Nice Ladies Can Be Incompetent Communicators

City Sticker Design Decision Gone Wrong

Because this is a blog dedicated to good communication and not good sense, let’s ignore the merits of Chicago City Clerk Susan Mendoza’s decision to dump the city sticker winner design due to the alleged similarity to gang symbols being present in the design. Let’s go straight to the manner in which she communicated the controversial decision to the public - which by anyone’s measure was a disaster. I do not know Ms. Mendoza and I will take Herbert Pulgar’s word for it that she is a “nice lady”. Yet, nice ladies can be incompetent communicators. Here is how it should have gone down.

1. Mendoza should have started with a heartfelt public apology to Herbie, his friends and family and especially his teacher who guided him in this competition.
   
   
2. She then should have been told of the difficulty in making the decision and named ALL the people she consulted and their credentials for assisting her. Using words like regret, sad, upsetting, empathy, etc. would have made her appear less icky.
   
   
3. Next she should have stated that the young Mr. Pulgar was believed to be blameless in the accidental association to gang symbols and that he would not be punished by taking away his $1,000 prize.
   
   
4. Ms. Mendoza should have been very quiet as to what the City was to do about a new sticker design. Let the dust settle on ousting Herbie before crowning a new king (or queen as it were).

I am sure I have more to say but the more I write the less rational become over poor Herbert. Did you see him? Gang promoter? Jeeeez!

Does A Fresh Coat of Paint Really Matter? What is the Motive Behind the Message?

On October 12th, United Airlines President & CEO, Jeff Smisek, will present to the Executives Club of Chicago. Regretfully, I will be unable to attend.

I am baffled by his generally well crafted and delivered video presentation currently playing on United/Continental flights. Will someone please ask him, in a polite and respectful manner, what caused/prompted Mr. Smisek to believe that his message to his passengers (clients) should tout the “painting of airplanes” as progress in the coupling of the two airlines?

Other than the time I boarded a United Airline flight to Des Moines that looked like a Mr. Potato Head with its grey body attached to a red, blue and white nose, there has never been much interest in the paint job. Branding through paint may have been high on the transition team’s list of priorities, or maybe it was just any easy and visually obvious step toward integration. But a major step toward integration? Not hardly, from a passengers perspective.

Mind you, I am not complaining about how the process of combining the two giant birds is moving along. The merger and subsequent rolling-into-one would be a daunting task for even the heartiest CEO. Nonetheless, as a communication strategy, it is baffling to me why painting the planes was front and center in the on-flight CEO video now seen by passengers over the past several months. At first, I thought maybe that is the only thing he has to talk about? Now, however, there is an updated version of Mr. Smisek’s promotional video and he continues to discuss the paint job. As a continuous assimilator of human behavior, in particular - the thought process that goes into formal, practiced, vetted communication - I am anxious to know the motive behind the message.

Anyone know the answer?

Please, would someone ask the question on October 12?

Until then, I remain perplexed.

Laugh at Yourself – It Makes You More Likeable

It seems everyone (here and here to show you just a few) is talking about the upcoming issue of Newsweek featuring Presidential contender Michele Bachmann on the cover. An “unflattering” photo is not a method for discriminating against gender. That it is Bachmann’s photo is not stereotyping a characteristic of the female gender. In fact, declaring that a woman candidate must look pretty on the cover of a magazine could be considered the gender biased position. Since I do not pay much attention to Ms. Bachmann and could not pick her out of a crowd, it was not readily apparent that this cover shot did not reflect a possible storyline. “I see the White House” or “Take me Jesus” come to mind.

At my house if an unflattering picture of you shows up, it is fodder for a little self-deprecating humor, which we know is a top-notch communication tool that attracts people and makes an individual more likeable. Instead of whining like a girl, Ms. Bachmann should pull out all her bad photos and do a “bad photo scrapbook.” And if she does not have enough of her own, I know plenty of women who are not afraid of their “bad side” who would be willing to share.

Eavesdropping – People are Listening

Guest post: Bill Grimes

Frequently we find ourselves in situations such as sitting on a train, plane or standing in line where stranger’s cell phone conversations or what should be a personal chat between two friends becomes more of a public broadcasting event.

It’s annoying because it’s not your conversation. You’re forced to listen to someone else, like listening to someone else’s music – it just doesn’t do it for you. But don’t you find yourself just a little curious? It can be like an Oprah Show materializing before your ears. There’s melodrama and angst to the point of being comical.

For example, here’s part of one side of a cell phone conversation heard on the train: “Alright, if that's what you want to do to each other. I don't know why you want to do that to each other.”

Another one-sided cell phone call: “Pepto-Bismol. PEP...TOE…BIZ…MAL! I'm telling you the truth.”

A man leaning toward another man across the aisle on the subway: “Excuse me. Excuse me. I'm sorry about your respiratory challenges. Do you mind covering your mouth when you cough?”

