Atkinson Advisor - April 2003 - Atkinson Public Relations

	#1	Top Of Mind: Transparency of war
	#2	The Idea Of That Thing: The art of listening
	#3	Next Time Try This: Let cars drive your next SWOT
	#4	For The CEO: Branding from the top
	#5	Hits & Bytes: summary.com
	#6	What We're Reading: Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson

The leading vote getter for word of the year is "embedded."

Anyone watching the war in Iraq has heard about the hundreds of embedded reporters traveling with coalition troops. We commend the U.S. military for this noble experiment in transparency. The real-time view of the battlefield is both captivating and inspiring.

And, it is frightening. Only time will tell whether this experiment is a success and what other organizations can learn from the military's example. We hope for the success of this effort and the swift, victorious, and safe return of our troops.

Many of us think we are good listeners, when in fact we are not. Good listeners concentrate on understanding what is being said rather than judging whether what is being said is right or wrong. Good listeners understand what is not being said. Good listeners listen without thinking.

The scale below shows six levels of listening from the basic to the advanced. Your goal is to listen as close to Level VI as possible every time.

Level Style Example

I Non Listening "I'm focused on something else other than what you're saying."

II To Tell Your Story "I'm listening only to get my opportunity to talk."

III To Agree/ Disagree "I'm listening so I can let you know my opinion."

IV For Application "I'm listening so I'll know how to respond."

V For Implication "I'm listening so I can read between the lines."

VI For Understanding "I'm listening and asking questions so I can understand your entire message and what's behind your words."

The following is a poignant letter from an unknown author about listening. Enjoy.

When I ask you to listen to me
And you start giving advice,
You have not done what I asked.
When I ask you to listen to me
And you begin to tell me why I shouldn't feel that way,
You are trampling on my feelings.
When I ask you to listen to me
And you feel you have to do something to solve my problems,
You have failed me, strange as that may seem.
All I asked was that you listen, not talk or do - just listen to me.

The SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) is a common planning tool. If you need some variety and creativity in your SWOT exercise, try using automobile analogies to engage people more in the discussion.

At the start of the SWOT analysis, ask everyone to say what kind of automobile your organization most resembles. As the group works through each of the four elements, participants can use analogies of their chosen automobile to describe the organization. For example, one person might choose Volvo and say that a strength of your organization is the feeling of safety that customers have.

This tip works because it provides planning participants immediate context and the opportunity to visualize an idea that someone is trying to express.

CEOs worthy of their title know the value of brand equity: satisfied customers who advocate the product or company to others. That level of loyalty is an elusive marketing formula.

In a recent study, The Conference Board identified four organizational support factors that are key to brand building:

CEO leadership and support
A distinctive corporate culture serving as a platform for the brand promise
The ability to obtain support from all levels of employees
The alignment of brand messages across functions

All four have a common theme in that they start in the executive suite. Let's break them down and look at three good examples from Southwest Airlines and one poor example from United.

CEO leadership: The Southwest organization mimics CEO Herb Kelleher. It's maverick, playful, personal, and, yet, serious. At the same time, this is not to say Southwest is a company of Kelleher wannabes and mini-mes. The company values each individual and gives employees opportunities to be themselves.

Distinctive culture: CEOs must define and then guardedly protect a culture that supports the brand. Southwest has a unique culture - low fares, entertaining flight attendants, no assigned seats, easy fare system, etc. - that personifies its brand as a people's airlines. We once heard a branding executive say, "I feel like Southwest is my airline."

Employee engagement: Southwest makes sure its employees personify the brand. At a branding conference in Santa Barbara, Calif., the Los Angeles area marketing manager summed up the company's philosophy when she said, "Enthusiastic employees spread enthusiasm to customers. If your employees don't 'get it,' neither will your customers."

Align Messages: Now for a poor example. United Airlines designed its 1997 "Rising" campaign to communicate a new commitment to customer service. The campaign backfired immediately because executives failed to read the tea leaves. Just as United was announcing its new customer satisfaction philosophy, its flight attendants were threatening a labor action called CHAOS™, or "Creating Havoc Around Our System™". CHAOS' tagline: "No raises. No rising."

www.summary.com

We have recommended that you read Good to Great by Jim Collins. Someone else has probably recommended that you read former IBM chairman Louis Gerstner's Who Says Elephants Can't Dance.

But do you have the time? With summary.com, you have no more excuses.

Summary.com is the homepage of Soundview Executive Book Summaries. The company compresses best selling business books in 5,000-word, eight-page summaries that most people can read in 15 minutes. Each summary captures the most important facts, concepts, and thoughts from a book.

The subscription cost is $99 - $149 per year, depending upon which level you choose.

At this writing, Soundview is giving away copies of its summary of Jack Welch's Straight From The Gut. The original hardcopy is 493 pages. The summary, as promised, is a concise eight pages. That level of efficiency would make Welch proud.

Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson
by Robert A. Caro

Master of the Senate, winner of the 2002 National Book Award in Non-Fiction, is a long, but hard-to-put-down, account of the period starting with Lyndon Johnson's arrival in the Senate as a junior senator in 1949 until his election as JFK's vice president in 1960.

The third in a projected four-volume biographical series on Johnson by Caro, Master of the Senate is as much about the U.S. Senate as it is about Johnson himself. At the heart of the book is the unprecedented revelation of how legislative power works in America and how Johnson mastered the Senate as no political leader before him had ever done.

Caro dissects how Johnson became the Majority Leader after only a single term; how he manipulated the Senate's hallowed rules and customs; and played on the strengths and weaknesses of his colleagues to change the "unchangeable." Much time is devoted to the milestone of Johnson's Senate years: his amazing triumph in single-handedly maneuvering the passage of the 1957 Civil Rights Act, the first since reconstruction.

P.S. You may want to save this one for a long international flight or a week at the beach. It's 1,152 pages, but reviewers claim it's a story that needs a thousand pages to describe how a political phenomenon horsewhipped the Senate and drove much of the dramatic history that predestined his presidency.