The Secret to Working with Lawyers

I’m not really a lawyer hater.

In a recent post about secrets communicators will never tell you, I said that we’ll do anything to avoid getting the Legal department to review our work. This is true probably 99% of the time. When our work gets into the hands of corporate lawyers, it usually returns a mere shell of its previous form.

There is, however, that 1%. And I must admit that I have had the great fortune of being in that 1%.

When I edited the monthly employee publication at Capital One, I had a wonderful working relationship with the company’s general counsel. He rarely changed anything, but he raised excellent questions and red-flagged statements that were unclear or might lead to trouble. (This was more than 10 years ago when the company was just starting up; I can’t attest to how these things work at the company now that it has grown.)

I’ve also had a good experience with one of my clients that owns a number of consumer products companies. This corporation operates in an environment where lawyers must be extremely cautious. Yet, our team — which primarily writes content for the company’s intranet and some executive speeches — has developed a good working relationship with legal counsel over the years.

What is the common denominator in these experiences? What’s the secret to working with lawyers?

It’s really very simple and it’s right before our noses: communication.

I’ve especially found this to be the case with my client. At first, our team and the Legal department had a fairly typical communicator-lawyer relationship. Then, we invited our function’s lawyer to our weekly meeting so that we could understand the kinds of things that cause Legal’s hearts to skip beats. We learned a lot about the laws and regulations governing the industry and about corporate separateness for an entity that owns several companies. We also enlightened the lawyer on how communicators work and how important it is for us to tell a compelling, interesting story in order to get messages across to audiences. We agreed on which issues were non-negotiable and which ones could slide, which ones would expose the corporation to risk and which ones were benign.

From that point, our relationship with the Legal department steadily improved. Now we view the lawyers much more as business partners and less as threats to our ability to do our jobs. This is not to say we don’t still have our disagreements (and the lawyers usually win). But things are much better now.

We communicators  love to complain about lawyers and how they surgically remove all creativity from our work. But how many of us, in the words of Stephen Covey, seek first to understand and then to be understood? My advice is to bite the bullet, bite your lip if you have to, and sit down with your company’s lawyers. It might just be the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

OK, beautiful might be pushing it. They’re still lawyers, after all.

The Nation’s CEO Has a Ghost-Tweeter

Here’s something that disturbs me, but really should come as no surprise. In remarks to a question in a town hall meeting with Chinese youth, President Obama admitted that he never has used Twitter. He has ghost-tweeters on staff who tweet under his name.

I’ve said before that I believe ghost-tweeting for the CEO is wrong. It’s deceptive because Twitter is a social medium, more personal than a speech or even an executive memo. When you see someone’s name assigned to a tweet, you expect that person is actually doing the tweeting. Twitter is like an online conversation. You wouldn’t let someone sit in for the CEO on a webcast or conference call.

Speechwriting is different. It’s an accepted norm. We all know and understand that President Obama or corporate CEOs don’t usually sit down and write their own speeches. We expect speechwriters spend time with the person who will deliver the speech and then go carefully craft the message. Word choice and cadence are important, so it makes sense to have a speechwriter pay attention to those things.

But when I follow President Obama on Twitter, I should be able to reasonably expect that he is firing off those one-, two- or 15-word messages. I’m bothered by the fact that he’s not on his BlackBerry sending those tweets himself. It seems like a disturbing new standard has been set.

Does anybody else find this news disappointing?

9 (And More) Secrets Communicators Will Never Tell You

A friend and professional colleague e-mailed me this week with what she called a “blog-worthy” idea. While in the dentist’s chair, she asked the hygienist to share her biggest pet peeve. The hygienist said it’s when people text while getting their teeth cleaned.

Now, that bit of information doesn’t exactly fit the parameters of my blog. (It does, however, fit my friend Steve Crescenzo’s outrageous blog, Corporate Hallucinations; he wrote a funny — and R-rated — entry on a very similar subject recently. Reader’s Digest also has a fun recurring feature along these lines. For example, on their website they have “13 Things Your Mall Santa Won’t Tell You.”)

This all got me thinking about communicators. What “secrets” would we never tell our clients about the work we do or about their own communication practices?

Here’s a start. Help me build a longer list in the comments section.

1. We don’t look forward to being asked to write a column, a letter or a speech for you in senior management because we know our words will never be used anyway. It’s amazing that you even ask for communicators’ help with writing since you change most of it. Maybe you ask us just so you can tear our work apart. Maybe it makes you feel virile or something.

2. If you really wanted that column, letter or speech to sound great, you would spend a few minutes letting us interview you. This is probably the number one thing that would improve how your communications come across, but you and your peers rarely take advantage of it.

3. We will do anything we can to avoid getting Legal review of our work. Sometimes it seems the lawyer’s purpose in life is to make communications incomprehensible. If there is a way around Legal review, we will find it. If there is not, we will resign ourselves to the fact that our work will be unrecognizable and then we will find a way to keep our name from being associated with it.

4. You know how all the engineers / accountants / bureaucrats / lawyers / MBAs, etc., in our company look down their noses at us? We do the same to them. You see, we went to school, too — in most cases, to be a communicator. It’s as specialized a field as any of the others in our company and we know that not just anybody can do it well.

5. Sometimes when you make changes to our work, we change it back. If it was a significant change, we only change it back when we know we’re right and we’re willing to get in trouble for it. If it’s a minor change, such as placement of a comma, we do it just for the secret satisfaction.

6. When you buy communication consulting services from one of those gigantic HR consulting firms, you’re usually just throwing away your money. Those of us on staff can do what they do better and more efficiently. And we usually have more experience than the junior account executive they’ll assign to the job. If you must hire a consultant — for an outside perspective or for niche expertise — you’ll get a better value with an independent practitioner that we know.

7. We often laugh at your mission statements and value propositions. It’s not because we don’t think a mission or a value proposition is important. It’s because they are so poorly written that nobody knows what they mean.

8. We resent being called “spin doctors” or “wordsmiths.” These are derogatory terms in our business. Besides, they don’t begin to describe what we do.

9. We wish you executives would stop trying so hard and just be yourselves — unless your real self is the arrogant, stiff, unfeeling blowhard you portray in your written and face-to-face communications. But somehow we suspect that’s not the real you. And if you asked us, we could probably help the real you come through.

OK, readers. This is not an exhaustive list. Now it’s your turn. Add your “Secrets Communicators Will Never Tell You.”

Is a Culture Change Needed, Or Just a Realignment?

I’m working with a client to develop a communication plan that supports a renewed emphasis on safety as part of the company’s culture. Safety is important to this company, as it is for many, and always has been. However, some events in the company and its industry in recent years highlighted the need to reinforce certain principles around safety and its place in the company’s culture.

As I read some background material for this project, I came across a definition of company culture that I don’t recall ever hearing before:

Culture is for the group what character and personality are for the individual.

I like that metaphor. I, like many communicators, have sometimes struggled to articulate what company culture is and why it’s so important to organizations and the communication that takes place within them.

I know that character and personality are important aspects of who I am. My personality is the essence of who I am and it’s how people see me. My character is the way I live out who I am. Although some people might try, we can’t really fake personality and character. They reflect who I really am. And if my actions and words don’t match up relative to my personality and character, my integrity is called into question and people have a hard time trusting me.

The same is true for organizations. A company’s culture is what that company really is. If the words and actions of people in the company don’t reflect the company’s culture, then the company’s integrity is called into question and people have a hard time trusting it.

So here is a company in which words and actions regarding safety have not always matched up to the company’s safety-conscious culture. That’s a problem. Senior management is ready to lead the company through the steps necessary to bring its words and actions about safety into alignment with its culture. The communication plan we’re developing will help accomplish that.

