Sometimes when you make your feelings known about others it can end up saying even more about you than it does about them:
Be careful what you say online..
Archive for the ‘Communications’ Category
Doubters to Believers
June 28, 2017
When Jurgen Klopp took over as manager of Liverpool FC in October 2015 he made a huge statement to the worldwide fan base through the media with a simple message:
“We have to change from doubters to believers“
Jurgen is clever, he quickly picked up on the mood at this famous, previously successful club and he knew that very often it is strangled by the quick loss of faith by the fans if something doesn’t go the team’s way on the pitch during a game.
The fans groan “same old story“, “we’ll throw this one away“, “that fella’s useless” ..when that negativity creeps in it spreads like a virus and before you know it everyone is a doubter.
Fans stop cheering, fans leave early, players get nervous, they choke, fans stop attending, the team starts losing, corporates stop entertaining clients at games, sponsors move on, the best players at the club want to leave and others don’t want to come to the club, success gets further and further away.
Jurgen understood this and from the beginning he sent messages to fans in his press conferences, in the match programmes and during the games he encourages them (by gesturing frantically!) to support and scolds them for not doing so – at a match that wasn’t going according to plan at the very beginning of his reign he scolded the fans who left early in his post message press conference – you can play your vital part in the success of this team.
We are all like Jurgen with the teams that work with us, with our customers (or clients if we are being posh) with those who we would like to be customers and all other stakeholders.
We have to change them from Doubters to Believers.
The most important person to health in Ireland is an IT man!
May 21, 2017
There was huge interest in the Dublin Chamber, morning event hosted by solicitors Mason Hayes Curran because the speaker was Englishman, Richard Corbridge who is the Chief Information Officer with the HSE and CEO of eHealth Ireland.
The very public hacking of the computers of the NHS in the UK brought the Cyber Security topic into focus and this fed an even greater interest than usual in this Dublin Chamber event.
While I was expecting a big talk about Cyber Security from the affable and very engaging Richard I ended up hearing something much more important, I heard about ‘First Dates‘.
Richard used this fantastic ‘first dates‘ analogy to describe how essential it is that the health system in Ireland needs to wake up in 2017 because quite frankly, first dates are no longer acceptable.
This simple point struck a huge chord with me.
Very recently I attended a ‘huge’ and incredibly serious consultation with a senior doctor with a close relative. At this consultation, the topic was of the gravest nature and literally half of the session was spent with the doctor flicking through various papers and asking the most basic of questions in an attempt to bring himself fully up to speed so he could deliver the best medical advice.
As I sat there I couldn’t help thinking that not only was a lot of valuable time wasted by this ‘paper’ system but the margin for error is just colossal.
When you meet a doctor for the first time (when you are born?) this should be the only first date you ever have to experience. Everyone else along the way should have your full medical history at their fingertips so that they have the full story and all of their valuable time and energy should go into the best possible diagnosis.
Richard spoke about many things including the huge positive changes that have been experienced in some of the maternity hospitals where this IT vision has begun and also some incredible improvements with certain medical conditions such as Epilepsy directly as a result of technology.
He also spoke about his committed team, who pulled out all stops to make sure we didn’t suffer the same fate as the NHS. He needs to bring this team with him and expand it to achieve what is needed.
Richard’s enthusiasm for his vision is infectious but it is clear that he is trying to achieve this vision in a mammoth, understandably slow-moving public sector organisation. My sincere hope is that he receives all the support that he needs and that he digs deep and stays the course because it will be frustrating.
To achieve this vision Richard needs to communicate it over and over as eloquently as he did last week both internally and externally and he must not stop until his vision has been achieved.
The irony in all of this is that the health of Ireland rests in the hands of an Englishman who isn’t even a medical doctor!
Richard…thank you, but please, please, don’t give up, we won’t allow you to!
Why you should change as little as possible in the first 100 Days
April 30, 2017
The first 100 days – there is a lot of talk about this and seemingly it has become a great way of assessing the success of a new President in the United States.
Why?
