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Archive for the ‘Strategic Communication’ Category

Lesson 289 Political Debates and Higher Education

Posted in Higher Education, Leadership, Lessons Learned, Public Affairs, Strategic Communication on September 23, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Should higher education be included in national political debates?  Should it have its own place on the agenda?  Or should it be considered as a vital factor in effectively addressing other topics?

For example, in a debate about the economy, job opportunities, and social problem-solving should questions about the role of higher education be asked? Many politicians have already declared higher education a failure, so maybe its role in these matters should be debated and discussed more widely.

If some of the more extreme charges go unanswered the implications are frightening. For example:

(1)  Universities are inefficient and ineffective. In political debates where the nation’s effectiveness as a world leader is being questioned, this charge against higher education’s effectiveness has far-reaching implications? Since our universities produce the nation’s leaders, it is a charge that must be strongly and visibly answered.

(2) The high cost of higher education is limiting access to good jobs. The truth is that financial aid offsets an average of 40% or more of the cost, and the diversity of size and type means that sticker prices vary significantly. There is a college somewhere in the US to fit most everyone’s needs and pocketbook. This misunderstanding needs to be answered.

(3) Universities should focus more on practical fields of study. The implication here is that the liberal and fine arts are less worthy. The facts are that many companies prefer liberal arts graduates, and that the job a graduate gets today might not exist tomorrow! These facts need to be heard.

Even if the debates themselves end up with politicians continuing to attack the academy, 24/7 cable, social media, and other major news outlets could balance the situation by having top academic leaders immediately and visibly respond. Otherwise, these charges might go unanswered. Then we all will be the losers.

 

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Lesson 287 Terrorism, Cities and Higher Ed

Posted in Higher Education, International, Lessons Learned, Strategic Communication on September 9, 2015| Leave a Comment »

I recently participated in a conversation about how cities might be able to help solve international problems. At the conclusion I came away thinking that this was a real possibility. So I made a list of the reasons why:

(1) City administrations tend to be more nonpartisan than national governments.

(2) Many city mayors, managers and their executives have serious problems right down the street and therefore tend to be very pragmatic.

(4) Many of those problems are related to poverty and unemployment in nearby neighborhoods

(5) Young immigrants, sometimes second and third generation, tend to live in those neighborhoods and can become disillusioned about their future. Extreme groups offering a future coupled with adventure can sound very appealing and persuasive.

Great universities and great cities tend to have mutual interests in community problem solving, greater visibility, and internationalization. If terrorism is to be successfully addressed it must be addressed in city neighborhoods, and universities certainly can help.

Cities must addresses the root causes. But universities can provide the essential research, project interventions, job training, and leadership education.

In the final analysis, city government officials and university leaders in the great cities of the world just might be more effective in curbing terrorism than most national governments, which tend to get paralyzed by ideology and unbridled egos.

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Lesson 286 Preparing for a Changing Academy

Posted in Higher Education, International, Lessons Learned, Strategic Communication on September 2, 2015| Leave a Comment »

The Transition Academy: Seizing Opportunity in the Age of Disruption, is now available at… http://www.case.org/books

CASE Books is an educational publisher serving everyone involved in advancing educational institutions around the world. Today this includes professional advancement officers as well as institutional executives, faculty, staff and the many others who are concerned about the inevitable disruptions of a coming sea change in the industry.

Significant changes in government support, uses of technology, and the globalization of everything, are already underway. Government priorities are different in different countries. Some are focusing on building prestige, some on leading science and technology development, and others on generating and filling jobs. And a good number of these are likely to include overall funding cuts.

Digital technology is producing change inside institutions and out. New on-line programs are addressing unmet needs, and the best ones are solving many of their early quality problems. Technology is also changing how we teach and deliver educational experiences in traditional residential institutions. And simultaneously with all this the economic impact of globalization is changing most everything.

For the academy this goes well beyond study abroad. Undergraduate students will consider enrolling in institutions in many different places in the world. For example, US students will be able to study in English, experience other cultures, and pay no more than at home. The best faculty will have teaching opportunities in other parts of the world, and are likely to move several times during a career. Foundations and businesses that have focused their philanthropic interests locally will have new and enticing opportunities for international visibility and impact.

The question is not whether all this will happen, but how soon will it affect you? Therefore, planning for global change and preparing constituents for a new day should already be underway.

 

 

 

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Lesson 285 A United States of Europe and Higher Ed

Posted in Branding, Higher Education, International, Lessons Learned, Strategic Communication on August 27, 2015| Leave a Comment »

During Chautauqua Institution’s focus on Europe this summer, Ulrike Guerot, Director of the European Democracy Lab in Berlin, suggested that the EU should function much like a “united states of Europe.”

Dr. Guerot went so far as to suggest that United States of America’s “republic” could actually be a model for Europe. Each European country could elect representatives to go to Brussels specifically to make laws and regulations that insure the development of the EU into a solid economic and political power. She thinks achieving economic unity, and at least some measure of political compromise, is the only way to prevent future wars.

