Chapter 1 in a Series: The Problem
New technology, particularly Internet technology, has impacted every single industry vertical in existence. Different industries have shown different rates of acceptance and adoption of the tools that are presented to them by various vendors. In a great majority of cases, the person or persons within an organization that will actually review new technology is within the IT department…a technical person or engineer by nature. Historically, it has been incredibly difficult for a new technology offering to actually get shown to the person that it will most impact on a day to day basis. This is true with online communications technology.
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Corporate Communications professionals are in the midst of a ‘crisis of respect.’ They are overworked and underappreciated. They are the first to get blamed. They are not respected by the journalist audience that they serve and they are not respected by their colleagues in the IT or web group within their own organizations. It is in this disconnected and often hostile environment that a communications professional must assess new tools that can help them do their jobs better and more efficiently and present the case to purchase them.
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Over the past few years, I have been on all sides of this scenario. As a business communicator I have been presented with good technology badly shown. I have developed technology of my own to solve problems that I saw no off-the-shelf solution for. And I’ve moderated hundreds of implementations of online newsrooms for Fortune 1000 clients where in many cases the IT person and the communications person within the same company had never been introduced.
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It is from this position that I’d like to offer up anecdotal evidence, case studies and factual data that will help communications professional win the respect of their peers and make concrete technology decisions that will help them moving forward. Included in this will be a simple checklist of questions that need to be answered and guidance on how to ask the right questions. Examples include:
- Is it easy to use?
- Is it affordable?
- Does it support my existing brand?
- Does it support my existing workflow?
- Does it create real bottom-line ROI?
- Is it proven in the marketplace?
- Can I make a decision about this in one hour or less?
An analogy can illustrate the disconnect between communications and IT. A professional race car driver is uncomfortable in the seat of his race car. His hands tend to sweat while in the midst of a race. Scenario 1: Driver pulls together his entire pit crew, including the car’s designers, the team management, race officials and his family. He tells them that he needs to improve his performance on the track and needs buy-in from everyone. Take away items from the meeting include the designer looking at new venting, management scheduling regular massage therapy for the driver, the family stressing about their financial future, and the race officials looking at ways to cool the asphalt better.
Scenario 2: Driver buys a new pair of gloves.
In this post, I haven’t offered up any answers…Chapter 1 merely illuminates the problem. I intend to offer some solutions in upcoming posts. Your comments are welcome.
5 comments
2/15/2006 at 5:33 am
David Phillips
I suspect that the real reason it is so hard is that the people who are in charge of agencies and in-house departments are white, male, baby-boomer, technophobic, near innumerate, prepared to accept any old numbers as long as it can be called ‘research’ and will fool a hack and have a fine palette for claret.
… and, of course, you can’t get kid gloves anymore.
2/15/2006 at 9:27 pm
DeeRambeau
Interesting comment David. I’d agree that there is a crisis of leadership at the top. That’s for another chapter. I’m referring more to the foot soldiers…the supervisor, manager and director-level PR professional that knows exactly what they need to do…but have a really difficult time getting it done because of process or because of technophobic leadership or because of gate-keeper IT folks.
Crisis of Respect at that level. Crisis of Leadership at the top. Crises all around.
2/16/2006 at 4:38 pm
Ashley Imsand
It does seem like a mystery. I’ve heard about it from teachers before, and am starting to recognize it myself. There is just too much misplaced marketing out there. And it’s these same bureaucratic inefficiencies that caused the ineffective commercials that can keep people from taking advantage of this new technology that you’re talking about. It seems ironic from my point of view that these communications professionals are being kept from doing the best at their jobs because of a lack of communication between departments at these large companies or agencies.
My teacher always told us, it’s not that the presidents or the managers of these companies are stupid, people just get caught up in the bureaucracy and formal process that they lose sight on just answering the simple questions, like is this affordable? or is this going to help my business and get the job done?
It seems like all of the small budget companies are small enough to have a good system of communication to get things done, but are they really attracting the up-and-coming innovative practitioners and communications strategists that will move them forward. And are all of these big companies who are attracting these outstanding professionals accommodating the need for communication so that the job gets done right?
Let me know if I am really getting the problem here or if I have gone off track somehow.
2/19/2006 at 10:24 pm
Tiffany
Obviously scenario two of your analogy would be the easier of the two options, and thus would most likely be the option most people would take. In the same way I think professionals often take the easy way out. These professionals are busy with every day work and while the technology they have may not be the best, the fastest or the most efficient, they have it and they know how to use it. If they were to attempt to bring in new technology they would have to plan their case for why this new program(s) is necessary and prove to upper management that the benefits would outweigh the negatives. Then once the new technology was implemented it would take time playing on it to learn it. This is a lot of work and effort on top of the work that already has to be done.
I agree with the question checklist you have come up with. The questions are simple, practical, and get right to the point. I would be willing to guess that communications professionals often overlook these simple questions when determining whether or not the new technology is necessary.
Agreeing with David’s comment, I think it would be beneficial for companies to hire younger people in the communications and PR departments. Younger people tend to be more willing to learn and try new technology, which will propel the company forward. Just because something is getting the job done, doesn’t mean you should sit comfortably and not explore new technology.
3/6/2006 at 12:11 am
Lindsey
I agree with Tiffany that it would just be easier to buy new gloves. Of course, if it were NASCAR they would have to hire a whole new crew to figure out the problem — God forbid anything be easy in any sport.
So I guess sports really are a business! Everyone likes to do things the hard way. It is amazing what people will do to try to solve a problem and SEEM smart all in one swoop. It would be amazing if anyone just took the problem head on, possibly resulting in a simpler solution.
This complicated process has made its way into communications, where it probably originated. As if people didn’t have a hard enough time communicating with one another, as it is, they had to go and make it simpler through e-mail, instant messaging and blogs! And people still don’t know how to communicate. And I don’t think talking is a problem, communicating effectively is what seems to be so hard.