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Lesson 152 State of the Union

February 16, 2013 by larrylauer

This week was dominated by the president’s state of the union address.  And since then, I have been preoccupied with reflecting on it.  It certainly was an interesting hour-long lecture.  But when all is said and done,  just what  was really accomplished?  What wasn’t?  And what could be?  

As a speech, it certainly was comprehensive.  Many could easily see it as inspiring and visionary.  It was a complete list of initiatives that, if implemented,  could certainly move the country forward. But many no doubt were also wondering just how all this could ever be paid for, or why he  is proposing so many different ideas all at once. In short, the address might have sounded overwhelming and unrealistic– especially in today’s economic environment.

In public speaking 101 I remember learning that effective presentations generally begin with the speaker demonstrating an “insider’s empathy” with the needs of key audience segments. Then the content should explain no more than four or five doable initiatives, each supported by very practical sounding examples and stories. And each story should be selected to relate to the needs of the most important audience segments, so everyone wins something. The conclusion, then, should simply repeat the main points, followed by an inspirational rallying cry to help reshape the future together.

The state of the union address this week was a very interesting and comprehensive lecture about all we should be able to do to move America forward. It was enjoyable to hear, and I can support all of it.  But would it not have been possible to put forth a more focused, pragmatic and doable plan?

Posted in Leadership, Lessons Learned, Public Affairs | 1 Comment »

Lesson 151 Higher Education Under Seige

February 7, 2013 by larrylauer

US legislators have become aware of just how much is being spent on financial aid to students. Since it is a very big number, and there is a need to find places to cut the budget, they have decided that it is their responsibility to investigate the cost benefit of the expense. This has led to a relentless and potentially damaging assault on the entire industry. The shere number of areas being investigated is staggering. And it is happening all at once.

It begins with the assumption that higher education costs too much everywhere. There is no acknowledgment of the diversity of schools and their varied costs, or just how much it costs when the goal is to deliver an exceptionally high quality education. The buzz word is “affordability,” and the assumption simply is that every school costs too much.

This assumption fuels a desire to measure just what people learn and earn as an indicator of cost effectiveness. But that is difficult to do. For example, there are now investigations  into what people in specific career fields earn at different points after graduation. This can convey the erroneous  assumption that it’s valid to choose a career based mostly on salary data that may or may not relate to what each graduate may actually experience. And it does not take into account an  individual’s inherent talent, motivation, and possible inner desire for a different kind of creative fulfillment? Even so, some researchers are trying to collect and publish what they can find anyway. And they will do it in the name of transparency, even though it will lead many to very unhappy consequences.  

We can agree that for those types of institutions where more efficiency is needed a targeted assessment is fair. This  currently would include the entire for-profit sector. We can also agree that learning outcomes can be better assessed. But the wide diversity of both institutions and program choices must be maintained in the process. Diversity is what makes the American system distinctive, and diversity is what makes financial aid so essential.

But the assaults don’t stop here. There are also assaults on charitable tax deductions, tax deductions for education expenses, on how credit is awarded, on how credits transfer, on how loans are administered, and more. All of this at the same time is too much. It divides rather than unites.  It destroys rather than improves.

What we need is a participatory and positive problem-solving dialogue between legislators and educators. And we do not need this relentless and mindless assault on the best hope we have for world peace and enlightened international understanding.

Posted in Lessons Learned, Public Affairs | Leave a Comment »

Lesson 150 Are Truly Unique Ideas Possible?

February 2, 2013 by larrylauer

My 15-year-old granddaughter, Page, startled me when she asked, “Granddad, is it possible to ever have a truly unique idea? I stared back, was silent for a moment, and then said, “Gee, Page, you just asked a very profound question.” She went on, “I was watching The Hunger Games and thought to myself,  that was my idea. I could have written that. How come that writer had the same idea I did? How could that happen?”

At 15, Page is already an accomplished artist and a writer. I have been looking forward to many rewarding hours of discussion about all kinds of ideas. But suddenly she put a huge one right at the top of the agenda. And now, how will I deal with it?

