Larry D. Lauer

Lesson 302 Communicating Christmas Spirit

December 22, 2015 by larrylauer

Each year I find myself in deep contemplation about this thing we call Christmas spirit? Sometimes it seems like the best time of year. Other times it can seem overwhelming. This year I tried to be a bit more analytical and determine what year-round lessons there might be in all this for communicators.

First, the holiday challenges: Just when we want to feel the Christmas spirit and wax poetic about being with family and the joy of giving many people find themselves frustrated with the logistical complications of in-laws and merged families. Or they are finding themselves too far away from loved ones. Or they are overwhelmed with too much commercialism too soon. Or they are feeling that family expectations are too high. Or they must suddenly give up family traditions because circumstances have changed. Or they are just suffering the mild depression and “blues” that always seem to come over so many people.

So how do people overcome these challenges? I believe those people who truly feel the spirit throughout the holiday season are able to awaken, renew and for the most part maintain their creative imagination. For these folks Christmas music fills the day with spirit. They constantly work at recalling joyful memories and traditions. They welcome private moments of personal peace. They seek out stories of hope that provide inspiration. And many have found ways to accept those spectacular decorations that go with longer periods of commercialism as pathways to prolonged enjoyment. In other words, don’t fight them… join them.

So what are the communication lessons? Simply put, creative ideas and innovative imagination are always compelling. The most powerful messages are best conveyed by telling compelling stories. Meaningful traditions are always powerful, and can be very effective at re-engaging people over time. Memories and related nostalgia will always recapture attention. Familiar music, be it simply college fight songs or reminders of nostalgic periods of time, always engages people. And dramatic and uplifting designs and events can always transport people beyond the burdens of the present.

And so I now wish for you the joyful spirit of Christmas… and the ability to believe that there really is a Santa Claus… and that reindeer really can fly!!

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Lesson 301 On Becoming Thought Leaders

December 17, 2015 by larrylauer

Last week I attended a strategic planning meeting at the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). Those attending described the organization as “the collaborative integration” of professionals in marketing and communication, fund-raising, alumni relations, government affairs… all focused on advancing education.

CASE has long been a truly international organization with offices currently in Washington, London, Singapore, and Mexico City… and now with growing activities in Africa. This planning exercise is taking a new look at the rapidly changing international education landscape.

The arrival of a new CASE president in Washington from Australia, and the appointment of a new international vice president based in London, has made this project particularly timely, relevant and exciting.

It was agreed early in the planning process that CASE’s basic aspirations are to be “bold, agile, and innovative.” And strategic goals were described as producing collaborative thought leaders; identifying, developing, and managing high potential talent; and engaging members worldwide in the planning discussions by making maximum use of technology.

I believe the daily work of these professionals positions them perfectly to scan the scene, recognize strong trends, keep constituents informed, and help their institutions determine the best way forward. In fact, I can see many of them assuming new leadership roles because finding new funding resources, adjusting brand identity, revising marketing plans, cultivating the help of international alumni and parents, and relating to governments in new ways, will be major challenges.

One CASE strategic goal that stood out to me is to act as “the voice of the industry.” This goal is especially relevant to my fellow professionals in marketing and communication. Indeed, we simply must prepare our external constituents (and in many cases even our top executives, administrators, faculty and students) to effectively address growing societal and political threats at home and abroad … as well as to identify and seize the many new and exciting opportunities that internationalization offers.

Just imagine the possibilities of a truly global education industry: Better cross-cultural understanding. Serious world problem solving using university experts. And the effective development of global leaders with a truly international perspective!

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Lesson 300 Problems With the Politics of “No”

December 9, 2015 by larrylauer

What is the consequence of arguing against ideas or programs without providing alternative solutions? Simply put, you are leaving your audience hanging with the most constructive part of your message missing. Such an approach might gain support from sympathizers in the short run, but it is likely to prove insufficient in the end.

Republican legislators have spent the last several years objecting to the president’s initiatives and policies without offering specific alternative solutions. Now the new speaker of the house said this week that this will change. This new development is important, but for practical reasons it might be easier said than done.

While the politics of “no” leaves the communication loop incomplete and audiences ultimately unsatisfied, it still is much easier to rally people around their common dissatisfaction with a situation than it is to get them to agree on a solution.

This dilemma has also appeared in foreign policy matters. There was widespread support for the rhetoric to oust the Iraqi government, but there was no agreed upon plan to replace it. In Egypt it was easy to rally people against the government but impossible to find agreement on who and what should replace it. The situation has been the same in Libya and elsewhere.

Now we are facing the same dilemma in Syria. Even if the US engineers the ouster of the current government, what will follow. What kind of government? Who will lead it? What will it cost? Who will pay?

