Sweltering August is upon us, and with it comes sports reporters sweating through football training camps as much as the gridiron competitors – some writing about the marvels of “two-way players,” those athletes who play both offense and defense. It’s an exhausting combination requiring conditioning and agility.

It is also becoming the reality for effective communicators in 2018, who frequently are called upon to use both offensive and defensive skill sets when they are carrying out a messaging campaign. Not only does this show positive results when it comes to modern challenges posed by social media platforms being flooded with misinformation or harmful information, it also has proven effective as a strategy for addressing the racial divisions surrounding Confederate-era statues in the south.