When I thought back on 46 years of teaching I was reminded of my own “creative moments.”  Sometimes ideas that felt totally new would seem to jump out of my head. I would be wandering around my classroom reflecting on the day’s topic, and bingo, out came a new insight. I would actually get startled. I remember thinking, “I have no idea where that came from!”

Are such ideas sent from God. Or do the come from somewhere mysterious out there in space?  Or was it someone elses idea, and I don’t remember from whom it came. Or was my brain so stimulated on the topic that it gathered fragments from who knows where?

I confess that much of my work has been putting together ideas in a way that cause people to sometimes say, “I already knew that, but you  put it together in a way that made me think about it differently.”  Could I claim such an insight as uniquely my own?

I think I can confidently tell Page that from my experience I believe truly creative ideas are possible, but I am not sure we can ever really be sure they are truly unique. In my case I am pretty sure that all the bits and pieces came from other people. My brain put them together, however, and the outcome I can claim as mine. Or, is it?

Obviously Page and I  have a lot to discuss as she embarks on a lifelong adventure in ideas and search for truth. I am not likely to have many answers. But I will share with her the deep satisfaction of living a life of ideas and creative thought, and relish every minute of it.

Posted in Lessons Learned, Strategic Communication | Leave a Comment »

Lesson 149 Career Transitions

January 26, 2013 by larrylauer

This week I announced that I will retire as vice-chancellor at the end of August. In January I will begin a new adventure as senior fellow in strategic and international communication in TCU’s John V. Roach Honors College and Schieffer School of Journalism. This comes after 46 years of association with one university, and after several months of deep reflection on an incredible lifelong odyssey. 

A high school counselor once told me I probably was not college material, and that I better decide where I wanted to be in 5 years and set some specific goals to get there.  Then, in junior college I met two teachers who opened the door to a world of ideas and helped me clarify my strengths and weaknesses. From that moment on I decided to focus on communicating ideas, and tried as best I could to minimize the consequences of my limitations. I never actually set  firm goals and specific objectives.

When I arrived at American University in Washington I thought I might consider the foreign service.  But I became involved in educational broadcasting, and soon decided that becoming a radio and television producer would be my future.  But then as a graduate student I got involved in teaching and fell in love with the thought of immersing myself in a subject matter… media and communication studies.

Arriving at TCU I told some colleagues that all I wanted to do was teach and that I could not understand why anyone would ever go into administration. Then after 8 years of teaching I was challenged to help bring some innovative thinking to our evening college, summer school and non-credit programs, and surprised myself by taking the job.  Later, another opportunity in central administration presented itself, this time with the challenge of bringing new thinking to communicating the institution. After adapting integrated marketing ideas to the academy, I found myself back in Washington in a government affairs position living out the observation, “What goes around, comes around.”

The lifelong career lesson learned for me was that setting specific goals could have been very limiting to my finding  opportunities I never imagined.  When I focused on what I did well, and minimized my limitations as best I could,  opportunities appeared that I would have never planned.

Truthfully, I never thought about what I am now about to do until several months ago. Last fall I taught a colloquium with some of the best honors students on the planet, and still another new opportunity appeared. So here we go again.

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Lesson 148 When Words Fail Us

January 19, 2013 by larrylauer

It is easy to forget that even commonly used words mean different things to different people. Words evolve in meaning over time, and are also used in different ways in other cultures. They have been my business for over 40 years, and yet I still can forget how difficult it is to achieve clarity.

“Compromise” is one of those words.  It is a very negative word for many people.  It can mean you lost the argument, and are giving up your beliefs. But to others it can be a positive word, and mean you have reached a viable solution where everyone can go forward.

“Taxes” is another one of those words. For many paying taxes is a privilege. It’s what goes along with living in a society that builds and maintains roads, provides fire and police protection,  and establishes many other quality of life enhancing social services. For others,  however, it’s taking away their hard-earned income.

Still another such word is “capitalism.”  For many it means out-of-control greed.  It enables the few to enrich themselves at the expense of others.  But to many others it’s a word that goes hand-in-hand with freedom and opportunity.

“Democracy” to some means that the people at large make most decisions by majority vote. But to many others around the world it means various levels and kinds of participation in government. For example, it can mean being able to have “some say” in the process. But it also can mean participating  in a limited voting  process that is likely to result in establishing a dictatorial style leader.

