The Art of IT Communication in the Digital Age: Insights from Nathaniel Morris

Brett Deister: 00:00:13

Mm, that's good.

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And welcome to new episode of

Digital Coffee Marketing Brew.

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I'm your host, Brett Deister.

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As always, please subscribe to

the podcast through YouTube.

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Through Rumble and also through your

favorite podcasting apps as well.

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It really does help with this show.

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But this week we're gonna be talking about

IT management and communicating between

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both of those, which PR pros need to know

and other professionals need to know.

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'cause we always need to know.

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How to communicate better

with people with me.

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I have Nathaniel with me,

and he is an expert in this.

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He's an expert in ways of

communicating from it to management.

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And this is specifically what we were

talking about, like I said before.

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So welcome to the show, Nathaniel.

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Thanks.

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Nathaniel Morris: Enjoy being here and

looking forward to the conversation.

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Brett Deister: Brett?

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Yes, and the first question

is, all my guests is, are

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you a coffee or tea drinker?

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Oh,

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Nathaniel Morris: I'm gonna go with tea.

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I'm in that 50%.

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Who's gonna be on the tea side?

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I.

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Brett Deister: Uh, do you

have any like specifics?

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Do you have like green tea, black

tea, like any specific teas that you

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Nathaniel Morris: enjoy?

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Primarily black tea and I

preferred iced actually.

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So classic iced tea works beautifully.

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It's okay if you put a little

fruit in it here and there.

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You know, peach or mangoes.

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Delicious.

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But classic black tea,

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Brett Deister: is it just like

regular tea or is it like sweet tea?

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'cause I know down like south they

love, they're like sweet, sweet tea.

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Nathaniel Morris: Well, syrup with a

little tea is a little much for me.

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I don't mind a little sweetener in

it, but we're not gonna go probably

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have the South Georgia sweet Tea.

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That's a little much for the taste.

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Brett Deister: That's fair.

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And I gave a brief introduction

to you, but can you sum, summarize

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your expertise with our listeners?

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Nathaniel Morris: Absolutely.

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So my expertise is in working between

technology and business and leadership.

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I've spent about 20 years in the

technical trenches and working with

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executives leading IT organizations,

and I specialize in helping all parts

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of the business work better with it,

and it work better with the business.

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All

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Brett Deister: right.

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And so what are some of the problems with

communicating between it and management?

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I mean, we all, we all kinda have this

like idea that it are like the nerds,

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they don't know how to do much, and then

the management is kind of like the, like

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the, I guess the cool people in a way.

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But you, you know, like the common

stereotype is like they just don't know

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how to communicate, but how, what are

the real common problems with that?

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Nathaniel Morris: Yeah, I, I think one

of the biggest problems that I see over

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and over again is the disconnect between

looking at them as two different silos,

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and it's okay to have boundaries between

IT and business, so that's appropriate.

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But if they're full silos and they're

operating independently, then what

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you get is it feels like you're.

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Local drive-through where some business

owner drives up and says, I need this

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and I expect it at the next window.

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And that can work, but it's not nearly as

beneficial to the business owner as being

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able to say, okay, here's the problem that

I'm currently experiencing in my business.

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Here's what I'm trying to accomplish

and what's my best way of getting there.

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And so that's really about.

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The communication between creating

a shared understanding where the

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business and tech are able to sit down

together and let's look at the problem

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and come to a collaborative solution.

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If either side, and I've seen it from

both, it says business doesn't know

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what they need, I'm gonna do it my way.

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Or if business says, I just want

exactly this checkbox, well that may

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not be the most efficient option.

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So we work collaboratively, we're gonna

get a lot more results for the business.

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Gotcha.

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Brett Deister: And is it because.

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There's a lot of like foreign, or

people think it's like foreign for it.

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Like it's this like mysterious thing

that just happens in the background and

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that's why management doesn't really

understand it very well is because

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that it may use a lot of jargon.

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Is that kind of the mis, the like the.

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Miscommunication that comes about it.

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Yeah, that can

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Nathaniel Morris: happen a a whole lot

when, when you get an IT individual

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in the room and they start using

their language and talking about

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their specifics of acronyms, and

every industry has their acronyms.

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Technology and finance seem to have

a monopoly on acronym acronyms.

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But when you start getting the

lingo thrown around, then the

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business feels disconnected.

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They may feel talked down to, and it's.

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Really begins to become a challenge and

the business just says, I'm done dealing

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with them because it, it's too technical.

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I don't understand it.

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I don't wanna look ignorant.

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And so by changing the conversation

and putting the business owner or the

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manager in a position of strength to

say, tell me about the business problem.

