I am health conscious and will gladly pay 5 dollars for a juice that is really fresh.
Friday, February 27, 2015
Starbucks' Sandwich Problem (Brand As A Business Decision Filter)
I am health conscious and will gladly pay 5 dollars for a juice that is really fresh.
Thursday, February 26, 2015
All Roads May Lead To Open Opportunities
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Please Don't Talk About THAT
Many times, I hear people say things like: "you can talk about this and can talk about that, but please don't talk about that."
I remember when I was a little girl and whenever a controversial subject came up my mother used to say "shhh" and her mother used to say "shhh" and my other grandmother used to say the same. Generally everyone said "shhh" to keep the peace.
As an adult this comes up all the time. When you're dealing with your kids' school and there is an issue, you don't want to antagonize the teacher or the principal. When you're at work and there is a difficult issue, you don't want to antagonize your boss. And of course in your relationship when a difficult issue comes up you don't want to antagonize your partner.
But I was reading this good article about the Google way of solving problems - which is to "attack" them - and it reminded me of something I have learned over time. The only way to truly tackle a difficult issue is to have everybody talk about it pretty much openly, without anyone being told to "keep your mouth shut," whether implicitly or explicitly, especially nowadays when we have so many problems to solve. We just don't have time for this kind of nonsense.
One other point. I have had the experience of going from environments where you weren't supposed to talk, to those where you were encouraged to contribute every idea that could help to address an issue. And it was an amazing feeling to be treated as though all opinions were valuable.
What I saw was that when the level of trust and respect in a group is high, it is possible to share conflicting points of view and even to disagree on things that can only be resolved through someone making a decision that the other person will never agree with. The decision can be made and everyone can agree to disagree and simply finish the job and go about their day it isn't taken personally and it doesn't leave a lasting wound.
Stifling conversation clamping down on conflict and otherwise trying to control the conversation is so 20th century, so "Organization Man." It's time to embrace a new paradigm where everybody gets to have their say.
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All opinions my own. Photo by Laura Taylor via Flickr.
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
The 10 Essential Tasks Of A Knowledge Manager
2. Maintaining the architecture, adding and removing people from user groups
3. Locating and archiving institutional knowledge
4. Establishing taxonomies, workflow systems, approval systems so that we know which documents are approved for release and who the audiences are for that release
5. Ensuring compliance with reporting requirements
6. Ensuring everyone can find the information they need quickly and that the most recent version is online.
8. Upgrading the collaboration environment as new technologies come online
9. Exploring efficient new technologies and incorporating them where practical
10. Teaching users to use more advanced features associated with collaboration platforms, like mapping a drive, establishing a workflow, etc.
Private Sector PR vs. Government Public Affairs: A Difference In Terminology With Real Implications
On the positive side, federal communicators are extraordinarily sharp people (and have always been). Also positive, the sophistication level in terms of technique and in terms of the demand for transparency is growing by leaps and bounds. Just in the past five years, it's literally amazing to me.
Furthermore positive, I have always known agency leaders to be sophisticated in terms of their ability to read the tea leaves, and to exercise good judgment. One memory in particular stands out of Robert Bonner, the former head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Bonner was amazing - he used to scribble out **all** of my drafts of his executive message for the monthly magazine and write it himself. I remember that handwriting!
But there is a less positive side, that hopefully we will overcome. And that is the failure to distinguish in theoretical terms between "public affairs" and "public relations." Many times, more times than I can count, I have personally experienced frustration that agencies were not as forthcoming as they could be, because there was a prevailing opinion that silence is golden.
This is not tied to one administration or another...rather it's a constant battle between those who generally want to "avoid trouble," and in their shortsighted view this means not talking about problems for fear of provoking (insert exaggerated worry).
Unfortunately I've seen communicators suffer because they were perceived as too open...because they did not understand the unwritten rules.
What is really sad, to me, is the contradiction between the incredible integrity of public servants, and the incredible distrust the public has for the government. And every single time we open up and are transparent, we find ourselves rewarded with greater trust - just the opposite of what is feared!
Where things do go wrong - and of course they do! - the best course of action is to tell it early, tell it often, tell it clearly, and be overall matter of fact about it. This is not just good government practice it's good PR practice as well!
At the end of the day, the key difference between private sector PR and government public affairs is who is paying the bill and what expectations they're bound by. The private sector PR expert is trying to help their client resuscitate or enhance their image. The government public affairs expert is trying to help the taxpayer get the information they need and more broadly trying to help the government function effectively and efficiently.
Confusion over this distinction is the source of another hornet's nest of misunderstanding, and that is the term "branding." The word means "propaganda" to so many, but for government it actually means doing a better job at communication - unifying the agency inside and giving the public a consistent and useful experience on the outside.
Further Reading
Monday, February 23, 2015
5 Ways To Work Effectively With The Media: Tips For Federal Communicators
Sunday, February 22, 2015
Channeling C.J. Cregg
Here is one example close to my heart.
Saturday, February 21, 2015
Communication Activities To Support A New Function - Dannielle Blumenthal Feb. 2015
Seeking Some Critical Thinking About ISIS
Beyond Vanilla In Government Communication: Is It Desirable? Is It Possible?
- Sponsored by the well-respected Federal Communicators Network, which was established 19 years ago by the Clinton Administration and which I have been involved in, including as Chair, for more than a decade.
- Hosted by the Partnership for Public Service, an organization known and respected for being an objective purveyor of government best practice.
- Moderated by Justin Herman of the GSA, who serves as the official social media lead for the federal government.
- Populated by a panel of social media specialists from the CIA, VA, ICE and USGS – a range of missions, some more controversial than others.
- Attended by communicators from across the federal government, including the FBI, the DOD, the EPA, the Coast Guard, and more. From the looks of it, about 80-100 people attended.
- Live-streamed by a dedicated videographer using an expensive-looking video camera, for the benefit of those who could not attend.
- Improvised social media accounts approved in hallway conversations with the boss
- Fact sheets, binders, and dissertation-style white papers that clarified, justified, and reinforced the need for social media
- Running to Starbucks to test out social media capabilities
- Hiring experts to come in and give 2-hour seminars “proving” to executives that social media was a legitimate activity
- Begging our bosses to blog, at the very least, to blog – doing “something” to show that they were part of the “interactive” web-space
- There we were, talking about “conversion” and “splintering” and “mobile” and “scalability” (were we? I think so).
- We talked about whether we wanted to “drive people to the website” or “keep them from having to go to the website in the first place.”
- The guests noted correctly that “engagement” and “conversation” are key.
- They even agreed that sometimes the agency has to apologize on social media, and talked about how they do that.
- Surprisingly they even admitted to making mistakes.
- I want to know how the government is spending my money.
- I want to know that its officials are being watched, and are accountable.
- I want to know how allegations, accusations, misbehavior and misdeeds are being rectified.
- I want to know that the government is doing everything it can to save my hard-earned money, so that I don’t have to pay more taxes next year.
- I want to know that the people, institutions, initiatives and technologies that would most benefit from taxpayer revenue are actually getting it.