“MANAGEMENT IS A SCIENCE, DON’T YOU KNOW”

James E. Lukaszewski, ABC, APR, Fellow PRSA
Minneapolis, Minnesota USA

Leave it to the Wall Street Journal (Business Education, 2-6-13) to come up with the headline “Does an “A” in Ethics Have Any Value?”

The article itself illustrates the conundrum and the dilemma faced by these science-based educational institutions like business schools, “does making something measurable, quantifiable, metrisizable, or countable, make it ethical?” Business schools and businesses in general are feeling employee heat, community leadership heat, even some shareholder heat to demonstrate some kind of personal responsibility beyond increasing shareholder value. As the chief human resources officer of one of the largest accounting firms in the world said near the end of the article, “I’m not so sure that an “A” in an ethics class is really a valid way of judging” [an individual's moral compass].

Upon reading this statement I couldn’t help but reminisce about the remarkably sudden destruction of Arthur Anderson and Co. through arrogance, hubris, plus complete misjudgment of their position in the public’s mind, but more importantly, in the eyes of the US Justice Department. It sounds like this industry has yet to learn something about ethical business principles.

The main problem, in my judgment, as I watch so many of these highly trained business school graduates mess things up, behave as though they have no moral compass, don’t care, and an increasing number are being indicted, there are too few, if any business schools run by real business people.

I have urged my friends at Fortune magazine, occasionally, to consider publishing one more list, one which companies would never vie to be on: “The Fortune Felons List.” It would probably resemble the other lists that are routinely published but the entries would be in a slightly different order. Every executive involved should be listed along with their business school. That listing alone would be a surprising metric for the public to understand and know.

To make ethical behavior relevant, important, and even required will take a tsunami like change in educational as well as business community thinking. This thought process changing will involve three crucial steps triggered by a catastrophe that captures the nation’s attention.

First, there has to be a different ethical effectiveness measurement process. We need a system of ethics metrics that passes the straight face test, and is disclosable.

Second, business education needs to focus a lot more on the practical problems businesses face every day, taught by the people who succeeded or failed to work through those problems and the real ethical questions, rather than moving cheese, counting Penguins, or going Wow. The practical has to dramatically dominate the theoretical.

Third, recognize that the business people who really need more ethical help and coaching rather than the 22 to 24 year olds, are those in their late 30s and early 40s. These business people have been on the firing line every day, making the decisions, the compromises, and the actions to get their work done, often by degrading and debilitating their moral and ethical frameworks.

Until we can spontaneously name industry leaders who inspire, who motivate, whose ethical and sensible leadership example can be emulated, and there is a relentless pressure educators, colleagues and peers to take business education and practices in more ethical and moral directions, and move away from the present but well-established amoral, theoretically based, totally financially driven business practices, American society will continue indicting, prosecuting, and incarcerating smart people who know better, but act otherwise.

Why do these smart people get into trouble? Three reasons:

1. Peer pressure: “Only sissies stress ethics over performance.”
2. They will get paid handsomely, whatever they do, even if they go to prison.
3. Their peers are the first to rationalize toxic behavior, “If they didn’t do it, someone else would.” “It was just an isolated incident.”

Why be ethical with friends like these?

Cindy is a senior communications professional with experience in multiple industries and communication functions. She is currently an adjunct Business Management/Communications instructor at Brown College.

What is it about the communications field that appeals to you?

If you had asked me that when I was much younger in my career, I would have said it was the ability to solve problems. You have to think on your feet. The second aspect of that is that you can see the results of the work fairly quickly. If you are writing an article, you can see the response. If you are doing a trade show booth, you can see what is being exhibited. At times communication can be fairly tactical.  As I grew in my career, I began to believe that the ability to combine business strategy and communications experience to help companies present themselves appropriately and to work on their business issues is really why I find it appealing.

How did you become involved with IABC?

I was working for a company where I was the sole communicator in the early nineties, and I wanted someone that I could talk to about communications and whom I could learn from. I heard about IABC, checked it out, and joined right away so that I could have that conversation with other communicators.

You have been a part of the Bronze Quill Awards program for quite some time as a participant, judge, and keynote speaker. What motivated you to take part in it?

