April 16, 2013

Belieb It, Or Not

By Howie

In this post, we’ll take a look at what went wrong with Justin Bieber’s visit to Anne Frank House and what he could do to make it right.

Justin Bieber was no John Paul II at Yad Vashem; he wasn’t Benedict at Auschwitz either. He wasn’t even Barack Obama at the Western Wall, or for that matter, Lenny Kravitz at Anne Frank House.

But first, let’s cut the pop star some slack. As noted by Yvette Miller, Bieber, while on tour, actually took the time to visit the Anne Frank House. He could have been anywhere else, doing anything else. So credit where due. (see also, here, here & here.)

What Mr. Bieber wrote in the museum’s guest book was:

“Truly inspiring to be able to come here. Anne was a great girl. Hopefully she would have been a belieber.”

Had he just cut out the last sentence, this would have been a 100 percent positive story for him. It’s that last one that gets him into some trouble.

Now, I think he probably meant to say, in an annotated version, the following:
Truly inspiring to be able to come here. Anne was a great girl. Everyone, and anyone can be a Belieber. Music crosses cultural and ethnic boundaries. Fans – the Beliebers – are united by the music. Hopefully she would have been a belieber.

No, it’s not perfect. But it’s a far cry from the critiqued as self-centered piece as written.

So we’ve cut him some slack and explained away his choice of words. Now what? Where does Bieber go from here?

What to do?

Well, he doesn’t really have to go anywhere, and some crisis communications pros would advise that. Lay low. Don’t do it again. Nod, smile, back away slowly.

But there is another route. Bieber can take this and run WITH it. Imagine if he, over time, became a celebrity advocate for Holocaust remembrance and a celebrity voice against hate broadly, or anti-Semitism particularly.

How?

Well, he could start with an op-ed in the kinds of magazines his fans read or on the websites they frequent. I won’t write the whole thing for him, but something like this:

Words fail after coming out of the Anne Frank House and learning about her story. They certainly failed me. But thinking about it more, here’s what the visit meant to me, and some lessons we can all learn…

…On Anne’s bedroom wall she had pictures torn from entertainment magazines of her day. They featured Greta Garbo, Ginger Rogers and others. Her room, hidden behind a secret door, so the Nazis wouldn’t find her and kill her, was a room that looked like that of any other girl her age. Anne wasn’t all that different from you, or from me…

…Would Anne have been a Belieber? Who knows. I know this though. I am now, and always will be, a fan of hers. And in her memory, we must all do more to stop senseless hate. That is the final lesson of Anne Frank. The way Miep Gies and others helped them hide and kept them alive. The stories of Danish Jewry being smuggled to safety under cover of night is another. Good people can fight evil; they can, and they did. They are an inspiration, and a challenge for us going forward.

Because there is still hate in the world. What are we doing about it?

Later, Bieber could talk about this, in interviews, or when he meets with young fans. He cold even take to Capitol Hill, or state legislatures, to testify about hate or bullying.

What shouldn’t Bieber do?

Two things he should avoid:

1. Having people question his motives. He made an error in judgement in what he wrote, but not in what he did or why. He shouldn’t let people demean him for going to the house and taking that tour.
2. He shouldn’t let people force him to take more tours or more meetings. He should feel welcome to do so, but only on his terms and timeline.

That’s my take anyway, for what it’s worth.

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March 21, 2013

M Takes the Stand

By Howie

Continuing the occasional fictional speech review, here’s one I really enjoyed. M, the leader of Britain’s MI6 known only by that initial (at least in the world of James Bond) is in a bind. Played by Dame Judy Dench, she refuses to back down, to go quietly, or anything else. In a world where so few politicians, or even appointees, are willing to take a stand, M takes the stand. She appears before the House of Commons to answer accusations. And her words are not scripted by counsel (neither legal or communications). She is on the offense. So, to it:

What I liked

She Has an Opinion

So many elected officials, or in M’s case, appointed policymakers, avoid the hard and harsh public glare. They make bland statements. They take the easy way over the hard way. M however, elected the way of pain. She stands her ground.