Operating from the perspective of a clear “ideology” was pretty much a positive thing in the past. You always knew where someone was coming from on an issue. But today being an ideologue means you are an  “extremist”.  And this largely has been the consequence of a mean-spirited polarized political environment.

Even in higher education the term “church-related”  has different meanings. To some it means an opportunity to explore what you believe as a part of your education. But to others it means, “Those people will tell you what to think!”  

Words take on meanings from how we use them. Whatever they mean today they are likely to mean something else tomorrow.   Running a “deficit” to one person is synonymous with bankruptcy. But to another it is merely a necessary management process!  No wonder successful communication is so incredibly difficult.

Posted in Lessons Learned, Media Literacy, Public Affairs | Leave a Comment »

Lesson 147 Can Debating Produce Solutions?

January 12, 2013 by larrylauer

Observing the current debate on gun ownership leads one to conclude that all debating can accomplish is polarize and paralyze situations. 

A CNN promotional message got my attention this week when I noticed one of the reporters featured in it essentially said that encouraging debate was a primary objective of their coverage.  On the surface, that can sound really  positive. Who would not be inclined to agree that the more we debate issues the more informed we become?

But I am reminded of how even mainstream journalists delighted in reporting the extremes of the republican primary debates. They argued they were only reporting what was being said. But admittedly it made exciting copy for the daily news, and so the extreme viewpoints were endlessly repeated.  

Looking at it now, does this not raise the question : Did such reporting play a strong role in creating the very polarization they were reporting? In other words, have we reached a point where we must be extreme in our rhetoric in order to gain the media recognition necessary to succeed?  Do we find ourselves in the classic “chicken and egg” predicament?  

In my younger days I produced both radio and television public affairs programs and found that the easiest way to design a compelling program was to invite two extreme thinking people to debate. I also found that when we examined issues more thoughtfully it simply was not “good television.”  The medium of television likes simplicity and conflict, and with few exceptions makes intelligent discussion feel boring.

I must conclude from this current gun ownership issue that debates certainly do clarify positions! But once clarified, it’s also clear that a much different circumstance is required in order to find solutions. Research tells us that the media determines the topics we talk about. And we now know  24/7 cable is capable of fine-tuning extreme points of view. But we have yet to find a useful medium for taking those viewpoints and moving them to solutions.

The consequence of this polarized atmosphere is that compromise has become a dirty word, when it realistically is the only way to move forward. When are we going to learn that debate is only one important step in the democratic process?  The next is to form a task force to find a compromised way forward, and then to adjust the details later from what is learned. 

We have a big problem with gun violence in the US, so let’s do something… and then go from there.

Posted in Lessons Learned, Media Literacy, Public Affairs, Strategic Communication | 1 Comment »

Lesson 146 MOOCs

January 6, 2013 by larrylauer

Communication history teaches that new technologies can be game-changers, but old ones never completely go away. They merely change roles, or accommodate the new circumstances.

Massive Open Online Courses, now called MOOC’s, have recently appeared in higher education. Initially they have taken the form of courses offered online to the world by star professors, and mostly for free. And surprisingly to many, prestige institutions such as MIT and Harvard entered the arena early. Are they really intending to provide a free education to anyone in the world? Or are they merely seizing an opportunity to achieve worldwide visibility at a time when world rankings are beginning to attract attention? Or are they using these courses to attract applications for their residential programs? Or are they primarily collecting market behavior data that can be sold or used in other ways? Or, are they experimenting with all of the above?

Some say MOOCs will bring a level of revolutionary change that could render residential institutions obsolete. Certainly, at minimum the game has changed. Start-up companies are already producing and distributing these courses, and some of these companies are for profit. Most of their course have been non-credit, but that will change. And free is likely to change as well. These ventures certainly plan to succeed. 

At first, the main attraction of basic online courses for institutions was that they were cheaper to produce and administer than traditional classroom education. And, of course, a reduced price is a major benefit to many students, plus the convenience of taking courses from any location. The problem, however, was that they often lacked academic quality and became monotonous over time. And that lack of satisfying interaction and socialization led to a high number of drop-outs.