I have been working on the Bronze Quill for quite some time, but I think I really got involved when I went to the regional level and started working on the Silver Quill level because I could see the value in improving someone’s ability as a communicator through entering award competitions. I entered my first competition without having any background, so I was kind of blind as to what the awards program was really about. I did not win with my first entry because I did not understand the program. So I then worked on the program to share with others what I had learned about communications. That is why I evaluate entries now–to give back and share what I have learned.

Do you have any advice for people who are planning to participate in the Bronze Quill Awards program?

Yes, lots of it! Follow the Call for Entries guidelines. Also, objectives are critical for a good entry. Measurable objectives are critical. Go online and see the judging sheet. The Bronze Quill site (http://mn.iabc.com/get-involved/2011-iabc-minnesota-bronze-quill-awards-competition/) provides helpful material such as the judging sheet and Call for Entries guidelines, as well as tips and tools.

As you know, the Bronze Quill divisions and categories align with the new international Gold Quill divisions and categories. What does that mean for participants?

Minnesota’s Bronze Quill program is now part of a global program where the standards are set quite high. Also, the ability to win an award really sets apart the work of the communicator.

Do you have any advice for students who would like to become involved with the communications field?

This is an area I think about quite often. As students, volunteer and meet people such as those involved in IABC and those connections will help you later!

What do you enjoy most about working with IABC?

The people! We have terrific people involved in IABC. I enjoy their company and I learn from each and every one of them.

Celebrate. Connect. Reconnect.

May 9, 2013 5-8 p.m.
Padilla Speer Beardsley, Atrium
1101 West River Parkway, Suite 400, Minneapolis, MN 55415

PROPEL YOUR CAREER — Join or rejoin IABC!

SHARE a Taste of IABC. Get the latest insights from our chapter president and incoming president on what’s new at IABC. Hear the latest vision from our board. Get your ideas heard. Attend insightful breakout sessions throughout the night!

FREE! Bring a friend or workmate. We promise a night of fun, delicious hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar with wine and beer options.

WIN an iPad Mini and other great prizes! We’ll be giving away great prizes all night long! Giveaways include an iPad Mini, iPod Shuffle, $100 Crave gift card, free registration to IABC MN’s Fall conference and more! IABC members: earn an extra raffle ticket for each non-member you bring!

NEW HEADSHOT? Freshen up your LinkedIn profile with a new headshot! Amber Urlacher Photography is offering a significant discount on professional headshots exclusively for attendees! Low-res headshots for online use will be $25 and hi-res photos for print only $50!

EXPAND Contacts with networking. IABC Minnesota’s biggest networking event of the year! Connect with the area’s most talented communications professionals! IABC MN members are a diverse and approachable group of business communications pros.

SAVE $40 when you join or rejoin in May! If you’re not already an IABC member, this will be a great chance to learn more about our chapter, the larger international association and its valuable member resources and benefits. May is our chapter’s membership month. Join in May and we’ll waive your $40 application fee!

Don’t miss it. Space is limited. RSVP now!

Click here for more information & to register.

IABC Pacific Plains Region Webinar

Building a SmartTribe Culture – Communications Strategies to Influence and Engage

Can communicators influence and engage employees?

During this webinar, Christine Comaford will explore a model of leadership that takes into account both the dynamics of teams and the individual leader in a company. Christine’s presentation will offer a cutting edge toolkit for leadership problem diagnosis and resolution, and human performance optimization.

Key topics include:

Learn more about Christine’s philosophy from her influential blog:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/christinecomaford/ and from her web site:www.ChristineComaford.com

Watch your Minnesota Twins take on the 2008 World Series Champs, the Philadelphia Phillies on a great summer night out! IABC is teaming up with Minnesota Health Strategy and Communications Network (MHSCN) colleagues for the second year, so plan to connect and reconnect with talented local colleagues for a fun event.

IABC Minnesota and MHSCN members can purchase up to two tickets for our section, which has a home plate view, for the 7:10 p.m. game. $30 per ticket includes appetizers and one drink at Gluek’s before the game. Bring a friend, colleague or neighbor to join in the fun! Tickets will be distributed at Glueks between 5:00 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. on June 12, or you can call the IABC office to make other arrangements. Members are responsible for bringing their own ticket(s) for entrance to the game.

Register here.