Just as in the US, she expects tensions would exist between the rights of each country and the collective needs of the EU. She also recognizes that the kind of extreme polarization which developed in the US also exists in the EU. But just as in the US, she argues this can be tolerated for a while, and addressed over time.

Many at Chautauqua found Dr. Guerot’s “big idea” a bit far-fetched. But it is an idea that could lead to an EU that would see benefit in longterm support for collaborative university research, teaching, and international problem-solving.

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Lesson 284 Gov’t Policy and Higher Ed’s Potential

Posted in Higher Education, Internal Politics, International, Lessons Learned, Strategic Communication on August 20, 2015| Leave a Comment »

This week deputy news editor of the British publication Times Higher Education, John Morgan, wrote that if the UK exits from the EU there is a potential loss of its annual 1.2 billon pounds in research money, and along with it the future of important multinational research projects. Such a move also raises questions about the flow of students and faculty between European countries.

I have previously written about the potential of the globalization of higher education to enable the development of significant new multinational, problem-solving focused research projects… as well as the development of international leaders. Unenlightened government policies, however, will make these goals very difficult to reach.

Simply put, government policies matter a lot. Government roles are changing everywhere. They can either enable or block progress. Some governments are mostly interested in enhancing their country’s prestige. These tend to focus support on science and technology. And some of these are mostly interested in upgrading only a handful of their largest universities. Others are primarily focused on creating and quickly filling jobs.

Washington seems to be headed in this jobs direction, ignoring the need to prepare students to deal with future career changes or the consequences of the rapid globalization of everything.

US higher education policy is being debated right now. But much of the partisan political rhetoric shows no appreciation for the role universities can play in restoring US global prestige, or in international leadership development, or in working with others to solve international problems.

University leaders and communicators, however, have the tools to make the case for higher education’s potential to make the world a better place. And when many speak as one the impact can be quite powerful.

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Lesson 283 The EU Identity Crisis and Higher Ed

Posted in Higher Education, International, Leadership, Lessons Learned, Strategic Communication on August 13, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Each week in the summer The Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York offers top quality programming on a different major topic. This week the focus is on the turmoil in Europe. Lectures, breakout sessions, arts performances, and more, provide a perfect setting for discussion and reflection.

James Walters, chaplain at the London School of Economics, kicked off the week by asserting that Europe is suffering from a fundamental identity crisis. While the common currency seems to be holding disparate countries together, he also sees major religious and secular differences as troubling complications. He described modern Europe as a collection of constantly growing multi-faith and immigrant communities. Therefore, there are both interfaith and cross-cultural problems.

Longtime New York Times foreign affairs columnist Roger Cohen continued by pointing out that after the cold war, East and West Germany united, the Soviet Union collapsed, NATO was formed, and soon 12 European counties became 28! Europe ended up with a common currency, but with little else in common.

William and Mary professor Stephen Hanson described two fundamental and opposing narratives between Russia and the West. The West contends that the recent democratic revolution in Ukraine makes a solid case for an alliance with Europe. Putin, however,  contends that the ousted Ukrainian president was also democratically elected and many Ukrainians still want to remain aligned with Russia. This reality, plus complicated disputes with other border countries, make the situation almost impossible to resolve.

David Marsh, Managing Director of the Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum in the UK, added that he thinks Europe is farther away from a political European union than in the last 100 years. He contends we are all suffering from a vacuum in world leadership.

Akbar Ahmed, chair of Islamic Studies in the School of International Service at American University, discussed the issues facing third generation immigrants in Europe. Their families came for a better life but now their children and grandchildren are facing unemployment and discrimination. For many, ISIS represents adventure and hope.

When questioned about the widespread impact of extremism Ahmed added that when he took his students to cities in the Islamic world people would always ask them why Americans didn’t like Muslims. They had no experience with Americans so they believed what they were told by extreme groups. But a groundwork for better understanding was begun just by talking with his students. Ahmed’s conclusion was that only knowledge can bring people together to solve problems.

My experience has also been that by bringing people together we build foundations for eventual problem-solving. And when we add international leadership development to the equation we take significant steps toward finding workable solutions. Indeed, this is how international higher education becomes pure public diplomacy.

 

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Lesson 279 Advancing Institutions in Times of Disruption

Posted in International, Leadership, Lessons Learned, Strategic Communication on July 16, 2015| Leave a Comment »

This week I attended the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education’s annual Summit for Advancement Leaders.  Each year the CASE Summit examines the issues that will disrupt and change the future of higher education. My last post discussed some of these higher education issues and previewed my new book on the topic coming in August.

The fact is almost all nonprofit institutions face many of the same challenges. They must find new donors, deal with the consequences of a technology revolution, compensate for changing government support, and face the economic and marketing realities of globalization. This certainly will require more sophistication. But because most of these problems are related to advancement work, there also will be many new opportunities for higher levels of institutional leadership.