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And even if a business owner is

saying, Hey, I've gotta talk to it.

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They don't really, you know, these

aren't productive conversations.

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I really challenge a business

owner to walk in and say.

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I'm not gonna ask for a specific solution.

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I'm gonna tell you my business problem.

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And I'm gonna ask you how you would

best help me because if you can start

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the conversation in the business

context, everyone begins to get into

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a better frame of mind towards the

end goal, which is, it's not about an

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upgrade, it's not about new laptops.

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It's not like it is about

what's my business problem?

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'cause I can hand you a new

software, a new solution, I can

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implement it and I did my job.

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But if I build a bridge to nowhere.

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Then it doesn't help anybody.

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Right?

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So if I'm a bridge builder, I, I've

gotta make sure I know where you want

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to go from and where you wanna go to.

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Same

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Brett Deister: thing with tech.

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Gotcha.

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And then, I mean, should, let's

say the IT person's working within

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a company, should they ask for

PR pros to help them with that?

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Because a lot of times PR pros understand

like the communication aspect of it.

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It's like, Hey, look it.

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I don't feel like my

message is getting crossed.

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Can you help me?

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Would that help with 'em quite a bit?

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Because I feel like if you

collaborate with other teams, they'll

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understand and then that will help

with the management understanding.

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Is that a good way of going about it?

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Nathaniel Morris: Yeah, absolutely.

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Anywhere that you can get the

context of the business and you

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know, one of the things that.

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Is also an opportunity is in, in the event

that your business has a retail storefront

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or has a place where you engage with

customers or you have some kind of, even

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if it's a digital storefront and it's a

website, spending time to deliberately

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build that relationship and say, Hey, let

me show you what we're trying to do here.

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Let show what we're trying to

accomplish is very helpful.

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And you know, I've seen marketing leaders

who succeed by even sitting down and

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saying, Hey look, I'm spending a million

dollars on this advertising campaign.

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Here's what I'm after, right?

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So this is why this matters

to our business, and this is

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what I'm trying to accomplish.

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That adds a lot of context

because it shows trust.

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And when you exhibit that vulnerability

of saying, here's what I'm trying to

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do, here's what my goals are, and I'm

asking for your help, then you begin

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to establish those relationships where

it may actually say, Hey, we can do

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X, Y, and Z to make it better for you.

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But we didn't even know

what you were trying to do.

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Brett Deister: Gotcha.

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And then.

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What are some ways to be,

uh, to be effective at this?

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Would it be like doing like a, a

newsletter for management saying

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like, this is what we've done.

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Would it be like, like doing like a

simple email with just bullet points?

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Because everybody's busy and

everybody doesn't wanna read

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like paragraphs upon paragraphs.

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So it should be like, we've changed this.

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This is how to do something.

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Maybe relying on somebody to

do a video for a new feature.

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Would doing like extra content

help with that side of it?

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Because I feel like.

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You can come out with great features, but

if nobody knows how to use it or even know

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about it, then there's not really a point.

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Nathaniel Morris: Well, there's,

there's a couple different

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tactics that I like to see used.

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One is absolutely communication

and an an email can be helpful,

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but to your point, it can get lost.

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I, I really encourage if an IT team can

work with a PR team or marketing team

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to say, Hey, we'd love to do a technical

newsletter, or if there's a company

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newsletter, we'd love to have a couple

of pages in it to show what we're doing.

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And.

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Maybe it's some tips, maybe it's

some tricks about things and how

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to better use and really build

that rapport and that liaison.

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It's not about saying, Hey, we have

this many servers, or Our uptime is X.

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It's about.

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Being clear from a business

perspective about business impact.

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So that's one newsletter.

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I've also worked with teams and

encouraged, and we've done a quarterly

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or annual video where the technical

leadership team, the head of support,

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works with marketing and says, Hey, I

wanna talk about the most common issues we

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see coming into our support organization,

and I wanna talk about how to fix 'em.

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And maybe there's, you know, here's

the resources where you can go

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fix it yourself without having to.

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Waste time, you know, getting on

the phone with it and let me, let me

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help you learn where your tools are.

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So that's been very beneficial at times.

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I've also seen, and I think this could

be extremely powerful as well, is when

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you start getting into an organization

where you wanna communicate and

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share some of this information out.

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It getting out in front of developing

relationships with the field and getting

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to the point where you get sort of

evangelists that you can work with

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and power users and you bring them in.

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So for example, we're, you might

say, Hey, I, I'm a part of a retail

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organization, we have 500 storefronts.

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Maybe you need to find somebody in each

region and bring them to headquarters.

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Show them the beta, show

them where you're going.

