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Lesson 115 It’s About Relationships

Posted in Integrated Marketing, Leadership, Lessons Learned on May 31, 2012| Leave a Comment »

This week I found myself discussing with a colleague the significance of calling on important people in areas of interest just to get to know them.  Sometimes you get a new special insight. Other times you will pick up important information about new developments.  And often this contact will lead to others that can be helpful later on.  We readily agreed that making the effort to get out and get to know key people never turns out to be a waste of time. And before you know it you have a network with which today’s new media will allow you to stay in touch.

Many years ago fundraisers demonstrated for me the power of third-party contacts.  It’s a matter of everyday practice for them to realize that they might not be the best person to call on a given donor for a particular gift.  Rather, a third-party that knows you both very well is likely to make a more effective ask. And so you equip your third-party with talking points and a proposal to make the call with you, or in some cases for you. 

This is not rocket science, but I have found this approach often can also work for news reporters, foundation heads, government officials, legislators, business leaders, and virtually anyone from whom you might one day need help. 

It’s a great tactic for advancing the brand as well.  It’s even possible to ask many of these people a few basic research questions to take back their feedback, or to ask for word-of-mouth support for a special project, event or your entire institution.

These networks can also often lead to productive partnerships.  A great partnership is one where just the association brings you and your organization instant expanded visibility and prestige.  Nothing is more effective than the right  third-party partner. But also, nothing is worse than the wrong partner… one that no one ever heard of or is a rung or two down on the brand reputation scale.

The truth is… it’s all about relationships. The more key people you get to know the more effective you can be in everything you undertake. It’s just as simple as that.

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Lesson 112 University Advancement Takes Center Stage

Posted in Branding, International, Leadership, Lessons Learned, Planning on May 9, 2012| 1 Comment »

In preparing for a speech I will be giving in June about the future of university advancement I have become  acutely aware once again of the degree to which those of us in marketing, communication, alumni relations, fund-raising, and government affairs will find ourselves facing incredible challenges. But that said, these challenges will also present once-in-a-career amazing opportunities.

With state governments cutting back in the U.S. and  governments around the world changing their roles, it’s more and more clear everyday that increased responsibility for helping to chart the future success of educational institutions everywhere will be placed squarely at the feet of advancement officers. The good news is that we will have better paid, predominately placed executive positions. The scary news, however, is that we will have to be far more sophisticated in everything we do.

So far, the rough draft of my speech argues that marketing as “a way of thinking” will have to influence and possibly change all areas of advancement. Brand clarification, multi-platform interactive communication, and internal support mobilization must be a part of what everyone does everyday.  Alumni relations will need to provide a “portal” to lifetime  educational and social connections for entire families, and fundraisers will have to find interactive, creative ways to maintain key donor loyalty for the long-term. And all of this must work effectively in an industry that is rapidly becoming global, with changing student migration patterns and fundraisers roaming all over the world with new and imaginative cases for support. 

The fact is that donors with formerly local only interests are now becoming global in their businesses and outlook. And foundations and corporations that have also been largely local or regional operations are now thinking differently about their world and influence.

For many of us in advancement it has been challenging enough to deal with internal silos and traditional academic attitudes about our work.  Getting everyone on board and accepting an active role in telling a unified identity clarifying story has been difficult enough.  But now the game is changing again!  Developing a total culture of philanthropy, and an appreciation of marketing as a legitimate and respectable way of thinking, will simply be essential to institutional global success. 

Make no mistake, there is clear evidence that forward-thinking institutions are already gearing up all over the world to meet these challenges.  Past superiority is certainly no guarantee of future success in this new world.  So the basic message of my speech in June will be:  Don’t let your short-term problems (or even successes!) cause you to miss the simple fact that everything is changing right before your eyes!

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Lesson 105 Achieving Media Literacy

Posted in Integrated Marketing, Leadership, Lessons Learned, Media Literacy on March 22, 2012| Leave a Comment »

When television became the dominant medium it changed everything.  It changed how we arranged our furniture. It changed how families interacted, how politics are conducted, how religious denominations communicated, and even how we think and what we know.  Now the “new media” revolution is changing everything again!

Today there is no way to tell facts from fiction. And it’s all too easy to select only the channels or websites or blogs that reinforce our preconceived biases. Whatever’s easy and satisfying. There is so much information out there that it’s easy to become helplessly confused.  What is really going on in Afghanistan anyway?  I get news reports everyday and I still don’t know! 

I need to be my own editor but I don’t know what that means, or how. And what’s more, no one has yet shown me the need… convincingly.  Well, the need is now, and it’s getting serious! 