The media are locked into a frenzy about this “100 Day” thing and we all eagerly join in the conversations and somehow buy into this crude assessment of the new President.
Is this a really great yardstick of success and a good sign of what more is to come from the remainder of that person’s four-year term?
In the earliest days of his Presidency we saw Donald “Chump” Trump buying into this, breaking into a sweat signing as many Executive Orders as he could …”look at me, how great I am, look, look, I really mean business and will change the world and show everyone how a real President does it“.
It was quite awful watching the circus around this crude display of power.
100 days on after a frustrating “birth” poor Mr. Chump is now giving out about the American Constitution and blames it for hindering real progress and as always he turns his anger at the media and accuses them again of fake news.
His popularity has fallen since he took office and he really hates that because this bully still wants people to think he is doing great – sorry Donald, that isn’t happening!
The craziest thing of all is this fascination with “100 days”.
Apparently, the term was coined in a July 24, 1933, radio address by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, although he was, in fact, referring to the 100-day session of the 73rd United States Congress between March 9 and June 17, rather than the first 100 days of his administration.
However, it is a lot sexier if we apply the “100” to the first days of the Presidency so this measurement tool caught on.
A good measurement tool?
Managing a super power nation must be incredibly complicated and no matter who you are, no matter how well briefed you are, and no matter how intelligent you are I can imagine those big decisions should be taken in a very considered manner.
From my career experience of having been in business a long time and having managed many companies and worked for many companies, I shudder at the thought of any boss wanting to make as many changes as possible in this initial period.
I would feel an awful lot better if this person would have the sense to listen, learn, take stock and only when they have a full grasp of a situation do they start to make any changes. I have found that even the seemingly obvious things that look wrong can often have very good reasons why they are in place and cannot be changed easily.
I imagine that Donald if he had allowed himself the time and not been a pawn to the media his own bravado persona might have gone about things quite differently.
Next time for the safety and benefit of everyone in the world let’s judge the President positively when he makes no changes in his first 100 days.
VIP and not so VIP
April 26, 2017
We arrived at the car park that we normally use as were about to start our working day.
They operate a simple system whereby you buy a parking ‘pass’ for the year and even though they don’t operate a dedicated reserved parking space you park in whatever spaces are free. It also operates as a public car park whereby people can park and pay.
From a business point of view it doesn’t sound ideal as you might worry that you won’t get a parking space when you need it (such as in the lead up to Christmas) but this is never an issue.
When you arrive early for work there is an extra bonus because at that time you can get a parking space on the lower floors.
This Monday we arrived early to find four of the very best parking spots empty but marked up with very clear signage “VIP – Reserved“.
I found myself getting really angry… (oh Greg, that’s unlike you !!)
Now they had two customer types: VIPs and VPOs (Very p**sed off!)
Obviously, the car park has done a deal with some new customers but instead of offering them the package that they were operating with everyone else they offered a new package whereby someone could reserve their own space.
Let’s assume for a moment that the new customers have agreed to pay super premium for these reserved spaces in prime location – fair enough.
First as an existing customer for the last two years (we pay for 3 spaces) I would have liked to have been offered this package that was not available before – this was a lack of courtesy.
Secondly if you do operate reserved places please don’t call them “VIP” as this makes the rest of us existing customers (99%) feeling not quite so important. “Reserved” is enough.
If you introduce any mechanism for categorising new customers be careful how you make the existing ones feel.
The same ticket but not the same
April 16, 2017
We were on the North East Corridor train heading out from Penn Station in New York to Metro Park in New Jersey to spend a few days with my brother Colin and his family.
On a commuter train to suburbia it’s hard not to observe the other passengers and wonder about their stories and their lives.
There was a guy sitting across from us, I’m guessing in his twenties dressed all in black with headphones on – every now and then he would sing along in Spanish. Many of the public signs here are in English and Spanish, which surprised me.
There was an African American guy, again in his twenties wearing a green hoodie and a baseball cap under that, also listening to his music.
