The Intersection of The Art of Jazz and The Science of Listening

If movement (not to mention innovation) is difficult -- whether in enterprise or on a personal front -- difficulty listening might be part of the problem.  We spend considerable time on the topic here; but this presentation by jazz musician Stefon Harris offers insight into the critical role listening plays in progress and innovation. If you love jazz, this will be especially enjoyable; but there's a lesson here for all.

Proposal: A New Language For Progress

One of the many gifts my parents gave me was a deep appreciation and love for music.  All kinds of music really.  My mother, possessing a genius I had no way to appreciate at the time, would let me, Keith, Paul and Phyllis have complete control of the family stereo for our own preferred musical preference -- from The Beatles to the Stones, and beyond.

Well, almost complete control.  She was a huge fan of the weekly WJR (Detroit radio) broadcast of Karl Haas’ program, Adventures in Good Music.  For that hour, she cranked up the volume and filled the entire house with what I now know to have been her seeding the work of the masters in our experience.

And an appreciation for classical music somehow, in spite of every attempt to prevent it, seeped into my consciousness.  Though I can’t speak for my brothers and sister, I suspect they’d say the same thing.

Tonight, as iTunes shuffles my library, an amazing spectrum of styles and artists reach deep into the heart of my being, make me quiet, and send chills through my entire body.  James Taylor, Lady Antebellum, Gershwin, Sting, Handel...all strike a chord.

Each chord resonates in a way that defies description or explanation; but is, inarguably, a part of me.  Thanks to Mom and Dad.

This is the power of music.  And I remember in my youth believing that there is something in music that, given a measure or two, is capable of bridging any language and cultural gap, of creating harmony out of dissonance.

With the (continual) news that those entrusted to govern in the United States are unable to make any progress on not only domestic, but pressing global issues, one wonders whether we might arrange for a closed circuit broadcast the world’s music into boardrooms, legislative chambers and seats of power everywhere.

Just a thught.  How much less could possibly be accomplished?

Are We Losing Our Ability To Listen?

In an increasingly loud world voices, headlines, media and even strategic noises seem to compete for our attention.  The competition (naturally) gives rise to more creative approaches to capture a target's ear.  And in the process there is plenty of reason to wonder whether anything is actually being heard.

In this short video presentation, sound expert Julian Treasure suggests we are "losing our listening."  But stick with him; the payoff is five ways to re-tune your ears for conscious listening -- to other people and the world around you.

It's worth the listen.

When Marketing Fails

This post is dedicated to anyone who has ever asked (or been on the receiving end of the query) where did our marketing go wrong? 

And the answer is -- perhaps it went awry when the priority became creating, producing and delivering the message as opposed to identifying the precise point at which you might connect with your target.

Somewhere, somehow we began to equate marketing with the execution of creative genius. We recognize it, reward it, hand out killer-awards for it, revere it. And sometimes, inadvertently to be sure, producing the message became the point.  We began thinking of the ability to articulate or produce as the only tools essential to moving a target audience.

Don't misunderstand: I firmly believe creativity in all of its manifestations is a critical piece of the puzzle. Great copy, killer production value, insightful market segmentation and innovative media plans scarcely scratch the surface of essential creative components. But if the message doesn't emanate from the kind of listening that precisely identifies the point of connection -- shared experiences, concerns, aspirations -- we should not be surprised when the market barely moves in our direction. 

What might happen if, for a season, we invested in innovative listening? What if we found a way to lend our mind's ear to our clients/customers/targets (as opposed to engaging in a profunctary exercise)?

This is the essence of Intentional Listening. It employs the creative (and opportunistic) resources of the mind's ear to the fullest extent. This kind of listening is a relentless quest for common ground and points of connection.

Call it market research if conventional labels are more comfortable. By any label, this is the seed of succcess for our marketing efforts. Intently listen, and the market will reveal what it cares about, what it is searching for, and what it takes to sew seeds of loyal, enduring relationships.

Armed with this kind of baseline information, we might surprise even ourselves with the impact creative and innovative communication has on the bottom-line.

Enough Talk About Listening!

If you interact with a significant other, a neighbor, team members or co-workers, no one needs to tell you that listening is critical to almost any relationship.

