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Warren Buffet once aptly explained the effect of crisis management, saying “it takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”

Your company just made a huge announcement and you’ve received multiple inquiries for media interviews. What’s next?

The weather forecast may not reflect it, but it’s national Sunshine Week. It’s an annual effort by the American Society of News Editors and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press to urge open records and government transparency. It’s also a reminder that Massachusetts has a new open records law. The new statute went into effect January 1 - amending one of the weakest such laws in the country.

Just as “is this off?” are the three most dangerous words in electrical work, and “some assembly required” are the three most dangerous words in birthday presents, off the record are the three most dangerous words in media relations.

While Donald Trump and the media battle it out in Washington, remember that the fight for open records, a free press and government accountability is waged every day on much smaller stages.

For business leaders and owners it’s a perfect storm. A new administration and leadership at the NLRB signals a changing climate for unions – one expected to shift or even reverse decades of pro-union regulations. At the same time, a rallying cry around injustice on both sides of the political aisle has transformed social media from a tactical tool to a powerful megaphone that can disrupt or permanently damage a company’s reputation in a matter of seconds.

In 1942, advertising executive Alex Osborn laid the foundation for cooperative group-thinking when he coined the phrase “brainstorming.”  His work as a creative theorist was unprecedented in American enterprise, and landed him advertising work with some of the era’s biggest industries including General Electric, Du Pont, and Chrysler.  However, 21^st-century psychologists have caught up to Osborn’s original technique, stating many shortcomings in his problem-solving strategy.  What they found was rather than triggering cooperation to “think up”, group-thinking can be restricted into converging on one idea rather than diverging into multiple ideas.  It took over half a century for scholars to agree that the outlines for brainstorming have changed, and executives everywhere are reinventing Osborn’s original design.  Here are five modernized practices for resourceful collaboration that go beyond brainstorming.

In a study conducted by Yale University, it was observed that when two people ate a piece of chocolate, they each described it as more flavorful and enjoyable than either of them did when one person was eating the chocolate and the other person was doing something else. Experiences, both pleasant and unpleasant, are more intense when shared.

During my 30 years as a reporter and editor at the Boston Globe and then as business editor at NECN, I have read thousands of pitches. Here are some tips for getting your pitches noticed.

When the government comes knocking, are you ready? It happens every day.