Perspectives on the forces shaping health

Reaching your audience with the right message has never been simple. But today, companies face even more challenges getting attention for the issues they care about and advocating for positions that will help the people they serve. Amid the current pandemic, communications channels are increasingly crowded, and stakeholders have even more distractions pulling them away. While many of us have adapted to this virtual world as we reach the seventh month of the pandemic, the “new normal” remains different for all of us.

Adding to this challenging environment is “fake news,” where it is increasingly difficult to get stakeholders to trust messages. For example, recent misinformation campaigns about elections and vaccines have brought new attention to this phenomenon and further underscore the need for reliable sources. In fact, the Nieman Lab at Harvard University publishes a weekly fake news roundup focusing on the latest research surrounding misinformation and clickbait.

Thus, it is more important than ever to understand who is critical to success, what channels are trusted and how to reach audiences with the right message the first time. Fortunately, Reservoir is guiding clients in this journey with innovative research offerings that combine the insights of our trusted Reservoir Network experts with technology that helps gain targeted feedback to inform messaging and engagement.

Our approach is three-fold:

• • Our first step in any research project is to gain an understanding of the field in which an organization or company is operating. Through a comprehensive landscape analysis, we identify the most important issues influencing the field and the other players that are also competing for visibility. This initial process provides a baseline to determine the overall sentiment in the field and pinpoint opportunities to dive deeper with our research. It is always helpful to understand general perceptions before diving into the thoughts of specific people within a selected audience.

• • We then identify the stakeholders most important for a given initiative, leveraging our trusted elite influencers in the Reservoir Network and proprietary techniques to identify their circle of influence. We specifically work to determine who has the greatest impact on core audiences to ensure the insights and opinions we gather are legitimate and representative, avoiding the plague of “fake news.”

• With this information, we craft a research plan that uses tailored approaches to find actionable insights and opportunities. We leverage a variety of tools that combine qualitative and quantitative research to ensure the data can be sliced in several different ways. We strongly believe that the quality of research participants is vital to producing actionable recommendations for moving forward, which is why we invest so much time engaging thought leaders and influencers through our research platforms.

Through our research, we can help identify the exact audience that is relevant to our clients’ goals and pinpoint the messages that resonate best as stakeholders separate the wheat from the chaff. We welcome the opportunity to help more organizations craft the best research strategy and deliver meaningful insights, as we finish 2020 and move into the new year.

Few of us who lived through these times will ever forget the names of those whose lives were taken from them. Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, among many others, have sparked a needed focus and dialogue on racism that reaches into every corner of our society.

Part of that dialogue is around diversity and inclusion in the workforce. At Reservoir, we have been talking about these issues as well as taking action. And while our words and actions may be imperfect, we nonetheless recognize the need for an ongoing commitment to diversity, inclusion and equity across the company and our community.

Reservoir has always valued diversity in who we hire, employ and partner with, and we remain committed to cultivating and preserving an inclusive environment for all. We recognize that our employees are our most valuable asset, so the more diverse backgrounds we represent, and unique capabilities we bring, the stronger we are as an organization. This summer our team formalized our commitment.

Our focus is three-pronged and aims to:

• Recruit a more diverse workforce, striving to exceed industry benchmarks;

• Promote and foster inclusion so that employees and prospects recognize Reservoir as an equitable, inclusive company; and

• Leverage Reservoir employees’ skills and resources to help advance underserved communities.

Importantly, promoting diversity and inclusion deeply aligns with our five company values. For example, to “strive to be the best” and “be substantive” require diverse backgrounds to be most effective. And if we are to “act as one team,” everyone’s voice and contributions have value. To “be respectful” and “operate with candor and integrity,” necessitates appreciating differences, while being fair and equitable.

We embrace and encourage our employees’ differences, which we believe comprise a broad range of traditional (e.g., gender, ethnicity) and atypical (e.g., life experiences, ideology) characteristics that make our employees unique. We commit to measuring our diversity and inclusion efforts and evaluating along the way, to support our vision of exemplifying a diverse, inclusive and equitable company.

This year, I set out to train for my first triathlon. Unfortunately, with the onset of COVID-19, my plans are temporarily on pause until it becomes safe to race.

At first, returning back to “normal” seemed to be within arm’s reach – a month of lockdown slowly crept into three, and pool closures meant my triathlon training temporarily turned into duathlon training. Eventually, the circumstances cancelled the race for good, and without a goal race, I needed to adapt and adjust my training to fit the conditions of the pandemic.

