I was surprised to read that Simon Lewis is becoming Gordon Brown’s spokesperson. He has taken on and thrived in some really tough roles (Centrica and Buckingham Palace) and achieved success in having communications accepted as a Board appointment.
He was very courteous to me, giving me career advice when I left Royal Mail.
His new role must be the toughest challenge that he has undertaken.
Mansion House
Last night I attended the first Joint Livery Dinner at the Mansion House held by the Information Technologists’ Company and the Guild of PR Practitioners. The Lord Mayor, Ian Luder, thought that it may have been the first time that two female Masters had hosted a dinner at the Mansion House. Josephone Connell, the Master of Information Technologists and Una Riley, the Master of the PR Practitioners kept the Mayor’s ears very busy all evening – to the extent that he was glad of the opportunity to make his speech to get a word in edgeways!
The PR Guild had also sponsored the first Herald’s Award, presented at the dinner by the Windsor Herald (who designed the Guild’s badge). The winner of the first award, was Charles Lewington who had promoted the Gregor Mackay Fund set up in memory of Gregor who died at the age of 36 from a rare form of cancer.
I was fortunate to be sat between my guest, Colonel Alastair Bruce of Crionaich and Stuart Errington. Colonel Alastair is the senior communicator in the Territorial Army, a correspondent for Sky News on constitutional matters, a Herald, a Royal Archer, an Equerry and published author. A real portfolio career! Stuart had been chair of the Citizens Advice Bureaux and was a banker with Barclays.
The PR Guild is seeking new members as it transitions into a Worshipful Company. It has recently formed an association with the Territorial Army Media Operations Group whose Commanding Officer, Lt Col Tim Purbirck was also present.
A very enjoyable evening.
PR Guild badge
I thought that it was rather ironic to read the subtitle “Britain is failing to teach essential scientific literacy” in today’s “Times”. This is the same edition where the Countryside Editor claims that Great Bustard chicks “were born the previous day”. No wonder the birds are declining if they have to give birth to their chicks!
Male Bustard
But going back to the leading article, I do wonder whether there are similar lessons for PR practitioners. The article argues that the gulf between scientists and literary intellectuals is a problem of language. It claims that much scientific argument is presented in inaccessible jargon. Does the language of new media create a similar gulf with practitioners? Terms like ‘mashable’, ‘digital platforms’, ‘APIs’, ‘UGC’ which appear in job adverts, blogs and articles can create a divide between those “in the know” and those who may feel in the same camp as the “natural luddites” (described by C.P.Snow). Is it a case where the jargon can lead to incomprehension by clients and colleagues or is the shorthand simply that – the language of experts?
When attempting to compose messages for Twitter, wouldnt it be wonderful if they could be of the quality of these old quotes?
The exchange between Churchill and Lady Astor: She said, ”If you were my husband I’d give you poison,” and he said, “If you were my wife, I’d drink it.”
A member of Parliament to Disraeli: “Sir, you will either die on the gallows or of some unspeakable disease.” “That depends, sir,” said Disraeli, “on whether I embrace your policies or your mistress.”
“He had delusions of adequacy.” – Walter Kerr
“He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.” – Winston Churchill
“A modest little person, with much to be modest about.” – Winston Churchill
“I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure.” - Clarence Darrow
“He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary.” - William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway).
“Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?” - Ernest Hemingway (about William Faulkner)
“Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I’ll waste no time reading it.” - Moses Hadas
“He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know.” - Abraham Lincoln
“I didn’t attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.” - Mark Twain
“He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.” – Oscar Wilde
“I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend…. if you have one.” - George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill
“Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second… if there is one.” - Winston Churchill, in response.
