Why do we spend Labour Day doing nothing? I was thinking about this (and other deep thoughts) while I contemplated whether I wanted to write a blog for the long weekend. Surely, the best way to pay full homage to the spirit of the holiday would be to do nothing.
I debated looking Labour Day up and doing a blog on the history of the day…yeah, that sounded as interesting to me as it did to you. Even if you’re a history buff you have to be in the right mood to do anything like that or it’s just yawningly (yeah, that’s a word) boring.
What about how we individually enjoy the long weekend? My kids head back to school next week, so this long weekend isn’t a joyful romp to them, more like the last meal of the condemned. If you’re an evil mommy like me, you think the drama of returning to school is kinda funny. I won’t get into why I have absolutely no pity for them, suffice it to say, I’ll be glad to get them out of the house.
I’ll be working on my basement, writing and probably doing a little work for my day job this weekend. What about you? What do you do when you’re doing “nothing”?
More transparency in business practice has been the buzz for a while now. Counted among its benefits are increased employee morale, better client service, increased productivity and enhanced creativity. What’s more, it models best practices and opens the organization to opportunity and innovation. So if transparency is so good, why do most businesses have such a hard time being transparent?
Do you remember the phrase, “knowledge is power”? Well most of us believe that to be true. If you couple that thinking, with a belief that resources are scarce, then hoarding power or knowledge makes a lot of sense. If that’s your world view, it’s not hard to see how the idea of transparency might be difficult to adopt. After all, if I’m doing something good in my business, then my competitors might steal my ideas. If I’m doing something badly, then my competitors can use it against me. If we are operating under those principles, then we are incapable of being open and transparent.
The thing is, why do we think knowledge is scarce? What happens if by being transparent our challenges get resolved or solutions come from unexpected sources? What if knowledge shared is in reality, knowledge squared? The evidence is that far from being scarce, we have an abundance of knowledge. Don Tapscott, a Canadian business executive, author, consultant and speaker, specializing in business strategy and organizational transformation argues that far from being scarce we have never had so much access to knowledge. He looks at the internet as a worldwide computer that is constantly being programmed by all of us as we upload videos, documents and ideas. In a world full of knowledge, transparency isn’t a just a novel new idea, it is how businesses will survive and renew.
They say that a rising tide lifts all boats. We see the evidence of that in the blogging community on a regular basis. When we share, our time, our ideas, our expertise in the form of posts, comments and advice, we make the community stronger and more effective. We do something else too. We make better content for our readers and we provide better ideas to those freelancers, entrepreneurs and businesses who stop by our blogs looking for answers. If our blogs are part of our business, we provide reassurance about our knowledge. We let our clients know that we can be trusted because we put the spotlight on our thoughts and our thinking processes. How better to build brand trust than to demonstrate what we think and what we value? Operating with transparency really does illuminate values in a way that no mission statement, vision or strategic plan can.
If we turn to science in search of why this is true, we find that our brains are optimized for performance when we no longer feel the need to hide our mistakes or worry about blunders. Neuroscience tells us that we are healthier when we are not burdened by secrets. Anita Kelly, a psychologist at Notre Dame who studies the psychology of secrets puts it simply, “I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to say that being secretive could be linked to being symptomatic at a biological level.”
For the sake of clarity, the science does not encourage us to share every secret we’ve ever held in an effort to get healthy, but does reveal that people who are secretive tend to be more depressed, anxious, shy, and have more aches and pains.
It would seem that the benefits of transparency are clear. On that note, I’d like to extend my thanks to Jon Jefferson for prompting me to explore the issue of transparency in my blog. So what do you think? Should we adopt radical transparency in our workplaces and bear all from salaries to goals, objectives and ideas? Or do you think a little more modesty is in order?
More transparency in business practice has been the buzz for a while now. Counted among its benefits are increased employee morale, better client service, increased productivity and enhanced creativity. What’s more, it models best practices and opens the organization to opportunity and innovation. So if transparency is so good, why do most businesses have such a hard time being transparent?
