Ban on Buzzwords show Lack of Understanding

The body that represents Britain’s local authorities has told its members to stop using management buzzwords like stakeholders and sustainable communities, saying they confuse people and prevent residents from understanding what local governments do.

The Local Government Association, whose members include hundreds of district, town and county councils in England and Wales, on Friday sent out a list of 100 “non-words” that it said officials should avoid if they want to be understood.

The Canadian Press: British authorities told to drop ‘empowerment,’ ’synergy’ and other buzzwords

Now I am all for simplifying communication, but there is also a limit. The terms sustainable communities and stakeholders are not buzzwords, they have been around for years.

The problem lies in that the definitions themselves have not been properly understood nor communicated in most cases. You ask the average executive what the word stakeholder really means, and their eyes will glaze over. You ask the average employee what the word that is suggested instead of stakeholder, namely customer means, and their definitions will shock you.

Most employees believe that the word customer means someone external. The words stakeholder and stakeholder management are also misunderstood.

The term ‘stakeholder management’ refers to the development and implementation of organisational policies and practices that take into account the goals and concerns of all relevant stakeholders. One author defined the word stakeholder already in 1984 as any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the organisation’s objectives .

Research shows that the types of stakes can range from an interest, to a legal or moral right, to ownership. The Body Shop classifies them into social and non-social groups i.e. that stakeholders are:

• those whose interests are affected by the issue or those whose activities strongly affect the issue;
• those who possess information, resources and expertise needed for strategy formulation and implementation, and
• those who control relevant implementation, instruments (Funds, Law or Property)

The term stakeholder is therefore more embracing and inclusive than a simple word called customer.

Perhaps the Local Government Association should rather review their own strategic communication action plans and ask themselves whether they have adequately communicated the correct definitions of words used in the business world and contextually today.

See also my page http://deonbinneman.wordpress.com/faq/definitions-create-lenses/ for more on definitions.

Technorati Tags: communication,reputation,stakeholders

Stakeholder Obsessed?

I just read an e-mail in which Amazon advertised for a Public Relations Manager in Seattle.

What caught my attention was these words:” Amazon.com is seeking a skilled, motivated, and customer obsessed Public Relations Manager”.

Customer Obsessed!

Is that not what organizations need? But, not just customer obsessed. How about stakeholder obsessed?

If an organization derives its reputation from the way it is perceived by its various stakeholders, then surely stakeholder obsession should be the order of the day. That obsession should include focus and management of the interface, relationships, engagement and communication between the organization and its stakeholders.

I teach a particular program that can be very helpful in this regard. The Stakeholder Reputation program is a two day training seminar that explores the impact of stakeholder management, relationship building, communication and engagement on the reputation of the institution.

You may wish to consider this program as an intervention for managers so as to raise their level of stakeholder management expertise and awareness. As psychologists teaches, awareness precedes behavior change.

Awareness precedes Obsession.

PR versus Advertising – a Humorous Approach

Questions are always being raised about which of these two approaches are the most important.

In 1902 Ambrose Bierce wrote in his excellent book – The Devil’s Dictionary that the Art of Business is to extract money from another man’s pocket to yours without resorting to violence.

Thus what’s fair in love and war goes. IMHO this means using every available technique to persuade the customer to part with his money. Advertising & PR being just two techniques. In Retail they use shop layout, merchandising, music and even smell to do that. Maslow also said that definitions create lenses through which we look at problems.

I am much more for holistic approaches to problems, or to Convergence of techniques, tools & methods.

Here is a humorous approach to defining the difference:

1. Not advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark, you know you are doing it, she doesn’t
2. Last week a business downtown advertised for a night watchman; and the following night they were robbed.
3. You’re at a party.If a member of the opposite sex tells you he/she is a great lover, that’s advertising.If a member of the opposite sex asks you about your bedroom “interests” and shows how he/she fits the profile, that’s marketing.If a member of the opposite sex walks up to you and says “I hear you’re fantastic in bed” — that’s PR.
4. How many PRO’s does it take to screw in a light bulb? One to realize this is an important event.One to create a PR program to let the public know about it. One to write the news release. One to distribute it to the media. One to schedule a news conference. One to write the speech. One to twitter about it. One to blog about it…..and Google to move it along!

And finally,

Size does count: As the cock said to the hens when he held up an ostrich egg: I am not disparaging,

neither am I criticising; I am merely bringing to your attention what is being done elsewhere.

What do I cover in Vulnerability Assessments?

Recently I launched my new combined program called the Reputation Protection & Crisis Response Master Class. As part of the identification and mitigation of risks, I spend some time especially on the identification of new risks versus weaknesses in systems. 

Simple example – Not updating your anti-virus program on your laptop leaves your system open to weakness, new risks being the latest viruses, malware and spyware. Thus traditional defence arsenal al anti-virus programs are not sufficient.

Also when I go through vulnerabilities , I discuss the following items:

Let me use an example. The Thai Government fired their Director of Emergency Operations 2 years prior to the Tsunami because he predicted because of research that there was one on the way. They and other experts said that it was only necessary to go back 50 years in history, but he believed that it takes millions of years for the earth crust to move, so he went back 200 years ago and discovered that a 109 years ago there was an earthquake 20 km NW from the epicentre that caused the Tsunami.

When we do research , we need to use internal information – knowledge management and intellectual capital, external sources including literature and action research.

In Brief: Do’s and Don’ts in Dealing with the Media

I just read this article: In Brief: Do’s and Don’ts in Dealing with the Media

It shares a number of vital pointers that will be of value to any spokesperson and Reputation Manager. It contains the protocols necessary to run a press office and has some ideas on structure and flow.

The first one particularly caught my eye. “Do tell the truth – ALWAYS”. The article is taken from the U.S. Department of State publication, A Responsible Press Office.

Read it. Copy it to your hard drive – save a tree and read it often until the rules for engagement becomes part and parcel of your actions.

Are you ready to rethink your efforts?

Here are the details of my next events:

17 – 18 June: Stakeholder Reputation : http://www.bizcommunity.com/Event/196/11/12108/pi-510.html

26 June: Recession-proof your Consulting Practice: http://www.bizcommunity.com/Event/196/11/11730/pi-510.html

One day a master was walking across the parade ground when he overheard two people arguing whether the wind was moving or pulling the flag. He walked up to them and said:”It does not matter what the wind is doing, the POINT is you are thinking!”

Are you ready to rethink your efforts? Both these workshops will MAKE YOU THINK!

e-mail deonbin@icon.co.za for more information