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Archive for the ‘Lessons Learned’ Category

Lesson 84 A shift in Communication Dynamics

Posted in Lessons Learned, Public Affairs, Strategic Communication on October 28, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Strategic communication professionals have some real lessons to learn from current political discourse. There was a time when most of us thought that those in the limelight who say simplistic and silly things would be readily recognized as inexperienced, lacking in needed expertise, suffering from insufficient intelligence, and unprepared for serious problem-solving responsibility.

In fact, I believe that serious journalists thought essentially the same thing.  Just report what they are saying, and the people out there will see how unprepared and thoughtless they really are. There was a fundamental belief in the intelligence of the average person, and well thought out  ideas to triumph over weak ones.

It seems that in today’s politics each candidate assumes that if he or she plays to the lowest common denominator of their support, and finds the most simple of words to cure complex ills, that this base of followers will just feel better and fall into line.  And if those simple words are repeated often enough, they will actually begin to sound like truth to even more people.  And if one’s inclination is to not question what is being preached, it becomes easier and easier for people to accept a simplistic solution that makes them “feel” better.

The simple solution this week is the flat tax.  It strikes a positive nerve with large groups of people who experience frustration every year dealing with their income tax forms.  And so each candidate has come up with a different, simplistic flat tax with no explanation about implementation and consequences. Pick the one that is easiest to understand, and “feels” the best, and then repeat it over and over again until it takes on an “air of truth!”

In today’s competitive world of 24-7, breaking news journalism, it is more attention-getting to focus mostly on the excitement of the “horse race.” Colorful, extreme people make great news copy, and keeping them in the race makes  dramatic daily headlines.  It’s just too boring to write in-depth about the feasibility of solutions. Why would you want to weed out the most colorful of the players in your drama?

For the strategic communicator the only response to this reality seems to be aggressive counter-argument.  And when high dollar advertising is involved, the one that can spend the most, and repeat the most, will generally win the day.

In the end, the unintended consequence is social and political polarization, with extremes fighting extremes. But we know that the most complex problems also have complicated solutions.  They require experienced, talented leadership. Most politicians will get elected on simple “feel good” ideas, and then face the reality of day-to-day problem solving.  They will have to muster the courage every day to try fresh new ways forward, take risks, and adjust their solutions with experience. And, sadly, this reality is a long way from the frightening simplicity of today’s political communication.

 

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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 82 Institute for Internal Politics

Posted in Internal Politics, Lessons Learned on October 14, 2011| 2 Comments »

This week I was a presenter at a CASE institute for senior marketing and communication professionals. One of the sessions I led was a review of my latest book which attempts to outline a subject matter for understanding and dealing with internal politics. I made the point that senior professionals are likely to spend half their time dealing with the politics of their institution. Most agreed. Some said they spend more than half.

We had only an hour to review the topic. So I asked the participants if they would attend a day and a half program exploring the topic in-depth with a faculty of seasoned survivors. I explained that their time would be spent  in interactive sessions discussing all facets of the problem. Their response was quite encouraging.

I imagine that such a conference might be organized around topics such as: 

1. The Political Nature of Institutions

2. Characteristics of Academic and Support Cultures

3. How Leadership Styles Define Political Problems

4. Institutional Misconceptions and Attitudes to Overcome

5. Identifying Typical and Individual Problems  

6. Examples of Potential Solutions and Initiatives 

7. How New Responsibilities Can Change People

8. Essential Political Survival Tools  

9. Teaching Your Institution About What You Do 

The purpose of this institute would be for each participant to leave with his or her political challenges thoroughly addressed, and with some tested ideas about what to try next.

Each time I point out how much time we spend dealing with internal politics, I have been reminded that no program or course is ever offered on the subject!  This institute would finally solve that problem.  I welcome your candid thoughts.

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Lesson 81 A Culture of “Connection”

Posted in Branding, Integrated Marketing, Internal Politics, Lessons Learned on October 7, 2011| Leave a Comment »

This week I attended a workshop led by the co-founders of E Pluribus Partners about the immense power of developing a “culture of connection” inside every organization. 