Laying the groundwork today will help me jump back into training for my next race, just like a proactive communications strategy helps achieve business and communications objectives. At Reservoir, we are constantly working to help clients advance in their communications and public affairs “triathlon” – brand, advocacy and reputation – strategically positioning them for success and building tools that will help them weather unexpected challenges.

Here are just a few other ways training for a triathlon reminds me of communications:

Agility and Adaptability

In triathlons, brick workouts combine two of the three sports in one workout. The most common brick workout is a bike ride followed by a run. Since the motions and the mechanics for cycling and running are distinct, brick workouts train the body to quickly transition from one sport to another. This agility is mirrored by the Reservoir team. With our strong foundation and deep expertise in health policy, we can quickly adapt and evolve our messaging and engagement strategy in real-time to respond to the circumstances.

Quality Over Quantity

Too much training can easily lead to injuries – ones that may involve a long road to recovery. That’s why it’s important to strategically align your training with goals, just like aligning activities to objectives. Prioritizing the most effective approach and complementary tactics can help ensure preparation for the challenges ahead.

Buddy System

In the pre-pandemic era, training with a buddy or in a group setting was often seen as more effective than going solo. Part of a good communications or public affairs strategy involves “buddies,” or engagement with aligned stakeholders. This engagement helps clients better understand the policy landscape, connect with individuals and organizations on shared causes and advocate for broader change with a unified voice.

With the end of the pandemic a dot on the horizon, the next in-person race is long off. Just like how my groundwork today will fuel my triathlon race when that time comes, our depth of knowledge and proactive communications strategies will continue to help shape the policy conversations of the future and ensure our clients are well positioned to tackle the most pressing challenges ahead.

Washington, D.C. – Reservoir Communications Group recently added six new members to its growing team, including Elan Schnitzer, who joins the firm’s senior team to help lead health care advocacy and education campaigns across Reservoir’s non-profit and corporate clients.

Reservoir Communications Group is a leading communications and public affairs firm bringing together the best people and ideas to help clients with their most significant challenges and opportunities in the areas of advocacy, reputation and brand strategy. The Reservoir team brings extensive experience managing many of the top health policy and reputation issues over the past two decades, and the latest additions to the team serve to diversify and strengthen the offering.

Over the course of his career in federal government, higher education, and consulting, Elan has developed deep experience in digital health access and adoption, federal health policy implementation, community engagement around sensitive health conditions, and event planning and execution. Elan came to Reservoir from Reingold, Inc., a strategic and digital communications consulting firm, where he led a portfolio of engagements with one of the nation’s premier pediatric cancer research and treatment institutions; the American College of Healthcare; and a number of federal health agencies. Prior to Reingold, Elan was a federal employee with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT.

Reservoir also announced Mara Novak, Kaitlyn Felsheim, Megan Hickey, Grace Strong and John Cerulli had joined the team, further expanding the firm’s deep knowledge of health policy, research, advocacy and clinical innovation.

Mara joins Reservoir with a strong background in health research and communications, which she leverages to help clients create thoughtful, compelling materials and campaigns that advance corporate brand, reputation and advocacy goals. Prior to joining Reservoir, Mara worked at the Advisory Board Company, where she focused on coordinating and communicating strategic initiatives for C-suite executives. She previously worked at CATO Research, a regulatory and clinical contract research organization, to support device and pharmaceutical manufacturers throughout the FDA approval process.

Kaitlyn brings extensive knowledge of pharmaceuticals and biological sciences to her role at Reservoir. While completing her undergraduate studies, Kaitlyn developed a strong background in cutting-edge cell and gene therapies through her work with the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. Kaitlyn also held a position at AbbVie, where she gained firsthand experience with the pharmaceutical industry.

Megan comes to Reservoir with a strong background in health policy research and communications, as well as management of complex workstreams in dynamic communications, trade association, and legal environments. Prior to Reservoir, Megan worked on the health team at APCO Worldwide, where she helped develop strategic communications for clients across the healthcare spectrum. She previously supported the General Counsel at the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), where she lent project management assistance on multiple workstreams. Before PhRMA, Megan spent four years at a mid-sized health litigation firm providing paralegal support.

John joined Reservoir full-time after beginning his career at the firm as an intern. Through his undergraduate coursework, John married his passion for politics and policy with his love of writing and communication. He put that knowledge and skill set to work through internships with the Bipartisan Policy Center and American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., where he advocated for policy reforms to support working families and developed a knack for distilling nuanced, technical policy issues into digestible messaging in order to drive the public conversation.