Do you remember the phrase, “knowledge is power”? Well most of us believe that to be true. If you couple that thinking, with a belief that resources are scarce, then hoarding power or knowledge makes a lot of sense. If that’s your world view, it’s not hard to see how the idea of transparency might be difficult to adopt. After all, if I’m doing something good in my business, then my competitors might steal my ideas. If I’m doing something badly, then my competitors can use it against me. If we are operating under those principles, then we are incapable of being open and transparent.
The thing is, why do we think knowledge is scarce? What happens if by being transparent our challenges get resolved or solutions come from unexpected sources? What if knowledge shared is in reality, knowledge squared? The evidence is that far from being scarce, we have an abundance of knowledge. Don Tapscott, a Canadian business executive, author, consultant and speaker, specializing in business strategy and organizational transformation argues that far from being scarce we have never had so much access to knowledge. He looks at the internet as a worldwide computer that is constantly being programmed by all of us as we upload videos, documents and ideas. In a world full of knowledge, transparency isn’t a just a novel new idea, it is how businesses will survive and renew.
They say that a rising tide lifts all boats. We see the evidence of that in the blogging community on a regular basis. When we share, our time, our ideas, our expertise in the form of posts, comments and advice, we make the community stronger and more effective. We do something else too. We make better content for our readers and we provide better ideas to those freelancers, entrepreneurs and businesses who stop by our blogs looking for answers. If our blogs are part of our business, we provide reassurance about our knowledge. We let our clients know that we can be trusted because we put the spotlight on our thoughts and our thinking processes. How better to build brand trust than to demonstrate what we think and what we value? Operating with transparency really does illuminate values in a way that no mission statement, vision or strategic plan can.
If we turn to science in search of why this is true, we find that our brains are optimized for performance when we no longer feel the need to hide our mistakes or worry about blunders. Neuroscience tells us that we are healthier when we are not burdened by secrets. Anita Kelly, a psychologist at Notre Dame who studies the psychology of secrets puts it simply, “I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to say that being secretive could be linked to being symptomatic at a biological level.”
For the sake of clarity, the science does not encourage us to share every secret we’ve ever held in an effort to get healthy, but does reveal that people who are secretive tend to be more depressed, anxious, shy, and have more aches and pains.
It would seem that the benefits of transparency are clear. On that note, I’d like to extend my thanks to Jon Jefferson for prompting me to explore the issue of transparency in my blog. So what do you think? Should we adopt radical transparency in our workplaces and bear all from salaries to goals, objectives and ideas? Or do you think a little more modesty is in order?
I like to laugh. I like to laugh a lot, and I have one of those laughs that you can hear down the street. I’ve been told it is infectious. Actually, my husband was once told by new neighbours that they loved his wife’s laugh. They could hear it through their closed windows in the winter.
My laughter is an intrinsic part of me. I can’t express myself without it showing up sooner or later. So you can imagine that when I’m at work, that laughter is still in play. It’s what helps me get closer to people, it helps me to engage. Not surprisingly, it’s easier to know someone when you laugh with them. Yeah, I can focus. I’ve been known to start the first conversation of the day by asking about a project and then remembering to say good morning and take off my coat, but I always go back to laughing. One of my old bosses claimed he could hear me laughing at the building’s entrance, down the corridor, four floors below. He was unimpressed, I think he underestimated the echo effect of elevator shafts.
Sometimes, when laughter makes it’s way into conversations about work there is the impression that a professional atmosphere doesn’t include a sense of humour. I always wonder why. Are you working with humans? Humans don’t wear one emotion indefinitely and we spend more time at work than we do in almost any other endeavour. I’m not suggesting becoming the office goof or showing disrespect, just that you need to have a release valve at work, the same way that you do anywhere. Arguably, the more stressful your job, the more often you should look for humour as a release. That pent up energy has to go somewhere and too often anger is the outcome.
I work for an amazing home care organization. We have thousands of nurses, personal support workers and volunteers moving in and out of private homes all day long, every day. You can imagine that with that much interaction, I periodically get called in because situations have escalated into potential media problems. They aren’t always funny, in fact, they rarely are and they can ratchet up the tension quickly. So calm and humour are often the tools that I use to diffuse a situation. Again, because it bares repeating, appropriate humour.
