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Writing for Execs and Employees: Cut the Corporate Speak Already Joanne Callahan Speechwriter, Storyteller, Communications Advisor callahanj@coned.com 2
Four Points • Creating real, honest, authentic communications for executives to deliver and employees to hear • Understanding what employees need to hear now and how to deliver it • Helping employees manage stress and anxiety • Producing meaningful content for diverse employees 3
How to Talk to People • Be Authentic • Be Engaging • Be Inclusive 4
Who’s Con Edison? • Con Edison – Con Edison of New York – Orange and Rockland Utilities – Con Edison Clean Energy Businesses – Con Edison Transmission • 15,000 employees 5
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Intranet Homepage: Three headline stories every day 11
How Do You Keep Your Cool When a Manhole Blows Up? When a manhole blasts into flames in downtown Brooklyn in front of a school with 150 kids inside, you might feel a little nervous. A street exploding is loud and hot and sudden. It's often chaotic. It's always dangerous. But a few blocks away in the Brooklyn/Queens control center, managers Gus Kalogrias and Mike Sorrentino are calm. They're instantly taking and making calls. … “We train to respond to different types of emergencies," Kalogrias said. “We don't panic. We don't get nervous. We go step by step.” … 12
Chances Are, You've Never Seen Anything Like This in Your Life A 50-ton turbine lies out on 15th Street, cold, still, and silent. It's the first time anyone's seen it in eight years. It's so striking and massive and foreign, it feels like a UFO landing. But Richard Ferris, Robert DePasca, and Sowande Nurse know exactly what's going on. Each one can tell you with his eyes closed every intricate detail of this 27-foot-long, 9-foot-in-diameter machine. What it does, what it needs, and what it means for our customers. … 13
Welders Light Up the Day Returning Lost Wallet Welding a gas pipe deep inside a trench out in the street, you know you're helping a lot of people. But you usually don't know exactly who. Finding a full wallet behind the cones in your work area – and seeing a face smiling up at you from the ID – now you do. On a June Monday morning, William Clark, Andrew Daniels, and Jonathan Perin — all welders in Construction Gas Operations and Special Projects — and their supervisor Terrance McKeon had just arrived at their job site. … 14
A Manhattan Steakhouse Loves Aristotelis Andronis. Here’s Why. Helping a customer in the chaos of a crisis takes guts. Empathy, to put yourself in the customer's shoes. And skill, smarts, and strength, to assess what's happening and map a way out. Aristotelis Andronis exudes all these qualities. So when he got the call about the Smith & Wollensky steakhouse scrambling to reopen after a fire at the height of the holidays, he knew what to do. … “When I walked in, there were a million workers," he said. “You could feel the urgency of what was going on. The entire restaurant had smoke, water, and fire damage. FDNY cut a hole in the ceiling to fight the fire, so they had a lot of water damage." … 15
Chris Delgado Saves Woman Trying to Kill Self, Two Kids Chris Delgado last week stopped a Bronx woman from killing herself, her three-year-old son, seven-year-old daughter, and neighbors in her building. It started with a routine call. At 8:15 a.m., Sunday, June 10, Delgado got a call to check out a “hallway odor" at 303 East 158th Street, just a few blocks from Yankee Stadium. The fire department got the initial 911 call, found it was an “other odor" – not gas – and called Con Edison to investigate further. The lead mechanic arrived within minutes, saw the fire trucks pulling away, and walked up to a police car parked out front. He talked to the two officers in the car about the call, went into the building, and took the elevator up to the fourth floor. … 16
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Everyone Matters: James Quach What do you do here? I'm a programmer for the Quality Excellence and Data Analytics department. … Is there anything you feel most proud of? I was a Vietnamese refugee after the fall of Saigon in 1975. Three years later, my family escaped. We were boat people. I was 17, my brother was 16, my older brother was 18, and my sister was 20. My mother had a stroke. She couldn't walk. … My mother knew there was freedom for us. I was on a boat for 10 days. … What is your Vietnamese name? Anh. It means hero. When did you change your name? Five years after I came to this country, when I became a citizen. Who calls you James? The majority of the people. My wife calls me James. 18
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Everyone Matters: Gloria Fakayode What do you do here? I'm a general utility worker. … Is there anything you feel most proud of? I don't know. I don't really think of things that way. Is there anything you'd like to share that we haven't talked about? I was in the army for six years. What did you do? I worked on satellite communications. If you don't have communications, you don't have anything. You can't receive your orders. We were usually the first ones the enemy tried to take out. Whoa! And you didn't mention that before? It's something I did. It becomes a normal part of life. … Was there anyone there to protect you while you were setting up the equipment? WE are the soldiers. We have to protect ourselves. We have to be able to get through it. … 20
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Everyone Matters: Stephanie Roper What do you do here? I'm the general manager of Stores Operations. I'm responsible for buying and distributing all materials and supplies. That's a big job. It's something I've never done before. Each job I've ever had, I've really never done the same thing twice. I definitely attribute my adaptability and learning agility to my military experience. When were you in the military? I was a legal specialist in the Army Reserve for eight years. … What do you enjoy about your job? I just love human interaction. I think the more connected you are with people, the more they believe you believe in them and they'll work hard for you and the company. What kind of background do you need for your job? Being a quick learner. I take complex problems and simplify them for people to understand. … 22
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Everyone Matters: Antonio Caso III What do you do here? I'm an operating supervisor. We make sure the switches are working properly and keeping customers in lights. I also do a lot of volunteer work. It's the number one thing I like to do. What kind of volunteering do you do? I do all sorts – March of Dimes, Special Olympics, … How did you start? There was a period early on when I was a single dad. What drew me to it was getting the kids out of the house and doing something different. And they loved it. … How long were you a single dad? For about four years. Being separated was an emotional, mental, and physical strain. It was worse than being in combat in Beirut, Lebanon. My coworkers helped me through. … 24
March Until Now • Global pandemic – Radical life changes to protect our lives – Working from home – Going in to work • Social unrest following police murder of George Floyd – Sustained, sometimes violent protests across the country and around the world • Divisive presidential election year 25
March 1: Coronavirus Hits New York • 3/1 – First known coronavirus case in New York State • 3/6 – First employees known to be exposed enter quarantine • 3/17 – First employee known to test positive 26
How Do You Keep Going in a Pandemic? Ask Rob Pettenato March 19, 2020 You’re facing one of the biggest challenges of your life right now. It’s hard. Con Edison knows it. What’s the company doing to help you keep moving forward as best as you can? We sat down with Rob Pettenato, director of Emergency Preparedness and head of our pandemic team, to find out. What is the pandemic team? The pandemic team monitors a situation like the coronavirus. … 27
New York City Becomes Pandemic Epicenter • 3/23: Con Edison region is world epicenter – New York City has 35% of all known cases in the United States – more than 12,000 people confirmed to have COVID-19 • In the one month of March: – New York State went from a single person testing positive to more than 2,300 people dying of COVID-19 – New York City saw more than 1,000 people die • 3/31: Employees learn for the first time that a Con Edison employee died from COVID-19 28
Watch John McAvoy: “You are all essential to me and our company.” March 31, 2020 29
Final Script Original Draft I come to you amidst one of the most I come to you amidst one of the most challenging times of our lives. challenging times for our team, our customers, for our country, and for The coronavirus has created so much others across the globe, in many suffering, pain, and loss of life – for us decades. at Con Edison, our customers, our country, and people across the globe. The coronavirus has created so much suffering, pain, and loss of life. And New York is at the epicenter of this And New York is at the epicenter of this crisis. crisis. 30
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