Thanks to Communicators

This entry falls on Thanksgiving Day, so Happy Thanksgiving everyone - at least everyone and anyone who might stumble across this blog either today or sometime in the future. This day and this time of year is one of giving thanks. I, too, give many thanks to many things that are important in my life. This blog is rapidly becoming one of them. So, it is in keeping with that I choose to give a message of hope when it comes to the exercise of communication. We are all good and effective communicators. How about that!

One theme I have tried to touch on in my entries these past months has been how challenging communication is. Make no mistake, successfully sustained communication is very difficult for all of us. Despite that, I can honestly say - once again - we are good and effective communicators. That is the good news. The not-so-good news is that we are not good and effective communicators all the time. The trick is to assess those times and moments when we do connect with another person or public, identify the elements that contributed to that connection, and then simply keep doing it. But even that formula comes with a cautionary warning: no two circumstances are exactly alike. As a result, the specific elements or ingredients that helped make the communication at that one time successful, will need to be tweaked or adjusted in order to fit a new circumstance.

Communication, much like the circumstances that fill our days and, ultimately, our lives, is fluid. But, then, so are we in many ways. Though unique, each circumstance also contains elements that are common to circumstances that came before it. The trick is to identify those commonalities and make them the basis for developing a successful communication strategy - much like what a baseball hitter does. Each pitch thrown at the batter is unique, but it also contains similar elements of previous pitches. The batter's challenge is to identify those like-elements and then hit the ball. The best hitters are able to do that successfully between three and four times out of ever ten pitches thrown.

I will stop for now since today, after all, is a holiday. To all who have enjoyed even one successful communication experience, I wish you well and urge you to keep doing what you did that one time: acting with thought, flexibility, sensitivity, and courage. Happy Thanksgiving.

A Growing Industry

Communication is a growing industry. Sine World War II, for instance, the number of professional communication or public relations practitioners in our country has grown to over 160,000. Additionally, over 250 colleges and universities within the United States offer a sequence or degree program in public relations. These statistics alone suggest the increased importance our society is placing on communication. Not only do we want more skilled professionals in this profession, but we need them. It is no longer enough for a person to be merely good at what he or she does. For instance, we all want a good general physician in our corner to help us deal with day-to-day illness or injuries that may come up. But just as importantly, we now want that same professional to be to be good at communicating information that we need to know in ways we understand and in a manner that helps make us feel cared for.

At the same time, our friends in the corporate world want communicators who can present their products in a way that helps establish long-term connections between them and their customers. Who better to make this happen than a communicator who can not only package a product properly but can also help establish a meaningful bridge between a corporate entity and its publics? And let us not forget our federal government that is currently trying to help the citizenry understand and cope with the economic crisis before us. It, too, needs good communicators who can do this as well as generate support for the solutions to this crisis that the government is in the process of developing.

It is no coincidence, then, that the communication industry is growing. Communication matters because without it the link between today and tomorrow, a sense of aloneness and a sense of belonging, a sense of hopelessness and one of hope, a sense of aimlessness and one of purpose will not be made. In today's world, communication matters a lot. In the world of tomorrow, it will be essential.

A People Person

Recently, one of my heroes died. From the outpouring of public celebration of this man's life and achievement, it seems as if he were hero to many others as well. I speak of Studs Terkel. Many people refer to themselves as a "people person," but if any one truly deserves that label it is Mr. Terkel. His many years of talking with people - famous and not - about their lives, ups and downs, perspectives, values, and reflections depicted an individual of great depth, sensitivity, and, yes, even strength. It was this citizen of Chicago who recognized that everyone, in their heart, is an inspired communicator if given the proper format and audience. All it takes is an engaged audience and a setting to bring that out. Mr. Terkel was both the audience and, in a sense, the stage director. The result was a string of oral histories on a range of topics that should be required reading for any and all who view themselves as being good with others.

One of the things I liked best about Mr. Terkel was his ability to listen. This skill showcased the importance of this aspect of communication that all too often is overlooked or only given lip service. In our public and private worlds today there seems to be far too much "talking at" than "talking with." Mr. Terkel definitely talked with people and was able to literally paint thousands of portraits of men and women that demonstrated that perhaps the not-so famous and not-so powerful in our society might be worth listening to; perhaps we might be better off if those who currently dominant our headlines and websites were given a backseat to the so-called "little people." After all, there are more of us than there are of them.