And then there is the summer vacation line that you cannot get out of. Initially, it was bothersome for people stuck in line for hours waiting for the refurbished Statute of Liberty to re-open in New York Harbor in 1986 to also have to listen to Randy. Randy is a bored 10-ish kid, in line with his sister and mother. Visiting Mother Liberty clearly was not Randy’s idea and he was determined to let everyone around him know. He started in with, “We have to stand in this line for how many hours?” (It turned out to be about four.)
And he continued, “I hate standing in line.”
Mom: “Stop whining.”
Randy: “I hate when my Mom says, ‘Stop whining’.”
Mom: “It’s the Statute of Liberty.”
Randy: “I hate the Statue of Liberty.”
Mom: “You’ll never forget this day.”
Randy: “I hate that I’ll never forget this day.”

About a minute of silence is broken by a concessionaire, “Hot dogs, snow cones, souvenirs!”
Randy: “I hate when someone yells ‘hot dogs, snow cones, souvenirs’.”
Mom, a little perturbed: “Randy, you’re getting on people’s nerves.”
Randy, more like a mantra than a whine: “I hate getting on people’s nerves.”
Mom tries to suppress a chuckle.

More chuckling is heard. This goes on for hours.

It’s unlikely anyone in line to see the refurbished Statute of Liberty will soon forget that day, especially those within earshot of Randy.

Photo credit via flickr to @darkpatator

The Effect of Visual Imagery on Smokers

Guest Post By Jason Schwartz

The headline on msnbc.com was “These cigarette packs could scare you into quitting.” A new law signed in June by President Obama requires cigarette companies to post large, visual warnings on every pack. The FDA intends to use curt verbiage alongside the new images of corpses, cancer patients, and diseased lungs and teeth as part of their repertoire to scare potential smokers from starting as well as encourage established smokers to think twice.

The new visual warnings are a step in the right direction. Visual learning is a cornerstone of the education system in general. As much as 60% of every classroom is occupied by visual thinkers and as a result, this new initiative aims at what could be considered a majority of the consumer public.

A related study published in the October 2010 issue of the Journal of Consumer Psychology looked at food packaging and its effect on overeaters. Their results showed that people ate more food from packages with many items pictured on it than from packages with few items pictured on it, illustrating the power of visual impulses and the depth to which they drive our consumption.

I give the FDA credit for realizing that the battle lines need to be redrawn in the war on smoking. However, there are many who believe the FDA is implementing this new strategy incorrectly. A recent paper in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology suggests a warning label stressing death and mortality could, in fact, be counterproductive. The researchers found that death-related warnings led to more positive attitudes toward cigarette use in people who saw smoking as cool, sexy, and essential to their self-esteem. Interestingly enough these same people had the opposite reaction to warnings that smoking makes one less attractive.

With this in mind, perhaps the FDA would be better served with images that steered clear of death and instead, employed images of ugliness. Even comedian Lewis Black agreed during his segment on The Daily Show “Back in Black” by saying “if you really want to keep them (children) from lighting up, launch a pro-smoking campaign that links cigarettes with virginity.” As ridiculous as this sounds, it makes the point that the FDA seems to be missing.

While I commend the FDA for realizing they need to be more visual in their attempt to warn consumers against the dangers of smoking, I would suggest they think outside the box when it comes to the substance of these new warnings.

Onward to 2011!!

Hello Readers!! My apologies for the lengthy delay in posts – ZMF ended 2010 with a bang, which translated into more work and less time to blog. But 2011 is upon us and I have big aspirations to post more frequently!

Before we dive into our first blog of 2011, I thought we’d take a quick look back at my favorite and the most viewed posts of 2010 (as we did for 2009)

Five Steps to Become More Likeable

Critiquing the State of the Union Address

The Tiger Trilogy:

• Human Behavior
• What He Said
• How He Said It
  

Why Everyone Needs Communication Coaching

• The John Manning I Think-A-Thon
• Word Choices Matter
• Ineffective Communication of Companies in Crisis
• And finally, my favorite – The Poster Child for Horrific Communication

Good Communication Does Exist

As many of you know, I am also on Twitter. I know many of you don’t have time for another social media website, so I’ve asked a colleague to post regular updates on my blog to share some of my tweets. By highlighting the best tweets of the week, you will be able to read about new research, interesting links, blogs I’ve found interesting without having to dive into Twitter.

As for this blog, we’ve got big things planned in 2011 and I’m aspiring to a post a week this year (with help from colleagues), so I hope you will stay tuned!

The Medium is the Message

Mediated communication expert Marshall McLuhan once said, “The medium is the message.” In saying this, McLuhan asserts that the way in which a message is delivered to its audience has a greater impact on message recipients than the message content itself.

The available mediums through which we communicate and receive information are changing. We are moving from the radio and newspaper to various forms of online social media like Facebook, Twitter, Google, and YouTube. Some people even have the ability to skip over television commercials with the invention of DVR and some can surf the Internet during a flight using airplane Wi-Fi systems.

Changes like these are vastly changing how we communicate, learn, and process information. Instead of leaving a voicemail, we leave a wall post. Instead of watching a live rerun on TV, we watch the recorded premiere. Instead of only connecting to the Internet through a chord, we can connect via satellite almost anywhere. We now live in a world where we have immediate access to more information, from more sources, than ever before.

Do you feel that McLuhan was correct in his assertion that ‘the medium is the message’? How has the emergence of new forms of communication changed the way you interact with others around you? Do you think this change is good or bad?