Jun
22
As the sidewalk garden grows, so do the expressions of appreciation for it. You may remember the garden I wrote about in April. This week I received a postcard from a neighbor who took the time to thank me in writing even though she doesn’t (yet!) know my name.
It’s still nice to hear people shout, “Thank you for growing your garden,” as they drive by in a hurry. But it’s even better to see the thanks in writing.
Jun
17
As oil company executives were called to testify in front of congress, newscasters were abuzz with the laughable errors in each company’s nearly identical crisis plans. While the Gulf of Mexico is facing an unprecedented environmental disaster, at least we know the walruses would have been safe…had they been there.
But while such errors seem laughable and we may smirk, perhaps it’s really nervous laughter we’re hearing. How many of us watch BP, Toyota and others in the eye of a PR storm – whether or not their own doing – and somewhat breathe a sigh of relief? Well except for those tornado chasing crisis lovers out there (luckily, some of which we have right here at JS).
But even if your company doesn’t experience a crisis on the scale of BP, or any crisis at all, will your competitors? It wasn’t just BP’s executive sitting up there facing the tough questions. The industry as a whole is awash in the ensuing slick of negative attention.
So, where’s your crisis plan? If you have one, is it full of walruses?
As communications counselors we encourage our clients to draft crisis communications plans, but all too often the PR plan turns to the instant gratification of that next media hit or social networking site of the moment. Or if a crisis plan is drafted, it sits for years with contacts and tactics becoming outdated.
Instead of snickering at the oil companies’ faux pas, let’s remember the quiet that always precedes the storm and use that time to plan accordingly. The forecast might be clear right now, but we should keep an umbrella handy.
Jun
7
It is difficult to write about Coach John Wooden in the past tense. We lost him last Friday at the age of 99. His record of 10 NCAA basketball championships (seven in a row) as head coach of the UCLA Bruins will never be broken.
John Wooden was not only the greatest college basketball coach of all time, he also was a sage off the court, especially about the tenets of leadership.
Here are some of my favorite life-lesson quotes from Coach Wooden:
“Make each day a masterpiece.”
“Ten hands make a basket.”
“All of life is peaks and valleys. Don”t let the peaks get too high and the valleys too low.”
“Learn as if you were to live forever, live as if you were to die to tomorrow.”
“Little things make big things happen.”
“If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?”
The legacy of John Wooden is set in stone. He practiced what he preached. His impact on the business world matched his influene in college sports.
I was recently at a business conference held by one of America’s top brands. Coach Wooden and his leadership principles were referenced countlessly by the presenters.
Recently asked what he would like God to say when he arrived at the pearly gates, Coach Wooden replied, “Well done.”
Well done indeed.
Jun
2
At least twice a week I receive long emails from perfect strangers wielding arcane or illegitimate words like “append” and “optin.” They are uninvited messages encouraging me to purchase lists of other strangers who I might want my company to assault with our own brand of uninvited email.
Some of these epistles start with cheer, as in “Hope you’re doing great.” Some are downright ominous, as in “Do I have your attention?” All of them are completely off-target and irrelevant, considering Jackson Spalding’s passion for in-person relationship building.
I checked with our Web gurus and they tell me that this scatter-shot sales approach violates one of the cardinal rules of electronic communications: ask for permission before cyber-selling, lest you be sent to the sp(l)ammer. The sad news is that a recent Microsoft security report estimates that spam represents about 97 percent of all email now sent over the internet.
This growing trend of unwanted email got me thinking about spam and what it says about contemporary global society. So, I’m keeping an informal log on the emails that are snared in our hard-working spam filter every day. And, another log of all the unsolicited email that creeps past our firewall.
As I sift through my research, it occurs to me that I’m on the frontier of a new dimension of cultural anthropology. Future archeologists will examine our collective computer chips and conclude a troubling legacy for us. Based on my daily traffic, they will paint a picture of a narcissistic, materialistic, sex-obsessed culture that has trouble staying sober, slim, punctual and out of debt.
We, the people, are apparently always on the hunt for Viagra, Vicotin and vacation deals. And watches. I don’t know about you, but I already own three very nice watches and I don’t foresee needing another one any time soon. So why this universal craze for cheap timepieces? Is the whole entire world now on billable time? I hope not.
I can always count on a daily message urging me to enhance a body part that I don’t have. Or, to connect with members of my own sex who apparently have enhanced body parts that God already supplied to me. Sort of creepy, this spam.
And speaking of creepy, isn’t it really weird that Olympian spammers come from places like the Ukraine, Brazil, Nigeria and Poland? Developing countries appear to have an advanced hacker workforce. I’m told that some of these hackers have been successful in cracking into online banking accounts from the comfort of their faraway perches. So, Internet security is becoming more and more important for not only corporations, but also for individuals.
I liked the world better when Spam came in a can and you had the option to purchase or not to purchase at your local grocer.
