The best and worst of Corporate Communications

Our returning soldiers

Today I received an email with a link in it regarding a group of volunteers who were meeting homecoming soldiers, airmen, sailors and marines at the airport in Dallas.  This story touched me deeply.  Of course I have always had a special place in my heart for the men and women who serve our country and yes, I still cry when I hear the national anthem or the Army song or most any patriotic song that recognizes the men and women who serve.  At times I wonder why I am so sentimental about this but I know, growing up in the 60’s, that our country did a great disservice to our military during Viet Nam and Korea.  We villainized and demonized men and women who were “protecting our country” or more correctly serving the country they cherished by following the leaders of our country regardless of how ill conceived their ideas were.  That shames me, and I will carry the guilt of that time to my grave.

Any way I digress, what a great thing these people are doing welcoming our soldiers home.  I just wonder how many other volunteer groups there are around the nation doing this same thing.  Isn’t this something the USO or another group should be organizing?  Why aren’t we doing this kind of thing in a more organized manner.  My son and my husband have both returned from overseas in other places besides Texas and there were no bands of strangers waiting to greet them.  I think this is a shame to miss such an opportunity to teach our children about sacrifice, loyalty, dedication, and self service we miss by not taking them to the airport to thank the people who risk their lives to fight our wars.

As you can tell I would really like to see our soldiers recognized more.  We mustn’t forget what these young people are doing for our freedom.

To see the video and read the PR news wire article click the links below. Download getmsg.htm or

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/02-01-2007/0004518740&EDATE=

Strategic Planning for communication

Over the last 10 years I noticed my way of thinking about communications has changed.  I started out doing public relations focusing on ideas of what I thought would work to accomplish what I wanted to accomplish.  Most of the time it worked, sometimes it didn't.  I then met someone I call a friend.  Les Potter.  What a phenomenal guy he is.  I don't know much about him other than what I learned from him and his enthusiasm for what he does.  He teaches strategic planning.  I met him at an IABC (International Association of Business Communicators) International Conference, in Chicago.  Turns out, he practices right down the road from where I lived, anyway I digress.  I took what he taught me and added my own take on things. 

As with any type of planning you have to consider the group/organization you are planning for.   In my case I worked for two types of organizations.  One that didn’t give a hoot what you did as long as you tracked it and one that not only wanted you to plan, but also execute and measure. The second one is the one I want to focus on.  By the way, if you work for one of the first kind, my advice is to get out when you can, communications isn’t important to them. 

It is nice when you work for an organization that is willing to support your public affairs program financially, by providing the money it takes to do some research about what people know about you, how they like to get information, etc.  I have pretty much left this work to someone who is an expert.  Getting an expert is not that easy though.  Find someone who has a specialization in communications evaluation and measurement.  If they are good they will take the time to find out what they need to be asking and how they need to ask the questions.  I then contracted out the surveys. A not so funny story about our surveys, the organization I was working for was destroying decaying and obsolete chemical weapons.  The company that was doing the telephone surveys contracted with a company that used people with an Arabic accent, or it could have been Indian, whatever it was it was foreign.  That caused me much heartache and almost stopped my surveys for good.  Plan for these carefully, don’t go into it with the attitude that it is just a survey.  So many people take ownership of a population it isn’t funny.  Think about everyone who might have a stake in the survey and include them in you communication about the survey.

A plan should have some major parts to it:

·        A mission statement

·        A Vision

·        Target audience or stakeholder

·        Goals

·        Objectives

·        Explanations of processes or procedures that help you manage your communication goals and objectives.

·        Measurement processes

Mission statement, Many times people think that the company mission statement is all they need.  I think that the communications department should also have it’s own mission statement.  It should tie into the company mission statement but it should be specific to the communications department.

Goals and objectives, it has taken me many years to really understand the difference.  I think of goals as the overall target you want to reach and an objective as an activity you are going to do to get there.  I am open to challenge on this, but the fact is, if you have a set idea of what the difference is and can articulate it then move forward.   The only bit of advice I give on objectives is to ensure they are measurable.  There is no reason to have an objective that isn’t measurable.  If it doesn’t get you where you want to go then no sense in doing it.  For instance, for many years we set up a booth at the County Fair.  We stopped doing that because there was no quantifiable measurement for the value that going to the fair could bring us.  Many people fought us on that, but the fact is that booth, the people to man it, the literature (most of which probably ended up in the garbage at the end of the fair) was the most expensive activity we had and we couldn’t measure it.  We were throwing away thousands of dollars on it and we got no measurable outcome.

Another issue that is common is we focus on outcomes and forget process initiatives or visa versa.  For instance, my job was strategic planning, when the activities were taking place to carry out a goal I was not in the role of doing anything.  I wrote the plan and I was accomplishing a process activity.  Be sure to identify the management, administrative and oversight of a program as a goal and have objectives to go with it.  For instance, one process activity that most supervisors have is annual performance reviews.  Set an activity that says, “Will perform annual reviews and semi annual reviews within a certain time frame”.  That is easy to measure and provide an process outcome for and it is something you have to do.  People seem to forget the paperwork that goes with managing a program and discount it’s importance, don’t.  Where would the world be without our paperwork, or nowadays, computer work?

Strategic targeted, and measurable.  So what does strategic mean to me, it means that there needs to be a purpose behind everything we do.  I also recognize that we as public relations professionals are asked to do things sometimes that have no relation to our strategy.  We do them because of who is asking, but next time remember the argument that it doesn’t follow our strategy, you might be able to get away without doing it.

military public affairs vs. corporate communications

Most recently I worked for a military public affairs organization and am now searching for a position in the corporate environment.  It seems to me that most companies tend to under estimate the valuable experience people who work for the military bring to a corporate environment.  This isn't just my opinion but I have been told that by others.

Hiring officials don't understand that when you work for the military, especially in public affairs but it is true no matter what area your career focuses on; you have been given a tremendous amount of responsibility early in your career.  I know that beginning with my first job I was given tasks and responsibility for activities that I would have had to work for year in a corporate environment to gain this level of experience.  I think about this sometimes and can't really put my finger on why.  I never thought of the military as an enabling organization but in a way they are.  Of course you are held accountable for your actions as well, not that corporate doesn't do this but I think that most are more cautious about the responsibility given to junior people so the accountability is at a different level. 

I remember publishing an internal newspaper, I actually wasn't the editor at the time, but we misspelled the incoming General officers name and boy did we get in trouble.  Yes the whole newspaper staff was in trouble; after all we reviewed it before it was published.  At the time I was one of the two most junior people in the office, but I still got in on the punishment or chastising.  I guess they considered it a learning experience. 

I worked a fellowship for a six-month period at Merck Pharmaceuticals and I saw "managers" who couldn't make a decision without half the company weighing in.  I always thought the military had the worst bureaucracy but large companies can compete on that level with the true bureaucrats.  It was an exciting experience given to only the best of the best but I found it extremely limiting.  At my military public affairs job I made most of the decision.  At Merck I didn't sneeze without asking permission. 

All of this moaning is for the purpose of trying to increase corporate knowledge of what goes on in military public affairs.  I will have more on this in the future.