Grace joins Reservoir with a strong background in strategic communications and public affairs. Grace brings a depth of knowledge to her work through the combination of her studies and her previous experiences, including as an intern at Reservoir. Prior to Reservoir, Grace interned in the Office of the Executive Chairman at APCO Worldwide, focusing on global communication tactics and research, and also worked at the Clyde Group.

When I came to Reservoir Communications Group last year after a decade-and-a-half working in health policy people would often say “I heard you went to a PR firm.” While this is technically true I get the sense that some perceive it as a bigger jump than it actually was.

I can understand the disconnect: the stereotype is that policy wonks can go deep on the substance of an issue and are fluent in the arcane details of complex rules and regulations. But being so caught up in the details, they may struggle to connect with others or clearly convey their ideas.

On the other hand, communicators are often seen as creative and good with words but they may be stereotyped as fluffy, fast and loose with the facts, and knowing little about the complex topics they are talking about. In other words, the polar opposite of policy experts.

I actually came to Reservoir because the work here combines the best of policy and communications. My favorite aspects of policy have always been around explaining complex ideas and forming strong, persuasive arguments in favor or proposals that will improve patients’ lives and the health care system.

Reservoir specifically values deep knowledge of the health policy landscape to inform smart communications strategies – encompassing the best characteristics of both policy wonks and DC communicators. Far from moving to a substance-free communications zone, everyone at Reservoir is rooted in a deep knowledge of meaty issues like how society values innovation and balances affordability in health care or the public health challenges of vaccine hesitancy.

Drawing on my analytical policy background, I recently worked with colleagues to systematically research how people describe activities on the cusp of policy and communications so we could better articulate the work we actually do in this realm. Anyone who works in Washington knows how hard it is to explain to friends and family what you do all day, but it is important to be able to tell others in the health policy and communications space.

We found that the closest term that most people use to describe policy-rich communications work is “strategic communications.” But the term is broader and vaguer than we were seeking. Surprisingly, few people use the term “policy communications.” Maybe it goes back to perceptions about the gulf between policy and communications work or maybe there aren’t that many firms who truly work on this cusp.

Regardless, policy communications is the term I would use to describe much of the work I do at Reservoir. This is work that helps organizations engage in policy conversations, explain their positions, and improve our health care system. It may not fit the perceived mold but sometimes breaking the clichéd mold is exactly what is needed.

Find out more about policy communications at Reservoir here.

If there’s a concept that is consistently used – and perhaps over-used – in communications, advocacy campaigns and advertising, it’s storytelling. Top agency creatives, Fortune 500 chief marketing officers and corporate communications leaders extoll the importance of storytelling in effective brand narratives.

Communications professionals are natural storytellers. But how do we define storytelling exactly? Is it enough to show the role and value of a product or service in the life of a consumer or stakeholder? Make the product the hero as the ‘Mad Men’ of the world once did? Or portray the consumer as the hero as is more typically done today? In my view, it’s not about heroism, characters or roles. Truly compelling stories share two things: Emotional relevance and an understanding of the nature of conflict.

Emotional Relevance

How do we recognize a story that is authentic? All of us know the answer. We know a story is truthful when we recognize ourselves, our own experiences and emotions within a narrative. As human beings, we recognize an emotional truth in the stories we connect to on a gut level. And as storytellers, if we don’t feel a sense of understanding and emotional relevance in our work, our audience probably won’t either.

Audience members are our partners; they work with or against us to engage and complete the brand experience. Today we no longer tell tribal tales around a campfire where we can immediately gauge our audience’s reaction. As creative storytellers, we have to develop the intuition and foresight to understand our stakeholder’s personal, internal dialogue. This is the essence of what makes a story meaningful and memorable.

Embrace Conflict

Life is full of conflict, and all good stories have some kind of force that prevents or delays the protagonist from obtaining the object of his or her desire. Even a sense of inertia can provide enough conflict to deter us from pursuing our goals. We all want to be healthy and fit, but it’s hard to keep our resolutions to regularly hit the gym. Nike’s iconic “just do it” campaign recognized inertia as a central element of conflict in the lives of their customers.

We all want to craft powerful client stories, but it’s hard to know where to start. As a storyteller, I find that an effective place to begin is to search for the essence of central conflict. Where is the friction, the point of contention, or the uncomfortable sticking point for my client? Sometimes it’s right below the surface and something we tend to gloss over…a hard truth, a copy point too difficult to describe, an issue too complex to address. We often shy away and try to make the story about something slightly different to avoid the rough spots. When we do, we’ve probably missed the very thing that will make the story work.

Unless we ask the difficult questions that force us to unearth the essence of conflict and core messaging for our clients, we will never succeed in making their story relevant, or even interesting, for anyone else.