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People who will be excited, who

are early adopters, who are always

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kind of pushing the envelope.

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Maybe they're the people you're

constantly dealing with, they're

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breaking the system because they're

always trying to get an edge.

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Embrace that, right?

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Get those early adopters in there and

say, Hey, this is what we're doing.

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And then let them go back into their roles

and be an evangelist for what's happening.

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And I think that's

really, really powerful.

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More so even than just

broadcast communication.

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Brett Deister: And then, I mean, when

talking about management should is the

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basic thing, just understanding who you're

talking to, because I feel like if you

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do the right message to the right person,

so it's basically solving a problem with

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your communication, you're like, okay,

what do they need to know the most?

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So you could write that

email and will actually be.

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A targeted email to them.

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So how can they go about

actually doing that?

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Should they like talk to their bosses?

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Should they figure that out?

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How do they go about figuring that out?

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Because it takes time

to understand people.

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Nathaniel Morris: It does take

time to understand people.

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But I will say there's two shortcuts that

I've seen that are very, very helpful.

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One is right to content.

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Content that needs to be communicated

from your lens first, right?

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Because that's where you're gonna

get all of the facts on the table.

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But then.

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Sit down and, and look at it from the end.

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Consumer's conte or context.

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So if you're sending a note to finance

as a management, or if you're sending

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a note to the sales management, or

vice versa, they're sending it to it.

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Look at it from their context and

put what you're trying to communicate

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in their context and at their depth.

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If you're sending it to an accountant

who is in the weeds of the, you know,

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details and you're saying, here's what's

happening with the new finance system,

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or Here's what we're doing with ERP, you

need to be very detailed because that

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individual's in a very detailed role.

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But if I'm sending it to the director of

accounting, or if I'm sending it to a CFO.

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The depth needs to be reduced because

that individual is not in the weeds.

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And so context and depth are your

two shortcuts where you can put

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your communication through that

filter and then you can really

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resonate because that person is

able to digest it in their context.

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And at the appropriate

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Brett Deister: depth and showing it

to somebody else might actually help

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too within the company if you're

working for a company, because

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sometimes they'll see something else.

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Because when you're in the weeds and you

write it, you're gonna be in the weeds

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and you're gonna way too technical.

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So you may need that extra person to get

outside of it and be like, okay, this

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is what I really need to know because

I don't know all this technical stuff

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and this is getting too muddled for me.

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Nathaniel Morris: Yeah, and it's

very helpful when you can do that.

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Someone else looking at it is

across different areas, right?

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So you're reaching into a different

area to say, Hey, I want your opinion

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before I send it to the next tier

up, or I, before I send it down

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into the lower tier it, it may be.

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So back getting that shared

context and, and sharing it out.

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I used to send the emails a

lot of times in communications.

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I'd just preface it.

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I'd say, here's the subject

line I'm intending to do.

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I'd put the word draft in

front of that subject line.

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Have the full email, have the full

document, send it to somebody and

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say, Hey, I need some feedback.

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That creates buy-in and it'll help you

avoid mistakes as well as the fact of

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they're gonna be an evangelist for it.

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Because what's gonna happen, you're gonna

send it to your targeted recipient and

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they're gonna go talk to their team,

or they're gonna talk to their boss.

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If you've already gotten their feedback,

they're familiar with the communication.

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Brett Deister: Gotcha.

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And then moving to cyber attacks.

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'cause unfortunately it's not, if it will

happen, it's now when it will happen.

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So how can it pros like.

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Communicate the beginnings of it.

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I know cyber attacks are long processes.

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You gotta figure out how they got into it.

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So how can they do the

preliminary like message to their

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bosses about what's going on?

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Because it feels like a lot of times

when it does happen, the management

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kind of knows what's going on, but

then doesn't really know, and then it

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really just confuses users, especially

if you're a B2B or B2C type company.

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It's like, wait, so it's worse

than what I thought it was.

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Nathaniel Morris: The, when it comes to

cyber, one of the most important things

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is doing a table talk, the exercise, and a

lot of times technical teams will do this

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from a technical perspective, but I work

with a lot of teams and say, all right,

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who's your communication individual?

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Who's the individual who is doing nothing

but managing the communication out?

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Because the team itself is

gonna be so involved in a

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response and how do we stop it?

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How do we fix it?

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Those type of things.

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And there's a leader over that project.

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Well.

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You want someone designated as a role.

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It doesn't have to be an named

individual, but you need to say in

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the role, this individual is the

communicator, and so we're going to work

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with them and here's the expectations.

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They're gonna communicate with leadership.

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They're gonna communicate

with customer, key, customer

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accounts, whatever it may be, and.