“I feel so miserable without you; it’s almost like having you here.” – Stephen Bishop
“He is a self-made man and worships his creator.” – John Bright
“I’ve just learned about his illness. Let’s hope it’s nothing trivial.” – Irvin S. Cobb
“He is not only dull himself; he is the cause of dullness in others.” – Samuel Johnson
“He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up.” – Paul Keating
“There’s nothing wrong with you that reincarnation won’t cure.” – Jack E. Leonard
“He has the attention span of a lightning bolt.” - Robert Redford
“They never open their mouths without subtracting from the sum of human knowledge.” – Thomas Brackett Reed
“In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily.” - Charles, Count Talleyrand
“He loves nature in spite of what it did to him.” - Forrest Tucker
“Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?” - Mark Twain
“His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork.” - Mae West
“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go.” - Oscar Wilde
“He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts… for support rather than illumination.” – Andrew Lang (1844-1912)
“He has Van Gogh’s ear for music.” – Billy Wilder
“I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn’t it.” – Groucho Marx
Perhaps there is scope for finding fabulous pithy Tweets and saving them for posterity?
At first, I thought the concept of organisations having a personality was part of what I understood as an element of branding. But what Fiona Coffey was talking about last night was organisational personality as assessed using Myers Briggs principles. (I am still recovering from applying a Myers Briggs analysis of my blog which revealed by blog-style to be INTJ – defined as a Scientist !!!).
Fiona Coffey
What Fiona was recommending was that interims and management consultants should consider what an organisation’s personality style could be to understand what sort of approach or techiques could work. A crude summary of her thinking/analysis is that the four styles of Myers Briggs applies:
Energy:Extrovert/Introvert Extrovert organisations could be characterised as looking for answers “out there” or external to the oganisation. Introverted organisations are more inward looking and expect to find solutions “in the family”
Information gathering: Sensing/Intuitive Sensing organisations are more comfortable with incremental change and may focus first on changing structures. Intuitive organisations are more ready to embrace transformational change and consider changing values.
Decision Making: Thinking/Feeling A ‘thinking’ organisation considers it important to “do the right thing” whereas a ‘feeling’ organisation is comfortable seeking harmony and consensus as “working well together”.
Operating Styles: Judging/Perceiving A ‘judging’ organisation wants to “cut to the chase” whereas a ‘perceiving organisation’ doesnt want to miss an opportunity.
Her advice to fellow interim/consultants was:
- to consider the organisational personality and dont seek to fight it!
- be respectful of the organisational personality and consider how to match your approach to deliver results
- know our own working styles and personality type and how to use them to influence the organisation
- engage in reflective practice: consider the bigger picture as well as focusing on delivery of objectives.
I found the approach interesting and worth considering. The talk was organised by Gatenby Sanderson who provide permanent and interim candidates, principally in the public sector. They will be putting a video of Fiona’s talk onto their website in the near future.
Networking opportunities for interims are really useful to meet people engaged in similar work, and to mingle with the agency team too. Not all providers do this kind of approach – so well done to the ‘GS’ team!
I attended a lecture given last night by Baroness Susan Greenfield at the Royal Institution of Great Britain. The talk had been organised by the Women of the Year as their Annual Lecture with the title: “The impact of current technology on the mind of the 21st century child”. It was a reprise of a speech she had given to the House of Lords.
Susan Greenfield
What she was trying to achieve, was to encourage government to fund research into the impact of current technology on the young brain. Her concern was whether the increase in autism and ADHD could be linked with the amount of time young children spend looking at computer screens. She didnt say that there was a link – but that it should be explored.
She talked to us for an hour to lay out her argument. (Some people were impressed that she talked for 60 minutes without notes – I was more impressed that she could stand for over an hour on ’skyscraper’ heels without toppling over!).
She explained how every single human brain is unique – which is truly remarkable. Every brain develops as a result of the interaction with the surrounding environment giving unique experiences. The more the brain is stimulated, the more connections that are made. Rats and mice living in a controlled ’sterile’ laboratory environment had less mobilitythroughout their lives than those who had a more stimulating environment. The more that the brain is used, the more it develops and grows. Research of London cabbies who have to memorise the streets of London to gain ‘The Knowledge’ have more highly developed hippocampi (the area of the brain which deals with memory).
Taxis
She also talked about the need to balance our human desire to have our senses stimulated with the need to develop meaning. The front cortex of the brain balances risk. Some research suggested that obese people are less risk averse than the rest of the population. The Baroness was concerned that children sat in front of computer screens may also be at risk from lack of development of this area of their brain. She showed research of how 21st children spend their time which illustrated that many spend more time interacting with technology than at school or with their families.