Pre-game networking

Start the evening at 5 p.m. with pre-game networking at Gluek’s Bar downtown–conveniently located just a few blocks from Target Field. There is no cost to attend this part of the evening if you are attending the game, but you’re also welcome to join the networking portion on its own for our regular member rate of $15 per ticket. Appetizers and one drink each will be provided at Gluek’s.

This is expected to be a well-attended event. Don’t miss this opportunity to mingle with other professionals and bring a guest to take advantage of the members-only rate!

Event Details

June 12, 2013

• 5:00 – 6:30 p.m. Networking at Glueks
• 7:10 p.m. Twins Game

Tickets must be picked up at Glueks before the game.

Registration

Register here.

Sponsors

Thank you to our sponsors – Blue Spire Marketing and Interval.

Empower yourself with new skills and insights. Summer Camp is a bundle of five professional development luncheons with something for everyone.

There are discounts for each additional event you attend; the more you attend, the more you save!

Details of each event are listed below.

Register for one – or all of them – here.

Location, Time, Cost:

All events held from 11:30-1:00.

Event Dates: June 20, July 11, July 18, August 8, August 15.

Excellence Conference Room

3600 American Blvd, Bloomington, MN

Hosted by Cushman & Wakefield/NorthMarq

Lunch Included

A selection of box lunches (sandwich, chips, cookie, drink) will be provided. Arrive early if you want the biggest selection. The registration form lets you specify any dietary restrictions.

June 20 – Video Storytelling: How to Produce Strategic & Compelling Video Content

More than a fad, your target audience is beginning to expect video content. Video is becoming an increasingly important tool for getting  your message out. But you don’t have to be intimidated. Come learn why you need video, what makes a compelling video, how to form a video strategy, and the basic elements of video production.

What you’ll take away:

• The value and importance of video as a communications tool
• How to determine best content for video
• Essential elements of video production

Speaker: Ed Heil, StoryTeller Media & Communications

Ed Heil is the owner and founder of StoryTeller Media & Communications, a boutique public relations and inbound marketing agency in Bloomington, Minnesota. Ed started StoryTeller after 12 years in television news where he was a sports reporter and anchor in Minnesota and South Carolina. His most recent television job was at WCCO-TV in Minneapolis where he worked from 2000-2005.

StoryTeller helps its clients tell their story through public and media relations, video and social channels. StoryTeller has worked with clients in digital engagement and customer development strategies since 2008. Today, they help their clients attract new visitors, develop relationships and convert best prospects into customers using written and video content.

July 11 – SharePoint Best Practices

Save yourself from “Am I working on the most current version of that file?”

Collaboration among internal communicators can help improve connections between and among teams, drive improved content management, approval workflow, manage task assignment and much more. Business collaboration systems offer great opportunity to work together and SharePoint is a topic of both opportunity and ire with many communication teams.

Learn about how team collaboration, approval workflow, versioning and archival capabilities of SharePoint can help you and your team streamline your communication processes, improve content quality and build community with your colleagues.

What you’ll take away:

• What SharePoint is and what SharePoint is not.
• How collaboration capabilities can help streamline department activities and processes often unique to communication teams.
• Important lessons learned (school of hard knocks!) regarding planning, socialization, engaging your team and a practical approach to determining how SharePoint can improve your ability to deliver to your team goals with speed and quality.

Matthew Kelly

Matthew Kelly joined UnitedHealth Group in 2007 managing digital communications, intranet development and new media production. His focus has been to improve employee engagement, development and communications through use of collaboration and business social media tools including SharePoint within IT and across the enterprise. Prior to UnitedHealth Group, Matthew worked in IT and business communications at Fair Isaac (FICO), Target and Carlson Companies. Matthew holds an MA in Communications from Bethel University.

July 18 – Target Audience Research That Drives Effective Communication Strategies

Today’s fierce competition for time and attention demands that your communications strategies perfectly match your target audiences’ specific needs. If your message is not on target the first time, you may not get another chance so you need to ensure your strategies are built from a solid foundation of audience research.

A haphazard or intuitive approach to conducting target audience research simply won’t provide the level of insight you need to truly resonate with your audiences. You need to know which approaches to use in which situations and how to evaluate your results in a way that goes beyond just reporting them. You need to understand what’s driving your audiences to think and behave the way they do. Once you have the right combination of process and insight, you can then develop truly effective communication strategies.