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Pre-Building that workflow and going

through some of those exercises is really

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important because what I've seen teams

do, and I think it's really important, is

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pre-built distribution lists so that you

know everybody is appropriately on it.

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Pre-built some existing templates, you

know, that says, okay, we know we have

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to notify these people contractually.

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We know that we've got

to do these things, so.

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Have some of that work pre-done to where

you're not trying to invent it on the fly

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because it's really hard under stress.

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Right.

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When you know, there's a continuum that

I use and it talks about the fact that

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the more chaotic an environment, the more

structured your response needs to be.

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Military conflict is the

easiest example, right?

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Military is trained to be extremely

structured in their operations

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and what they do because they're

operating in a chaotic environment.

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So a cyber attack is a ca chaotic

environment and you need to be

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very structured and have as much

as you can pre-planned so that

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: 00:15:17

that communication goes out.

309

: 00:15:18

And you know, one of the easiest things

there is to develop a shared vocabulary.

310

: 00:15:24

And there's very simple frameworks for

some of this out there, but you know, what

311

: 00:15:28

does it mean to say we're under attack?

312

: 00:15:30

Does that mean our data's been stolen?

313

: 00:15:32

Does that mean that somebody's in our

system, but we have 'em contained?

314

: 00:15:36

Does that mean that we have a

ransomware and data's encrypted

315

: 00:15:40

and now we're talking about a ran?

316

: 00:15:41

Like we need to have clear lines because

we can't have five different people say.

317

: 00:15:47

Attack and mean five different things.

318

: 00:15:50

So it needs to be a really simple,

and sometimes the easiest way

319

: 00:15:53

to do this is with a, a scale.

320

: 00:15:55

You know, the military uses a DEFCON

system, for example, develop a, a

321

: 00:15:59

scale that says, Hey, we're at a

level 1, 2, 3, 4 response and this

322

: 00:16:02

is what it means and here's who

needs to be involved at this level.

323

: 00:16:07

And I think those are your, by

pre-planning, those, you'll get a lot

324

: 00:16:11

better from a communication perspective

as it goes internally to employees.

325

: 00:16:17

Brett Deister: Gotcha.

326

: 00:16:17

So I mean, as a PR pro we have

something called a crisis plan.

327

: 00:16:21

So we basically write everything that may

happen to a business, and it's usually

328

: 00:16:25

the top three crises that may happen.

329

: 00:16:29

So.

330

: 00:16:30

In that case, it's almost like

you should pull aside the PR pro

331

: 00:16:33

even, uh, if it's already written,

just have a pre-described thing.

332

: 00:16:37

But you pull aside the PR pro and be like,

Hey, look at this is what's going on.

333

: 00:16:40

And kind of clue them in so they can

write to whoever their point person

334

: 00:16:44

is to actually talk to the media.

335

: 00:16:46

Is that kind like what I'm

336

: 00:16:47

Nathaniel Morris: hearing?

337

: 00:16:47

Exactly.

338

: 00:16:48

Uh, talk to media, talk

to key individuals.

339

: 00:16:51

In this case you may have government

contacts you need to make.

340

: 00:16:54

There may be, you know, contractual

contracts you need to make.

341

: 00:16:58

So absolutely.

342

: 00:17:00

Brett Deister: You said sliding scale.

343

: 00:17:01

So for PR pros, it's like

an issue to a crisis level.

344

: 00:17:04

One would be like an issue.

345

: 00:17:06

It, it may be annoyance, but

it will eventually go away.

346

: 00:17:09

And the crisis is like, this will

stay in the news for like several

347

: 00:17:12

months or to a year or whatever.

348

: 00:17:14

So I.

349

: 00:17:15

In that way, I think for IT pros, they

probably should just pull them in and

350

: 00:17:19

like come together, figure out a crisis

plan for cyber tech, that that helps

351

: 00:17:24

with the IT people, but also helps with

the management because those are the two

352

: 00:17:27

you're gonna have to worry about the most

and then has a little bit of a message

353

: 00:17:31

for regular employees to say like, please

don't say too much about what's going on.

354

: 00:17:36

This is your Canon response.

355

: 00:17:38

And then, and basically show them

to the point person for that.

356

: 00:17:42

Nathaniel Morris: Absolutely.

357

: 00:17:43

You wanna make sure that you

have the message understood.

358

: 00:17:46

You wanna have it pre-built as much as you

can to your point, you know, if something

359

: 00:17:50

leaks out from a PR perspective, you wanna

know what level are we talking about?

360

: 00:17:55

And even how you

communicate that out, right?