What we must not overlook is the fact that all listening is not equal.  Query your favorite search engine for “types of listening” and you’ll find plenty of content on Discriminating (I-get-to-pick-and-choose), Passive (I’m-not-really-engaged) and a handful of other labels that seem like attempts to quantify the fact that sometimes we listen; often we fake it.

It is not difficult to make a case for Discriminating Listening in selected situations.  After all, it is almost impossible to find a market segment that is not flooded with messages, each making as big a splash as possible in pursuit of mind share.  The art of communication often seems inexorably linked to the metrics of media buys, production costs and decibels.  The result can be deafening.

And with all the talk about the subject, one can’t help wondering whether marketers are listening.

An Opportunity to Reinvent

Few will admit it, but the proof is in the execution of strategies.  Most strategies indicate that messaging is what we value most.

While we focus on the creation and delivery of the message we ignore at least two things central to the most basic communication theory:

Like it or not (and many struggle mightily with this) the basic building block of communication is the dynamism of shared experiences.  Shared experience is the byproduct of interaction, participation, and collaboration.  It does not begin with messaging.

Enter Intentional Listening – listening by design, with purpose, with ears wide open.  This is the opportunity and potential of Social Media.

And though the irony of talking about it this much is not lost, here is fodder for what can hopefully be an on-going discussion around one of the most critical practices if you're venturing into social media.

Five Keys to Intentional Listening

1.     Begin by asking “to whom should we be listening?” as opposed to “what should we be saying?”  Somewhere in the course of the media age we have come to equate the best communication solely with message creation and delivery.  And though this is not to say that the quality of messaging is not critical, it is to suggest that perhaps we have placed the proverbial cart before the horse.  The most successful marketing always begins with target identification and research.

2.     Take note (scrupulously) of what your target audience cares about.  Review tweet streams, examine past posts, and browse lists of friends and followers.  This “listening” will yield some of the best marketing intelligence available – a glimpse into what your market values and invests in.

It 

3.     Build on shared experiences.  Listen carefully and your market will tell you exactly what it takes to connect.  Build your connection strategy around shared experiences, interests, values and common needs.  (If you are unable to identify this point of connection, return to number 1.)

4.     Remember the arithmetic.  Listen more than you talk…at minimum, two times more.  Practically speaking, retweet more than you tweet your own message, ask questions that promote conversations around what your target market values.  If the only time you seek interaction or feedback is when you want to precipitate action on your behalf, your arithmetic is wrong.  Intentional Listening is about what it takes to build relationship.  It is not about exploiting a podium or pulpit.  In short, give more than you expect to receive.

5.     Help build.  Community is the life-blood of social media.  Help build it and, with deference to the better mousetraps that might come along, your market will beat a path to your door.  Build connections.  Invest more time in a cause, event or idea that is important to your market than you do in asking targets to join your cause, and you’re on the road to relationships based on shared experiences.  And there is dynamism in there.

This is the challenge for social media strategists: do we view this evolving arena as a message delivery media, or do we see it for what it is – a way to invest in Intentional Listening.  The former view squanders the potential, turning social media presence into little more than a firestorm of sound bites.

Practice Intentional Listening and we’re on the road to shared experiences, valued collaboration, relationships that endure – and yes, loyal friends, fans, clients and customers.

What Really Matters?

Some things simply are not important in the scope of things.

Mac or PC? Important to the respective companies, to be sure; but give me either and I’ll get the job done. Number of Twitter followers or Facebook friends? Great possibilities; but not near as important as how you treat those you’re connected to -- online or face-to-face.

Pro sports contract negotiations, college bowl selections -- 90% of what fills an hour of sports talk radio or sports center highlights -- important to the individuals and enterprises they touch, yes. But is the amount of time invested by many of us on such issues just a bit out of proportion?

Red state, blue state, left side of the aisle, right side of the brain -- are the things we invest so much time cussing and discussing -- are these things (or are the conversations we’re having about them) as important as the time we spend on them?

This is not to say that purchasing decisions, the thrill of victory and the body politic don’t warrant attention, or to suggest they have no importance.

But (thankfully) every so often I am reminded that it is more important to be quiet for a moment, and consider what really matters.

Time with friends and family really matters.

Experiencing what happens to human beings when we give of ourselves -- this is important. Nothing will change a community more quickly. I would certainly do better to shift some of my sports or political talk time to efforts here.

What others think of you is rarely as important as what you, deep in your heart, think of yourself.

