Cultivate Your Garden: Crisis Communications from 30,000 Feet to Three Feet

The purpose of this book is to empower strategic communicators at all levels to cultivate their own gardens before, during, and after a crisis. We have all been through a crisis or two. The next one could occur tomorrow. This book is different. The soil is fresh. Each chapter shares unique content but with consistent attributes. Each chapter begins with a quote or two. I encourage you to pause and reflect on why they were chosen. Each chapter also begins with a photograph. In Chapter 10 you will have the opportunity to caption each one. Along the way, in every chapter, you can interpret the relationship between the text and chosen imagery. And every chapter weaves in anecdotes, experiences and stories. Whether you consume information textually, visually, or experientially, they are all here for you. Once we have whetted your appetite, each chapter provides a strategic overview. The strategic level is often referred to as a 30,000-foot view. This term comes from the approximate cruising altitude of commercial airliners. Visual learners can imagine what that view looks like. Strategy is important. It is essential. But strategy is not the complete story. So, in this book, in addition to the strategic insights, each chapter will also include more operational and tactical pointers – the view from three feet. They will help to quickly transform those strategies into action at work, today and tomorrow. As C.S. Lewis realized, “A glimpse is not a vision. But to a man on a mountain road by night, a glimpse of the next three feet of road may matter more than a vision of the horizon.”