The Communitelligence RETHINKING COMMUNICATIONS Senior Management Summit September 17-18, 2008 in New York City brought together thought leaders in corporate communications, PR, & marketing to share and brainstorm new strategies to meet New Media challenges and opportunities.
The summit, hosted at Pfizer headquarters inNew York City included a refreshing mix of stimulating and challenging keynotes, panels and roundtable brainstorming.
Here are some of the chords that struck me (my comments in blue below):
THE PR WARS: WHY YOU ARE LOSING, by William J. Holstein
Sunday business columnist, New York Times, and author, Manage the Media (Don’t Let the Media Manage You)
William Holstein led off the day. He is an award-winning editor, author and journalist on subjects affecting CEOs and boards of directors. It was a striking coincidence that he spoke about the public pounding that companies receive, often over the issue of CEO compensation, the same week that the U.S. financial companies and Wall Street were in turmoil.
“Where’s the voice of reason in the current financial debacle?” Holstein asked the audience, and no one had an answer. He made a strong case that CEOs need to be screened (and trained) so they are good communicators. “CEOs need to spend time in communications dept. in their career.”
Next a panel of senior communications professionals presented on the topic: SHEDDING OLD SKIN: HOW OUR PROFESSION NEEDS TO CHANGE YESTERDAY. (download slides) The panelists were:
- Sharon Wamble King, VP, Corporate Communication at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida
“Let’s start saying we’re the connection people, not the communication people. We must think of ourselves as strategic connectors driving the business.
“My department goes through a business acumen class, 6 days. We work on how to build skills on driving business success using connection. It is a different set of tactics when performance is the goal.
“We must be the courage of our business leaders. The amount of resistance we as a profession have to change is astounding.”
- Kit Stinson, Vice President, Internal Communications, Avaya
Do not let yourself get too specialized. Establish your dept as a true center of excellence, train & tutor.
- Krista Ruhe, Vice President, Edelman Change and Employee Engagement, New York
Adopt a consultative mindset within your organization. We must move from reactive to proactive.
WHY TRADITIONAL LEADERSHIP COMMUNICATION IS BROKEN (AND HOW TO FIX IT), by Stephen Denning, author, The Secret Language of Leadership
Stephen Denning, luncheon keynote, proved to be an entertaining and very informative business storyteller, with a masterful command of PowerPoint slides. He made a compelling case that facts do not win the day for business these days, stories do.
The afternoon panel focused on: WHAT’S NEXT? PREDICTIONS, CHALLENGES & TO-Dos. Panelists included:
- · Andrew L. Shapiro, Founder and CEO, GreenOrder, and author, The Control Revolution: How the Internet is Putting Individuals in Charge and Changing the World We Know
Communication people are becoming the driving forces behind the sustainability and green movements.
- · Michael Rudnick, Global Practice Leader, Intranets & Portals, Watson Wyatt Worldwide
Online communications demands transparency. Leaks become floods.
- · Michael Cherenson APR, Executive Vice President, Success Communications Group and Chair-elect, Public Relations Society of America (PRSA)
We have to be the long-term thinkers for our organizations.
After the morning and afternoon panels, attendees chose among three “research roundtables” to discuss trends and issues facing professional communicators today. Introducing the research roundtables was Dr. Michael B. Goodman, Professor and Director, CCI Corporate Communication International; and Director, MA in Corporate Communication, Baruch College, The City University of New York. The six roundtables were:
1: Transparency and “The Authentic Enterprise” (download discussion summary)
2: New Skills & Professionalism
3: Measurement, ROI and Stating Our Case
4: Negative “blog swarms” and Crisis Planning
5: New Media Marketing and PR Tools
6: Organizational Trust
THE EXPLODING MEDIA UNIVERSE, Norman Clements, Senior Vice President, Global Analysis Services, Cision, Inc.
New listening and measurement tools are coming that will greatly improve communicator’s ability to speak the language of business.
Sharon Wamble-King told the final and lingering story of the day after the last roundtable reported on its discussion. Sharon went through the story of the lemonade stand owner who kept getting folks offering their advice on how to expand his business. The corporate communicator said she could give him a strategic plan, which he rejected. The HR professional said he could give him an employee engagement plan, which he rejected. But the person who came by to offer advice on making sure he didn’t run out of sugar and ice each day was listened to. Why (and the lesson for communicators)?
“It’s all about the lemonade.”