An older guy sat alongside us wearing grey tracksuit bottoms and a grey top and an unusual pair of Crocs on his feet. He also had a crutch so this probably explained the footwear. He looked a little dishevelled so maybe he wasn’t having the best of days.
The ticket collector came around – he takes your ticket, then produces another ticket, punches a hole in this and then clips it behind you under a little metal clip. He does this for each of the people around us.
He comes to the guy next to us, the grey tracksuit guy, who takes his ticket from under his sock and produces it for inspection.
“Tear it in half” the ticket officer tells him. The passenger looks confused.
“Tear it in half” the ticket officer repeats, this time with a little more intent.
He looks confused and asks “Why?”
“I’m not touching that, it’s been in your sock” he says.
The poor guy in the tracksuit never felt better I’m sure. His bad day, week, month, year or decade was confirmed in front of his fellow travellers and he quietly accepted this instruction and tore his ticket in half.
The ticket officer was able to go ahead with his job without having to touch the offensive ticket.
This was an unpleasant and unnecessary exchange between two strangers and at what cost?
Would it have been so hard just to take the piece of paper from this fellow human being and treat it like all those other pieces of paper, equally and with respect?
However, we are not equal.
United Airlines and the Costly Culture
April 16, 2017
When you hear the company name “United Airlines” what comes to mind?
When you hear the company name “Volkswagen” what comes to mind?
In both cases, you probably think of the well publicised and very damaging situations that have occurred, which have caused untold damage to these monstrous brands.
At the time of writing United Airline shares had dropped significantly resulting in a market capitalisation collapse of $570 Million.
While United Airlines was a very specific incident and Volkswagen was a very deliberate campaign of deception what they both have in common is that what occurred was not something that you could blame on “a” culprit in each company.
With United Airlines could you point the finger at the security guards who removed the passenger?
With Volkswagen could you point the finger at the engineers who were able to rig the emissions performance?
In each case, the individuals involved knew that what they did was okay with their bosses – why would they do such a thing otherwise?
In each case, their bosses knew that this was what they were expected to instruct their subordinates to do – why else would they give guidance like this?
In each case, their bosses, bosses had jobs to do and targets to meet and the expectation was that these must be achieved as a priority beyond all other objectives.
And so on up the chain of command.
The huge problem in large organisations is that very often something rotten is allowed to creep into the culture resulting in management and employees behaving really badly and eventually it just bursts through and shows its ugly face in a way that is quite extraordinarily shocking to everyone.
For example with United Airlines the initial reaction of Chairman Oscar Munoz was to apologise to other passengers for the “upsetting event” but went on to push the blame onto the 69-year-old victim Dr.Dao for being “disruptive and belligerent“!
If you ever wanted someone to confirm the rotten culture at the airline, Mr.Munoz did it in his next communication to his staff where he praised them and stood behind them:
“Our employees followed established procedures for dealing with situations like this. While I deeply regret this situation arose, I also emphatically stand behind all of you, and I want to commend you for continuing to go above and beyond to ensure we fly right”
In a strange way, he was 100% correct – they did what was expected of them in these situations and as a result, he applauded them!!
At this point in time, the airline’s reputation was in tatters and Oscar and his team started to frantically backpaddle and within three days their tone had changed and fresh press statements included grovelling apologies to Dr.Dao for the appalling treatment and a full refund to all passengers on the flight (what difference was this ridiculous gesture going to do for anyone?).
The best PR advice when something like this occurs is to come clean and apologise immediately with complete sincerity. The word “Sorry” if people genuinely believe those that are delivering the apology can go a long way to reducing the damage caused.
However, just like in the United Airlines scenario a genuine “sorry” was not possible because the culture was too rotten to even contemplate doing such a thing – the expression ‘not being able to see the wood from the trees‘ comes to mind here.
Your reputation ultimately comes from what you do and how you behave and while good PR professionals can help to lessen the damage from a bad situation, it cannot change the culture, which can often be the reason why these things ended up happening in the first place.
Could your culture end up costing you?
The Magic of PR
April 6, 2017
Advertising is a way of promoting your business but it is you saying that “we are great, buy from us“.
