Those Special Moments on the Job (And Other Odds And Ends)

by Dick Jones
Dick Jones Communications

Viewpoint We Hate to Hear from Department Heads: "This story sells itself." Then why are you talking to me about it?

Jones's Rule: The more qualifiers placed upon the adjective "unique", the less likely it is that journalists will care about the noun described. If your institution's program is the only one of its kind in the world, then it's unique. If it's the only one west of the Mississippi, that has a bit less cache. If it's the only one based at a comprehensive university west of the Mississippi, that's barely better than unusual. If it's the only one west of the Mississippi, south of the Platte, north of the Rio Grande, and east of the Pecos, that's just sad.

Words We're Not Wild about from the Provost: "We want a lot of national attention for this new core curriculum." Are you the provost at Harvard? Oh, you're not? Then it's going to be a slightly harder sell.

Words We're Less Than Enthused to Hear from the Vice President for Development: "If you can get a nice splash for this five-figure gift, then a much bigger gift from the same donor is on the horizon." Are you going to share the credit if that happens?

Jones's Rule II: The more words there are in a college's mission statement, the fuzzier the mission.

Orders We Fear from the President: "Get a mention in The New York Times about our upward movement in U.S. News & World Report rankings." Yes, sir. Do you prefer that above or below the fold? And should I place that news in Newsweek and Time as well?

We Cringe When We Hear from the IFC Advisor: "You know, we need some stories about the good things fraternities do to balance all of this negative news." Should we start with a story on that festive beer-can Christmas tree in front of the Methodist church?

We Cringe When We Hear from Any Campus Administrator: "Well yes, we do that, and we've always done that, but we sure don't want it to get out to the general public that we do that." Here's an idea: if we're doing something we're ashamed of doing, let's stop doing it, and then we won't have to worry about news of it leaking out.

Jones's Rule III: The administrators and communicators in the athletics department will ignore you until such time as a crisis arises in the athletics department. At that point they will pick up the phone and inform you that you have problem to solve.

We invite your discussion of this topic on PIOnet.

Book Review: Honesty Works

by Ed Tate (Communications Consultant)

Some Americans think self-help books are for the unwashed masses lacking the internal strength to muddle through life. They may be in the minority, however, in light of book sales in the US, where nonfiction bestseller lists are dominated by the self-help genre. Scottish newspaperman Stephan Phelan observed recently, "Since the phrase 'self help' was first coined by Samuel Smiles in the 19th century, it has propagated wildly, particularly in America, where the very ideal of self-help appears to be written into the American way of life."

As most self-help book authors demand, enough negativity! There are a few great self-help books (The Road Less Traveled, Chicken Soup for the Soul, The Art of Happiness, etc.) and a number of good ones. Among the latter I'd list a new one, Honesty Works: Real-World Solutions to Problems at Work and Home by Steven Gaffney (JMG Publishing, Arlington, Va., http://www.honestyworks.net).

Despite the somewhat off-putting, seemingly self-evident title, it's a surprisingly valuable little (162-page) book. The subtitle describes it well.

Honesty is a critical principle in our business, of course. Many of us, at one time or another, have had to convince a reluctant administrator that candor is the best approach. It is sometimes much harder, however, to be truly candid in a situation involving interpersonal conflict, and that's where the value of this book lies.

Gaffney presents a series of typical work- and family-life scenarios that involve tough challenges, often entailing communication difficulties, and then provides a series of possible solutions to each that are based on honesty and candor.

The 33 "real-world solutions" cover problems such as email abuse, poor meeting management, delivering bad news, and receiving negative feedback. He provides some promising tactics for confronting liars, "creat[ing] the relationship you want", and--my personal favorite--eliminating complaining. According to Gaffney, we need to probe a person's constant complaining to understand what he or she wants from us so we can then help the complainer obtain it. The author also (thank you very much) suggests that we can choose to avoid people who are negative.

A key point Gaffney makes several times, and which I find refreshing and valuable, is that the reader must sincerely consider whether he or she might be wrong in certain situations. The author says that solving a problem often demands that you must "be open to the possibility that you are wrong--really be open to it." Anyone who is honest with themselves has to admit that it is easy to lose touch with this reality during a tough time.

Gaffney's writing style is functional and conversational, but he lacks humor and spark, and he overuses buzzwords such as "feedback" and "brainstorm". Too many of his anecdotes are first-person success stories, with few instances offered in which others employ the techniques he advocates. And--maybe I've spent too much time in academia--I was irked by his lack of footnotes and bibliography, though he writes "studies have revealed" and "studies differ on the matter" without attribution.

Because it is short and well-organized, with clear chapter headings, this is an accessible, useful reference book. I'm certain I'll pick it up occasionally to refresh my memory and to share with others some of Gaffney's "real-world solutions".

We invite your discussion of this topic on PIOnet.