And simply pausing for a few minutes to consider the very few things that really matter -- this is one of the most important things we can do today.

At The Heart of Today's Game-Changing Marketing Strategies

Ask a dozen professionals from a variety of endeavors to define marketing and you will likely receive variations on two or three different themes. Retailers, B-to-B enterprises, service providers, Fortune 500 companies, entrepreneurial start-ups – and everything in between -- often view, plan and budget for marketing from unique perspectives.

But all of us, unique perspectives notwithstanding, count on our marketing investments to do one thing: contribute to a change – in awareness, in behavior, in loyalty, in habits or routines.

You may not think of or define marketing as an agent of change, but consider it. Regardless of the deliverable, from a single effort to an entire campaign, marketing is designed to instigate some type of change in the status quo. It may be about transforming a target into a client, expanding a customer’s use of your product/service line, creating awareness, or deepening loyalty to a brand. But effective marketing is, at its core, an agent of change.

Enter “Social Media”

I don’t believe any single solution is the holy grail of marketing; but the so-called “social media” options present marketers a new level of access to a critical dynamic of change – the oft overlooked (or ignored) element of dialogue.

Simply put, dialogue is the life-blood of enduring change. One-off decisions and temporary digressions can be precipitated by an event, an incentive or a compelling message. Dynamic campaigns can certainly win customers. But lasting change – the kind that lies at the heart of repeat business and customer loyalty – is the byproduct of feedback, conversations and the dialogue attendant to shared experiences. And “Social” provides a platform for numerous approaches to each of these activities.

We have long recognized the potential impact of “word-of-mouth” marketing. Get satisfied clients/customers talking about their experience with your product or service, and the marketing game changes. No longer is it the voice of the company extolling benefits; customer-originated messages have authenticity. Shared experiences resonate.

Add the element of actual real-time feedback, and you’ve tapped into the real marketing potential of social media; now you’re building relationships. And relationships trump everything. Relationship is the context for turst. Conversations that allow for questions and answers, musings, what-ifs, and even the airing of a problem – this kind of dialogue is the DNA of relationships that grow and thrive.

So when you wonder about the role of social media in a marketing strategy…or how to introduce the idea to leaders in your company…or what the best practices might be with respect to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, remember the seed that eventually gives rise to the most pervasive and enduring change your market will ever know: today’s game-changing marketing plans create shared experiences, encourage on-going dialogue, and build communities with clients and 

The Role of Proactive Listening in Social Media

Here’s the problem: we believe that once we’ve delivered a message -- written it, recorded it, spoken it aloud, hit “SEND” or (truth be told) even outlined it in bullet-form -- that we have Communicated. Put another way (and maybe a bit more to the point), when we think about communicating, we inevitably think about message delivery.

Conventional wisdom views “Great Communicators” as those gifted in the art of articulation. When it comes to marketing communication, we seek a wordsmith, an award-winning designer, and those able to grab an audience by the eye and ear, create and produce at the highest level...and deliver the message.

Enter the "Social Media."

View social media marketing tools through conventional eyes -- that is, see them primarily as message delivery vehicles -- and you sacrifice the opportunity to organically add a new dimension to your marketing efforts. Am I the only one who, upon first hearing about Twitter, scoffed -- wondering what value could be contained in 140 character limit for each message? How profound or poetic might one be when brevity is enforced? (My appreciation for Emily Dickinson notwithstanding.)

Clueless. Because I was thinking only in terms of delivering my message.

And while i may be slow, i did eventually come to realize that the real power of social media is that listening is at its core.

In fact, unlock the art of proactive listening in the social media, and you’ll discover a way to connect with your audience that will change your marketing -- both in terms of strategy, and execution.

To that end, here are a three ideas on how to use social media to proactively listen.

1. Master two or three questions. That's all it takes. Pose the right query to followers, fans and even foes, and you tap into the best marketing research available -- insight into what matters most to your clients/customers and targets, directly from them. And never underestimate the potential of a 140 character survey.

2. Build a Feedback mechanism. What this ends up looking like will depend on the tool, but you can bet your unhappy customers will utilize every tool at their disposal (remember the United Breaks Guitars video?). Be proactive and facilitate (encourage) conversations about your product or service -- the good and not so good -- and you'll hear about problems and opportunities in real time. This "conversation-context" is significantly more productive than a complaint box or traditional reactive approach to customer service. (By the way -- defensiveness has no place in a proactive feedback mechansim. Avoid it at all costs.)

3. Spend more time taking content in than you do dispensing your message. There is, no doubt, a more poetic way to articulate that idea; but we'll forgo poetry in favor of connecting. You get the idea. Listen (much) more than you speak. Read more than you write. I've seen varying suggestions as to effective ratios, and don't profess to have a proven formula. I think in terms of no more than 1 in 5 communication efforts revolving around a marketing message. I know a few folks who hit more like 1 in 10 when it comes to Twitter.

Three ideas. I'd appreciate hearing yours.

Imagine a marketing strategy built around on-going proactive listening. No telling how the marketplace might change!

The Discipline of Listening vs. The Art of Messaging

Listening doesn't come easy.

For anyone (or any business) with a point of view, an opinion, a measure of conviction, and the means to disseminate a message listening is rarely what first comes to mind when addressing the communication process.

Client feedback initiatives and market research notwithstanding, from the instant an infant realizes what it takes to relieve the pains of hunger, our practical view of communication focuses on creating and delivering a message.  We are conditioned to view charisma, wordsmithing and creative genius as the components of great communication.  Result?  We equate message delivery with communication.

Listening is...well, just silence.  Golden, perhaps.  But certainly not communicating.

(We could spend a couple of paragraphs discussing how this view has worked out thus far, but let's get to the good part.)

Here's the proposition: communication is one of those counter-intuitive disciplines that works exactly opposite of the way we think; it begins when we learn how to listen.

And the discipline of listening is what gives shape to the creative art of messaging.

Discipline and Art are not at odds when it comes to communication; rather, they are two essential halves that create the whole.  For marketing professionals, this gives rise to a two-fold go-forward challenge:

• Beef up the portfolio of proactive listening tools (Social Media affords great possibilities here); and,
• Practice resisting the temptation to go straight to messaging.

Thoughts?

Social Media: The Fabric of Community

Time to acknowledge the obvious: few things have had as much impact on the fabric of marketing as has the emergence of "Social Media."  In his book - The Chaos Scenario (see video above) - author, AdAge columnist and NPR commentator Bob Garfield goes as far as heralding the end of mass marketing as we know it.

Overstatement?  We are, afterall, hinting at a significant change for some communication innovations that have helped shape our marketing world.  Print, radio, moving pictures, television -- cable news, for crying out loud.

While many organizations (and marketers, for that matter) wrestle with the function and role of Social Media, and more still will debate some or all of Garfield's conclusions, few will argue that things are changing.  Fast.  So, for strategists, marketers and C-suite corporate leaders, here's an abbreviated take on what is changing, and at least part of why Social Media seems to be growing exponentially at the heart of the change.

We've gone from "the audience is listening" (with apologies to the THX audio folks) to the audience is in control.  (The cynic might say the inmates are running the asylum.)  That's it.  In increasing numbers, the targets are taking control of marketing -- distribution, creative, messaging -- all of it, without even the slightest respect for where marketing resources have been invested or the precise wording of the official company tagline.

Garfield calls this "Listenomics."  No longer is the distribution of a video marketing message, for example, limited to those able to invest huge sums in costly video production and television ad time.  Today a customer or client -- satisfied or unsatisfied -- has access to global distribution channels.  And in case there are questions about the viability of Social Media's channels, just ask United Airlines what precipitated more quantifiable response; their own media campaign or the now infamous "United Breaks Guitars" video produced by a very unhappy customer, and distributed via YouTube.  (Video below.)

Put another way, with the emergence of Social Media, word-of-mouth marketing is all grown up.  We have always understood its potential.  In most professional service circles referrals were the only form of business development (though rarely referenced as "marketing") until the 90's.  Even in the midst of mass media's hayday, a cornerstone of brand development has always been the voice of the customer, client or target -- even though almost always the voice of a paid actor.

Social Media is about the fabric of community -- the dynamism of dialogue.  It is the authentic voice of the marketplace.  Strategic planning sessions and budget meetings are producing questions about how to address its role, and how to think about resources and ROI.  We'll leave thoughts on those questions for another post.  But for today the question for marketers and company/corporate leaders is not whether Social Media is relevant; rather, it is whether we can break from messages that insist our targets listen to us, engage in a dialogue, listen to the marketplace, and enjoy the benefits of the most effective form of marketing any of us has ever seen -- word-of-mouth, all grown up.