PR is a way of promoting your business and it is more effective because it is someone else, a trusted third party saying “they are great, buy from them”
Your PR makes your advertising more effective as now people believe what you are saying
Social media (when you do it right!) is a way of you promoting your business by interacting, engaging and gently saying “stop by, you might like what we have to offer”
Your PR makes your social media more effective as now people believe it is worth stopping by and seeing what you have to offer.
Do all three and you have a powerful combination with PR the little piece of magic in the middle.
The St.Patrick’s Day lost opportunity
March 16, 2017
Can you imagine getting off the plane today, 16th March visiting Ireland for the first time. It’s the eve of St.Patrick’s Day, the iconic Irish festival and I wonder what are your expectations?
You have heard all about it, you have seen some footage on the TV, you know about the Irish dignitaries visiting foreign lands pressing the flesh and exchanging gifts of the shamrock. You know about the Irish celebrations all over the world on this special day where the Irish (and so many who would love to be Irish!) celebrate their Irishness. You have heard about Ireland, the friendly, beautiful country that is famous for the warm welcome, the craic and of course the pubs with that iconic drink, Guinness.
You must be excited..
I’ve just parked the car, grabbed a coffee and walked to the office and I’ve tried to put myself in the shoes of this visitor – what do they see, what do they experience, what are they thinking?
Except for the window of the Tourist Office you really wouldn’t even know that there was a festival. That poor tourist must be a little confused!
I haven’t come to town to see the parade for donkey’s years (even though I do hear its got a lot better) and I haven’t considered it either this year either despite our office being on the route with a perfect view. Outside of the parade is there anything else that would bring me to town to celebrate my Irishness? I know there are some activities planned around the city for the weekend but the occasion just hasn’t crept inside my skin, it doesn’t connect with me.
Twice a year in Siena (start and end of the summer) in Tuscany there is a festival called the Palio of ‘Palio di Siena‘ which is basically a local festival that runs for a week each time that culminates in a bare back horse race in the Piazzo del Campo at the centre of the town.
Every man, woman and child comes out and celebrates. They sing, they parade behind their horses and at night they eat and drink together.
We have been there about six times as I am totally seduced by this special feeling of being connected and part of a community spirit, a coming together.
Everytime I go there I wish and long for something in Ireland that can bring out the same spirit and feeling of community, pride and connectedness – St.Patrick’s Day should be that day but for some reason it falls short.
St.Patrick’s Day is one of our greatest assets and it should be the most special day in all of our calendars. Every man, woman and child, let’s celebrate together!
How can we make that happen?
I’ve lost my voice!
March 11, 2017
I’m not kidding and I’m not trying to be cryptic in any way – I have actually lost my voice!
This is a hangover from our recent trip to New York where I had picked up a sore throat, I guess from long, tiring flights, hotel air conditioning and really chilly weather when we were there.
On the way home at the start of this week I failed to sleep on the plane so I never quite made up for a missing nights sleep and yesterday morning I did a presentation on ‘Social Media Strategy‘ at the Ludgate Hub in Skibbereen, which had me on my feet and talking for nearly four hours – I guess my body has said “enough” and for the first time ever in my life I have no voice today, on my birthday of all days!!
This has been the strangest feeling – my mum called me this morning on the phone and I tried to speak to her – nothing!
I had a few simple errands to run in town today and once again in front of shopkeepers, looking for some specific things – nothing!
I’m sure it will be back tomorrow or soon after if I look after it but it has made me reflect on my 52 years and I have wondered exactly what I have done with this voice of mine?
I have reflected on this last year, number 52 on this earth, and considered how I have used my voice – has it made a difference, has it helped, has it supported, has it been kind, has it been loving and caring, has it motivated, has it given direction, has it highlighted issues, has it been positive or has it been negative, has it been unkind, has it been destructive, has it caused upset?
Being truthful I think this voice has done an okay job this last year but I’m not happy as I feel it needs to start making a much bigger difference.
Your voice is a precious gift – choose to use it properly
Greg Canty Fuzion Blog 