There are other times when the situation is so strange or silly that the only thing you can do is laugh. A while back one of our sites contacted me when the son of a client threatened to go to the media because our nurse refused to visit his mother. She refused because every time she went, the son, a man in his thirties, would be dressed in nothing but his underwear. Eventually the nurse was so unnerved by the man’s near nudity (remember, he’s not the client) that she finally put her foot down and refused to go unless he put on some pants during her visits.
When the site contacted me to share this problem there was an awkward silence. I was on the line with a very concerned district executive director and an equally serious director of risk. Eventually I burst out laughing, then said, “Let him go to the media. It will be the best coverage we’ve ever had. The public will get a chance to see how difficult the job of our front line workers is.”
My reaction was unanticipated by my colleagues, but it diffused the tension that was building and gave a little perspective. Not all situations are worth a laugh, but sometimes you have to relax and release. The Wall Street Journal recently carried a great article on the value of humour at a work. In it they not only suggest it’s a good idea but share some of the science behind why. Notably, being funny makes you seem smarter, employers like people with a sense of humour, it builds rapport and when you laugh it stimulates the same part of your brain that reacts when you get a big bonus check. Not bad for a giggle, so laugh it up.
Every year I watch in amazement as a few organizations and a few celebrities stumble into a communications crisis in the media. My amazement isn’t over the incidents that triggered the crisis’, though many of them would certainly give you pause, but rather over the way the crisis’ is managed.
The reaction from the train company, Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Canada Co. (MMA) after their runaway train caused a massive explosion that devastated the town of Lac-Megantic in 2013 was shocking in its ineptitude. As everyone from the Canadian Prime Minister to Quebec’s Premier rushed to the scene to express their condolences, the CEO from MMA was notably absent. Almost off the bat, the company started to point fingers of blame, particularly at the local fire department and although they softened their tone in subsequent communications, perceptions were set. They followed through by being slow in providing financial support and to cap their self-destructive public relations campaign, the CEO suggested that he too was a victim of the disaster.
Right around the same time MMA was self-destructing, Paula Deen, a popular television chef, was accused of racism. She did an amazing job of illustrating why saying you’re sorry is easier and smarter than saying, “I am what I am.”
In a similar vein, Anthony Weiner demonstrated how not to engage the press. At the risk of stating the obvious, if you’re in politics and your name is Weiner, don’t tweet pictures of your wiener. It’s like gold to the late night hosts and catnip to the press. If you do share your pictures of your wiener and you are later asked to identify it, be prepared to identify it or don’t, but be prepared to be asked.
These are just three stories, but the airlines, politicians and celebrities supply us with more on a regular basis. Given the number of stories that play out every year, it might be useful to share what to do, as well as, what not to do in a communications crisis. True crises have several elements in common, any one of which, if handled poorly, can disrupt or even destroy your best attempts at managing the situation effectively, not to mention the lasting damage that can be done to your reputation.
What to do
Be Honest: If you are at fault, there needs to be an outward acknowledgement of the error. Excuses and self-serving messages will only further undermine public confidence.
Be Coordinated: You need to be well organized during a crisis. This means planning and identifying whom you want on your crisis team in advance. The bigger the crisis, the more senior the spokesperson.
Provide Explanation: Explain what happened and why it happened, even if what happened is embarrassing. If you’re not sure, share what you can.
Give Support: Everything said should be spoken from the perspective of those injured. Language should be plain and easily understood.
Be Apologetic: Don’t stop being apologetic for what happened. This is the last place ego needs to show up. If you are not personally involved in the incident, act as though you are or that someone you know has been affected. This is not the time to introduce “but” to your language.
Consult: Engage experts, victims and relevant stakeholders to help you resolve the problem. Make sure there is no possibility of bias in the choices you have made. Make sure that victims are given a voice.
Promise: Promise not to have the same or similar incidents happen in the future. Make sure that the public understands that you have set a zero tolerance policy internally.