Conversations, Relationships & Renaming Social Media

There are, no doubt, a few good reasons for some business endeavors -- in particular, professional service enterprises -- to have concerns over the use of social media.  For example, lawyers, doctors and accountants cannot be perceived to be offering legal, medical or tax advice in any media marketing context -- social or otherwise.

I believe every concern I've heard can be addressed; but I'll also cop to believing the benefits of conversations with clients and targets far outweigh concerns -- provided, of course, ethical and regulatory issues are appropriately addressed.

Smoke screens notwithstanding, it is that "conversation" idea that may be the real road block.  Many company leaders -- from the C-Suite to the board room -- don't know what to do with so-called social media because it allows for instant feedback and (almost) forces conversation.  This is a far cry from a view of media efforts as one-way communication "campaigns," allowing for carefully framed messaging and perceived ultimate control.  (Nevermind the possibility that a message might completely miss its target while swallowing up huge amounts of company resources.)

So, to the degree that the idea of employing social media as a part of a marketing and communications strategy is problematic, here are three thoughts that might help us frame the discussion anew in the coming weeks.

1. The ultimate goal of any marketing effort should be two-fold: to enhance the brand, and to move forward on a continuum that leads to a new or deeper relationship with the target.  Nothing accelerates the establishment and deepening of relationship like the give-and-take of conversations.
2. Real-time feedback affords actionable marketing intelligence; and nothing is more "real-time" than a cnoversation with a constituent, client or target.
3. Any opportunity to engage with a target audience is an opportunity to deepen a relationship -- even when the opportunity emanates from an issue or problem.  The best company leaders recognize negative feedback as an opportunity to win.

If, to some significant degree, you believe these three points, we have 3/4ths of the framework for a new way to talk about social media.  The final piece?  Don't call it Social Media.  To the uniniated, the term "social media" conjurs images that, at best, have little to do with business.  At worst -- come on, you know what images at this end of the spectrum look like.  Change the discussion.  Create a new label.

One suggestion: focus on the fact (and build conversations around the idea) that relationships trump everything.  I believe our goal as marketing professionals and company leaders is to facilitate deep, meaningful relationships that endure.  Those relationships deliver return on investment...and become part of a customer-based marketing community.  That community will let us know, loudly and clearly, when customer experience and marketing  message do not align.

Put another way: if we hope to build relationships, we'd better have a platform for meaningful dialogue with clients and targets.

What's the new name for social media?  In my view it builds on the concepts of conversation and relationship.  My guess is what we call it changes, depending on the audience.  (Ghosts of Communication Theory 101.) 

Client Experience Will Always Speak Louder Than Any Marketing Message

A friend of mine who is fond of tweaking me at every opportunity used to frequently chirp, "I'm sorry Eric. What you do speaks so loud, I can't hear what you say." The older I become, the more I believe that this strikes at the heart of one of the half-dozen greatest challenges we face.

Overstatement? Consider a relationship with a significant other. Or how about in the context of parenting. It seems to me that in life's most critical relationships, the degree to which deeds and words are consistent is in direct correlation to the respect afforded.

To put it in marketing terms, this is the challenge for every brand -- personal or corporate: for proclaimations to square with the reality of experience. The result of a relatively frequent lack of alignment between message and experience is the deterioration of respect. And the bad news here is that this lack of respect can result in a new "brand promise" of unreliable, inconsistent, hypocritical. (Needless to say, this is a brand not easily changed.)

In today's professional services marketplace, where client service, customer satisfaction and loyalty programs occupy a position of prominence (rightfully so) in marketing strategies and messaging, it seems to me the challenge is magnified. In this environment, with relationshps so central to effective marketing, brand promises tend to be personal and tangible. Clients expect that marketing proclaimations and their own experience will be aligned. Misalignment (nevermind, dissonance) in today's "new normal" will be met with brand dismissal: what you do simply carries much more weight than what you say.

(And yet again I am reminded that equity building in relationships -- whether personal or in the context of marekting -- is based on a handful of the same undeniable principles.) 

Two Takes on Tiger's Tale

Full disclosure: I have enormous misgivings over even commenting on the current Tiger Woods story. From a completely personal point of view, I regret that we are so captivated by the sight of a train wreck. Rationalize any way you like; that is what is happening here -- and we simply refuse to turn away.


For the past two days we've heard every conceivable variation on "it's the public's right to know." The latest (and tax dollars notwithstanding, the most ridiculous) came from a Dallas/Fort Worth radio host this morning who reasoned that this is a legitimate matter of public concern because the fire hydrant that was struck was public property. Really? Is that the best we can do.


Let's just admit it; we cannot turn our eyes away from an accident. We love dirty laundry. Some of us are self-conscious about it, and avert our eyes when near the gossip rags at grocery check out stands; but when the communication channel (regardless of the source) is CNN or MSNBC or Fox News or an RSS feed, even the most personal of issues becomes worthy of "the public's right to know."


That reality saddens me beyond any ability to describe without sounding preachy. But that's one side of the tale.


The other how Tiger and, presumably his advisors have chosen to mismanage the communication. All feelings aside, this is a public story. And, though I hope I am wrong for the sake of the human beings involved, choosing to say nothing never, ever works.


Unfortunately, stories like this don't go away when a strategy of silence is embraced. They linger. And often become larger than life.


Great public relations and communication isn't about "spin" control. It is about coming to grips with and addressing reality. Whatever the story, here's hoping Tiger Woods listens to some seasoned communications and public relations advice soon. Only then will he and his family find the privacy and quiet they long for today.

The Thrill of the Chase vs. Drudgery of Dialogue

For many, the chase is simply easier than the work associated with building and nurturing lasting relationships. The chase offers variety, the thrill of an adrenaline rush, and - win or lose - it's off to the next pursuit. No working through misunderstandings and unrealized expectations.

No -- we're not talking about personal relationships -- any parallels notwithstanding. This is about business development.  And for some reason, many professional service organizations and providers invest disproportionate amounts of time and energy chasing prospects and irrestible "opportunities."

Disproportionate because, for the vast majority of consultants, lawyers, accountants and other service providers, the shortest path to revenue growth lies in meaningful conversations with existing clients.

This would seem to be of particular interest in today's marketplace -- where any growth is rare, and leveraging every investment is a must.

The math is simple. Deepening an existing client relationship is almost always a better investment than the costs -- hard and soft -- associated with the pursuit of a non-client target. Leverage an existing client relationship by a) broadening the services provided; and b) involving other team members, and not only are you on the road to increased revenue; you've also increased profitability.

Just in case I have to say it -- here goes: this is not a suggestion that we should not engage in the pursuit of new clients. It is to suggest to all of us leading business development efforts -- when we invest more in the pursuit of new opportunities than in the care and nurture of existing relationships, we may be victims of the thrill of the chase.

Relationships that endure and grow are the result of a calculated investment in the proactive art (and, yes - often drudgery) of dialogue.

(The same might be true in the personal relationship arena, as well!)

Is The Devil We Know Defining Our Message?

When it comes to communication that is critical to the future, it’s easy to let the negatives we know (and probably understand very well) completely determine the framework of important messages.

Case in point — when talking to my teenage daughter about dating, it’s difficult for me not to speak completely out of personal experience, framing the message in the context of the “devil” I know – ”I know exactly what boys have on their minds because I was one!” Few would dispute that my perspective is rooted in fact; there is no shortage of data points to support the message. But the problem (apart from the fact that my target audience has no interest in hearing this message) is that this one-dimensional message does little to help my daughter develop a perspective that helps her move into the future.

But enough painful confession. What does this have to do with our communication as leaders? Simply this: without exception, when communication is couched and “toned” only by data points of the past -- or for that matter, the present -- it will lack dimension, skew perspective, and seed a faulty response.


Absent a perspective that allows for (and prompts) vision, communication is either a recitation of history or an account of current conditions. If that data is less than stellar (consider how we communicate with our organizations in the context of recession), the chances are great that the devils we know have far too much influence on the message -- even when the message is future-looking.


Consider this: had the framework for Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address or poetic Second Inaugural been couched in the reality of the moment, his speeches would simply have decried the nation’s condition, and mourned those yet to die. Instead, Lincoln used the past only to raise the specter of a new vision.


Had Martin Luther King, Jr. addressed the throng speaking only out of experience, the “I have a dream” refrain would never have passed his lips.


And in the wake of the USSR having won the race to orbit the earth, JFK dared to stir the US with an unthinkable vision — to put a man on the moon.