A Challenge To Her Accusers

I recall, years go, once hearing someone ask a homeland security professional how they slept at night knowing what they knew. Their blunt answer was, I don’t sleep. M takes this idea to Westminster. She is a more reserved and polite version of Col. Jessup and his world with walls.

M challenges them. We know the reports she reads, the agents she debriefs, the missions she approves. Or rather, we don’t. But we know of them. And she tells us, and the committee, in no uncertain terms that it is a dangerous world.

Her passion comes through. She may get tossed out by Parliament and she may lose her good name, but she’s going down fighting.

Length

M is also short. She doesn’t offer much in the way of proof. She doesn’t provide classified or even sensitive information. She just tells them: these are the facts, or at least, these are my beliefs.

What I didn’t like

Poetry

I know the poetry is meant to showcase her, soften her rough edges – who knew she had been married at all? – and yes, it was a good dramatically written ending by the screenwriters.  It dovetailed perfectly into the attempt on her life. She says “not to yield” and the doors fly open. But I don’t really think it added much.

If anything, I’d have preferred a history lesson. In World War II, MI6 had the greatest code-breaking success of its time. That’s what we do.

Lack of Stats

I would have liked at least some stats. Something like: “The shadows bite. We’ve stopped x number of attacks.” Or, “Attempted attacks have increased x percent since year y.”

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March 17, 2013

Charitably Speaking: Dan Pallotta at TED

By Howie

Dan Pallotta, the founder of AIDS Ride, recently made a pretty controversial speech at TED.  It is not political speech per se, but as a former nonprofit staffer, and a former politico, it got me to do some real thinking.  I don’t agree with everything Pallotta said, though I do agree with much – even most – of it.  But in any event, it’s a speech we all ought to watch, and read.  Because it raises so many key issues.  OK, then:

What I liked

Opening joke

I give Pallotta credit here, just for saying this out loud.  You don’t have to agree with all of Pallotta’s choices to find the joke funny, but it takes guts to get up in front of a large crowd and be that open.  It wasn’t really needed, and he could have just begun with his stats or his controversial opening premise, but he gets credit here for saying it.  Kudos.

Great research & stats

It’s pretty hard to argue with some of Pallotta’s points when they are backed up with stats like these:

  • Twelve percent poverty in US has been constant for forty years.
  • The enormous salary differential between Stanford MBAs & nonprofit execs.
  •  That his AIDS Ride raised $581 Million.
  • Charitable giving in US is – and has been – at two percent of GDP since the 1970s.

Passion

The passion comes through from the first word and continues until his final “thank you.”  Again, people can argue with him, but they can’t deny he’s really trying to make change for the better.

Humor

This is a pretty controversial take on a particularly sensitive topic, and many of his prescriptions are outside the box of “normal.”  It’s part of what makes it a great speech, but it also makes it harsh.  The humor quotient here helps temper that harshness several levels down.  I particularly liked the zinger about MBAs who refuse to take a $300,000 plus pay cut to work at a nonprofit: “Some people say, “Well, that’s just because those MBA types are greedy.” Not necessarily. They might be smart.”

A clear agenda

Pallotta had the points he wanted to get across: nonprofits are held back, they are staffed and run ineffectively, and our worldview of how to view successful charities and nonprofits is warped.  He tells us this upfront and then he proceeds to offer support for his theses.

Amazingly quotable

This ties in with the research and the humor points above, but there were just so many tweetable, postable, and emailable quotables from this talk.  A few of my favorites:

“We got that many people to participate by buying full-page ads in The New York Times, in The Boston Globe, in primetime radio and TV advertising. Do you know how many people we would have gotten if we put up flyers in the laundromat?”