Restitution: This is probably the most difficult to commit to because of economic restraints, nevertheless the cost of not putting victim’s needs first and foremost will be by far more costly.
What not to do
Show condescension or arrogance.
Demonstrate a lack of concern or consideration.
Ignore or minimize the impact on victims or their needs.
Blame others or not take responsibility.
Use inconsiderate or thoughtless language.
Be inconsistent.
Be unprepared.
Miss opportunities to communicate with victims or other stakeholders.
Create victim confusion.
Have you ever had to manage through a crisis? Do you think you would be good in one?
Sometimes the hardest part of facilitating communications is people recognizing that that they need the facilitation. Communications is such an all-encompassing term. We all communicate, in fact, we’re engineered for it. Everything about us is geared towards getting our message out. The way we use our hands, the shape of our vocal chords, even our eyes. We gave up a useful protective camouflage by having so much of our eyes be white and we did it for the sole purpose of better communication.
With so much focussed on enhancing our capacity to communicate, it’s not surprising that we would struggle with the concept of a professional communicator, after all, isn’t it an inherent human trait? Yes and no. Yes, we are geared to express ourselves, but we are geared to express ourselves best inside our own tribe.
Think of a group of chemists having a wonderful conversation on the molecular structure of various substances. They could have a heated debate or energetic agreement, but it’s unlikely that the average person could join in or even follow the exchange. The language would be specific to their field of interest and particular knowledge. Seems obvious enough, but often when it comes to organizational communications, or even person to person communications the deliverer of the message takes for granted that all listeners will understand what is being said. Wilbur Shramm put it simply and said that for understanding to take place between the source (sender) of the message and the destination (recipient), they must have something in common. Communicators work to identify and develop that common ground.
In my work as a liaison between organizations it became very clear how easy it was to misinterpret messages. Let me give you an example, a national organization set out to build closer ties with its provincial counterparts. In an effort to express their desire to enhance relations, they decided to give a gift or peace offering to several provincial organizations. Nova Scotia said thanks, Ontario didn’t respond and Alberta got angry. What happened?
Traditionally the organization I represented would speculate on the reasons for the various responses, determine what they thought the problem might be and then decide not to offer a similar gift again. However as I was tasked with building the relationships, I opted to visit Alberta. Why speculate about the answer when I could just ask them what was going on? By meeting them in person I would be able to not just hear them but see what their body’s had to say.
I flew to Edmonton and met with the CEO and second in command to ask them, why the gift had upset them. Imagine my surprise when they explained that they would not tolerate attempts to restrict or in any other way control them. Since the peace offering came in the form of a free publication that could be altered to reflect the needs of the user, I was flabbergasted and asked them to explain further. Through discussion it was eventually revealed that the sample we had sent had images that were inconsistent with local activities…I said we could change the images to whatever they thought would suite. They said the literary content was out of date with the local practices. I said they could change the content to reflect local objectives. “But, that would cost a lot of money if you did that for all of us!” exclaimed the disbelieving executive.
“That’s why it’s a gift.” I said. After an awkward silence we started laughing. I asked why they thought we would not change the content or images when we had offered to do so from the start. It turns out that historically there had been a somewhat patriarchal relationship between the two organizations and although the people had changed, the nature of the relationship had not. Over time, the provincial organization had grown to resent the national body and felt they didn’t understand their needs. There was also an expectation of disagreement on both sides. The national organization expected the provincial organization to reject anything they said or suggested, so didn’t spend much time investigating the reasons. The dance pattern had been set and the dance partners chosen. No one veered from the pattern or suggested a change in music. Since there was a tacit understanding on what to expect, at every encounter the assumptions would grow until the estrangement was so loaded that even a peace offering could be interpreted as a threat.
What communicators do is work to understand the perceptions of the source and the destination and make sure that the signal or message is delivered in an environment of mutual understanding. In order to do that effectively we have to be able to step into everyone’s shoes, even if just for a moment and see the world from their perspective. This is why market research and environmental scans are such an essential part of developing how messages are delivered.