What you’ll take away:

• Understand who your audience is, how they need to be communicated with, and what their hot buttons are.
• How to decide which research approaches to use in which situations (including free or low cost options).
• How to design and analyze research that goes beyond basic profiling and uncovers connections and emotional drivers that make communications strategies resonate at meaningful levels.

August 8 – Personal Branding/Get Visible With LinkedIn

“What happens because of you?” and “What are you known for?”

Understand the power of your personal brand and how to communicate a clear and consistent message through your image, what and how you communicate, and the experience of working with you.

How do you respond to the request, “Tell me about yourself?” Can you introduce yourself in 20 seconds with confidence and consistency and provide a compelling reason for people to want to learn more? Does your introduction lead to a rich dialogue or story that tells people “What happens because of you™” and what you are known for?  How do you tell your story in conversation (interview or new business pitch), or in your bio or resume, website or brochure, or on LinkedIn so that it has a positive impact and outcome?  Does your brand reinforce the brand of the company or organization you represent?

Anyone can create an online presence – for an individual, a business, a brand.  Creating one to Get Found, Look Good and Create Meaningful Connections is another story.  It takes strategy and insight.  Clarity and focus.  It takes someone like online brand and visibility strategist Anne Pryor, co-founder of Meaningful Connections and one the leading authorizes on social connections.

What you’ll take away:

• A personal branding strategy
• 5 Strategies and Tips for Boosting your LinkedIn Profile Visibility
• 2 Tips to Promoting Your Company Page

Kathleen Crandall, Meaningful Connections

Kathleen Crandall is a personal brand expert who helps people and businesses understand what their brand is and how to bring it to life through their image, brand voice (what and how you communicate) and through the brand promise (the experience of knowing you or working with you).

Anne Pryor, Meaningful Connections

Anne Pryor is a former executive with Carlson, Lifetouch, Mall of America / Knott’s Camp Snoopy and Valleyfair.  She has trained and coached more than 35,000 clients on how to leverage LinkedIn to develop meaningful and profitable business connections.

August 15 – Senior Communicators – What’s Next? Discovering Your Journey From Success To Significance

You’re a successful professional communicator. You’ve achieved a significant degree of success. So now what? The key to your future is to learn from your success, your ups and downs, the bumps and railroad ties to the forehead in life. It is your job to decide on the changes that will bring additional dimension to your life. Develop your gifts, build on your talents and increase your interests.  This interactive session includes a panel of senior communicators who have made significant career transitions and will help you explore these questions:

• What are my most important Gifts and Talents? (I really have some?)
• What have been my greatest successes? (It’s about time somebody took a look!)
• What are my values? (What difference do they make?)
• What is my emerging purpose in Life? (Discover the dreams that make your heart sing)
• What are my dreams and how can I bring them to life? (Have I missed the big chance?)
• What is the vision or legacy that I want to leave in my life?

John Berge, LifeWork Renewal

John has been a Minneapolis-based consultant since 1971.  He is widely known as an invigorating and humane force for positive change in organizations, for developing teams, and individuals.

John co-founded Human Resources Consulting Firms: Human Renewal Inc., in 1975; Turning Point, Inc., A Center for Creative Change in 1987; and LifeWork Renewal Inc., in 2003.   He consults with The Small Business Advisors Group, the Upper Midwest Small Business Consulting Group; and The Platinum Group.

He specializes in Organizational Development as an Executive Coach and Human Resource Consultant with small to medium sized family and closely held businesses.

Registration

Register here.

“Anyone can write a blog post, but not everyone can get it liked thirty-five thousand times, and not everyone can get seventy0five thousand subscribers. But the reason we’ve done these things isn’t because we’re special. It’s because we tried and fialed, the same way you learn to ride a bike. We tried again and again …”

- Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, “The Impact Equation”

While some of the book’s concepts would appeal to people promoting their own personal brands (i.e. bloggers, speakers, consultants and Twitter sensations like @Kellyoxford), other concepts apply to any strategy that relies on utilizing content as a driver of engagement. How you get your ideas out in that world and how you make your brand relevant comes down to a simple equation created by Brogan and Smith:

Impact = C x (R + E + A + T + E)

Contrast: New ideas resonate with consumers when the ideas are similar to ones they’ve already experienced, but are different enough to notice. Think of it as comparing the color green: one is Juniper Green and the other is Lime Green. Your brain understands the difference because you know what those greens mean, yet they are in contrast of each other.