MOOC advocates assert that technology innovation and computer effects will solve both the quality and socialization problems. And by adding a star professor, they argue you will have an integrated product that will indeed challenge the very survival of residential institutions. Admittedly, technical quality can be achieved. But it seems to me that  higher costs and the need to find more revenue will present the same challenges now faced  by other online startups that also began as free. And in the final analysis, we also cannot overlook the very large number of students and parents that still prefer a more personal living and learning educational setting.

My recent experience with undergraduate honors students suggests that some high quality online courses will be eagerly accepted, and that the appropriate use of technology in other courses is already expected. The star professor is occasionally welcomed too. But there is also a demand for live, talented, and well-educated teacher-scholars to function as expert learning and discussion facilitators and mentors. In other words, there remains a big demand for the total collegiate experience. Sorting out one’s beliefs, discussing lessons from history, exploring ideas from art and literature, debating political issues, learning from fellow students, and developing lifetime relationships, all are vital parts of a complete educational process.

But let’s not be naive about this. There will be a market for MOOCs. They already changed the game in higher education. While they will not eliminate the residential university experience, they will bring  new thinking about how that experience can be enhanced.

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Lesson 145 The Power of Ideas

December 29, 2012 by larrylauer

Creative and powerful ideas are the key to advancing institutions and society. Extremely talented executives and statesmen are often remembered for their service. But more often than not it is the bold and inspired ideas that they chose to champion that made the difference. As we enter 2013 the world is crying out for a new set of bold and creative ideas. Stong armed dictators, and smooth talking, ideology-driven politicians, clearly are not meeting the need.

The middle east is in total turmoil with countries in various states of disintegration. Dictatorships have failed them. Countries  that have been at war are now in complete disarray. Tribal leaders have failed them. Washington is polarized and paralyzed, and political extremism has failed us. The economy in Europe is threatening to crash, and a common currency alone has failed to unify them. And higher education, which may be the best long-term hope for finding these bold new ideas, is currently under attack in the U.S. for being overpriced and inefficient. And all this just when our educational institutions are struggling to comprehend the full implications and responsibilities of becoming a global enterprise. It’s hard to imagine that so many parts of the world are in turmoil all at the same time.

You may have noticed  that the title theme in the masthead above has changed with this issue. It has been: “Pioneer in Strategic Communication and Integrated Marketing, ” but now it will be:  “Powerful Ideas for Changing Times.”   My  focus in the months ahead will be more on ideas and trends than on “how to” tactics and innovative professional practice. As I told my honors college students this past fall: ” My intentions for the days ahead are to facilitate an “adventure in ideas” about understanding issues and solving problems.

I have come to believe that social progress in 2013 will demand very smart people who can think beyond their profession. It will require rethinking the missions of entire organizations, reconsidering the political influence of individual values and religious systems, re-clarifying the necessary roles and limitations of governments, and much more.  If peaceful coexistence in this rapidly changing world is ever to be achieved, the turmoil of 2012 has convinced me that we will be desperately searching in 2013 for some insightful breakthrough ideas.

Posted in Leadership, Lessons Learned, Planning | 2 Comments »

Lesson 144 Communicating About Guns

December 22, 2012 by larrylauer

Once again the United States is polarized on a critical issue. Once again extreme ideologies are resisting compromise. Not only have we been dealing with extremism in campaign politics, we are encountering it again as congress struggles to deal with the “fiscal cliff.” And now suddenly here it is again with guns.

We have bragged that America is a “melting pot” of cultures, ideas and beliefs. Indeed this diversity is precisely what  we have come to call, “American exceptionalism.” And we take great pride in that we have been among the very few to have made it work. 

But history issues a dire warning. There are few examples where groups with deep culture and value differences have been able to survive indefinitely as a country. Countries come apart when compromise and middle ground is no longer possible.

So when it comes to guns what are we going to do?  Can we come together through give-and-take and resolve this issue once and for all?  Why is it so difficult?  After all, we are America. We believe we are exceptional.