Have you ever had to put yourself in someone else’s place? Did you learn from the process? Have you ever had your message completely misinterpreted?
I’ve been struggling the last few weeks with writers block…well more like writers distraction. If my Saturday posts were called Saturday Night chit chat I would have been fine. I just completed a ranty little post on sex and politics, but even I have to refrain from that kind of discussion first thing in the morning. I could have also shared my concerns over poor voter turnout, public disengagement, the unseemly relationship that sometimes exists between reporters and politicians and no I’m not skipping back to sex and politics, but you can see a certain theme emerging here. I have very definite political opinions, but I don’t see them as necessarily appropriate for public consumption or appetite. I have a taboo against writing too deeply on politics.
Taboos are interesting things. I know that some taboos find their origins in religion or culture and they can be good and bad. Clearly having a cultural taboo against randomly killing people is a good thing, but having a cultural taboo against girls being educated, not so much. What about personal taboos? Those taboos whose origins are more individual in nature? My own taboos around writing about politics is a good example. I have strong opinions in this area and while I would freely give advice on how to engage and even that you should engage, I hesitate to go beyond that because it’s part of my job to work with governments. Political people have a tendency towards paranoia (except people really are out to get them) and it’s easy to see yourself or your opponent in critical discussions, so I try to avoid misinterpretations by simply skipping those kinds of public exchanges. I also think that politics is one of the best dividers out there. Want to start a fight? Strike up a conversation about politics and sooner or later you’ll find something to fight over.
So what do you do when you can’t seem to write about anything but the very subject you’re trying to ignore? Back to writers block. So what I’ve been doing is writing the issue out of my system posting them on a private blog. I’ve also been exploring. Looking at interesting blogs, articles and books in hopes that something catches my attention. Right, everything has captured my attention. There isn’t rabbit hole I haven’t jumped through. A point of inquiry I haven’t followed and still no useful posts.
So I finally ended up treating myself like a client. I want my best advice on what to do to get past writers block. Here’s what I had to say.
1) Take a break. Step away from the project and do something else. Give your mind an opportunity to rest or shift gears. Sometimes the harder you push for a solution, the further you get from finding an answer.
2) Create an Editorial calendar. Now would be a good time to create an editorial calendar if you don’t have one and to refresh your existing one if you do. With the fall coming people will be attending conferences and getting back into the swing of things. What can you contribute that might help?
3) Turn off social media. The internet can be an amazing distraction. It may seem like a handy resource but it’s easy to get lost in all of the options it has to offer. Disconnect and see if that will help you to focus.
4) Get some alone time: People are wonderful, but if you are having a hard time staying on task then they are like moving, noisy shiny distractions.
5) Find another creative outlet. It’s obvious your mind is racing, so paint, garden, do something that gets the creative juices flowing but is unrelated to writing.
6) Do some physical exercise. The body and mind are connected. If you have been solely focused on writing, whether it’s writing your blog or other pieces, then you haven’t been exercising. The movement will help you to think better.
7) Research some outstanding questions. Get the answers to questions that have been plaguing you. What areas of communications, public relations or management would you like to learn more about? Do the research and share your findings.
8) Have a pretend conversation. Start writing as if you were having a chat with someone and see if the stream of consciousness that follows gets you going.
9) Ask others what they do to get their focus back. The issue may be writing for you, but it’s really a focus challenge. Find out how others have solved similar challenges and see if you can extrapolate from there to address your own challenge.
So, it’s Saturday morning and this blog post has been automatically posted because I am away at a cottage with no internet connections…I’m probably painting, but maybe I’ve gone for a walk with my husband to get a little exercise. I’ll write Tuesday’s blog in the car ride on my way back. 🙂
What do you do to get past writers block or other psychological hurdles? I’d like to know…really!
[polldaddy poll=7310841]
Our results from last weeks poll reveal that voters were not so keen on the idea of a glowing plant. Almost 37% called it a Franken-flower and more than 52% weren’t sure what to call it. A mere 5% thought it was a power plant and another 5% had other ideas all together.
