jim lukaszewski's

strategy

a supplement of pr reporter

 

One of the field's leading
strategists, Jim Lukaszewski will
a) explore the importance of strategy as a management function,
b) analyze the process of strategic thinking and
c) examine current examples in this
4-times yearly supplement.

 

No. 7 / September 20, 1999

INFLUENCING MANAGEMENT ATTITUDES

Perhaps the most frustrating aspect to the practice of public relations has to do with our frequent inability to have true influence. Whether it's strategy, plans, goals, or tactics, beyond being told what to execute, how to execute it, what to say, and when to say it, we get shut out of the process and the key decisions. Getting the boss' ear remains one of the holy grails of public relations.

An important place to begin talking about developing strategies to get to the table, get in front of the boss(es), be heard, and have influence is to talk about three sure-fire strategies to fail:

1. Whine, criticize, and be generally negative, especially about the lawyers, while you're standing outside the door trying to get in too.

2. Focus on the unimportant

3. Teach PR.

At the 1999 Spring Conference of the Public Relations Society of America's Counselors Academy (PR agency owners and senior executives), a great deal of attention was paid to growing competition from management consultants, who are now moving aggressively into new practice areas, especially public relations, corporate communications, and reputation management. These consultants already have access to management and now may have found a useful format for keeping it.

Diane Roman Fusco, principal, Public Relations Consulting Practice, ORION Consulting Inc., talked about what it has been like to transform her practice from that of a public relations agency into the management consulting environment. One could tell her presentation was important because, at first, she irritated and angered just about everyone in the room as she carefully explained what the public relations consulting world looks like from the perspective of the management consultant.

PR PRACTITIONERS ARE RARELY CONSIDERED VITAL MEMBERS OF THE OPERATIONS TEAM

Before we get to one of the most unique aspects of Diane's special insight, let's first visit the whole notion of why public relations practitioners are often not considered effective and vital members of the operations team:

1. We are rarely thought of as having sufficient knowledge or practical experience to contribute management (operational) solutions.

2. When we make recommendations, they appear to be public relations dressed up in the business vocabulary of the moment. Management has learned this in such arenas as transformational thinking, mergers/acquisitions management, litigation, and total quality initiatives.

3. Management has learned the lesson - from us - that it is far easier to take an operating person and make him or her into a public affairs or public relations practitioner than it is to transform a public affairs or public relations practitioner into an effective operating executive. Staff functions like public relations can't seem to delve into management issues beyond the level of communications concerns.

4. Our focus is too often on defending the function, the media, even the words "public relations."

WHAT'S THE MAGIC OF MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS?

Management consultants are privy to their clients' unmistakable attitude about public relations. We have created enormous business-building and management service opportunities for these non-PR consultants. Fortunately for our profession, the courts continue to define and limit the scope of lawyers in the practice of anything but law. Lawyers practice public relations at the risk of sacrificing attorney-client privilege. There are no such constraints on management consultants.

The lesson I learned from Ms. Fusco's presentation is incredibly challenging. To paraphrase her:

Before you can really consult with management, you need to think like management; understand management issues from the manager's perspective; and talk, think, and act in an operational context.

To demonstrate this thinking style, Ms. Fusco outlined how she, as a communications consultant within the management consulting practice of her firm, describes her services. Exhibit 1 illustrates her consulting services menu.

Note that in this 30-word description the word "communication" is used just once.

Exhibit 1 Customer loyalty management Strategic planning Customer-centered reengineering Executive and management development programs Staff development programs Team building Organizational and operational review Corporate and marketing communications Crisis consulting Issues management

Many practitioners in the audience were offended by the notion that they have to rename what they do in order to, as one attendee put it, "fool management in order to get into the room to be heard." But Ms. Fusco was mainly conveying the functional reality about the services management needs, from its perspective, that might have overwhelming communication impact.

Fusco made another sensational point. Again to paraphrase: The business perspective is an operational perspective; if it doesn't make money or save money, it isn't of interest to management. For many of us in public relations, this is simply the wrong standard. We prefer a more people or public interest oriented approach.

Public relations continues to try to justify its existence in bottom-line terms, a position I view as unlikely, contrived, and unconvincing to line managers. One example is the technique of ascribing advertising rate values to public relations-generated visibility. This practice continues to raise eyebrows in the executive suite and rarely delivers any level of credibility unless the visibility clearly advances an operational interest of management.

WHAT'S THE GOAL?

Our goal is to be at the table, by request or by necessity, before the heavy thinking starts, before the strategy is fully developed, and before the entire process boils down to "telling" us:

• How employees are going to be told.

• How shareholders are going to be told.

• How the community and government are going to find out.

• How we're going to minimize or "control" media involvement.

WHAT'S THE STRATEGY?

Our strategy has five key elements:

1. Learn, talk about, and teach things that matter to management. Forget the rest.

2. Understand what you can offer in the way of advice and counsel of a truly strategic nature that may not involve communication. Ninety percent of management decision making is operational.

3. Avoid using some form of dollar equivalent as an approach unless you clearly document a revenue stream into the company or an actual cost savings, which can be verified by management analysis that passes the straight-face test.

4. Focus on the outcome.

5. Make contributions that are self-evidently valuable.

HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOU'VE SUCCEEDED?

In my experience, the test of success in strategic participation is evidenced in three powerful ways:

1. You're asked to attend important meetings and those special rump sessions where the real decision making occurs.

2. Operating managers seek you out privately for your views, perspective, and counsel.

3. Your advice is taken to heart and used; your thoughts are quoted and disseminated, though quite often without attribution to the source.

The real surprise for most of those who make it to the table is that life at the table isn't that different from not being at the table. What is incredibility satisfying though is to see and feel the impact of your thinking and concepts; to experience the force and importance of that two-minute private conversation with a key decision-maker just before he or she steps into the operational limelight to make a career-defining decision.

Copyright © 1999, James E. Lukaszewski. All rights reserved.