Take a look at what these examples have in common.

• They do not gloss over or ignore the realities of the past;
• They broaden perspective;
• They speak of possibilities for the future;
• They call for participation.

Put another way — what Lincoln, King and Kennedy did was seed a vision. Some might suggest that known data points and vision represent opposite perspectives — that the former is grounded in fact and the later is right-side-of-the-brain creativity at its best . . . spin at worst. Yet, modern history’s pivotal moments are often marked by the communication of a leader who, unprepared for the past to define the future, was able to articulate a new view of the horizon.


Pivotal moments — whether in commerce, social enterprise or political endeavors – come when leaders understand that most of us are anxious to be done with the devils we have known. We simply need someone to help us with the vision of what might be.


As we work on marketing plans, budgets and staff assignments for 2010, we'll do well to temper what we know about the last year (and projections regarding coming months), and mix in the stuff of vision, dreams and audacious goals.

Communication Theory & The Glare of Friday Night Lights

Look -- I don't want to leave the impression that even in the middle of a high school football game I'm thinking about communication theories.  But last week, the Friday night lights of Texas high school gave me a headache.

Turns out those lights must trigger a screaming/screeching gene in some grown men and women -- or, to be more specific -- the grown woman seated directly over my right shoulder.

I'm all for cheering on the home team.  I can even get into an occasional "ohhh geez...how'd they miss that pass interference call" directed at no one in particular.  But seated a dozen rows up on the twenty yard line, at the end of the field opposite the action, I was finding it impossible to believe that the random (albeit consistent) wailing of one lone voice had any prayer of reaching the target of the communication.

The more my head began to pound the more I doubted the fan behind me had any specific target for her screams.  The cries of "defense" and "hit him" were simply expressions from the language of her intent...to create noise.

Later -- Saturday morning if I remember correctly -- I was able to concede that the fan behind me was, indeed, doing what any good fanatic is expected to do in the context -- she was making noise...participating in the game.  But, unwilling to completely let go of my point, I wondered how much more effective our fan communiqués might be were they executed in a way that might actually connect with the target -- be it the players on the field, or the officiating crew.  In fact, what fan has not experienced the impact of a stadium full of voices shouting DEFENSE over and over in unison -- perhaps even accompanied by the choreographed stomping of feet against metal bleachers.  Doesn't this (sorry for this) strategic approach come closer to the desired impact of fan participation?

Today -- fully over that headache -- I'll admit to having gone a bit far with the theory and strategic application.

But I do wonder -- how much of our communication -- in the marketplace and in our personal lifes -- is little more than a byproduct of the moment, contributing to noise that accomplishes nothing, and soon after diminishes into thin air...even as the enthusiastic screams offered up under the bright lights of Friday night.

Communication That Cuts Through The Noise

One of the first questions that must be answered by advertisers, marketers and anyone wishing to communicate an idea in today's market is what does it take to rise above the noise and connect, as opposed to simply raising the decibel level.  And at the risk of being accused of gross oversimplification, I offer this proposition as fodder for a discussion.

At the risk of over simplifying, here's a proposition: The best way to avoid the creation of more noise and less communication is to know what to say and when to say it.

To further the discussion, here are four message creation and timing tenets.

1.  Effective communication begins with listening.  Great speech writers, award winning advertisers and marketers, and those that understand relationships (are there any?) practice listening first.  Call it research or focus groups or create a new label; but whatever the label, listen closely and your target will let you know exactly what it takes to connect.

2.  Drop preconceived notions.  Employ what you've learned.  Effective messaging is born of the knowledge gained while listening.  Your target has top-of-mind concerns.  Ignore them in the name of creativity (or whatever) and your message becomes part of the noise.  On the other hand, learn enough about these issues and concerns, you have the outline of a message that will connect.  (No comment on the personal relationship implication of this principle beyond observing that this works in virtually any relationship you care about.)

3.  Dialogue builds relationship; and relationship drowns out the noise.  Invest in dialogue and watch opportunities for real connection increase.  (If you doubt relationship can exist between marketer and target, consider the case of Apple and the growing i-Cult.)

4.  Less is almost always more.  In a marketplace dominated by big and loud and irrelevant, less will almost always preferable...if not more effective.  And that's my cue to be quiet, and listen.

Your thoughts?