We are becoming a polarized society, and it’s too easy to fall into the trap of feeding our own narrow beliefs.  Solving real problems requires knowing and respecting all sides of all issues.  It requires being able to represent our cause, but then when the time comes to cooperate  in taking steps to move the society forward. The concept of “compromise now and eventually win the day” has been lost.

Early in my academic career I launched an initiative called “The Media Project,” which sought to show the public just how television was changing everything.  I spoke to teacher in-service conferences urging them to add units of study on media literacy in their humanities and social studies courses.  I spoke to parent-teacher organizations urging them to teach intelligent uses of television at home. Turn it on, but also turn it off! I asked school systems to consider adding whole courses on the topic.  All of this was aimed to simply get people to understand the power of media, and how to manage its use in their own lives.

Since then my life moved off in the direction of helping organizations make themselves better understood.  This route required accepting the realities of how media revolutions change everything, and then figuring out how to cut through all this information clutter with a unified message. It’s not easy. And only partial success is ever possible, and even that takes intensive interactive communication over time.

When I put my academic hat back on today I find myself once again thinking we still need a nationwide media literacy eduction program. In fact, we need it more than ever. We need it in our public and private schools, as a part of the core curricula in universities, and maybe even offered and promoted by the media itself.

Only a better educated public can make democracy work. And it is becoming more and more clear to me every day that understanding how media influences and changes everything should be a vital part of  everyone’s education.  And it’s not just the programming content, it’s the constant use of the technology itself that changes how everything works around it.

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Lesson 96 Relocation Decisions

Posted in Leadership, Lessons Learned on January 20, 2012| Leave a Comment »

I got a call this week from a colleague trying to decide whether or not to take a job offer at another institution.  He wanted my help in making his decision. These transitions are never easy, and to talk with someone not involved in the situation is always helpful. But at moments like this no one can give you the answer.

I have found that if the offer makes you curious the best thing to do is “play it out.” Do the interview and take plenty of time to work through all the pros and cons. Resist any strong tendency to make a quick decision. Ask for several interviews. Realize you will probably make multiple decisions in your mind before you settle on a course of action. And know that several of those decisions might be total opposites. 

During and immediately following a good interview people often think they will take the job. They may even tell their potential new boss that they are certain they will take the job. But then they wake up at home the next day clearly knowing they won’t do it. Each new job opportunity has its own set of issues and complications. The idea of “sleeping on it” is a very wise one. If you take your time and play it out over time, the best decision usually appears almost like magic.

When that decision is to actually take the new job, never look back.  It is a new day now, and you must declare it so. For example, never arrive at the new job with an image in your mind what a perfect organization looks like… whether it is a university, an arts organization, a business, etc. Each organization has a distinct founding mission and culture that is the consequence of its history. Your job is to learn and completely absorb all that before you help articulate a new, and compatible, vision. Your success will depend on your ability to find and communicate this particular organizaton’s best “big idea.”

Your past experience will help you analyze your choices more effectively. But never say “we did that at my last organization and it never works.” Rather, you must be prepared to test it again in this new environment and with today’s market conditions. Then, use your vast experience to bring more depth and wisdom to your analysis.

All that said, however, my colleague did what I suspected he would. He told his potential new employer that he would take the job.  He went home and slept on it. Then, he had second thoughts the very next morning!  And the decision was easily made to stay.

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Lesson 95 Reactive or Proactive?

Posted in Integrated Marketing, Internal Politics, Leadership, Lessons Learned, Planning on January 13, 2012| Leave a Comment »

As I prepare to once again teach a graduate seminar in integrated marketing communication I am reminded of my ongoing challenge to make sure that these advanced students go out into our profession fully prepared to be “proactive” professionals.

In the past, many of my graduate students come to my seminars from jobs where they are assumed to be reactive tactics experts. Managers come to them when they want to get out a press release, or need a new brochure, or want to produce a video, or promote a special event. New communication  practitioners find themselves in the role of taking orders for products.They constantly hear: “Here is what I want, when can I have it.”

My challenge always is to show my students the potential for being able to counsel managers, and eventually senior executives, about new and powerful possibilities. Indeed, experienced thinkers in our profession have the power through strategic communication tools and integrated marketing processes to literally transform organizations with their planning advice. I must show them how this works, but then also teach them the political skills essential for getting themselves in a position to function on this higher level.

The implementation steps are really simple: (1) Clarify the organization’s competitive advantage, usually referred to as “big idea” or unique brand identity. (2) Use ongoing group processes to get a critical mass of internal managers and staff “on the same page” with regard to this positioning messaging. (3) Use multi-platform communication tactics simultaneously, and select them based on researched media preference of each target market. (4) Influence management presentations by preparing talking points and offering speechwriting services. (5) And focus on high visibility initiatives, based on immediate opportunities, and implemented using carefully formed action teams.

