PRESIDENTIAL LESSONS IN ISSUES MANAGEMENT

This program is designed to enhance the skills of senior leaders and to provide a path to acquire these strategic skills for the aspiring leader. It draws from the lessons depicted in our study of the last 15 presidents of the United States as issues managers and applied to events that were reported on the news today. The concept of issues management can be broken down into one term – anticipate. This presentation uses historical narratives to show how 15 men, elected to the highest office, managing the most complex issues, with access to limitless resources and under the most intense scrutiny succeeded or failed at issues management and the lessons today’s leaders can learn and apply from their experiences.

1. Why was it so important for Franklin Roosevelt to ask permission before undertaking the New Deal?
2. What skills are required to manage a large issue into a manageable problem as Dwight Eisenhower did with integration of schools in Little Rock, AR?
3. Why did John F. Kennedy not get blamed for the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion?
4. What mistake in issues management was shared by Gerald Ford and Joe Biden?
5. What did Bush 41 do and Bush 43 fail to do in managing wars? This program concludes with the application of issues management principle to current events. An example is: “Why did Penn Win and Harvard Lose” after the testimony of their presidents before congress.

THE FIFTEEN SKILLS OF THE STRATEGIC ISSUES MANAGEMENT LEADER

This program is designed to enhance the skills of senior leaders and to provide a path to acquire these strategic skills for the aspiring leader. It draws on lessons provided in my book and also from current events to demonstrate how these skills were strategically applied or not applied in the management of issues. The presentation focuses on three foundational principles of Issues management:

1. See clearly
2. Act strategically
3. Solve creatively.

The skills that will be explained and applied include:

• Framing the issue
• Defining success
• Developing strategy
• Assessing operational capabilities
• Setting achievable goals
• Repurposing information into knowledge capital
• Selecting/training the Issues Management Team
• Building tactical agility into the team
• Engaging key stakeholders
• Persuading influencers
• Attaining benchmarks
• Controlling the narrative
• Gathering and using intelligence
• Avoiding the lose-lose outcome.
• Applying lessons learned to improve your organization.

This program provides a roadmap and a rationale for internal leadership training programs.

THE 360 DEGREE STRATEGIC ISSUES MANAGEMENT LEADER

This program is designed to enhance the skills of senior leaders and to provide a path to acquire these strategic skills for the aspiring leader. It draws on lessons provided in my book and from current events to demonstrate talk about the factors that cause disruption and shape issues. The key to this talk is stressing the need for the issues management leader to have a 360-degree assessment of the internal and external environment.

The factors include:

1. Internal decision
2. External event
3. Cultural misstep
4. Certainty
5. Shifts in thinking
6. Global event
7. Social disorder
8. Political division
9. Economic disparity
10. Challenging the world order
11. Reordering of values

Examples of each will be provided.

1. How did the decision to expand Bud Light marketing disrupt the brand?
2. Why did the mis-framing of campus protests cost two university presidents their jobs?
3. How does scientific consensus narrow an organization’s options to solve problems?
4. How did a shift in thinking about criminal justice impact retail stores?