Thank you, Mr. Terkel, for being the kind of person you were. You lived over 90 years, yet, to my mind, that wasn't enough. Thank you for being such a great communicator and for being such as inspiration to those who still take the art of listening seriously.

Making Mistakes

If there is one thing we can all agree on it is the premise that nobody is perfect. We all make mistakes. Big ones. Little ones. Significant ones. Unimportant ones. We try not to, of course. In fact, many of us devote a good deal of our energies to avoid or not make mistakes. Nevertheless, they are as much apart of our lives as is breathing. Let's face it: none of us, as much as we may hate to admit it, is programmed for perfection. So, given that common denominator that we all share, the trick is what we do when we do cause those annoying blips to pop up on our personal screens.

No, communication will not erase mistakes or helps us not make them. But effective, time-sensitive, and honest communication can help minimize our mistakes and even generate greater respect and support for us than we may have had before a mistake occurred. A couple of quick examples can illustrate this. In March, 1989, an Exxon oil tanker - the Exxon Valdez - spilled over 11 million gallons of crude oil into the waters of Alaska's Prince William Sound. How did the leaders at Exxon respond? Slowly and with irresponsibly. They covered up. They failed to take proper action to fix the giant and costly mess. They made things worse and alienated millions of people in doing so. In 1982 and 1986, some one or some group of people tampered with one of its most popular products: Tylenol. The tragic result was that several innocent customers died. Unlike Exxon, the parent company of Tylenol, Johnson & Johnson, accepted responsibility for this dirty piece of sabotage and recalled the entire product. The public embraced their actions and remained loyal to them.

People understand that mistakes occur because we all make them. Given that, it is best to communicate to the proper public or publics when they happen. This is true in our personal lives as well as in the public arena. People can and do forgive and move-on when they believe they are being leveled with. When they do not, then the ramifications of a mistake begin to multiply. Since we all make them so often, it seems we would be doing ourselves and our own publics a big favor if we acted like effective communicators when we made them. After all, who among us wants to make more mistakes than we already do?

Journalism and Public Relations

Journalists and public relations practitioners seem an unlikely pair. In some circles one is viewed as exhibiting an unstoppable doggedness as they seek to uncover and report "the truth." The other is viewed as a stumbling block that stands between the intrepid reporter and information that must be shared with the public for the good of the public. Nevertheless, the two are often linked. While these so-called images are drawn more from stereotypical composites than they are reality, they do represent perceptions that have had a long shelf life among many.

Professionals from each of these professions have much more in common than not. The two are communicators that serve important roles within society. They are providers of information that, ideally, is accurate and honest. They are voices of others. They often rely on each other to communicate with their audiences. They are resources to each other. Often times, each is deadline-driven. In order to be successful, each must be viewed as being honest, dependable, and agents of the greater good that is society. Each operates in a fish bowl. On the other hand, one, ideally, attempts to represents all sides of an issue or story while the other generally represents one side.

In some way, shape or form, their respective professions have been around for literally hundreds of years if not longer. The two professions provide the general public with information that helps people function and make choices. They are vital to our lifestyles. They are as enlightening as they are as maddening because sometimes they give us information we do not like, do not want, or in a way we do not appreciate. Our society has evolved to a point where living without them would be extremely difficult. We depend heavily on information and it is these professional communicators that help provide us with that valuable commodity.

Try Listening

Looking back at the results of the 2008 presidential election, it is easy to see the Republicans took it on the chin pretty good. What they experienced was no glancing blow or lucky punch, but a shot right smack in the kisser. Even though the election is still less than a week old, discussions and commentary is already underway as to what this "party of Lincoln" now needs to do to pick itself up off the canvas and become to regain its position as a a viable voice in the American dialog. I will leave it to the many pundits to speculate as to who should or will be the leading voice of the Americans, but from a communication perspective, I believe Republicans have a fundamental problem that will sincere and sustained effort can be overcome.

The party's downfall did not happen over night. Their rejection of so much of the American electorate did not, as it were, come out of the blue. For communication to truly work and be effective, it must be a two-way street. One person talks and another listens. The listener then becomes the talker and the talker becomes the listener. This is a choreography all of us who enter into a dialog follow. For there to be true dialog, two parties or entities must participate. If only one party participates, then the dialog simply does not work. It becomes a spectacle of one party talking at another rather than with. It is no secret that this kind of dynamic does not happen to last long before one of the parties simply turns away and gravitates to another that will be more amenable to a sustained two-way exchange.