With this understanding of the power of the profession mastered, the challenge now becomes how to use political savvy and strategies to get into a position of being able to use what we know. This involves having a “teaching plan” in mind  to help others understand our potential. It also involves imagining how to accomplish this “teaching” one step at a time– in one-on-one interviews, in regular meetings, and in other groups we can form for this purpose. And finally, it involves understanding the simple basics of grassroots politics, and how they apply to organizations.

This last topic, internal politics, is what we never seem to teach in typical academic programs, or even in professional development seminars. But, I have now come to think that it is actually the most imporant topic I can bring to these students.

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Lesson 83 Create a Crisis to Achieve Change?

Posted in Internal Politics, Leadership, Lessons Learned, Strategic Communication on October 22, 2011| Leave a Comment »

A colleague recently reminded me that I once said that if you want to make change happen it might require engineering a crisis!  Indeed, I admit I have made that remark from time to time, and I still think there is a small element of truth in it.  But mostly my intent was to go on and articulate what I see to be a larger truth.

My experience has been that for most people to want to reinvent themselves and change their organization, they must first see a better way forward to a better future. During periods when they are complaining about all the little things they see wrong, they really mean they are no longer believing that overall success is likely for their institution and themselves in the days ahead.

In most of these cases I think it’s best to find what big ideas have worked in the past, or are now working, and then recommend that more like them be used to launch a renewed and revitalized strategic plan.  In other words, focusing on specific problems often creates and reinforces a larger negative environment, which can  actually paralyze growth. But, by revitalizing what has been working for the institution, overall morale can be improved and everyone can once again become inspired.

Admittedly, a real crisis will bring about an intense desire for change. In fact, that can be felt throughout American society right now.  Today, I am attending the Texas Book Festival and there is a demonstration immediately outside my hotel window! Hundreds of young people are marching and chanting : “We want change, and we want it now!”  Moments like this certainly are ideal opportunities for creative leaders to emerge with new ideas about a brighter future.

So, I guess my original “element of truth”  is that you should never waste a natural crisis!  When you have one right there in front of you,  you should recognize it as an opportunity for launching a new or renewed strategic plan with bold new tactics.  But when such a natural crisis doesn’t exist, I certainly think that to manufacture one risks turning the entire climate too negative.

I prefer to think the best approach will be to find what ideas have been working, and then come up with more creative ones like them. This should make people feel good, reinforce a positive work climate, and generate a widespread excitement about joining a positive renewal movement to reshape the future.

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Lesson 77 Repetition and Management

Posted in Branding, Integrated Marketing, Leadership, Lessons Learned on September 9, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Managers and consultants often face the awkward and frustrating moment in a meeting when staff members or clients seem to have forgotten all they knew about how to make the institution competitive. 

Many times you have identified the message points and design elements essential for advancing the institution’s brand. You have gone over and over the group processes necessary to get everyone on the same page, and working together as a team. You thought everyone certainly understood the importance of staying focused on action priorities.

Then, suddenly, the head designer shows the staff work so far off the mark you wonder where it came from!  Draft copy is circulated for review that goes off on a tangent, and never reinforces the brand identity. You say to yourself: “What can they be thinking? Who are these people?”  

At moments like this you can feel very silly. This is a staff meeting, not a classroom.  You feel that you need to become their teacher more than their manager. Now you must go over all of the fundamentals still another time. Do you work on these issues together, or must you constantly roll out another lecture?  And what’s more, isn’t it actually pretentious of you to keep shifting into a teaching mode with professional colleagues?

I have found that reviewing the basics of marketing and strategic communication with professional staff is much the same as repeating advertisements with audiences.  Just when you are getting tired of the repetition yourself, your audience is only beginning to understand.

Managers and consultants simply must review the basics periodically, whether or not it seems pretentious. Special staff meetings or retreats offer perfect opportunities. Bringing in a resource expert to help you can be effective. Whatever approach you follow, there is no doubt in my mind that once in a while a “marketing and communication 101” inspirational lecture will be required!

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Lesson 76 Education in World Problem-Solving

Posted in Integrated Marketing, International, Leadership, Lessons Learned, Public Affairs on September 3, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Conversations in Washington this week once again had me thinking about the exciting potential of international higher education. I recalled how each time I have experienced the coming together of teachers, students, administrators, and others from various parts of the world, I have witnessed a sincere collective curiosity about cultural, religious, class, ethic, political, and historical differences. And I must say, in these settings I have never seen these differences lead to dangerous hostility and conflict. Rather, they almost always lead to new friendships, projects and ideas.

