimately comes from what you do and how you behave and while good PR professionals can help to lessen the damage from a bad situation, it cannot change the culture, which can often be the reason why these things ended up happening in the first place.

Could your culture end up costing you?

Greg Canty 

Greg Canty is a Partner of Fuzion Communications, a full-service agency that offers Crisis PR consultancy from our offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

Trust and restoring broken reputations

If things weren’t bad before, they became even worse this week for An Garda Síochána when it was revealed that an “incorrect” sexual abuse file was held against Maurice McCabe by Tusla, the family and child protection agency.

Everyone in the media is being extra careful to avoid stating the obvious conclusions as they risk getting into trouble legally. However, they have published the various statements by those parties involved and reported the facts as they came to light and they keep probing and probing for the truth in this sinister mess to reveal itself fully.

Incidents like this demonstrate once again why we need professional, intelligent journalism to bring us the truth as we can’t rely solely on social media to deliver this. Social media is fantastic as it gives us a powerful voice to demonstrate our dissatisfaction as loudly as we feel is appropriate.

We heard the statement by the Garda Commissioner, Nóirín O’Sullivan, the leader of the organisation who has claimed that she know nothing of the sexual abuse shenanigans with the whistleblower, Maurice McCabe.

Tusla in the meantime have issued their own statement claiming that their file against Maurice McCabe with the atrocious false claims against him were a ‘clerical error‘.

The comical little addition to the Tusla story was that their official apology to Maurice McCabe was sent to the wrong address!

The public are no fools and the generally held, unsurprising conclusion about this story is that senior members of the Gardaí who were unhappy with their whistle blowing colleague tried to smear his reputation in the worst possible way to punish him and protect themselves.

Even worse in this sorry saga, Tusla were obviously happy to play ball with their Garda acquaintances.

This stinks to high heaven and leaves all of us with two awful conclusions:

We cannot trust An Garda Síochána and we cannot trust Tusla.

When you consider the crucial role that both of these state bodies are paid to provide, ‘trust‘ is not a negotiable, nice to have attribute. Trust is everything.

What next?

To begin the long road of rebuilding trust in both organisations there can be no more fluffing about and decisive action and clear communication is required.

Our strong advice to those in charge would be to get ahead of the story, remove all doubts and demonstrate in no uncertain way how important regaining trust is.

This is the time for An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny or Minister for Justice and Equality, Frances Fitzgerald to take decisive action and remove Nóirín O’Sullivan from her role and get the investigation started immediately.

This is the time for Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Katherine Zappone to demand a 100% honest statement from the CEO of Tusla, Fred McBride as to what actually happened. If this is as farcical as the ‘clerical error’ statement, he should also be removed from his role.

The reputation of these two state organisations is not negotiable – start demonstrating it.

Greg Canty 

Fuzion provide Crisis PR services from our offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland