Lesson from Tiger: How NOT to Manage Your Story

It's mind-boggling, in the digital age of instant global communication, that anyone still believes the best strategy for managing a news story is to remain silent. It's especially puzzling that someone with the resources of Tiger Woods, who presumably can afford the best PR counsel available, would be so misguided.

We've experienced this lesson before time and time again, and we're being reminded again: A story doesn't die when the key figure remains silent; the story only grows bigger as the media continue to spin new angles based on the silence, e.g. speculating that silence indicates a desire to hide something, and then speculating on what that something might be.

The best move in managing a crisis such as Tiger's is to step out in front of it immediately. Tiger attempted to do that when he posted a message on his blog, but his evasiveness left more questions than it answered. If he had, instead, held a brief news conference, issued a statement that briefly explained the circumstances of his mishap, and asked for privacy so that his family could deal with the aftermath, the public would have been sympathetic and the story soon forgotten.

Walk the Walk: A New Twist on Familiar Advice

Walk the Walk: The #1 Rule for Real Leaders by Alan Deutschman is given high marks by the Wall Street Journal's David A. Price. A new twist on the familiar advice to "walk your talk," Deutschman's book say few leaders actually follow that advice. He says it's better if they forget the talk entirely and simply set appropriate examples through actions alone.

I particularly appreciate the advice to reduce the list of essential values to a workable number. Deutschman, a consultant and former writer for "Fortune" magazine, suggests that leaders focus on no more than two priorities. His point: if you have many more than than, nothing is really a priority.

The review of the book is at http://tinyurl.com/mqgdc2

Fast Company on the Whole Foods Story

Today's Fast Company blog comments on John Mackey's Wall Street Journal opinion piece that we reported on yesterday. Entitled, "Innovating Toward Health Care Reform, the Whole Foods Way," writer Clay Dillow remarks that the idea of asking people what they want--instead of telling them what they'll get--is truly innovative! Read his post at http://tinyurl.com/l36uan

Cogent Storytelling on A Complex Issue

No matter where you stand in the vigorous debate on healthcare reform that's currently a main feature of the news, today's Wall Street Journal contains a cogent example of storytelling on a complex issue. The opinion piece by John Mackey, founder and CEO of Whole Foods Market, Inc., could serve as a template for organizing thoughts and presenting a persuasive point of view. It's effective because of the clear explanation and the fact that it's based on a successful entrepreneuer's experience of what works, compared to what doesn't.

I'd love to hear what you think of the way his position is presented. Send me your thoughts after you read the article and, if you choose, the hundreds of comments that WSJ readers have posted. The opinion piece is available at http://tinyurl.com/oofmpf

Fundraisers: Got Mobile Giving?

The world of virtual activities--corporate learning and conferences, shopping, and gatherings with friends--continues to expand, and now even charitable giving has gone mobile. "Giving should be easy, it should be fun and it should be rewarding," says Jim Manis, the founder and CEO of the Mobile Giving Foundation, Bellevue, WA, in a recent Seattle Times article.

A nonprofit that provides the technology for NGOs to conduct fundraising campaigns, Mobile Giving is an idea that's well timed. The number of nonprofits continues to grow, making fundraising continually more challenging. The situation is exacerbated by the slow economy and the rise in unemployment.

Mobile Giving provides organizations a channel for reaching younger donors to whom text messaging comes naturally. Manis says almost 70 percent of people between the ages of 18 and 24 use texting, and they're an important group for charities to reach. They want to help improve the world and they generally do not have the means (yet) for large gifts, but small gifts from large numbers are crucial. It's important for NGOs to develop relationships with younger adults, who take a different approach to getting involved from previous generations.

For the entire article, go to http://tinyurl.com/msqexb

The Cost of Telling Your Story at Trade Shows

I just ran across a great tool for calculating the cost of acquiring new clients or customers at trade shows. It was shared in a newsletter from Vicki Sullivan, professional speaker and consultant to other speakers (her website is http://www.sullivanspeaker.com/). In her latest commentary, she pointed out that offering free tools is a great way to establish relationships with prospects and grow your business.

She offered an example of a cost-of-trade-show calculator published in "Meetings & Conventions" magazine. The calculator can easily be adapted as a template for any organization's business development activities, i.e. the cost of getting your story in front of prospective clients and customers. The calculator is at http://tinyurl.com/msbdee

Like Ideo's Process, Storytelling Transformational

A recent article on Ideo Founder David Kelley summed up the experience of working with him as transformational--in my view, the highest compliment any consultant can hear. After all, we're called in to help organizations work through an issue that needs a fresh perspective and new tools, and the hope is that our work will to some type of significant change, or transformation, at some level. And it doesn't need to be a huge transformation to make a big impact.

Like design, storytelling is a concept that at first may seem to be more about style than substance. But one of the best testimonials my work has earned was from an executive who, after a two-day intensive retreat, said, "Storytelling sounded too simple and basic to spend two full days on, but the further we dug into our stories, the more I realized how profound it is."

To read the entire article on David Kelley and his work at Ideo, go to http://tinyurl.com/9zy9v4