Every communicator who was watching winced at the same time. As soon as the words came out we all – at least those of us not in the White House – grimaced and said, “Glad it wasn’t my boss.”
The words came last week from President Obama when he tried to joke
about his bowling deficiencies with Jay Leno. “It was like the Special
Olympics or something,” the President quipped. Here's a link to the entire transcript.
Here are links to YouTube videos.
And with one line, the real purpose of his visit – to bolster support for his budget and bailout plans –
was overshadowed. It may not be fair but that’s still a part of our
PC-heavy world. One slip of the tongue and even the most well-reasoned
PR strategy gets second guessed.
And this was on top of the criticism that the appearance with Leno
trivialized a very important subject. “At times,” Alessandra Stanley
wrote in the Washington Post after the fact, “he may have seemed a
little too removed (from everyday worries).”
After events like this, two questions naturally arise:
2) What can we do to make them a success?
The answer to both rests with your expectations and your definitions of success.
Like any event, there should be a stated goal to measure success
against. With public speaking, I often break the goals down into one of
five areas: Informing, Creating Understanding, Reinforcing Values,
Changing Attitudes and Eliciting Action.
With a goal in mind, you can determine what type of public appearance
or speaking event will help you achieve that goal. You must surrender
to the event and work within its limitations. If your goal were to
simply Inform an audience, for example, an appearance on Leno probably
wouldn’t work. There’s simply not enough time to deliver details in
that kind of light environment. That’s not why the audience is there.
Likewise, it’s probably not a good place to Elicit Action, either,
because the audience needs a lot of preparation before they can act.
My guess is that the White House wanted to achieve a goal that fell
somewhere in the middle. They either wanted to Reinforce the belief
that the President’s financial plans were in line with American values
or wanted to Change American’s perceptions that the plans were less
than what was promised on the campaign trail, a growing concern. And
much of that could be achieved by tapping into Obama’s deep reservoir
of credibility and admiration and even borrowing credibility from Leno
himself.
The goal itself is questionable,
however. Most Americans seem willing to give Obama the benefit of the
doubt and give him room to work. Since they don't need reinforcement -
perhaps their polling says something different? - the risks were high.
A more important consideration for us, however, is how can we use this
episode to make better decisions for our own speakers. Are the risks
worth putting your speaking into a light-hearted interview session such
as this? Is it appropriate to joke when serious issues abound?
Here are a few things to consider:
2. Understand the limitations – Every opportunity has its advantages and limitations. Leno is great for reinforcing values but terrible at Creating Understanding. A speech at the Chief Executives Club of Chicago may be great for Creating Understanding but not very good at basic Informing.
3. Focus on one or two key, easily understandable messages – In any environment, choose your key messages appropriately. Resist your speaker’s temptation to “tell the whole story.”
4. Go for a feeling, not a message – Sometimes the best you can do is go for a feeling. Just showing up says a lot about the speaker’s character and that’s fine. Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell is a master of this. He is good at “surrendering to the joke” and using his appearances on Colbert and other places to reinforce an impression that he “gets it.”
5. The messenger is as important as the message – Not every speaker can pull off a light-hearted interview. They’re often stiff and humorless and sometimes don’t even know it. Bottom line: don’t ask them to do something they can’t.
6. Use it to fortify, not supplant, more traditional communication vehicles – These types of events should always be considered “add-ons” to your strategy, not in lieu of the basic plan.
7. It’s all about credibility, baby – At their core, appearances like this are all about reinforcing credibility and core values. The audience needs to come away with the belief that the speaker “is one of us” and shares their interests.
So you can succeed. These types of “lighter” appearances can be
helpful. But they must be chosen with the right goal in mind. Resist
the temptation to over-reach. Keep in mind it’s just one part of the
overall plan, one more drop in the bucket. And even if your speaker
commits a “Special Olympics” gaffe, you have a deeper and more robust
strategic plan in place to overcome it.
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