A panel challenged some of her views, but did seem supportive of the need for research. In particular, Martha Lane Fox, (one of the co-founders of Lastminute.com) argued that new technology provided access to so much knowledge, and could be a real force for good. She explained how she was able to use Twitter to seek views before the debate that evening and had a wide range of responses – which only new technology could provide.
Martha Lane Fox
My own take was to share Susan Greenfield’s concern that research does not seem to be taking ploace about the impact on the health of children – or the impact on society of the new technology. I was particularly concerned about the impact on children from disadvantaged backgrounds who may not have sufficient access to a range of experiences to balance the amount of time spent in front of a computer screen. However, I do think that research wll also find real positive features of the development of the brain through the stimulation given and through the access to knowledge. I also wonder whether government should fund the research, or whether the creators of new technology should also provide funding. I would also think it should be global research – although starting with the UK would be good!
I certainly felt that my own small brain had a serious workout last night – and now appreciate how important that is!
So the key to social media seems to be content created by users. What Shirky says is that in the olden days, professional writers, journalists, editors, sub-editors, (your mother?) used to filter material before you watched or read it. Other people chose what stuff you would have access to. They decided whether a story was news, and whether it would get ‘air-time’. The government could even slap a ‘D-Notice’ on something (oops, now called a DA-Notice…surely nothing to do with a Duck’s Anatomy?) and the story would never surface.
So now, according to Meerman Scott, Shirky, Scoble, Godin and the other ‘in-crowders’, the real secret to social media is that the strength is in users generating material without the editing/filtering. So if I ‘google’ something, or look a subject up on Wikipedia, the odds are that I will get a mass of data to filter myself, and that the content will have had minimal editing by a ‘professional’.
As news stories break around the world ‘citizen journalists’ are filing the material onto social newtorks or direct to mainstream media channels.
If you story, or video or picture is interesting or quirky enough – who knows, you could gather quite a following!
Go to it!
Nudge
I’ve just skim read Thaler & Sustein’s book “Nudge” . It is very similar in style to Malcolm Gladwell’s “Tipping Point” in that both race through a range of examples at an almost “breathless pace”. Writing about “Nudge”, Leavitt is quoted as “…it is fun to read, drawing on examples as far afield as urinals, organ donations and marriage”. In fact I found the examples in “Nudge” annoying – but perhaps it was beacuse I had already experienced the approach in “Tipping Point” and “Blink”. Gladwell’s books are easier to follow for me – more conversational. Rather like his talk on TED . Whereas Thaler and Sunstein write about “choice architecture” and “libertarian paternalism”. I get the ‘nudge’ examples, but the use of such unattractive terms puts me off their book and made it heavier reading than I wanted. I couldnt find any speeches by either of the on TED, but I guess its only a matter of time!
Blink
Having said that, I do think that their examples are useful to practitioners of social marketing. (Particularly as the NHS is investing heavily in social marketing these days)! The Texas Anti-litter campaign was interesting.
It was probably the hype which led me to have unrealsitic expectations about the book
Tipping Point
I’ve been asked to select some good examples of Annual Reports from the not-for-proft sector for a colleague to look at.
Anyone know any good ones??
Those of you following this post (is there anybody out there?), I have decided at last on the Research Question for my MSc dissertation:
“Following the impact of the Obama campaign, what is the potential role of new media in persuasion, engagement and participation in politics in the UK ?”
I have been thinking of the most appropriate forms of research and also which audiences to reach. What I am aiming to do is to research politicians in the UK, PR practitioners and the general public.
Following a suggestion from one of my supervisors (Rudiger Theilmann) for PR practioners I am going to try out the Delphi Method of forecasting. There is a helpful article about the Delphi Method on Wikipedia. It seems to be a really useful way of gathering and refining data from a panel of experts on your chosen subject. The experts answer questions set by the facilitator. The facilitator (me, in this case) summarises the responses and the answers are given back to the panel to revise their answers in the light of responses given by all of the panel members anonymously.
There is a really helpful site which runs a Delphi session for you. I have set up my panel of 10 PR practitioner experts and am giving it a go! Wish me luck!
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