While it is important to prepare and practice as much as possible before meeting with the press, it is equally important to remember that even the best media spokespeople can have off days. If something goes wrong, don’t get bogged down by it, but keep going, chances are the gaffe isn’t as big a deal as you think it is. Even if it is, is that really the last impression you want to leave? If you do get stuck, keep in mind our former Prime Minister, Lester Pearson.
Mr. Pearson is very well regarded. We’ve named airports, schools and streets after this amazing Canadian. He was a NobelPrize winner, a man often perceived as being too smart for politics, and he was also a relentless disaster in the media. It seemed as if, if something could go wrong, it did. In one instance in an attempt to offset previous missteps, great efforts were made to ensure that Mr. Pearson would appear before the press in an authoritative and commanding fashion. The timing of his press conference was fussed over for weeks in advance, the placement of the microphone was carefully considered and his entrance was contemplated at length. He would enter the room on cue and stride across the front of the room with authority. His handlers had even added three cushions to his seat to ensure that he had presence at the media table. What they didn’t anticipate was that Mr. Pearson would not only enter at the wrong time, but through the wrong door. The result was that he interrupted his own assistant’s presentation, was spotted by the press and was then left trying to shuffle his way through the centre of the room in a space about one foot wide. Picture it, shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, excuse me, pardon me, need to get by, shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, hardly an authoritative entrance.
Diplomat and politician Lester Pearson won the title more than any other person except Pierre Trudeau. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Despite these less than sterling encounters with the press, he still remains one of our best regarded Prime Ministers. When his name is raised, it is rarely to recall his less than commanding encounters with the press.
During – (Day of the Event)
·Be sure to have numbers of the media outlets that have agreed to attend and call to reconfirm interviews.
·Designate a member of your staff or group to keep track of media attendance and greet the media.
·Make sure that media participants have the information they need and that they know who to contact should they have follow up questions.
·Keep extra copies of the backgrounder material on hand.
Managing Interview Questions
·Nothing is “off the record” if you say it, then expect it to be made public.
·Repeat important points, especially for sensitive or controversial issues.
·When dealing with a question you’d rather not handle at the moment, you should always address the question, but you don’t have to answer it. If you do answer, keep it short. In either case, move on quickly.
·Beware of hypothetical questions. They make dramatic headlines, but don’t relay the facts.
·Don’t bluff. If you don’t know, say so.
·You don’t have to answer a question the moment it is asked. Pause to collect your thoughts. A moment is a lot shorter than you think. It will look like you are giving the answer some thought (which is what you should be doing).
Try these delaying phrases if you need more time,
·“Well, I’m not surprised you asked that question….”
·“I’m pleased you asked that question, let me take a minute to explain….”
·“This is a challenge we’re looking at and expect to soon have….”
Bridging phrases to get back to your message.
·“But perhaps an equally important issue here is….”
·“What I think you’re getting at is….”
·“That’s not in my field, but what I can say is….”
·“I don’t know…but I do believe….”
·“That’s because….”
·“As you know….”
Tips for avoiding difficult questions:
·“That’s in the future. What I want to talk about now is….”
·“What I think you want to know is….”
·“Those were important factors, but….”
·“Too soon to tell….”
After
Send photos with a detailed caption along with your press release to all print publications (this includes online) that didn’t make it to your event. Plenty of local coverage is garnered in this fashion. Try to keep a copy of your clippings or any comments you receive. They may come in handy for future documentation or correspondence.
Note lessons learned. Were spokespeople well prepared? Did you have sufficient information? Did you have too much information? Did the press follow an unanticipated angle? How did your spokespeople handle themselves? Did any nervous tics make themselves evident during interviews? Add the information to your media kit for future reference.
Have you ever attended or watched a press conference go wrong? Watched one that went like a charm? What made them work or fail?
What happens when a number of things you like also become a number of things that worry you? I was listening to the radio when I came across a story that simultaneously intrigued, excited and worried me. There was an entrepreneurial element, a do it yourself philosophy, a crowd sourcing activity, innovation and an environmental focus, all things I think are pretty cool. It also had an entrepreneurial element, a do it yourself philosophy, a crowd sourcing activity, innovation and an environmental focus that made me think…was there a touch of mad scientist about it? Was what they were doing safe, ethical…wise?