Reach: Most marketers know what this means—how many customers or prospects can your brand reach? Whenever possible, cultivate and grow your customer and prospect lists.

Exposure: Reach is the total number of consumers you can connect with and Exposure is how often you can deliver your messages. Knowing exactly how often is too often can be tricky, but it is nevertheless important to determine. We all know “spammers” have reach but they’re overexposing their messages. Nobody likes SPAM!

Articulation: Some marketing ideas make sense immediately and consumers “get it” right away. An idea with high Articulation cuts through the noise. You can see Contrast and you feel Articulation, just like seeing Lime Green and then smelling or tasting it. Articulation is about understanding something instantly and internalizing it.

Trust: Consumers need to know what you’re offering is real and that your brand is trustworthy. Authenticity is important to getting your ideas across and if you lose it, it’s hard to gain back.

Echo: This is all about the feeling your brand messages give consumers. Do your messages resonate long after you’ve delivered them? That should be an ultimate goal.

This acronym gives you the building blocks for creating impact in your messaging. Is this the only formula to use? No, and it’s not like we’re splitting atoms and running the risk of creating a black hole if you deviate from the formula. However, it’s nice to know that somebody has done the hard thinking and testing for you to implement and experiment with on your own. Who knows, maybe you’ll create your own theory and formula, too.

In case you decide to pick up the book (which I do recommend), here are some pages I’ve dog-eared that I think provide some great illustrations that back up Brogan and Smith’s recommendations: 161, 172, 174, 175, 180, 187, 228, 235 and 250. These are in the hard cover version and I don’t believe they apply to Kindle (sorry!).

Here’s to creating communications that truly impact … happy engaging!

PS – for those who might have expected a post about the weather, here’s a funny for you from the Star Tribune.

Portions of this blog post appeared originally on the BlueSpire Strategic Marketing blog.

“WILL LEADERS AND COMPANIES EVER LEARN FROM THEIR MISTAKES?”

James E. Lukaszewski, ABC, APR, Fellow PRSA
Minneapolis, Minnesota USA

Among the most frequent questions I get when speaking to groups or talking to clients, and especially to victims and survivors, are:

— “Why do companies and their leadership continue to make the very same mistakes time and time again?”

— “Don’t they read the papers?”

— “Don’t they watch the news?”

— “Don’t they talk about how to avoid the problems they see their colleagues, peers and friends having?”

It’s a question of ethical leadership.

The simple and direct answer is, very rarely. Businesses don’t learn because the typical response to a crisis is focused more on forgetting than learning. The first inclination is to punish the innocent, next, to cover up the misdeeds of the powerful; and then purge the organization of anyone remotely associated with the problems, including the chief executive, sometimes the CFO and even the general counsel.

These summary cultural executions effectively deny the organization the opportunity to learn how to detect, prevent and deter such circumstances from occurring again because the only people who can teach these things are the perpetrators who were responsible in the first place. But they are gone, or muzzled by their attorneys.

The Penn State circumstance is the most complete recent example of this flawed but continually accepted strategy.

Phase One: Denial, disbelief and Institutional Deafness: Ignoring the circumstances and allegations, questioning credibility and motives, and discrediting those making the allegations.

At Penn State: Internally the early reports were clearly delayed, ignored, discouraged, and discredited for eleven years.

Phase Two: Victim confusion. The institution and the perpetrators claim that they are just as much the victim as those who they have been alleged to have assaulted, intimidated and otherwise harmed. The voice of doom speaks, “If this continues, the institution could be harmed.”

At Penn State: As the scandal became more real, institutional defensiveness kicked in all the way to DEFCON 5, the official feeling of being under attack and forced to respond.

Phase Three: The phony internal investigation strategy stage which prolongs the denials before finally determining either that the allegations are bogus or that, “It was an isolated incident”. In the process, the victims are further discredited; the challenging authorities are demeaned.