“We have a visceral reaction to the idea that anyone would make very much money helping other people. Interesting that we don’t have a visceral reaction to the notion that people would make a lot of money not helping other people. You know, you want to make 50 million dollars selling violent video games to kids, go for it. We’ll put you on the cover of Wired magazine. But you want to make half a million dollars trying to cure kids of malaria, and you’re considered a parasite yourself.”

“So Disney can make a new $200 million movie that flops, and nobody calls the attorney general. But you do a little $1 million community fundraiser for the poor, and it doesn’t produce a 75 percent profit to the cause in the first 12 months, and your character is called into question.”

“So Amazon went for six years without returning any profit to investors, and people had patience. They knew that there was a long-term objective down the line of building market dominance. But if a nonprofit organization ever had a dream of building magnificent scale that required that for six years, no money was going to go to the needy, it was all going to be invested in building this scale, we would expect a crucifixion.”

“Now, if you were a philanthropist really interested in breast cancer, what would make more sense: go out and find the most innovative researcher in the world and give her 350,000 dollars for research, or give her fundraising department the 350,000 dollars to multiply it into 194 million dollars for breast cancer research?”

What I didn’t like

Puritanical reference

This may come off as nitpicking a bit, but I felt this was the one part of the speech that added almost nothing, and, depending on your personal views, could actually be offensive.  (So yes, I don’t think any of the other points made are offensive.  One is free to disagree with Pallotta on them, but I don’t find them objectively offensive.  The swipe at religion on the other hand…)

So, if there was real value to the point about Puritans, I think its defensible, communicably speaking.  But I think it actually detracts from the otherwise excellent pace and distracts from the central premises so I’d have ditched it.

But that’s it.

Summary

This was a fantastic, passionate speech, with a clear call to action.  It’s the kind of speech every speechwriter dreams of writing and Pallotta seems like the kind of demanding but amazing executive every communicator wants to help craft words and messages for.

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March 13, 2013

The Lord Commander’s Charge

By Howie

In another installment of fictional political speeches, we take a look at the “graduation speech” of Jeor Mormont.  Commanding the remnant of the once proud, and once numerous, Night’s Watch, Lord Commander Mormont now faces a coming winter with too few men to actually defend the realm of men. He’s been sent a new crop of misfit recruits who must somehow rise to the challenge.

His speech to them, in George R.R. Martin’s novel, Game of Thrones (as well as in the clip below from the HBO series of the same name) shows what he tries to do to inspire these boys who are now men – men of the watch.

What I liked

Creating A Sense of Community

Mormont is right. These men have come from many places and positions. Some high, and some low. Something brought them to the wall, and it likely wasn’t anything good. But now, it is they alone who stand against the enemies of the world of men.

He recites the litany of offenses they may have committed from poaching and thievery to things far worse. He intones the houses they may have been a part of, and the names they may bear. But now, he says, they will all be men of the Night’s Watch. That will be their home and their family.

A Charge to Rise

Mormont tells them they came as boys, “as children” but, once having taken their vows, will be men. That means forgetting the past – both the bad but also the good, and looking only to the future.

Duty & Dedication

Mormont reminds them that a true brother of the watch now protects the realm of men. Not one house or one kingdom. Their loyalty and their service is to all.

For good measure, he warns them: once sworn, they are there forever. Only death, or execution for desertion, save them.

What I didn’t like

Really these are quibbles. The speech is a great one.

Harshness

Mormont is harsh with them. He is refreshingly honest, on one level. But he is harsh. The Wall and the Watch are no places for soft touches and white glove service. But he could have used a bit of soft rhetoric to make his points go down easier, and perhaps be listened to easier.

Untruths

It is unfair to expect that once sworn, these men will simply forget everything of their past, and that they will put aside old loyalties and prior problems. It is wishful thinking, and it’s a nice piece of rhetoric. I see what Mormont is trying to do. But he could have been more truthful here. Again, it might have made the men listen more.