Understanding and empathy—that most human capacity to see ourselves in the lives of others—are what will enable us to create a compelling, enriching narrative. Life is a shared experience. We are indeed all in this together. And that’s the real story.

Coronavirus has turned the world upside to down over the past three months, and advocacy organizations have been along for the devastating ride. I spent time talking with various national patient and consumer advocates about the impact the virus is having on their organizations, constituents and advocacy efforts.

The lockdown and shelter-in-place orders issued in March by governors and mayors across the country immediately threw the everyday activities of advocacy organizations into question. Advocacy organizations nationwide experienced a period of asking, “What now,” as they quickly came to realize the traditional way of engaging their stakeholders and constituents was not going to work – at least until the impact of the pandemic subsided.

Everything from their central patient support line, fundraising walks, major education initiatives and carefully planned legislative agendas were, at least temporarily, no longer applicable or possible.

Even engaging in-person with advocates, policymakers, colleagues, funders and others has been off limits. One-on-one events to build awareness and support for important causes were cancelled or postponed through the summer. Advocate fly ins – an important strategy bringing dozens or even hundreds of advocates to Washington to meet with members of Congress over a short period of time – were, in some cases, fully planned but had to be shelved as Congressional offices stopped scheduling in-person meetings with constituents.

To stem the impact of the pandemic on their ability to carry out their missions as much as possible, advocacy organizations have quickly changed course and sought to transform their operations in various ways.

Communicating about the Impact of COVID-19 on Constituencies:

The greatest concern for those organizations representing patients is the widespread and measurable impact of COVID-19 on patients’ interaction with the health system and their own care.

“We are already seeing a significant impact on cancer patients and survivors [from COVID-19],” said Pam Traxel, Senior Vice President of Alliance Development and Philanthropy for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN). “Our recent Survivor Voices survey of more than 1,200 patients showed that more than half of those surveyed have had some impact on their care due to the virus and of those impacted, nearly one in four have experienced a delay in care or treatment.”

Traxel noted that ACS is already preparing to include a dedicated section on the impact of COVID-19 for those living with cancer in the organization’s upcoming Cancer Facts and Figures annual report, which comes out each January.

“What we want to think about is going beyond epidemiology to how to help cancer patients get through this. Oncology providers who have stayed open through the pandemic are already experiencing a tremendous patient need – to the point where they are moving stuff out of storage closets to serve more patients and still ensure appropriate physical distancing.”

The coronavirus pandemic has also had an outsized impact on minority populations. An analysis released in April by the Kaiser Family Foundation showed that black Americans and Hispanics are disproportionately affected – with a higher of cases and deaths resulting from the virus.

Tammy Boyd, Chief Policy Officer with the Black Women’s Health Imperative, said advocates representing the black community have responded with creative online partnership-driven efforts that have drawn tens of thousands of interested participants.

“DJ D-Nice and the NAACP have separately hosted various celebrities, CEOs and politicians on online events and webinars about COVID-19,” said Boyd. “These virtual forums are drawing 50,000 or even 100,000 people. In some instances these audiences are becoming advocates themselves on everything from funding and action to reduce the high impact of COVID-19 on minority populations to ensuring mail-in voting rights.”

BWHI has created a Surviving COVID-19 section – coronavirus.bwhi.org – prominently displayed on their website, which provides tips and tools about “health and safety, emotional wellness, parenting, healthy lifestyles and financial literacy during the pandemic.”

Fighting for Funding in COVID Packages:

Many advocacy organizations have banded together to collaboratively advocate for funding from the various COVID-focused pieces of legislation to meet specific health needs.

“The mental health community worked together to seek funding in the COVID 2 and 3 packages for certified community behavioral health centers (CCBHCs), emergency grants for behavioral health, funding for a suicide prevention hotline and heightened mental health needs of Native Americans during the pandemic,” said Andrew Sperling, Director of Legislative Advocacy at NAMI. He added that the community was also able to improve regulations relating to confidentiality of patient records through COVID 2 – a legislative priority that took five years to achieve.

Drawing Attention of Relevancy of COVID-19 to Current Initiatives:

Sally Greenberg, Executive Director of the National Consumers League, said the pandemic forced her organization to focus on the things they do best – including their focus on fraud.

“Whenever there is a catastrophic event, whether it’s a natural disaster or the current pandemic – fraudsters come out of woodwork,” noted Greenberg. “They send emails and make phone calls to try to entice people to buy products relating to the situation that have no basis in science or fact or that the consumer will never actually see. For COVID-19, it’s everything from lotions that don’t work to masks and protective gear the fraudsters don’t actually have access to.”