At Penn State: Victims, media, and any naysayers were actually set upon by students, faculty and community members. All the while, the chief known perpetrator, Mr. Sandusky, and others in the administration were at liberty to try to cover their criminal activities and abusive behaviors, including Mr. Paterno. Ultimately, Mr. Freeh was retained and produced a devastating outside, independent analysis and recommendations.

Phase Four: The head-fake shifting blame to everyone else but the folks in charge.

At Penn State: The perpetrators, even the police and the co-conspirators, protected each other until the forces of public pressure absolutely required that they be exposed and removed. All this happened, despite a clear pathway of culpability from within the organization in athletics and moving up to the very top.

Phase Five: Failing to truly punish the guilty or subject them to corrective behaviors.
Two extraordinary consequences occur:

— First: the loss of knowledge of how these problems came about from those who have a better understanding of the entire organization than anyone, the perpetrators.

— Second: an entire avenue of learning for the institution and subsequent cultural modification is removed.

At Penn State: Early on there was an extraordinary movement to begin forgetting the incident as quickly as possible. Even now, the University is on the public relations defensive to continue the process of eradicating these incidents from their memory through extensive PR efforts.

Phase Six: Punishing the innocent. Along comes the first of a series of sanctions aimed at the institution, but hits the students instead, missing the perpetrators, the collaborators, and the facilitators.

At Penn State: They welcomed the sanctions largely because they themselves couldn’t figure out what to do that would be publicly and internally acceptable.

Phase Seven: Bury or hide all the remembrances to ensure forgetfulness. This approach, involving forced forgetfulness, denies the victim’s validation for their suffering and demeans and diminishes the beneficial impact of those who are able to stand up and bring comfort and justice to the afflicted.

At Penn State: They removed one statue of Mr. Paterno, but left another in place.

Phase Eight: Persecution of the innocent is piled on by outsiders.

At Penn State: The NCAA sanctions the school by taking away years of victories, punishing thousands of students no longer attending the University, including those who attended honorably while in school. The NCAA has, like so many intervening outsiders, provided a distraction rather than a solution. The University of Minnesota has announced that it will not recruit athletic students from Penn State.

What is learnable from this tragedy?

1. Culture change requires that the University preserve, expose, disclose and continuously discuss these criminal behaviors rather than simply eradicating them from the life, even the history of the organization.

2. The perpetrators and those found guilty should be required to make periodic appearances to subject themselves to public and survivor questioning to help others understand the sources, nature, and scope of damage to deter future, similar criminal behavior.

3. Traditional, puffy public relations is the exact opposite of what’s needed and will encourage the cover up of previous, and perhaps current, negative administration activities. Public Relations signals an end to additional ongoing disclosures, and diminishes and demeans the important culture changing activities going on.

4. The new compliance structure should continue investigating, be vigilant, and impose compliance. The facts, information and data should be disclosed continuously as discovered. This monitor must focus on present senior administrators of the institution. Their predecessor’s lack of leadership, complicit behavior that still goes largely undiscovered and unpunished. And, given half a chance, history demonstrates that the new interim administrators are weak and likely to follow or be pushed into similar repulsive behaviors.

5. Culture change occurs through a continuous senior leadership based effort to remind, remember, rehearse, and revisit the circumstances that permitted the victimization of these children. The cultural change goals are to ensure that such events and circumstances are deterred, reported, investigated, prosecuted and prevented.

How long does culture change take? Well, let’s see. When will the victims stop being victims?

The student body insults and punishments will continue, but now by former friends.

This is the old psychology idea that spreading the pain and suffering out among a much larger base of individuals, helps all affected heal or help in the healing. The real effect is that the guilty feel innocent and the innocent feel even guiltier. Believe it or not, there are many who would call this good, therapeutic practice. Ask a victim or their surviving relatives if that’s how they feel.

We find this same delusional notion in other fields… In Public Relations your gaff is covered up and reduced in intensity if you can gather a cluster of third parties around to you to protect you and distract others. In industry the old axiom was, “Dilution is the solution to pollution.”

There has to be a better way. These patterns of willful ignorance, organized forgetfulness, organizational deafness, and the love of yesterday are what give management and leadership the opportunity to say nothing, learn nothing and do nothing.

Click here to watch a video presentation of a Ben Bronstein lecture in ethics and public relations.