Posts Tagged ‘communications’

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.

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!

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.

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.

Is anyone really listening or responding to these annoying and incessant robo-calls?  Like me, I’m sure most people hang up as soon as they realize they have been interrupted by a disembodied voice trying to sell them something.  Marketing/soliciting calls from human beings are bad enough, but these robo-calls are huge waste time and resources and they damage whatever is left of the calling party’s credibility.  Stop the robo-call madness!

At the suggestion of my best friend, Carol, we watched a wonderful documentary this weekend called “Paper Clips.” We got it through Netflix. It’s the story of how a history project on the Holocaust transformed a rural Tennessee middle school and its surrounding community.  The students and teachers at Whitwell Middle School remind us of what can happen when hate speech is tolerated and how evil spreads when times are challenging and we demonize people because they look different, have different religious beliefs, or come from other cultural traditions.  The closer we get to the fall elections it appears that hate speech rules. I suggest we take a breath, remember we have much more in common than our differences, and look behind the curtains to see OZ-like people who are fanning the flames of division and funding the sources of hate speech. And if you’re looking for something uplifting to watch try “Paper Clips!”

The furor over the proposed building of Muslim cultural center and mosque two blocks from Ground Zero has reached a fever pitch, now that the President had weighed in, at least it has in the media.   Freedom and democracy is messy and more importantly, our freedom does not mean bupkis if we don’t stand by our principles when it is hard.  There are many millions of people who will be against whatever this President says or does.  I’m familiar with that feeling because I have felt it when someone I didn’t vote for got elected to run this country.  However this principle is bigger than politics.  And if we allow the haters to win on this one, we have truly handed our enemies a gift wrapped victory and more propaganda to use against us.  And if this organization is somehow tainted by extremism, which I seriously doubt, what about the idea of keeping your friends close and your enemies closer?

Why did so many smart people do dumb things this past week.  I’m referring to the Shirley Sherrod story.  She is the Agriculture Department employee who was fired, primarily because the Cabinet Secretary of her department and people in the White House, including President Obama, seemed to be  afraid of on-air tirades from their “friends” at Fox News!

They must be congratulating themselves at Fox for scaring all those important people they love to hate into over-reacting and making stupid decisions.  I’m not sure anyone will learn from this experience.  And I do hope Shirley makes a bundle out on the speaking circuit.  Her story was compelling before this episode. Imagine what she can say now!

Heard a compelling interview on the Bob Edwards Show last week on XM Radio.  He was talking to the two authors of a new book called “Merchants of Doubt: How a handful of scientists obscured the truth on issues from tobacco to global warning”  My attention was immediately captured when authors Naomi Oreski and Erik M. Conway mentioned that the “experts” who are challenging the existence of global warming are the same small band of scientists who claimed second hand smoke from cigarettes was not a serious health problem. In doing the research, they followed the money trail.  Oreski and Conway disclose how a small group of world class scientists developed a very cynical political strategy of casting doubt on solid scientific research in an effort to avoid government intervention and regulation on everything from chemicals, cigarettes, and CO2 emissions.  It’s a fascinating and disturbing expose.

What also caught my attention was their statements about how the media does not do a good job of vetting these “experts,” most of whom are paid by or have their “research” funded by companies who want a desired outcome.  Because journalism and journalists are under dire economic pressure, we as citizens need to become much more media literate, looking beyond the headlines, doing more digging when we see or read controversial stories in the media.  Who are the talking heads out there making pronouncements about what is going on?  Who pays for their opinion or expertise?

I had my own brush with a similar situation.  Someone I met at a networking event a few years ago asked if I would  help them prepare for a series of presentations.  Turns out a large corporation had hired this person to go out into regional communities as an “expert” and persuade audiences on the company line, to avoid restrictive regulations by local governments.  I was fortunate the person didn’t ask me again and I didn’t have to turn them down as a client.  At the time, I remember clearly wondering how this smart accomplished person would consider being a spokesperson in such an unethical way by not disclosing their relationship to the company.

It used to be that the media was our watchdog on these types of stories.  I think the watchdog needs a watchdog and it has always been us!!!

The book is available everywhere. Here’s a link to it at Amazon where you can also see a short video with co-author Naomi Oreskes.