So what was causing me this dilemma? My challenge was, glowing plants. Yup, you read me right. Glowing plants sit at the centre of my conundrum. Let me back up a bit for those of you who haven’t come across this gem. Three guys from California known as biohackers, (no I’d never heard of that term before) were working on engineering a plant that would glow in the dark. The idea was that if you could get the plant to the right luminosity (a 60 watt bulb…no pun intended) you could use the plants as an alternative to electrical lighting. This new technology could reduce the amount of light noise that is so prevalent in cities, that glow that blocks the stars. What’s more, with our glowing plants we could reduce the strain on our hydro electrical systems. Imagine not worrying about the usual summer blackouts or the more terrifying winter ones.
These Do-It-Yourself scientists from a lab called, BioCurious used social media to reach out and grab attention. They asked for donations for their research and in return, they would share their seeds with investors. They started out with a goal of raising $65,000 but ended up bringing in over $480,000. Who knew glowing plants would have so much appeal?
The thing is, these guys would be working outside of any university, institute or regulatory body. This is where my conundrum shows up. I’ve worked in the health sector for while now. Have heard endlessly about the concerns pharmacists had around everything from poor prescribing to poor disposal of chemicals…strange things happen when you put a drug in the wrong place, whether that place is your body or the environment. I’ve also had enough pharmaceutical manufacturing clients and partners to know the degree of review and oversight they put in place to ensure safety. However, despite what can sometimes seem like insurmountable regulatory roadblocks, drugs can still make it to the public that might do harm. That isn’t because no one cared or someone wasn’t diligent, it’s because you can’t always discover what the full effects of a drug are until it’s been used by thousands of people. It’s also because once a drug is on the market secondary uses are often discovered and then the drug can be given to an entirely new group of individuals before full trials are conducted.
How safe was it then for these biohackers to distribute their seeds to people anywhere in the world simply based on their financial contributions? What impact could these plants have on our environment…on us? Needless to say the entire project sparked a whole debate around modified foods/agriculture and of course, how they had worked their way around the regulatory system. Social media is pretty powerful stuff. You can read more about it on the link below or listen in on the podcast from the CBC.
What do think? Cool new take on Power-Plant or really just a scary Franken-Flower?
[polldaddy poll=7295290]
Results from last weeks poll reveal, that just over 35% of us fall for the lure of stats, another 35% are occasionally seduced by their call and a clever 28% are just not biting.
Whether it’s your small business’ big event, your book launch or your community party, sometimes getting a little media coverage can make all the difference to your success. So what can you do if you don’t have the resources to bring in a professional firm or you’re simply not comfortable doing that? The best bet is to focus on your local media, they have a vested interest in hearing and telling local stories. Planning a media event, like planning a meeting takes work, but it can be done. The PR work can be broken down into three distinct phases, before, during and after the event…yup, that easy.
This week we’ll look at before the event, this part quite naturally takes the most time and effort on your part, but is critical to your success. Next week, we’ll explore during and after an event.
BEFORE:
1. What’s Makes Your Event/Product Special?
If you’re planning an event, consider what makes it appealing or think about ways to have fun with a traditional activity. On the night my organization’s CEO was to appear in an episode of Undercover Boss we hosted movie nights in various locations around the country. We treated it as an opportunity to reach out to our communities and have a little fun. The Ottawa activities started on Parliament Hill with a private viewing with senators and MPs and then moved to a local restaurant where we watched it with staff and friends on a big outdoor screen. The story got covered in various local newspapers and yet all that was really happening was an episode of Undercover Boss Canada.
2. Identify the media outlets you want to reach.
In order to reach the media, you need to identify the local newspapers, radio and television stations and create a contact grid of people at each of those organizations by calling them and asking them who manages the local news beat or if your news might more effectively fit into a local column or radio show, ask for the producer or their assistant. You can often find a media directory at your local library and that will save you a good deal of time. There are a number of providers who will sell media list, Cision’s global media database (formerly Bacon’s Directories) provides the full name of publications and contacts and of course there is always the local yellow pages.