As I thought more about what success in this changing marketplace will require I became more convinced than ever that advancement professionals will have to be very integrated in how they go about their work. In fact, I now believe they should go so far as to incorporate each other’s language when explaining their individual goals and visions. For example, when talking to donors  fundraisers should also reference the need to build strong institutional brand identities, the importance of consistency in explaining competitive advantage, the need for high visibility in new target markets, the coming changes in student recruitment, the benefits of an international student experience, etc. And this same type of cross-discipline referencing should apply to everyone else in advancement as they communicate with their constituents.

In other words, when all advancement professionals talk with their constituents as if they are all in the business of marketing the institution, the result will be the perception that this institution understands the challenges of a rapidly changing world and is on its way to a whole new level of academic distinction.

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Lesson 278 A Different Future for Higher Ed

Posted in Branding, Higher Education, Lessons Learned, Strategic Communication on July 9, 2015| Leave a Comment »

A number of forces are converging to change the future of higher education: (1) Governments everywhere are changing how they support education, often cutting back. (2) Digital technology is changing both how we teach and how we tell our institutions’ stories. (3) Globalization is gradually and steadily changing the competitive dynamics of our marketplace.

In the United States all of this is happening in an atmosphere of state government cutbacks. Many institutions therefore are focused more on saving their core business and local markets than on exploring international opportunities.

But the facts suggest that global forces are already changing higher education… ready or not. Migration patterns of both students and faculty are already changing. Institutions everywhere are recruiting and raising money in markets previously foreign to them. Institutional partnerships are being formed. New campuses are being built. And technology is creating new international on-line markets, while at the same time changing the communication of everything from subject matter to institutions.

In such an environment it is only prudent for institutions to consider these international realities at the same time they are addressing their local core business disruptions. And what’s exciting is that all of these challenges are ones that all advancement professionals are capable of addressing. Who better than they can identify the parts of the world where their institution has  fundraising potential? Who better than they can call upon alumni in other countries to help recruit students and lift visibility? Who better than they can access and clarify the international appeal of their special program strengths? And who better than they can understand and explain how media revolutions change everything?

The only bad news in all of this is that advancement work will require more sophistication than ever before. But the exciting good news is that there is no one in all of higher education better suited than advancement professionals to help lead the way.

My new book with much more on this topic is coming soon from CASE Books: The Transition Academy: Seizing Opportunity in the Age of Disruption  (http://www.case.org/books).

 

 

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Lesson 277 Leading Issues Negotiations

Posted in Leadership, Lessons Learned, Strategic Communication on July 3, 2015| Leave a Comment »

After criticizing President Obama’s handling of several crises, I am now inclined to give him much higher marks on his handling of several critical issues. Handling crises requires a quick, decisive, confident response. Handing issues requires a much different approach.

In the case of Syria and Russia the president took too long to respond. His time-consuming analytical approach made him look indecisive. In the case of Syria he drew a line in the sand but then ignored it. In the case of Russia he made demands and imposed consequences that Putin ignored, giving Russia the appearance of seizing the upper hand.

Nuclear power negotiations in Iran and renewing trade with Cuba were handled much better.  Effective leadership on issues requires clarifying all competing positions and then imagining possible compromises that can lead to acceptable win-win conclusions. With Iran and Cuba this is being managed more skillfully.

The fact is, effective leadership on issues allows for making a favorable impression even when a deal is not reached. This is because the deliberation process itself can make news, and skilled leaders have the opportunity to sound impressive and come off looking like statesmen.

Crisis communication is a matter of confidently and quickly doing the right thing. But leading on issues is more a matter of strategic thinking and skillful facilitation.

While Obama is not a participant in the EU vs. Greece deliberations, it will be very interesting to see which participants get high marks as leaders, and why.

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Lesson 275 Why You Should Love Creative People

Posted in Integrated Marketing, Lessons Learned, Strategic Communication on June 18, 2015| Leave a Comment »

When I arrived at TCU in 1966 to teach radio-TV-film my closest colleagues and friends were in the art department. I found myself hanging out with oil painters, graphic artists, sculptors, and photographers. They were asking me about the psychic and social impact of television and I was learning about the power of imagery from them.

Looking back I can see clearly now that I believed early on that art had the ability to give context and tone to big ideas… and even enhance their power. In theatre the background set reinforces the dramatic impact of the story. In a marketing brochure graphic design and photography attract attention and reinforce the importance of the content. And the right magazine cover sets the stage for everything else that follows. In today’s media world you certainly can tell a lot about a book by its cover!

But it goes even deeper than this. Creative artists of all types provide insights and truths unavailable to many of us. The daily lives of poets, novelists, essayists, dramatists, composers, musicians, all take us a little closer to the basic truths we all seek. So when you engage with artists, appreciate what they do, see up close how they do it, and bring your compelling content ideas into the dialogue, you are enabling the kind of multi-sensory communication essential to influencing today’s audiences.

In the past I thought that intellectuals were only those high IQ people who could remember names and dates on objective tests. They were those scholars who could master numbers and put complicated formulas on blackboards. But over time I came to see that true intellectuals also include those who struggle to give birth to new ideas and surround themselves with creative people as a way to accomplish higher goals and deeper understanding. I love these people, and you should too.

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