Some organizations declare that they are setting out to change their culture and they look to the communication function to lead the way. But when people mention “culture change,” I believe they usually mean changing the words and actions to reflect what the company’s culture really is. If a culture truly needs to be changed — and some company cultures do because they are flawed — then that is an entirely different issue.

Do your organization’s words and actions reflect the real culture of your company? How can communication help ensure that they do?

The Necessary Ingredient for Effective Communication

Several things in my personal life lately have caused me to arrive at a conclusion about what makes communication work well. Hang on. This is going to get deep.

This is not a revelation in the sense that no one has ever realized it before. It’s more of a revelation in the sense that suddenly something clicked in my own mind. Here it is:

Communication works to its fullest potential only when it happens against the backdrop of trust.

Let me share a couple of personal stories that illustrate why this is so.

I’ve been trying to teach my 13-year-old son the nature of trust lately. He is a good kid, but like many kids his age and younger, he occasionally stretches the truth with me. Or he tells me his version of the truth. Kids have a way of convincing themselves that something really happened a certain way and then it becomes truth to them.

Truthfulness is something he will learn with time and experience. As part of his learning, I’ve tried to help him understand that trust takes a long time to create but only an instant to tear down. One lie — or one instance of bending the truth — is all it takes. Then we have to start over at square one.

When a lack of complete trust exists, it’s difficult for my son to communicate to me about things that are troubling him. Is his throat painfully sore or just a little scratchy? Is that kid really picking on him for no reason, or did he do something to provoke it? He gets frustrated because he’s trying to communicate something to me and I’m not fully receiving it.

I also thought about trust as it relates to grown-up relationships. I’ve just begun a relationship with a wonderful woman I’ve known for many years — most of my life, in fact. We were friends long before we began dating. We have a shared history and we trust one another.

That trust came into play as we had a conversation recently. The subject was difficult, but we communicated quite well. She expressed something that was on her mind and I was able to receive it with empathy and understanding. I could respond and she could understand my perspective because she trusts me too.

I have been in other relationships with women I didn’t know nearly as well. We’d not had the time to build trust in one another. So, when those difficult conversations came up — as they inevitably do in any relationship — communication couldn’t take place to its fullest potential.

This is why communication is so difficult in the workplace. Employees don’t trust management. One co-worker doesn’t trust the other. A customer doesn’t trust the company they’re dealing with. If trust ever was created, things happened to tear it down — lack of transparency, broken promises, office politics.

Communication can’t take place in that kind of environment. Executives and PR professionals can say all they want, but audiences aren’t in a place where they can listen with empathy and understanding.

We communication professionals like to treat communication as a sterile, unemotional process. At its core, though, communication is wrapped up in human issues like trust. There’s just no escaping it.

Behold, the Power of the Internet

Something simple yet interesting happened last week that proves, once again, the power of the Internet as a communication/networking/marketing tool.

I noticed a spike in the number of visitors to this blog last week. A big spike. This caught my eye because I had not posted a new entry in the 24 hours prior to the spike.

Then I noticed that most of the visitors were coming to this blog from “Writing Boots,” the wonderfully written blog of my friend David Murray. So I e-mailed David to find out what gives.

Turns out that marketing guru Seth Godin had linked from his blog to David’s. As a result, instead of the usual hundreds of visitors to “Writing Boots,” David saw his numbers swell to 10,000 last Friday.

And since David is kind enough to include my blog on his blogroll, I enjoyed an increase in visitors as well.

It’s a crazy, mixed up, highly networked world we live in.

Is Proving Our Worth Paying Off?

The Great Recession has ravaged many organizations and many lives. Everybody knows people who have lost their jobs in the last year. Some reports say the job market is likely to be difficult for some time.

But something seems different about this recession. As I look around, I don’t see the wholesale slashing and burning of communication jobs that has occurred in previous downturns. At least, communication jobs don’t seem to be faring any worse than those of other professions.

One indicator that the suffering might not be as bad this time around is the fact that my friend Ned Lundquist has had no problem filling his weekly “Job of the Week” newsletter with openings in a variety of communication fields.

Please don’t misunderstand: I know many out-of-work communicators. I know a great number of companies, agencies and nonprofits have eliminated jobs in corporate communications, public relations and marketing — just as they have eliminated jobs in sales, finance, human resources, manufacturing and most other sectors.

I don’t want to downplay or minimize the pain many of my communication colleagues are experiencing. It is real.

However, I recall previous economic downturns in which it seemed some organizations cut their communication departments to the bare bones. For example, I remember when George Allen was governor of my home state of Virginia, he ruthlessly eliminated many public affairs positions. Clearly, communication was not one of his priorities.

I just wonder if we haven’t turned a significant corner in the life of our profession. Perhaps all the work in trying to prove our worth in the last 10 to 15 years is beginning to pay off. Maybe all the effort to align our work to the bottom line has been worth it.

Could it be that business leaders now realize they really can’t live without the value communication professionals add to their organizations? What’s your take?

Nuts on the Flying Squirrels

I love Richmond, Va. Really I do. Last weekend’s Richmond Folk Festival just reinforced my love for the city that much more.

But sometimes this city’s hang-ups just drive me nuts.

I use the word nuts on purpose. You see, a Class AA minor league baseball team recently moved to Richmond (don’t get me started on how the city lost the AAA Richmond Braves to Gwinnett, Ga.) and the new team’s name is the Flying Squirrels.

Yes, the Flying Squirrels. That was the winner among the other finalists: Rhinos, Flatheads, Hambones, Rock Hoppers and Hush Puppies. That was the best the new ownership team could do after having a contest in which fans could submit names. Oh, and CNBC submitted the name Hush Puppies. I guess they felt that would be an improvement on the others.

Flying Squirrels is a stupid enough name, but here’s what really fluffs my tail. Team owners withdrew Hambones (a reference to Virginia hams) after complaints that the name is offensive to African-Americans. As the local newspaper described it, Hambones is a “foot-stomping, thigh-slapping dance brought here by enslaved West Africans and later performed at minstrel shows.” I’m sure that’s the first thing that pops into the average white person’s mind when Hambones is mentioned. Just another way to keep black folks down.

And as if that was not enough, a few days later came complaints that Flatheads is offensive to Native Americans. The intent was to honor a type of fish found in Richmond’s James River, but it seems there is a Native American reservation in Montana called Flat Head. Some Richmond area Native Americans could foresee a mascot dressed in ceremonial regalia rather than a mascot dressed as a fish.

This is one of Richmond’s worst traits. It can’t get past the ultra-sensitive feelings worn on too many sleeves. Everything has racial undertones. Everything is suspected to be a slap against the heritage of one group or another. Distrust reigns. And we get a baseball team named the Flying Squirrels.

Well, I’m thinking of protesting the selection of Flying Squirrels as the team’s name. It’s offensive to me because I hate squirrels. Squirrels are simply rats with good PR. Besides, I believe my ancestors hunted squirrels. To desecrate the name of game hunted by my ancestors is to disgrace my heritage.

Yeah. Come to think of it, maybe this city deserves a minor league team named the Flying Squirrels.

The Only Time Jargon Works

A few weeks ago I spoke to a group of job-seeking professionals about how to market themselves. One bit of advice I gave them is to avoid jargon in their written and spoken communications.

Afterward, one of the participants challenged me on that point. “I’m a tax accountant,” he said. “If I don’t use tax lingo with my peers, they won’t know what I’m talking about.”

That, my friends, is the only time it is appropriate to use jargon: when its absence would reduce clarity and understanding among your audience.

As I said to the tax accountant, my work is all about helping people and organizations communicate clearly. One of the greatest barriers to clear communication is the use of jargon. Ninety-nine percent of the time, jargon gets in the way of effective communication. And there is a more insidious side to jargon, too. Often, people use it in order to purposely obfuscate.