Newspapers: Look for issue specific editors or journalists, community and calendar listings that you can then add your event to.
Radio: morning show producers and news assignment editors are good starting points. Many stations have community programs that announce calendar listings.
Television: Look for the assignment editor, weekend assignment editor and community event producers as good starting points.
Social Media: From creating Facebook Event page to tweeting throughout your event there are number of ways to not only promote your event in advance, but also generate chatter during and afterwards.
3. Choosing and preparing the right spokesperson for your event.
Choose your spokesperson based on their level of engagement on your issue and their role within your organization. They must be familiar with your issue and goals or they can end by making recommendations or comments that you can’t support and once its in the public domain it’s very hard to get it back. It is also best if they are articulate and poised. Too much passion on an issue can come across as shrill through a microphone.
Make sure that the spokesperson is well briefed on the potential issues that may surface. Practice possible questions with them and make sure that they have a written copy of succinct short sentences that he/she can learn to be sure they have an effective interview.
Practice, practice, practice.
Avoid putting spokespeople in situations where they will be easily distracted or may display behavior that will detract from your message. For example, a swivel chair for a sit down TV interview can turn into a joy ride and the spokesperson may end by swinging back and forth as they get excited by the topic. Waving hands can be equally distracting. Speaking with your hands is a natural human behavior, but gesturing too wildly will result in your hands being the star attraction of your interview.
A crisp white shirt can look great for a photo, providing the background isn’t also white, but it can create glare on camera. A shiny forehead will make you look like your sweating and that can be a seen as a physical response to lying. A small application of face powder can reduce shine (yes for you men too).
4. Prepare your press materials
Press materials are generally made up of a notice or media alert, the press release and background documents. The Media alert does exactly what is sounds like. It alerts the media that you will be telling them something of interest on a given day at a set time. The press release itself is the “news” item or the information you want to share and is given at the indicated time. The background documents are to provide reporters with additional information should they want to expand on your story or to allow them to learn more completely why your story is news. If you were a scientist and you broke the news that you had found fossilized people poop in America that dated back 10,000, 000 years ago, you would probably earn yourself some odd looks, but no coverage. If you explained that the earliest humanoids weren’t supposed to be around for another 4,000,000 years at the earliest and that the poop provided insight into the diets and habits of these unusual people, you might actually get a news story.
5. Distribute your press materials including a media alert, a calendar listing and a press release at least a month before your event.
The media alert should be used if you would like the media to attend your event and to conduct interviews with your spokesperson or others.
A calendar listing can come in different forms, local radio stations often offer a calendar listing of events, as do newspapers and local “what’s happening” online services. The listing should be used if your event is open to the public and you want to attract attendees.
The press release includes similar information as the media alert, but with more details, such as participating program objectives and quotes from spokespeople.
6. Distribute press materials in a timely fashion.
Send out the calendar listing about a month before your event (many local newspapers have a one month deadline for submissions).
Media advisories or alerts should be distributed about two weeks prior to the event to allow for ample time to secure interviews.
Press Releases are for the day of the event.
7. Conduct media follow-up.
Make sure the media outlets received your press material and make yourself or your spokesperson available to answer questions about the event and offer interviews.
Be persistent, but polite.
Be sure to call the TV stations the day before and the day of to be sure your event is on their schedule. If a story falls through, they can look to the schedule and maybe decide to cover your event.
If you plan on filming or photographing participants, ensure that everyone you have selected for filming or interviewing has signed a release form. The form does not have to be complicated.
Have you ever been at a local community event that had great coverage? What made it appealing? Have you ever attended an event because of local news coverage? Have you hosted one that you thought was amazing?
Developing Better Professional and Private Communications
Why do we spend Labour Day doing nothing? I was thinking about this (and other deep thoughts) while I contemplated whether I wanted to write a blog for the long weekend. Surely, the best way to pay full homage to the spirit of the holiday would be to do nothing.