361

: 00:17:59

I mean, you are gonna see,

did we lose some passwords?

362

: 00:18:02

Did we lose a hundred customer records?

363

: 00:18:04

Did we lose 10 million

customer records, like.

364

: 00:18:06

Do we lose employee records?

365

: 00:18:08

You wanna be able to put context on

it pretty fast because cyber is a

366

: 00:18:13

trigger word and it's a headline word,

if you wanna think of it that way.

367

: 00:18:17

And so you wanna put context around it

pretty fast to understand the scope.

368

: 00:18:20

And realistically, how

369

: 00:18:22

Brett Deister: long does it

figure out what, how much damage

370

: 00:18:24

the attack actually took place?

371

: 00:18:26

Does it take months?

372

: 00:18:27

Does it take years to figure that out?

373

: 00:18:29

Because I know all of 'em are

sophisticated and they can,

374

: 00:18:31

and it's all different things.

375

: 00:18:33

But how realistically,

how long should this.

376

: 00:18:35

Crisis communication.

377

: 00:18:37

Go on from an IT perspective.

378

: 00:18:39

Nathaniel Morris: So from point

of awareness, because a lot of

379

: 00:18:41

times attacks are happening and

companies aren't aware, right?

380

: 00:18:44

So from point of awareness, you're

gonna talk about the fact that.

381

: 00:18:48

It depends on how big the scope of it

is, but it could go on from a matter of,

382

: 00:18:53

let's say a week or two to the fact that

this could, as far as communication going

383

: 00:18:59

out to, it could l linger on for months.

384

: 00:19:02

It, it really, you know,

there's the initial.

385

: 00:19:05

Sort of wave of something happened.

386

: 00:19:09

And usually that's met with a round of,

we're involving forensic teams, you know,

387

: 00:19:14

and you're trying to exude confidence

because most companies are gonna say,

388

: 00:19:18

we brought, we're bringing in forensics.

389

: 00:19:20

Here's what's gonna happen.

390

: 00:19:20

For customers who've had

data compromised and.

391

: 00:19:23

Here's their opportunity for credit

monitoring and all those type of things.

392

: 00:19:26

So you're gonna have that initial

wave, and then the forensics are

393

: 00:19:29

gonna come around and say, here's

the results of what we found.

394

: 00:19:33

And that really could

come in a few weeks later.

395

: 00:19:35

It could come in months later.

396

: 00:19:37

And if it's.

397

: 00:19:39

Not as bad as we thought it was

upfront, then it's less of a story.

398

: 00:19:43

But if it turns around and says it

was 5,000 records and now it's 5

399

: 00:19:46

million, well then the second wave

is worse than the first, right?

400

: 00:19:50

So there is some amount of, once you get

that notification cycle going, and from

401

: 00:19:55

a PR perspective, then you're also gonna

wanna know, what's my regular update?

402

: 00:19:59

How am I getting communication

back and forth on this incident?

403

: 00:20:03

Because if it's not closed.

404

: 00:20:07

Then you're gonna have some amount

of, where's the forensic team at?

405

: 00:20:10

What are we gonna get an update?

406

: 00:20:12

That type of thing that's

gonna continue to be out

407

: 00:20:13

Brett Deister: there.

408

: 00:20:14

Gotcha.

409

: 00:20:15

And is there something just not to do

during a cyber attack when it happens?

410

: 00:20:18

Because we talked a little bit about

it, about keywords, but is there any

411

: 00:20:22

other thing that's like, do not do this.

412

: 00:20:24

This will hurt you so bad.

413

: 00:20:26

Let's not be an Experian that had a

cyber attack and kind of like, or even

414

: 00:20:30

LastPass is, I think the most recent one.

415

: 00:20:33

Like learn from their mistakes.

416

: 00:20:36

What should not happen?

417

: 00:20:39

Nathaniel Morris: The, there's two fatal

flaws that I see that happen oftentimes.

418

: 00:20:43

One is trying to suppress it, right?

419

: 00:20:46

Because it will get out and it will

look worse if you're trying to say

420

: 00:20:48

nothing happened and it really did.

421

: 00:20:50

And then the other thing

is guessing, right?

422

: 00:20:53

So the, these are.

423

: 00:20:56

Two dynamic of environments for us

to say, oh, we know it's contained.

424

: 00:21:01

Right?

425

: 00:21:02

I wouldn't, I wouldn't be absolute

on those type of things until

426

: 00:21:05

you can truly have forensics look

through it and get some answers.

427

: 00:21:07

But especially in that initial.

428

: 00:21:10

Kind of conversation going,

oh, it's not a big deal.

429

: 00:21:13

It's not a, an issue.