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March 12, 2013

Watered Down: A Speech by The Prince of Orange

By Howie

HRH, Willem-Alexander, the Prince of Orange will succeed HM, Queen Beatrix as sovereign of the Kingdom of the Netherlands on April 30, 2013.  As I’ve noted before, royalty – and other heads of state – get the opportunity to speak out but without the pressing stress of (re)election, which hopefully makes them more thoughtful and bolder.  So, I thought we could take a look at one the Prince’s recent speeches.  On March 7, he spoke at a United Nations Special Thematic Session on Water & Disasters.  A full transcript, in English, is available.

Before we go to the speech, one caveat about my comments.  The speech transcript is in English, but I do not know if it was delivered in English, or in what language it was originally drafted and whether this is a translation.  So my critiques are given – and hopefully taken – with some slack.

What I liked

Great Facts & Great Imagery

There is solid research here.  He reminds us of the various earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes and the like that have struck various parts of the planet these past few years. He pulls powerful anecdotes out about the aftermath of Hurricane/Superstorm Sandy as well as drought conditions in the US, and other potential locations around the world.  The bit about people in high-rise apartments “lugging” water up thirty flights of stairs in New York City in 2012, is a striking image.

A Realistic Call to Action

The prince asks “Is it possible to end all of the suffering inflicted by water-related disasters?” and then immediately answers ” Of course not.”

He makes a pitch for doing what we can, but understanding we can’t do it all.  All too often, elected officials or heads of state make bold proposals that have no basis on reality.  It was refreshing to see this candor.

What I didn’t like

Length

By length, I don’t mean the actual length.  In theory, this could have been longer, shorter, or the exact same length as is.  But the speech lacks punch.  It meanders, and sputters.  There’s good information here, and given current events and recent history, enough urgency to make an otherwise boring topic lively.

Organization

I recognize there are formal protocols in a speech like this before such a group and, especially, as a royal.  But still, to go three paragraphs in, and essentially, to have done nothing but thank yous, acknowledgements and introductions is to lose the audience.

And there’s a way to make these formalities a bit more lively as well.  What if we changed “Our ties to Japan are strong and I applaud your country’s long-standing commitment to improving water management around the globe” to “Perhaps the only thing older than Japan’s commitment to water management, is the goodwill between our two nations. Your modeling this behavior globally makes us even prouder to call you friends.”

Facts as Used

A corollary of this, is in addition, the facts about Sandy, and about the droughts, are compelling.  But they are buried when they should be used up front, at the beginning, to grab the audience.  As well, I’d like to see some push through of the facts to a more stark understanding.  2.5 billion people lack proper sanitation.  What is that translated into? One out of how many people in the world?  What percent of the world’s population?  How many times the population of the Netherlands is it?  Something like that – that’s grabbing of an otherwise incomprehensible statistic.

Call to Action is Unspecified

I’m a bit willing to forgive here, because I assume the audience was filled with experts in this area, but it would have been great to hear.  We can lower (deaths/destruction/damage) by X percent if the international community does Y.  To call out a protocol that is several years old and say it still applies seems to lose anyone, this reader included, who isn’t an expert.

Visual Aids

I’ve only read the transcript so that’s another caveat (I don’t really know what was happening when this was delivered), but imagine if there was some “eye candy” here on the screen as he was speaking.  Images from drought stricken parts of the US, or search and rescue photos (even videos without sound from Sandy?

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March 10, 2013

Deal of the Day: Groupon CEO’s Valedictory

By Howie

(Personal note: It’s been awhile – both work & personal life crept in and kept me from being able to focus enough on this blog. I have more half-started, or half-finished, if you prefer, blog posts that are no longer remotely current than I’d care to. But we hope to be back in it now. So…)

A few weeks ago, Andrew Mason, the CEO of Groupon, wrote a farewell letter to the staff. It’s not political speech per se, but it has so many lessons that I’m blogging on it.