In the past eight years the Republican leadership stopped listening to the people. There are plenty of specific examples of this. Economically, for instance, the majority of the American people were suffering and not being shy about voicing their plight. But were any of the Republican leaders listening? According to polls, the majority of Americans wanted health care. But who on the Republican side was really paying attention to those voices? The number of Americans wanting the country to end its take over of Iraq seemed to grow with each poll. Who among the leaders of the Grand Old Party was paying attention to this?

Listening does not necessary result in agreement. But what it does mean is conversation, partnership, connection, and collaboration. It is these pieces of reality that the American electorate was looking for from Republican leaders over the past eight years and these pieces of reality that it was not getting. The eventual result of this frustration and disillusionment saw increases in Democrat members of the House and Senate and a Democrat president. As a result, my recommendation to Republican leaders is to take a deep breath and devote your energies for now in finding an ear rather than a voice. If the Democrats can do it, then you can, too.

Building a Bridge

Congratulations to President-Elect Barrack Obama. This year's presidential election is the 16th in my lifetime. Granted, in my first election in 1952 I was only two years old, so my memory of that historic moment is a bit fuzzy. Perhaps non-existent would be a better word. Despite that, in all the years since then, I cannot recall ever witnessing a greater outpouring of genuine joy over the selection of a new president than what we have been seeing these past few days. It has been amazing and wonderful and uplifting. And all this has not just been happening here in the United States. Much of the celebration has been taking place throughout the world. The last time I saw this amount of unbridled joy was with the Ewoks when the evil empire was vanquished in one of the Star Wars movies.

Seriously, much can taken from from the reactions we are seeing and reading about now. But one point that strikes me is that it reveals a deep connection between men and women exists that has largely been overlooked these past eight years. People want openness and honesty from their leaders. People want leaders who genuinely care about their well being. People want leaders who are working for the greater good of mankind. If any of this has existed here in the U.S. these past eight years, then the celebrating we are now witnessing strongly suggests that it has not been demonstrated or communicated very well. In Obama, people sense these qualities. In Obama, they sense a man more interested in building bridges than tearing them down.
As a result, literally millions of people throughout the world are jumping for joy because of the hope they feel and see.

As America's new communicator-in-chief, time will tell how well Obama lives up to the expectations that are now being placed upon him. But so long as he continues to communicate in an honest, open and sincere manner, then the people will follow for all the right reasons.
They recognize he is not perfect. They are aware his ideas and policies may not always work as well as they are designed. But in this singular individual, they also identify a growing leader with the best of intentions to do well for the many - rich and poor - and not just a few. If nothing else, we are all off to a good start.

It is the final day of the 2008 presidential election and I for one am glad. Do not misunderstand. I am not glad the campaign itself is over because I have found it to be highly exciting, interesting and, in many ways, challenging. But our nation has been drifting for far too long now with inept leadership and wrong-headed policies. We need new leadership and new energy at the helm and we cannot afford to wait any longer for it.

Since beginning this blog I have purposefully attempted to stay out of taking sides in this year's political contest because in these entries I mainly have wanted to focus on various aspects of communication and not politics. However, communication, as it always does, has played a key role in this race and it has been from that angle that I have touched on the political debate from time to time. After all, it is the president who, by virtue of the office, serves as our nation's communicator in-chief. Throughout our history we have had good communicators and not-so-good ones. I would argue that there is a direct correlation between the fortunes of our nation and how well each particular president communicates. Is the president honest? How well does the president listen? Can and does the president inspire? Does the president present an air of inclusiveness in their remarks? It is answers to these and other relevant questions that help shape my decisions every four years as to who I will support. 2008 is no different. Thus, if I were to give any guidance as to who to vote for this year, one criteria to use is how well each candidate communicates.

By the time I make my next entry we will have a new president. At that time I will have some recommendations - from a communication standpoint - as to how this person should proceed to begin the important process of bringing the nation together. It has been done before and it can be done again. In the meantime, for any one and everyone who might stumble across this blog, I leave you with one word: VOTE!