Conflict management is ongoing and silicon and nature. We're going to talk about the issue life cycle in this video. Issues management is a proactive approach to predict problems, anticipate threats, minimize surprises, resolve issues, and prevent crises. One of the most valuable assets of a brand is its reputation. This asset is impacted by how the brand deals with conflict, particularly those crisis that generate significant media attention. PR practitioners are responsible for the development of communication strategies to influence the course of conflicts to the benefit of the brand, and when possible to the benefit of the brand stakeholders. In this video, we are going to look at the issue life cycle or the big picture of how to manage a conflict. For your reference, I have included some readings in this area issues management, reputation management, risk management, and crisis communication. These are all sub fields of public relations and there's been so much written on these topics. So if you want more it's out there. This is a depiction of the issue life cycle in conflict management. Keep in mind that the phases are not absolute and that some of the techniques overlap in practice. The potential phase is when a brand actively looks for issues that need to be managed or could be emergent as potential crisis. We are looking for these triggering events. In this phase, we practice environmental scanning, that's the reading, listening, and watching of current events with an eye to the brand's interests. We also practice issue tracking that's focused on a particular emerging issue, tracking its development. We also practice issues management and that's when a brand creates strategic plans to address the emerging issue. In the emerging phase, an issue that has become an emerging conflict is identified as needing attention. This phase includes risk communication. This type of communication conveys dangers or threats to people or brands in order to prevent and avoid personal injury, health problems, and environmental damage. Conflict positioning enables the brand to position itself favorably in the court of public opinion. And a crisis management plan is developed in this phase in preparation of a conflict of crisis proportions. The current crisis phase are when the issue or imminent conflict reaches a critical level of impact on the brand. A current issue is generally enduring, becomes pervasive, and attains a high level of intensity. At this point, the public, key influencers, and others recognize the importance of the issue. This is when conflict resolution is practice and the crisis communication plan deployed. In the dormant phase, this is the aftermath of the crisis or conflict. The brand must practice reputation management and image restoration during this phase. The issue should never be considered settled. However, at some point, another stakeholder or group may initiate this issues rebirth. There have been many examples of triggering events over the years. Volkswagen, Wells Fargo, Target, the NFL, Uber, Chipotle, Samsung, Pepsi, United Airlines, Subway, Purdue Pharma, the NRA, Tylenol. I could go on, but I'll stop. I encourage you to go look up any of these brands and they're triggering event and think about how the brand handled the issue as it moved through the life cycle.