I therefore firmly believe that international higher education is one of our world’s best forms of public diplomacy.  Public diplomacy, for me, is simply defined as people-to-people communication.  It is the people of one culture coming together with people of another for the purpose of common understanding.  It is the ultimate form of using a “soft-power” strategy as an effective alternative to “hard power” conflict. 

This belief led to some very compelling conversations this week about the potential of bringing together university presidents, scholars, public policy leaders, journalists, ministers of education, corporate leaders, and others to discuss what universities can contribute to solving such world problems as poverty, disease, food production, water shortages, energy, cyber crime, and more.

The anticipation of the aftermath of revolts in Libya, Egypt, and elsewhere, also raises the question of what role  educational institutions might play in nation-building, economic development, and global leadership preparation.  Meeting the world’s workforce needs, as well as our needs for experienced international problem-solving oriented managers and executives, is clearly a big challenge ahead for our institutions.

Higher education is becoming a global enterprise, no doubt about it. Every institution in every country will face the internationalization of its student recruitment, faculty scholarship, research orientation, curriculum content, and financial support.  A “sea change” is coming in this industry, and it is truly exciting to imagine what all this change might mean for world problem-solving, and for the ultimate achievement of peace on earth.

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Lesson 73 People Hear What They Want to Hear

Posted in Integrated Marketing, Internal Politics, Leadership, Lessons Learned, Public Affairs on August 13, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Listening to all of the political rhetoric this week I kept thinking about how often I would tell my undergraduate students over the years about the practical lessons we must learn from communication theory study and research findings. One of the most important lessons is just how selective our perception can be.

One of my favorite examples was to demonstrate that when a committed democrat hears a well crafted speech by a strong republican, the democrat invariably becomes a better democrat.. and vice versa. This is because our natural tendency is to argue in our minds with what we are hearing so as to reinforce what we already believe. Changing our minds rarely happens.  Rather, we end up finding new ways to strengthen our long-held positions.

There was a period of time a number of years ago when several universities ended their debate programs.  Some of the academics felt that communication studies should examine how communication can help solve problems, and that debating mostly ended in polarizing arguments… leading ultimately to communication breakdown.  Today, competitive debate programs have been reinstated in some institutions. But critics will still argue that the most successful debaters are the extreme fast talkers and most polarized thinkers, and that winning the day by taking extreme positions, and making the most noise,  is the wrong lesson to learn.

My experience has led me to think a two-step process is required: First, I suggest that debating is helpful when it is defined upfront as “an exercise” to clarify all the viable positions. When the debate is complete, however, there is another set of collaborative decision-making communication skills necessary for progress to be made. The critical second step, and only way forward, is to use group process facilitation to find the best elements of each position, define an initial step forward, and then make needed adjustments as experience dictates.

Debate, followed by facilitated decision-making, is how the best organizations move ahead. And I believe it is the only constructive way forward for the U.S. political system as well.

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Lesson 66 Writing and Designing for Innovation

Posted in Branding, Integrated Marketing, Leadership, Lessons Learned, Planning on June 25, 2011| Leave a Comment »

An innovative “look” begins with an inspired vision that is anchored in actual institutional strengths, connected to current market needs and trends, and consistently articulated by all levels of leadership.  That accomplished, imaginative writing style and design play essential supportive roles.

Writing these days must be crisp, concise and adapted to the characteristics of each new technology.  Recent research, commissioned by an association I work with, revealed that even university presidents rarely read lengthy position papers and monographs.  The reality of the way busy people spend time, and the requirements of new media, suggest that crisp bites of information are preferred, and in most cases they are more effective. Thus, writing style must fit the medium, as well as the media behaviors, of each audience.

An impression of innovation is also better achieved when the writer and designer are able to work together. When a designer can hear and see the message develop before they ever go to work, the design is always much more effective. All too often the artist begins with minimal instruction, and then works in a vacuum with disappointing results.  The design may be award-winning, but communication effectiveness is not.

To be effective, the entire process must be guided by a set of minimal standards that guarantee carrying forward the general design “look” of the organization (brand identity), and the design look of  the appropriate program or division (sub-brand identity). Then, talented commercial artists are able to reinforce the brand and sub-brand, while at the same time support the purpose and content of the communication. 

Make no mistake, however, achieving this will require the proper interactive  process between writer and designer. Even those using outside free-lance writers and designers can achieve this result if branding standards and work procedures are defined first. Then, those hired outside can be required to sign on as if they were working inside. 

Organizations large and small are able to achieve an innovative “look” when they have articulate visionary leadership, clear brand standards, and use interactive creative processes. 

 

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