This is both a political and communication reality. The lesson is that in the long run it is impossible to have success by only objecting to the current state of affairs. In the short run it might seem to work, but over time it will become apparent that tearing down without a plan for what follows can leave entire nations in endless turmoil.

On this issue, political leaders with a truly international education might ultimately be our only best hope. This is because a global education will feature multicultural forums for both the systematic nonpartisan examination of ideas and programs, and for finding pragmatic workable solutions.

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Lesson 299 Global Higher Ed as Public Diplomacy

December 2, 2015 by larrylauer

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Lesson 298 Why Go There When There’s TV?

November 27, 2015 by larrylauer

By watching the news over the last few months it’s possible to see the Greek government as totally dysfunctional, its people too lazy to work a full day, its political leaders as ego driven, and its approach to its membership in the EU as naive.

My wife and I just spent almost three weeks touring Athens and many of the Greek isles. We experienced a Greece that is actually functioning fairly well in spite of high unemployment. Christmas decorations are appearing everywhere, and most restaurants are doing fine. People complain about their extremely high taxes, but I must say that their “enjoy-life everyday” lifestyle came off to me as a healthy alternative to the relentless success-driven world from which I retired!

Simply put, being there was a much different experience than just seeing it on television or in textbook photos or on videos. For example, standing on the Acropolis and walking slowly around the Parthenon is truly an emotional experience. These are familiar images we have all seen in books, magazines, and movies. But when you are actually there you cannot escape the thrill of putting your feet on the same ground where ancient people walked, worked, fought, worshiped, lived, and debated ideas.

At archeological sites and in museums throughout the Greek isles and in Athens my wife repeatedly commented on how breathtaking it was for her to see the actual artifacts and paintings that she had only seen in art and world history textbooks. Being there connects you directly with the same places where artists painted, philosophers taught, and the historical events that we read about really happened. Now you are the director of your own movie. You decide where to point the camera. You alone determine what to spend more time exploring.

Just walking streets and neighborhoods gives you a good impression of how people live each day. And talking with only a few of them can provide new insights about their core values and life goals. You find that they can be different from yours, but still engaging and understandable.

And sometimes you may also be disappointed. For example, you may find that many of the charming towns and villages you have seen in travel photos and movies have become overcrowded tourist traps much of the year. But this too is a real life lesson about how the world is constantly changing and the price that is being paid for progress.

Observing people’s daily lives, absorbing cultures and values, making foreign friendships, encountering political and religious conflicts, seeing poverty that you can’t change with your own eyes, and even experiencing the consequences of global warming for yourself… all this and more changes people forever.

Yes, the digital technology revolution can bring great images of the world to the campus experience. And we certainly must use this new and traditional media to enrich our classroom conversations and dialogues. But with the globalization of higher education all of this should just be the preparation for students spending more time experiencing the world first-hand.

One final thought about being there: A new level of fear came over me after experiencing the terrorist killings in Paris while in Athens. After all, I had just traveled through the history of this ancient land and there was no way now I could ignore the fact that many great societies came to an end because of this kind of extreme intolerance coupled with a disregard for the value of human life.

So, what will it take to bring about tolerance in this world! I still believe that the globalization of higher education is a huge step in the right direction. But last week in Athens I must say it felt like we are now in a race against time.

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Lesson 297 Communication Lessons for a World in Crisis

November 19, 2015 by larrylauer

Reflecting over 50 years of struggling to help people and institutions make themselves better understood I offer the following lessons:

1. Once people have made a commitment to a point of view it is almost impossible to change their minds. So in the case of ISIS today, military and/or political solutions seem to be the only immediate options.

2. But it is not too late for mayors and city managers to collaborate on both communication and action initiatives that will enable Muslim groups to feel better connected to genuine opportunities. Hopelessness and despair in the multi-cultural ghettos of the world’s great cities can still be addressed.

3. This is also a moment that top Muslim leaders can and should seize to plan and launch a major communication campaign to explain Islam to the world. This is because the world’s news media will be looking for new breaking news stories right now, and the timing is especially right for this one. But to be effective at a time like this a story must cut through mounds of negative information clutter. And to do so it must be a completely positive, simple, and endlessly repeated description of what Islam stands for and what it does not.

4. This is also a “right time” opportunity for the leaders of the Western world to unite behind their shared democratic values. However, for this to ring credible politicians and prominent leaders in every country will have to be willing to find the right common language to “rally” everyone behind their president or top leader, no matter political background or past mistakes. Common cause must become the unifier. Blame must be left for historians. Dissent can be accommodated, but not at this time among the leaders.