The E Pluribus partners have aggregated research findings from psychology, psychiatry, sociology, organizational development, and neuroscience to demonstrate how “a feeling of strong connection between management, employees and customers provides a competitive advantage.”  In fact, they argue that without this strong connection people “will never reach their potential as individuals, nor will the organization.”  I was most especially interested in their reference to connection with “customers.” 

Call them customers, clients, students, donors, or supporters of any kind, as I listened I found myself thinking:  “Whatever happened to customer service?” 

 At one time in our profession we talked abundantly about how a happy customer became repeat customers, attracted other customers, and were the best ambassadors we could ever hope to have for telling and retelling our story.  We demonstrated how cost-effective it was to build strong loyalties rather than to focus mostly on constantly finding new business. Then airlines began to treat us as captive revenue units who needed them more than they needed us, and our banks made calling them on the phone a matter of talking to a whole series of automated impersonal recordings with little chance of ever getting through to a real person. Indeed, organizations of all types drove us to their websites, where even there it was impossible to find the email address or direct phone number of a real person. Alas, genuine connections for the most part have given way to digital, impersonal efficiencies, and human trust and meaningful  relationships have all too often been lost.

In the end, however, I was encouraged during this workshop to realize that all the writing I have been doing here over the past year about the power of integration and the use of group process has been right on the mark. Using orchestrated group interaction to get “everyone on the same page” with respect to vision and values, and inspiring  people to use a common voice in telling the story, is also building the strong “connections” with the customers and constituents we will need to give our organizations a meaningful and powerful competitive advantage. 

Building connections, then, is truly what integrated and relationship marketing is all about. So, I suggest you look into the work and writing of  the partners at:  www.EPluribusPartners.com

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Lesson 80 Strengthening Brand Identity

Posted in Branding, Lessons Learned on September 30, 2011| Leave a Comment »

A higher education colleague and I were recently enjoying a Texas Rangers baseball game when he suddenly said: “Wouldn’t it be great for a university to do a series of symphony concerts in this wonderful ballpark?”  His remark reminded me of how imaginative fine arts and cultural programs and projects staged in unusual locations can make a major impact on the quality of life in a city… and at the same time, broaden and enhance an academic institution’s brand identity.

A few days later I was reading the blog of the CEO of the University of Warwick in the UK. In it he expressed great  surprise that more universities do not use their strengths in arts and letters to influence the cultural life of their communities in creative ways. This is surprising to me too, especially when doing so always uplifts an institution’s  stature and can dramatically expand its financial and word-of-mouth support.

The blogger gave several examples by referencing an artist’s “sound installation” in a London railroad station sponsored by a local university, a Shakespeare drama troupe that wonders from site to site around the city, a high visibility creative writing project led by a famous poet at his own university, and even a prestigious institution’s internet listing of “must read” books!

We in institutional marketing and communication are sometimes satisfied to promote the programs that others routinely offer. But far more often we should actually be taking the initiative to generate new ideas and big projects that are guaranteed to significantly enrich our communities. Such activities always enhance our brand, and are well worth our creative talents, time and effort. 

Of course, what we can effectively do in our cities must always be defined by seeing our particular strengths in the context of the particular character and culture of the community around us. But make no mistake, we will always benefit when we help develop special projects that clearly connect to those cultural features most treasured by our fellow citizens.

After all, marketing is much more than promoting programs already in place. It is about seeing how product, exchange of values, distribution, and promotion operate together.  And so we must always assume that our role is to help shape  innovative new “products” (or projects) that grow from our deep-rooted institutional strengths and connect to deep-rooted external strengths and organizations. 

We call this kind of strategic thinking and planning, “leveraging.”  And it is simply the art of seeing how an academic institution and its community can combine compatible strengths to broaden, clarify, and raise the visibility of, both brand identities in the world.

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Lesson 79 The Contradiction of Regulation

Posted in Lessons Learned, Public Affairs, Strategic Communication on September 23, 2011| Leave a Comment »

In recent years, I have been adapting the lessons I have learned in my marketing and communication work to the bewildering world of legislative advocacy. My focus has been on helping advance higher education and nonprofits, and  it has been quite an adventure. 

I thought it reasonable to think that a certain amount of government regulation was needed to keep greedy speculators on Wall Street from ruining our main street economy, or to deter out-of-control bankers from being totally self-serving. or to prevent manipulators from using non-profits to hide questionable business practices, or to keep less than  competent educational administrators from misusing funds. But in this hopelessly polarized society, it seems all I encountered were the most extreme political ideologies and solutions.