You can read Mason’s entire (very short) note, which was e-mailed to the entire staff, here, courtesy of Alex Wilhem of TheNextWeb. So straight to it:

What I liked

Length

This was short. And to the point. There’s no buried lede. There’s no question about where this is going or what he’s going to be addressing. When there’s controversy or complication, our instinct, especially in politics, is to obfuscate and provide background. There’s time for explaining and contextualizing. But I like how Mason dives right in: I was fired, and here’ what you need to know about it.

Accepts Accountability

There’s no nice way to talk about this. But it’s also a fact of life. And obviously, Mason isn’t starving and he has a past track record as well as high probability of a future that’s highly tilted to success. This will be a mark, but not the final determination of his business savvy or commercial worth.

Still, he basically says, the Board acted, and they were within their rights. I’m the CEO. I’m accountable.

Humor

The opening paragraph is legitimately funny. “Just kidding, I was fired.” It sets people at ease, and makes it OK for them to bring up the topic with him and with others.

There are times humor is out of bounds. Obviously, when dealing with the tragedy of another – if the firing wasn’t his own, this would have been callous. But here, when it’s his, it can actually make the conversation easier to have.

The gaming reference as well, especially with a tech savvy audience “feels right.” And it helps him begin to offer the context he’d like.

Advice

Mason offers advice to the Groupon staff – what mistakes he felt they’d made, and while he takes responsibility, he also suggests his firing gives them a respite from the day to day scrutiny and a chance to right things. He offers a veiled but very clear message: fix it, or I will be just the first in a lot more firings.

What I didn’t like

Too much info

The personality, and the personal really help make this authentic. He signs it “love” and we’ve noted above the personal humor. But I really don’t need to know he’s looking for a fat camp. Humor is commendable, but this went too far.

Summary

Overall, this was great. And while I understand the internet space is different form much of corporate America, and the political sphere, there are lessons to be learned here: keep it short, keep it honest, keep it personal – but not too personal.

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September 6, 2012

What President Obama Needs to do Tonight

By Howie

I previously prefaced Governor Romney’s convention speech and now I’m going to do the same for the president.

The president is likeable. He needs to convince the American people that he is also competent. That indeed, they made the right choice – not just the historic one.

To do that, he will need to:

Remind Us of What He’s Done

The president has accomplishments. It is certainly arguable – and Republicans will argue it – whether those policies are good or bad. The stimuli, health care reform, the pullbacks from Afghanistan and Iraq are all fair political game. But the president can’t win by ducking his record and only talking about the next four years.

Specific examples would help. Both global ones but also personal stories of a small business here or an unemployed individual there who were helped by his policies.


Show Humility

This president, arguably, has some of the strongest anti-terrorism street cred possible. Osama Bin Laden, public enemy número uno, was taken down on his watch. There has not been – thankfully – a major terrorist attack since September 11, 2001. For a president who came in with the support of America’s far left those are impressive wins.

But the president has also, too often, shown hubris about that or other issues. Scolding the Supreme Court live on national television about Citizens United, arguing there was no way the Court could find against health care, or his comments and policies in the international arena sometimes sound like a man who believes his own press a bit too much.

Now would be a good time to show real empathy, and to thank – sincerely and even a bit tongue in cheek – those GOPers who’ve worked with him.

Scare Us


    This election will be won on the backs of a motivated base and the few remaining independents in places like Ohio and Florida. The president needs to lay out a frightfully scary case as to what happens if the other guy wins. He needs his base motivated and out there. And he needs those independents to pull the lever for him.

    Look Ahead

    It’s not enough to scare us or remind us what he’s done. What have you done for me lately people will ask. Now is the time to lay out at least one or two key policy proposals.

    Soar

    This president may well be the best orator in decades. He needs to step back and be humble yes, but he also needs to inspire us with a call to greatness.

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