To combat coronavirus-related fraud, the National Consumers League launched a radio media tour that included about 30 interviews over a week and a half and reached about three million consumers.

All of the advocates with whom we spoke were in agreement that, whatever the focus of your initiative, it must be positioned through a COVID-19 lens. “It’s the one thing on everyone’s mind,” added Boyd. “We still have to get our information out there. It’s going to be a long time before we go back to normal, and if it’s not related to COVID in some way, people aren’t really going to be interested.”

The global human tragedy that is COVID-19 has made all of us more grateful for and more focused on our individual health, but it has also brought home one indisputable fact: health is quite literally wealth on a societal scale.

We read the daily reports that the more economically vulnerable among us are more likely to be harmed, reinforcing the role of social determinants in shaping health outcomes. However, this crisis underscores a corollary truth: that poor health itself leads to poor economic outcomes, both for individuals and societies. In this case, simply the threat of disease has cost millions of Americans their employment and left us trillions of dollars in debt.

The correlations between health status and economic success are well-established. As a country, we often focus correctly on the negative correlation, that is that those without economic means are more like to experience diminished health status. Arguably, we don’t spend enough time considering the other side of the equation – that poor health status leads to negative economic outcomes – for individuals, communities and nations.

Consider the case of rare genetic diseases in children. Yes, it is true that those with greater economic means may be able to better manage those conditions; but it is also true that the conditions themselves often force families into poverty because of the costs of managing the disease as well as the lost opportunity costs that come with not being able to work because of the need to care for a sick child. In the case of a condition like sickle cell disease that is concentrated in certain communities, in this case predominantly African-Americans, the burden becomes generational, as those with the disease are often less able to work and have shorter lifespans, thus creating economic hardship that is compounded over time.

Too often we talk about health care spending as a drag on the economy, as if health care is not a contributor to the economy. The current pandemic should make us think otherwise. Health care is vital. Healthier people and nations are more economically successful people and nations.

In the case of COVID-19, it will be technology in the form of testing, treatments and vaccines that will ultimately help us emerge from the current crisis. When those technologies ultimately come on-line they will save not only our health, but also our economy.

Coming out of this crisis we should consider, beyond COVID-19, how to re-energize our approach to health. In areas like diabetes, heart disease, cancer, rare diseases and others we increasingly have good solutions that when fully utilized could lift up the health and wealth of those who have been left behind.

Perhaps the rock group U2 best summed up the duality of health status in their song, “God Part II,” when they sang “the rich stay healthy; the sick stay poor.”

Let’s use the tremendous power and innovation of our health care system to change the tune.

With little warning, many companies – including ours – were thrust into a remote-only working environment with the onset of COVID-19 and social distancing. While we are extremely fortunate to work from home fairly seamlessly, it has not been without its challenges. And among those challenges has been keeping employees engaged as effectively as when the team was in the office – especially without a clear end date in sight. Here’s what has worked well so far.

Being human.

These are unprecedented times, where authenticity, flexibility and sincerity are critical in communications and interactions. Colleagues are acknowledging the change, the challenges and the upsides in direct, empathetic and even humorous ways. These moments help the team realize that we are all in this together.

Keeping it constant.

Engagement does not have to be all business, or solely when there are major announcements to make. Whether it’s a weeklong virtual “spirit week” with new activities daily, a funny meme at the end of a long day, or a poll and follow-up content with the results, we look to engage the broader team every day – a reminder that we’re still here (at least virtually).

Leaning into our values.

Our president shared a note about how our values are more important, and relevant, than ever during the office closure. Our values drive our culture, and understanding how they are helping us persevere during this challenging time has been energizing, comforting and unifying.

Giving options.

Everyone has different interests, availabilities and comfort levels in virtual activity participation. Allowing for options enables individuals to engage in ways that enhance their experience working from home, without the participation seeming overbearing. As a few examples, we conduct daily “brain breaks” to supplement the benefits of “water cooler” talk, a weekly happy hour, and opportunities to share different tips and current realities on photo-sharing platforms. There is something for everyone, and team members participate as they see fit.

Making an extra effort.

Having a finger on the pulse of how direct reports and team members are doing is critical, and this takes more effort than walking down the hall or peeking around a corner when working remote. Actions like suggesting a video chat instead of a phone call for a check in or following up with someone we have not heard from recently are worth it to ensure colleagues feel connected and supported.

Getting feedback and adjusting.

We are a month in, and so far, feedback has been largely positive. Understanding what is working (and what isn’t) has helped us lean into what colleagues value most, so we can make this new, albeit temporary, normal as positive an experience as possible.