I make an effort to avoid violent movies, television programs, and evening news stories.  I’ll admit to watching one cop drama, with occasional violent scenes, on a regular basis.  In general, I also try to stay away from war metaphors and other aggressive language when I’m speaking, in public and in private. Ordinarily I would let the Tucson shooting story play out and not add to the cacophony of commentary about it.  But maybe this is the tipping point for change in our public dialogue. One can only hope.

Words alone don’t cause people to do heinous things, however we are all responsible for the impact our words have on others and on our collective consciousness.  Do my words inspire, support, encourage, praise, give joy or are they critical, demeaning, antagonistic, negative, or dehumanizing?  If we each can start thinking about what we say before we say it maybe we can change the very toxic environment of our public discourse.  To paraphrase…speak to others the way in which you would like to be spoken.

Happy New Year! Saw a marvelous movie over the holidays and highly recommend it.  ”The King’s Speech” tells the real life story of Britain’s King George VI and his struggles to overcome his inability to speak without stammering. The acting is wonderful and it hit home for me because of the relationship between the King and his speech coach.

For most people public speaking is a challenge and the obstacles often seem insurmountable.  And the work gets very close to the bone for those who decide they want to improve. To coach someone in that situation is an honor and a big responsibility.  It requires building trust and creating a safe place for people to move outside their comfort zone. And it requires imagination and a bit of courage to find just the right strategy that will work with each specific individual.  It also helps if you can have a little fun along the way.

The King’s speech coach did all of these things brilliantly and in the end the audience appreciates what the King did to find his voice become the leader he was destined to be. It was also great to see the transformation of a human being meeting a most difficult and very public personal challenge.

See it…you’ll be inspired on many levels!  And if you are struggling with your speaking skills, take a page from the King and get a coach who can help you!

It’s a snowy day in Seattle, the first of what is supposed to be a more stormy than usual winter.  No, this is not a weather report.  Because just about everything shuts down here when it snows, it’s a little bit of reflection, assessment, and appreciation for the many positive things that have happened in the last year, despite the continuing turmoil in the economy.  I’ve had similar conversations with colleagues for many weeks now.  We are all trying to figure out what’s next, where do we go from here, and what does business look like going forward.

Paraphrasing a line from one of my all time favorite TV shows, “Sports Night” a wonderful short-lived comedy from Aaron Sorkin, “I’m going to show up and see what happens.”   The “showing up” part means paying attention, paying attention to what my clients and prospects are saying, paying attention to trends and what the marketplace is doing, and paying attention to what spins my jets.

And “seeing what happens” means letting up on all the second guessing and worry about what the next business move should be.  Instead of pressing or pushing through difficult situations, I’ve decided to step back a bit, relax as much as I can, and watch for opportunities.  When my nose is to the grindstone, I may not see greater possibilities.

In the meantime, I think this is a great time to get back to basics, reposition, and recharge.  The fundamentals of effective communications have not changed, the means and the platforms are completely transformed, but the basics principles apply.  So through my blog, I’ll be providing on-going tips and tools for people who want to expand and strengthen their communication skills.

For now, I will simply say Thank you! Thank you to all my clients, colleagues, and fans.  I appreciate your trust and your support.  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and a great holiday season!

Johnson & Johnson, the huge personal products company, apologized to a congressional committee this week after they got caught in a drug recall scandal.  Can this be the same company that set the gold standard for crisis response during the 1982 Tylenol tampering scare?  What happened? What were they thinking when they decided to do what’s called a “phantom” recall, where they hire people to go into stores and buy up all the inventory on shelves and they never reported problems with over the counter drugs including Children’s Tylenol?

It’s sad to realize that even companies who know what the right thing to do is, get caught doing completely the opposite.  Johnson & Johnson recovered quickly last time because they did the right thing.  Their customer base rebounded and actually grew because people felt the company could be trusted.  And they got years of free publicity when public relations professionals and media experts held them up as a shining example of how to handle a crisis and work with media in the middle of it.

There’s a new chapter in the Johnson & Johnson story and it’s not pretty.  Time will tell how much they have damaged their brand.

According to a just released Gallup poll a majority of our fellow citizens nationwide do not trust media to deliver fair, unbiased, and accurate reporting.  Newspapers and TV seem to generated the least amount of confidence in their content.  As a former television news producer it’s very disheartening, but not surprising.  I watch very little TV news myself these days and my local newspaper has more full page ads for prescription drugs than I’ve ever seen.

The news is not all bad for the news.  There are journalists around the country that are experimenting with ways to make news-gathering economically viable.  I think what they also need to do is make the news relevant and valuable.  If we don’t have access to credible information about our government and our civic and business communities, we’re all in serious trouble.