430

: 00:21:15

You're, you're guessing, right,

or you're suppressing, those

431

: 00:21:18

two will ultimately burn you.

432

: 00:21:20

And the, you're, you've

mentioned a couple of headlines.

433

: 00:21:23

There are others I can name as well that.

434

: 00:21:25

That's exactly what happened.

435

: 00:21:26

It tried to be suppressed or

people tried to guess and say, you

436

: 00:21:30

know, it's, it's only this, and

then that's where it backfires.

437

: 00:21:34

Brett Deister: Yeah.

438

: 00:21:34

Specifically because if, like for example,

for me, I was a LastPass user and I've

439

: 00:21:39

had a terrible time the last few months

just trying to secure my own passwords and

440

: 00:21:44

that gave me a headache because someone

ordered something through Amazon, someone

441

: 00:21:49

blocked or banned me from an account

and I was just like, what is going on?

442

: 00:21:53

So.

443

: 00:21:54

Specifically for B2C, 'cause

the last pass was mostly B2C.

444

: 00:22:01

Their problem was, well,

what wasn't that bad?

445

: 00:22:03

So I, I feel like the messaging

for the beginning should be our

446

: 00:22:07

preliminary results show this,

but we don't know how much is yet.

447

: 00:22:13

Nathaniel Morris: Yeah, absolutely.

448

: 00:22:13

I think it's definitely about saying,

here's what we do know, but that

449

: 00:22:18

doesn't mean that's everything.

450

: 00:22:19

So preliminary results,

here's our findings so far.

451

: 00:22:23

Phrasing like that, communicating

like that, and then.

452

: 00:22:26

Some amount of confidence

around we have the right people.

453

: 00:22:30

So whether it's you've engaged the

external firms that are authorities,

454

: 00:22:33

whether it is a situation where it's large

enough, you're bringing in government

455

: 00:22:36

investigators, that type of thing.

456

: 00:22:38

I, I do believe it's important that you

share some of that information upfront

457

: 00:22:43

so that there is a confidence that we've,

we've got the right individuals on it.

458

: 00:22:46

I mean, if you have, for example, a

public transit issue or if there's a

459

: 00:22:51

plane crash, everybody says, okay, the

government investigators are coming in.

460

: 00:22:55

Great.

461

: 00:22:56

Now we understand.

462

: 00:22:57

Same thing in these, right?

463

: 00:22:59

Sharing who's, who you're bringing

in and what's happening adds some

464

: 00:23:02

amount of confidence because it,

it's an immediate fear, right?

465

: 00:23:07

I'll also say one of the important

things to work from a technical

466

: 00:23:10

perspective and PR perspective is

understanding what has been lost.

467

: 00:23:14

So.

468

: 00:23:16

Are we talking about, Hey, you know,

there's a possibility you need to

469

: 00:23:19

change passwords because maybe somebody

got access or could gain access.

470

: 00:23:24

Once you change password, we're,

you know, you, you solve it.

471

: 00:23:27

That's different than saying, Hey,

I'm sorry, your name, birthdate,

472

: 00:23:30

social security number, et

cetera, is all out in the wind.

473

: 00:23:33

So really understanding what information

is also part of some of your escalation

474

: 00:23:39

and some of your communication internally,

so that we're really clear on breach.

475

: 00:23:45

What does it mean, you know,

that that goes back to your

476

: 00:23:47

scale as what data's impacted.

477

: 00:23:53

Brett Deister: So, I mean, it

feels like from me, from LastPass,

478

: 00:23:56

like it took me forever to get,

like to secure my own things.

479

: 00:24:01

I had to move over to another program.

480

: 00:24:03

'cause I was like, I'm not

dealing with this anymore.

481

: 00:24:05

So I feel like a lot of times.

482

: 00:24:07

They don't, they, they say things, but

it's not like our preliminary results

483

: 00:24:11

should, should, should it be like our

preliminary results is this, but we don't

484

: 00:24:15

know the ex, the extent of the damage yet.

485

: 00:24:18

Nathaniel Morris: Absolutely.

486

: 00:24:19

One of the best practices I've seen is

from a technical leadership perspective,

487

: 00:24:24

establishing an annual calendar.

488

: 00:24:26

So for example, I would set up quarterly

meetings with some of these key teams

489

: 00:24:32

and say, these meetings are on the

calendar, they're already booked.

490

: 00:24:35

And then we would have, all

of our leadership knew they

491

: 00:24:38

were there and we didn't.

492

: 00:24:40

I mean, we would book these for

October at the beginning of the year

493

: 00:24:44

in January, and we would just go ahead

and put 'em on the calendar and then.