It’s true that 24/7 news coverage can make it difficult to get beyond many momentary crises. But continuing news coverage in a crisis of ISIS magnitude might prove to be helpful. It can provide an opportunity for the Western world to unite around shared values, a catalyst for addressing ghetto neighborhood hopelessness, a new opportunity for top Islamic leaders to make their religion better understood, and a perfect “teachable moment” for educators and students everywhere around the world.

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Lesson 296 University Advancement and Globalization

November 9, 2015 by larrylauer

On Monday I met with the executive editor of the Economist news magazine in London. Because it is so current and comprehensive those who work there still call it a weekly newspaper, and many international leaders will argue that it is the most influential business and political publication in the world.

My TCU John V. Roach Honors College classes and Bob Schieffer Communication College seminars have been enriched by “live” dialogues with this noted international journalist. We have “Skyped” him in to converse with students, and we have also visited with him in the board room at the top of the Economist building in London.

Today my discussion with him was about the future of higher education. He is responsible for the new media initiatives at the Economist as well as its annual publication, The Year Ahead. So I presented ideas from my new book The Transition Academy (CASE Books), and he made observations based on his daily immersion in the turmoil of international news.

When all was said and done we agreed that on-line education is improving and will establish itself as a convenient alternative for many students around the world, that residential institutions will have to combine new media enhancements and experiences with face-to-face dialogues in order to succeed, that all of higher education is rapidly becoming a global industry and every institution will have to adapt, and that “university advancement” is a misleading term for what might better be called “university business development.”

Advancement is a term that is intended to cover university fundraisng, alumni relations, strategic communication, marketing, and even government relations. I have even described it as including everyone involved with advancing the institution. But it has become misleading to many, and my meeting today at the Economist convinced me that as the industry becomes more global we really do need to find a better term.

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Lesson 295 Preparing Institutions for Tomorrow

November 4, 2015 by larrylauer

Last week I had the pleasure of working with a group of trustees committed to preserving the values and distinctions of a hundred year old institution. But they also understood that planning for the future will require using new communication tools and adapting to the needs of a generation that grew up with those tools.

We first discussed the increasing power of brand identity. In this digital media world people seem to affiliate with an institution as much for what it stands for and the total experience it delivers (values, culture, traditions, relationships, regional characteristics, consistency, program distinctions, etc.) as for its particular fields of study.

We also discussed how in an information cluttered world an authentic differentiated brand identity can actually achieve greater visibility, as well as greater distinction. And we explored how an authentic brand description can be adapted to connect with different age groups and market segments, and how each segment will have its own preferred media platforms… some digital and some traditional.

At the heart of this institution’s educational experience has always been face-to-face conversations about social justice, gender, diversity, world religions, church and state, and more. So we discussed how all this can be preserved while adapting to the needs of new generations. Internet searches, easy to access media material, shorter talks in class, teleconferencing with experts from around the world, all can be used while preserving the added value of face-to-face conversations and forums.

What was most impressive about this group was that they could see how a contemporary vision for the future, and new methods of teaching, can remain grounded in its founding mission.

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Lesson 294 The Case of Latin America

October 29, 2015 by larrylauer

The EU is a collection of separate countries that came together to prevent the possibility of another world war, as well as to compete more powerfully in the international marketplace. However, right now a common currency and shared issues in higher education seem to be the only things they have in common.

Latin America is made up of many separate countries too. Each has its distinct culture and political environment. As with the EU, it is almost impossible to refer to Latin America as a unified entity. Few if any would see it as a common market.

I had the honor this week of kicking off a conference attended by university marketing and communication professionals from many of the countries in Latin and Central America, the United States, and Puerto Rico. I talked with them about my new book, The Transition Academy, and about my lessons learned over 50 years adapting marketing and communication strategies and tactics to the challenge of making academic institutions better understood. I found that on these topics they indeed did have a lot in common. They were all experiencing government cutbacks, the impact of the digital technology revolution both inside and outside their institutions, and the widespread effects of globalization.

The participants talked to me about how social media tools were changing their students, as well as how they were marketing their institutions differently. They were interested in more sophisticated approaches to brand identity development, and ways to get more support for their work inside their universities. In other words, they have the same internal politics issues that we all do. They asked about the importance of world rankings, and how smaller institutions can respond to related constituent pressures.

In other words, I experienced with this group what I had previously experienced in Canada, Europe, Australia, Asia, and even South Africa. While some of the specifics are different, many of the big issues we face in the academy are the same. While we compete for students and money in some cases, we also can come together and share common concerns and lessons.

Latin America is not a common market. But the universities of Latin America do have many issues in common and problems they can resolve together. And when I suggested that the ultimate potential of all this interaction was a global industry that developed truly international leaders and the expertise to solve our most pressing international problems, no one seemed to object.

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