Once while preparing a presentation to a group of marketers about writing clear copy, I used this example from a website. The name has been changed to protect the guilty:

XYZ is a unique, patented software solution that addresses the problem of organizational disconnectedness. By automatically understanding enterprise activity in real time, XYZ enables employees throughout the organization to connect with one another on key topics and speeds the organization’s ability to solve problems and address issues.

That’s a lot of words to say this company’s software helps people talk about the stuff they need to talk about. There’s really not a lot of “there” there, so the copywriter used big words to cover that fact up. The message is not clear and not easily understood — but it sure sounds impressive.

Instead of relying on jargon to get your point across, think about these things before you write:

• How would you say it to a neighbor at a backyard barbecue?
• Does it really pass the “smell” test? Could you speak those words without cracking up?
• What are you trying to hide by using big words and long sentences? An unclear message? A weak argument? Lack of confidence in what you’re saying?
• Would people really get the point without you having to explain it to them?
• Are you just trying to impress someone by using jargon? And if so, why?

If you eliminate jargon, people will easily understand what you’re trying to say and they’ll have a lot more respect for you (or your organization) for saying it clearly.

But, hey, if you work with a bunch of tax accountants and they know what the jargon means, go for it.

Richmond Folk Festival: Communication’s Essence

My favorite cultural/entertainment event of the year comes to Richmond, Va., this weekend. It’s the Richmond Folk Festival, now in its second year although the predecessor National Folk Festival ran here for three years.

I’m afraid when people hear the term “folk festival,” a lot of misconceptions pop into their minds. The Richmond Folk Festival is not a concert of Arlo Guthrie songs. It is not a latter-day version of Woodstock. It is not seminars about basket weaving. While each of these might have some relevance to folk arts, that’s not what the Richmond Folk Festival is all about.

To me, the Richmond Folk Festival is a celebration of the essence of communication.

What makes something a folk art is the fact that it has been shared within a culture, from one generation to the next, from one artist or performer or craftsperson to the next. With its transfer comes history, heritage, instructions for life, stories about ancestors, a sense of place and time and self.

So the nearly 200,000 people that will fill Richmond’s riverfront this weekend will witness musical and dance performances, see craft skills, hear stories, view art and sample foods that span the generations of peoples from all over the world. For example:

• Khogzhumchu, who will perform xöömei, or throat-singing, one of the oldest vocal traditions in the world. It is unlike anything in western vocal music and it was largely unknown outside of the tiny Russian republic of Tuva until the 1990s. Khogzhumchu has never before performed in the United States.
• La Gran Banda, a Colombian papayera band. The style combines the European municipal brass band tradition with the percussion instruments and African dance rhythms typical of the Colombian coastal region.
• Lloyd Arneach, a Cherokee storyteller who learned the stories told by two of his uncles when he was growing up. Arneach’s ancestors hid in the remote hollows of the Great Smoky Mountains to avoid being forced to march on the “Trail of Tears” from the southeastern United States to Oklahoma. Much of the history and knowledge of Cherokee life was passed through storytelling.
• Bluegrass innovator Jerry Douglas, who is perhaps best known for collaborating with T-Bone Burnett to create the soundtrack for the movie, O Brother Where Art Thou? Five years ago, he was awarded the nation’s highest honor for traditional artists, the National Heritage Fellowship, by the National Endowment for the Arts.

And there is so much more. Korean dance. East African rumba. Piedmont blues. Cowboy poetry. Western music. Bluegrass gospel. Irish fiddle music. Old Regular Baptist singing. Klezmer. Not to mention folk arts like violin making, handmade household items, vintage fishing lures and decoys, handmade shawls and more. You will feel as if you’ve taken a whirlwind weekend trip around the world and experienced the best of dozens of cultures.

And all of these arts have survived because people kept them alive, passing the techniques and skills and stories from person to person — communicating in the most fundamental form.

If you are within driving distance of Richmond, Va., come to the Richmond Folk Festival on Friday night, Saturday or Sunday. It is well worth the trip.