Other constitutional amendments have agreed upon limits, including our most treasured freedom of speech. If we all can assert that we will protect our basic right to bear arms, then, just as with freedom of speech, we should be able to bring this exceptional, multi-cultural, melting pot of a society together with a few reasonable restrictions.  So here are some suggestions:

1. To purchase guns for personal and family safety, and/or for sport, citizens should register, submit to a background check, and complete limited basic training.

2. The sale of weapons and ammunition designed mostly for warfare to private citizens should be illegal, as well as gun shows and other sales venues that do not include the legal gun registration and training process.

3. Schools and school systems that feel they want armed and trained security present should be allowed to work with the NRA, or another local law enforcement agency, to acquire such protection.

4. Mental health monitoring and treatment should be included in all health insurance and delivery programs, as well as a mechanism for tracking those with violent, or potentially violent, tendencies.

5. Private organizations should be able to not allow concealed guns on their premises so long as a public disclosure is made of what security is, and is not, available at their facilities.

Investigative journalists and academics must now assume two major responsibilities: (1) Uncover and communicate the funding sources of the NRA and similar organizations, and the amount they spend to influence votes in legislatures, and (2) Communicate the results of research on the effects and consequences of violent games, movies, and mass media, and propose ways forward to protect society from unnecessary harm. 

All five of the above listed restrictions should be proposed and implemented simultaneously. This will demonstrate the give-and-take of  American exceptionalism, and will be critical to preserving the very stability of our society.

Posted in Lessons Learned, Strategic Communication | 1 Comment »

Lesson 143 Rethinking University Advancement

December 16, 2012 by larrylauer

Leaders in university advancement gathered last week in Boston to “rethink” their profession. Education at all levels is in the midst of a revolutionary “sea change,” and advancement people are among those expected to help address  many of the most significant challenges. They are experts in institutional fund-raising, alumni relations, marketing, communications, and government affairs. So why them, and why now?

Simply put, states all over the nation are cutting back financial support. Admittedly, the cuts are more drastic in some states than others. But almost everywhere governors and legislators are rethinking their role in education.  The impact has been significant.  When funding to state supported public institutions declines, tuition goes up. And when this happens, access declines and market dynamics change. Thus, private and for-profit institutional markets change as well. In short, many education leaders are rethinking their core business simply because they have no choice.

The situation in Washington is making matters even worse. In this stressed economy federal financial aid amounts, low-interest rates on loans, and a significant amount of research and program funding are also threatened. Therefore,  advancement officers are launching new initiatives to mobilize their alumni to reach deeper into their pockets, to find more private funding anywhere it’s available, to fine-tune competitive advantage messages, and to expand marketing initiatives. The good news is that in a changing market advancement professionals are more important than ever. But meeting expectations won’t be easy.

Every non-profit organization and cause in the world is currently accelerating its fund-raising activities. They are becoming quite sophisticated. Institutional executives everywhere are approaching every individual, every foundation, and every corporation they can find. New and creative donor recognition ideas are being generated. As a result, past donor loyalties are often threatened, and institutional health can be threatened as well.

At the same time education is becoming a global enterprise, and this is bringing even more change. It’s not merely increasing study abroad programs, or forming foreign partnerships, or building satellite campuses. It’s also foreign institutions coming to North America with marketing ambitions of their own. They begin by calling on their own  alumni, but they also look  for wealthy individuals, foundations and corporations who understand that the world economy and new opportunities are  moving eastward. This also soon leads them to searching for prospective students and parents with the same vision of the future.  

I cannot imagine a more exciting time than now to be in the educational advancement profession. Opportunities to make a difference are extremely high. But performance expectations are even higher. So it is not a profession for the faint of heart. It is that reality that led to the  “rethinking advancement” meeting last week in Boston, and it may have been just the first of many more.   

As I told some of my TCU honors students this week:  “Your talent alone entitles you to nothing. To change this world you will have to work harder than you ever imagined. You will have to go beyond your incredible talent into the realm of competitive strategic problem-solving, complicated issues management, and compelling innovative thinking.”  That is the reality for every profession today, just as it is for university advancement.

Posted in International, Lessons Learned, Planning | Leave a Comment »

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