494

: 00:24:47

You didn't wind up with issues coming in.

495

: 00:24:50

We would have agendas, topics we

wanted to make sure we covered.

496

: 00:24:53

Let's talk about the latest

security, let's talk about this.

497

: 00:24:55

Let's revisit, you know, this

practice maybe we're having

498

: 00:24:58

sometimes at the tabletop.

499

: 00:25:00

And we would build that plan ahead and

that allows you now to walk through

500

: 00:25:05

the year and you know, you're not just

gonna look up and it's been nine months

501

: 00:25:09

since you've had the conversation.

502

: 00:25:12

Brett Deister: How?

503

: 00:25:13

How do it pros maintain

regardless of issues or crises?

504

: 00:25:17

Just in general, how do they maintain

that good communication level?

505

: 00:25:20

Let's say you already started it and

it's been going really great, but the

506

: 00:25:23

maintaining part I always feel like is

the hardest part because you could have a

507

: 00:25:26

great start and then all of a sudden crash

and burn because you get lazy or whatever

508

: 00:25:32

happens or work gets like crazy amount.

509

: 00:25:35

I mean, it could be anything, but

how do you maintain that good?

510

: 00:25:38

Communication with management and

maybe your PR team at the same time.

511

: 00:25:43

Nathaniel Morris: Yeah, slack is a great

communication tool, especially if you

512

: 00:25:46

have some dedicated channels for some

of those type of things, for example.

513

: 00:25:49

But I also feel like there's a good bit

of either over Zoom or face-to-face.

514

: 00:25:54

There's a good bit of

conversation that needs to happen.

515

: 00:25:56

So tactical updates through Slack,

strategic conversations of here's

516

: 00:26:01

what we're currently seeing,

here's our current threat profile,

517

: 00:26:03

here's what's new happening.

518

: 00:26:05

Or hey, you know, this is the follow up

from something that happened a year ago.

519

: 00:26:11

Those type of things ought to be a little

more structured perhaps so that there's

520

: 00:26:14

time for question and really digesting.

521

: 00:26:17

But you're right, it does.

522

: 00:26:18

It's not a weekly thing.

523

: 00:26:19

We're talking a monthly or a

quarterly cadence typically.

524

: 00:26:23

Brett Deister: Gotcha.

525

: 00:26:24

And should you use any like of the

communication platforms and maybe

526

: 00:26:26

like Slack or anything like that to do

like maybe monthly check-ins instead?

527

: 00:26:30

Because I don't feel like you need to

like meet everybody every week because

528

: 00:26:34

that would just be, you get no work done.

529

: 00:26:37

Nathaniel Morris: Yeah, absolutely.

530

: 00:26:38

So there's a lot of great tools out

there, and particularly when you're

531

: 00:26:41

talking internal communication,

whether a company's using SharePoint

532

: 00:26:45

or Slack or something like that

where they can communicate and have

533

: 00:26:50

a hub for that type of information.

534

: 00:26:53

There should be a set of questions on,

you know, common issues from a technical

535

: 00:26:58

perspective, common cyber issues.

536

: 00:27:01

There also should really be, and

this is important as well, there

537

: 00:27:04

should be a venue to report things.

538

: 00:27:07

So for example, there was a great article

I just came across on some of the work

539

: 00:27:11

that Target had done with some of their

looking for skimmers in their stores.

540

: 00:27:16

And so ideas can come from anywhere

and being able to say, Hey, you see

541

: 00:27:21

something, there's something off.

542

: 00:27:22

Or maybe it's a phishing link.

543

: 00:27:25

Continuing to create that

communication flow inbound.

544

: 00:27:29

So not just FAQs, but hey, I

saw something is also an an

545

: 00:27:32

important communication vehicle.

546

: 00:27:35

Mm-Hmm.

547

: 00:27:36

Brett Deister: And I mean, what's gonna.

548

: 00:27:39

Let's say a IT person is like new

to this or they're going into a

549

: 00:27:43

new company and they're trying to

establish that communication line.

550

: 00:27:46

Like what are some of the steps

to actually start to do that?

551

: 00:27:49

Because it's a process, obviously, but

there are some steps to start to do that.

552

: 00:27:53

Nathaniel Morris: Yeah, absolutely.

553

: 00:27:54

The the first step, I always, especially

if you're walking in new to an

554

: 00:27:58

organization as an IT professional, it

all starts with learning the business

555

: 00:28:01

because everything is gonna centrally

focus around that business and.

556

: 00:28:06

That comes down to what's

the business model?

557

: 00:28:08

So how do we make money?

558

: 00:28:09

How do we spend money?