Big shout out to Brian Anthony Hernandez of BusinessNewsDaily.  He mentioned some of my ideas and the book with several other experts in his on-line article today. Check it out

I love to read the newspaper, the old fashioned kind where you have to turn the pages.  I subscribed to both newspapers in Seattle to the very last day until the Seattle PI stopped publishing a physical paper and went on-line.

Imagine my surprise when I opened up this morning’s Seattle Times and saw the blaring headline “Grandma just shot them for no reason.”  I don’t quarrel with their editors’ news judgement.  Clearly that’s a big story. It’s the headline that knocked me back a bit. It’s copy I would expect to see on supermarket tabloid covers, not on my front doorstep, and not from a newspaper that touts under its masthead “Winner of a 2010 Pulitzer Prize.”

Come on Seattle Times people! I know you are under tremendous pressure to sell papers and the outlook for your survival publishing on paper may be bleak, but please don’t lower your standards.  That will just give the few of us remaining subscribers another reason to let you go.

Mark 2010 as the year that Apple, or rather its CEO Steve Jobs, slammed his “cool” status into the dumper.  It’s been rumored for years that Jobs has anger management issues, however his behavior over the past couple of months really lifts the curtain on the great and powerful Jobs.  It started with his “we’re not perfect” press conference in response to the antenna-gate problems with the new iPhones.  And the latest and possibly more damaging outburst was his response to a college student who was doing a project about the iPad and was trying to get some information directly from Apple.  When no one from the PR department responded, she went directly to Jobs.  The most widely reported responses from him were “Our goals do not include helping you get a good grade” and “Please leave us alone!”

In the spirit of full disclosure, earlier this year when my 8 year old Dell desk computer started dying I switched to an iMac, a big 27″ beauty.  My main justification was that I work with video all the time and Apple has terrific easy and time saving applications for downloading, editing, and sharing video.  But I must tell you, secretly I wanted to be part of the whole cool status of owning an Apple anything and being able to legitimately hang out at an Apple store!

Now as I see Steve Jobs publicly displaying his arrogance and contempt for people who love or are interested in his company and products, I can’t help but wonder how long will it be before the hackers and evil-doers put Apple in their sites, in the same way they have targeted Microsoft?  And how long before Apple evangelists start losing their undying loyalty?

I posed these questions to the friend who introduced me to Apple nation.  She has an iPod, iPhone, iMac, MacBook Air, and an iPad.  She’s a true Apple Woman and thinks as long as the cool products keep coming, Apple will be fine.

I think no amount of “cool” can mask arrogance and contempt for your customers or the public and if CEO’s continue to display it publicly, some day there will be a reckoning.  Ask Tony Hayward!

If you want to know how to handle the media in a crisis, take a lesson from Thad Allen.  It’s rare to have someone who can completely corral the media in the middle of chaos and turn things around.  And that’s exactly what he did.  Watched him last night on the PBS News Hour.  In response to a question about how he viewed BP’s response to the disaster he said BP was used to dealing with big contracts and big projects.  When it came to dealing with people individually and handling disaster claims, that was “not their core competency!”  What a wonderful way to say their response to people living and working in the Gulf was crappy!!!  Kudo’s to you sir!  I will miss your steady hand and direct communication.

I’ve had similar conversations with business friends and colleagues for several months now.  It seems everyone is trying to figure out what to do next and how to attract business in this “new normal?” Last week I had coffee with someone who is doing something about it and she shared her strategy with me.

With the explosive growth in on-line marketing and social networking, it has often seemed overwhelming to me to create something that would attract people.  I know I spend a lot of my time deleting all the on-line pitches that come in every day. And frankly, I didn’t want to contribute to all the noise out there, didn’t want to create e-junk that people delete or put in the spam folder!

So last week when I had coffee with Kristen Schuerlein, partner and co-founder of Design Duo, a Seattle graphic design/branding firm, I was immediately intrigued by her idea.  She’s getting back to basics and using 19th century technology:  the telephone!

Kristen has been reconnecting with colleagues, business friends, and clients, people who already know her and/or have done business with her in the past.  And here’s the fun part, she’s not pitching them on anything.  She’s checking in, finding out how they are, and whenever possible and appropriate, offering ideas or referrals.  That’s it!  She’s been having fun with it and her phone is starting to ring again and business is coming back.

So I’ve taken the plunge and so far, so good.  People who I haven’t talked to in a while are genuinely glad to hear from me. Sometimes the communication involves e-mail, but generally it’s old fashioned phone calls.  And if nothing else, it’s fun. It takes a little time and some discipline.  And I have found that when I’m taking a step, taking action, I no longer feel stuck, and everything starts to move again.  So you may be hearing from me soon, I’m looking forward to talking with you.

So thank you, Kristen!  I’m glad you reconnected with me. And I hope by sharing your good ideas, people will remember us both when they need excellent graphic design/branding services or a excellent speech coach.