In my immediate world of higher education I was willing to support essential regulation focused only on very specific  situations and people. Beyond that, I thought that it might be possible for an enlightened government to focus on providing financial and other positive incentives to stimulate informed and creative ideas to improve teaching and research.

From my 45 years as a teacher, it really did seem apparent that individual institutions and students have specific talents and special needs. In other words, I naively thought it should be possible to convince educated government officials that finding and supporting talent, and institution-specific solutions, is far more effective than centralized controls  that assume everyone can learn the same material  in the same way.

Instead, I found even more centralized controls and regulations than I imagined, along with a disturbing commitment to increase them.  Even new administrations that I thought would be somewhat enlightened, are not. To punish the guilty, they punish everyone.  As a result, all institutions have had to add staff and money to comply with endless pages of detailed regulations, and any goal to keep costs and tuition low has been rendered almost impossible to reach.

I will still concede that limited regulation is sometimes necessary. On top of that, however, we desperately need mutually respectful dialogue between “trench-experienced” teachers, administrators, and enlightened legislators. But to make this even feasible, we must first end this mean-spirited, polarized, and destructive argumentation that is tearing our country apart.

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Lesson 78 Meanings Are In People

Posted in Integrated Marketing, International, Lessons Learned, Planning, Strategic Communication on September 17, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Once in a while those of us who work in the field of strategic communication must stop and remind ourselves that we do not ever really send complete messages to audiences.  Rather, we make a “sign,” or “noise,” that pulls a previously established meaning out of each person’s brain.

For example, when I say the word “dog” I am only making a funny noise. The receiver attributes  a meaning to that “noise” out of  prior experience. For dog lovers, that noise will bring a pleasant impression. For those who see dogs as dirty animals, or threatening to their safety, it will be a negative impression.  One of my students offered: “For me today, that word reminds me of a bad date I had last night.”

It is a bit depressing sometimes to realize that each and  every word we use is processed in this way by each individual.  Therefore, it is only where our experiences completely overlap that effective communication can take place.  The further apart our geographic and cultural experience, the less likely we will completely understand each other. No wonder communication across economic levels, ethnic cultures, and nationalities is so complicated.

The lesson here is clear: It is essential for the sender and receiver to know each other as thoroughly as possible before attempting serious communication. “Experience overlap” must take place so that each “noise ,” or “sign,” will have the same meaning to both parties.  Wherever possible, finding opportunities to create this overlap with our target audiences should become a part of our overall strategic communication plan. This reality also underscores the critical importance of  message feedback and repetition, thereby establishing dialogue and giving us an opportunity to correct misunderstandings.

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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 75 Being Misunderstood

Posted in Branding, Integrated Marketing, Internal Politics, Lessons Learned, Strategic Communication on August 27, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Being misunderstood is one of the most frustrating feelings anyone can experience.  It certainly is true for professional communicators. Yet, it happens almost daily. In fact, I have been known to comment that there is no such thing as a communication expert. There are only people who work at doing it systematically every day.

Experience has taught me that as much as fifty percent of every message  is lost.  A receiver can only process so much information, and selective perception determines which fifty percent is remembered.  Noise interruptions, from technical problems to attention distractions, also make it difficult to process entire messages. Based on this same reality, I argued in a previous blog that people only hear what they want. So what can we do to improve understanding?

I suggest thinking about shaping important message content around seven steps: (1) Get your receivers’ attention before sending any message. (2) Tell them your main purpose up front. (3) Limit your message to a few main points. (4) Give an example or tell a story to substantiate each one. (5) Conclude by summarizing your key points and purpose. (6) Build in the most efficient feedback process you can.  (7) Respond to whatever feedback you get, and resend your message.

The closer communication can become actual dialogue, the more effective it will be.  And, the more distance and noise  (including technology) there is between sender and receiver, the less effective communication will be. In these cases, you must keep your message as simple as possible, and repeat it as often as you can. In the final analysis, we all must anticipate breakdown, and just keep going.  The advantage we professionals  have is that we do it everyday, and therefore are able to continually repeat and reinforce our most critical messages.

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