559

: 00:28:10

And then the other conversation is

we're the most valuable components.

560

: 00:28:15

So maybe we're a healthcare company,

so we've got patient records, or maybe

561

: 00:28:18

we're a payment company, so we got

credit card records, whatever it may be.

562

: 00:28:23

I.

563

: 00:28:23

We wanna make sure we understand

where our sensitive things are.

564

: 00:28:25

Maybe we're, we're manufacturing

and our recipes or our intellectual

565

: 00:28:29

property is super important, whatever

that might be, we need to make sure

566

: 00:28:32

we understand that that's first.

567

: 00:28:34

So I don't recommend you go in

as a new IT person and say, I'm

568

: 00:28:37

gonna make a bunch of changes.

569

: 00:28:38

I'm gonna have all these

meetings and tell 'em what to do.

570

: 00:28:40

Like first you gotta learn the business.

571

: 00:28:42

Once you have that context, then

you can speak in that context

572

: 00:28:46

and start going down the path.

573

: 00:28:47

What I like to do is to say where we at?

574

: 00:28:50

So what's our current baseline?

575

: 00:28:52

Where are we?

576

: 00:28:52

Where are we sitting?

577

: 00:28:53

And what are the simple things

that make the biggest impact?

578

: 00:28:56

So it's just, it's a

cost benefit analysis.

579

: 00:28:58

It says, Hey, these changes are

gonna take me a lot of work and

580

: 00:29:02

they're gonna make us some better.

581

: 00:29:03

These changes are gonna

take me a little work.

582

: 00:29:04

They're gonna make me a lot better.

583

: 00:29:06

So structure those and

start tackling those first.

584

: 00:29:10

And as you can.

585

: 00:29:13

After probably three months or six months

and you've built some relationships and

586

: 00:29:16

understood the business, start setting

up some of those quarterly meetings

587

: 00:29:19

and set 'em up as just workshops and

say, Hey, here's what I'm seeing.

588

: 00:29:24

Maybe I don't fully understand what's

happening here, or help me work

589

: 00:29:27

through and build that collaboration.

590

: 00:29:29

Because as you can build that

collaboration and show some exercises,

591

: 00:29:34

show some new knowledge and.

592

: 00:29:37

Educate as you go along,

you really become a coach.

593

: 00:29:40

It's less about being a prescriptive

and it's more about being a coach to

594

: 00:29:44

say, Hey, I have tools that can help

the business be better because here's

595

: 00:29:50

how our cybersecurity hygiene is.

596

: 00:29:52

Here's how our technical debt is.

597

: 00:29:54

Let's, let's improve that.

598

: 00:29:57

Brett Deister: Gotcha.

599

: 00:29:58

And then where can people find you online?

600

: 00:30:01

Nathaniel Morris: Uh, so the best

place to find me is on LinkedIn.

601

: 00:30:03

I put out a lot of content on business

and it, so that's the best website.

602

: 00:30:08

EQ digital.com has some information about

what we do as well, but I would love for

603

: 00:30:11

you to follow me on LinkedIn and engage

604

: 00:30:13

Brett Deister: there.

605

: 00:30:14

Alright.

606

: 00:30:14

Any final thoughts for

607

: 00:30:15

Nathaniel Morris: the listeners?

608

: 00:30:16

Biggest thing is, I would say, is the

communication ultimately comes to trust.

609

: 00:30:21

So build those relationships,

establish that so that there's a clear

610

: 00:30:24

opportunity to have hard conversations.

611

: 00:30:27

And then the, the second one we've

talked about is understand the other

612

: 00:30:30

context, because the same words mean

different things, different people.

613

: 00:30:35

So sharing that context and

you need help building those

614

: 00:30:38

bridges between it and business.

615

: 00:30:40

That's what we do.

616

: 00:30:40

Let us know.

617

: 00:30:41

Brett Deister: All right, Nathaniel, thank

you for joining Digital Coffee Marketing

618

: 00:30:44

Brew and sharing your knowledge on it, PR

and communication between all that stuff.

619

: 00:30:49

Nathaniel Morris: Absolutely.

620

: 00:30:49

Brett, thanks for having the time.

621

: 00:30:50

I appreciate it.

622

: 00:30:51

You are

623

: 00:30:51

Brett Deister: welcome, and

thank you for listening as well.

624

: 00:30:54

Joining next month as we talk to another

Greg father in the PR and marketing space.

625

: 00:30:59

All right, guys.

626

: 00:31:00

Understand your IT people and

help them communicate better

627

: 00:31:04

for the better of the business.

628

: 00:31:05

All right guys.

629

: 00:31:06

See you next month later.