Future Comm

“You’ve got to be careful if you don’t know where you’re going, because you might not get there”. – Yogi Berra

Many people ask me, “Why did you name your company Foresight Communications?” and “Just what is this “futures studies” stuff you’re into?” Here is a simple explanation of how foresight has changed my perspective.

While no one can predict the future, foresight professionals have developed a number of methodologies and processes to aid individuals and organizations to anticipate and better prepare for what lies ahead.This is what I have been studying and learning about. In my new endeavor as a PR consultant, I am striving to advise my clients to always think about the future when they think about their business — even when we are planning their communications programs.

The funny thing about the future is that each of us should make decisions today that will get us where we want to be. However, without exploring a full range of potential futures, we can rarely see beyond the typically narrow vision of what we expect.

“It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.” – Walt Disney

Those who dream and make it happen inspire us and illustrate the power we possess to design our own futures. Preparing for the future is about setting goals and realizing purpose; yet also planning where we are going and how we are going to get there.

Thinking about the future, whether it be on a personal level or in business, is not just about knowing the future as an abstract description, but rather preparing for it as a concrete reality. In that preparation, we consider the full range of plausible futures and get ready for whatever does happen.

The objective is not necessarily to be exactly right (which is impossible), but rather not to be surprised.

“In business, you can never stop planning for the future, even when it feels like the present requires all your attention.” Jack and Suzy Welch, Business Week

One of my favorite blogs, ChangeWaves offers a brief review of a new business book today by noted author Daniel Pink entitled, The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need. I couldn’t help but smile when I read about it. (Check out the YouTube trailer on the book; it’s mentioned in the blog.)

The blog called it an artifact that depicts how “culture flows work.” Hmmmm. My first impression brought a flashback to stacks of my brother’s Marvel comic books when we were much younger or a Pop Art exhibit I attended recently. But wait…this is the hip and cool manga style of comic book art popularized today by the Japanese. Pardon me. (What goes around, comes around.)

As a communicator, trends such as these always catch my eye. I can see the value in using this type of artwork to grab the attention of broader, global or younger audiences. Heck, even someone in my age group might find this interesting and entertaining. It certainly has a visual appeal. Using this style of art/graphic/visual likely has lots of potential for recruiting materials. Anyone using this approach?

Last week I spoke to a senior communicator strategic interest group with the Brazos Valley IABC in College Station, Texas, about communications trends. (While the two-hour drive from Houston was lengthy, it also afforded me a chance to enjoy the South Texas wildflowers just beginning to appear.)

They were a lively and engaged group and the topic inspired lots of discussion, and sharing of ideas and experiences. As communicators working in a variety of environments, the group clearly “got” the potential of social media and many of them were well on their way of incorporating some of the new techniques into their communications activities. Yet, others also expressed frustration with how to get started, how to plan and budget for social media initiatives and how to measure results. Many faced staffing limitations — whose going to tackle this new area? What should we do first? Others needed to convince upper management of its value. Then, there is always the legal department with their raised eyebrows and “liability issues.”

All good questions and valid concerns, I told the group. Fortunately, there were several attendees who willingly and gleefully shared their social media successes which further fueled the group’s fires to figure out a way.

We ultimately settled on a couple of take aways from the discussion.

1. Social media is about connection and not content. Social media is actually a return to our communication roots. Remember in college, we took that class on Communication 101, informing us that true communication is a dialogue, a two-way conversation? Thanks to technology, we finally have the tools we need to make this happen.

2. Get out there and get informed. We are in transition once again in communications. As one Brazos Valley communicator noted, “It’s messy right now.” If you look back, communications has always been in flux. We went from mostly printing presses to desktop publishing and then to the Internet in just a few short years. We can make it through this latest phase. Many pioneers in social media are blazing the trail for us. Check out my blogroll and learn all you can about what works and what doesn’t. There are great conversations taking place. It’s at your fingertips.

3. Before choosing a social media method, ask your stakeholders for their input. How do they prefer to receive information? How can you better meet their needs and engage them in conversation with your organization? What’s the best way to connect with them?

4. Start small and pilot a social media project. Put your toe in the water. Many social media initiatives aren’t that expensive and don’t take that much more time. Most bloggers are posting just once a week or less these days. Do something fun by combining a social media component with a traditional campaign tactic. For example, in promoting an event, direct-mail or email an invitation that drives invitees to a MySpace page that offers details about the event, entertainment, theme, contests, etc. Let the youngest person on your staff take the lead on this effort. They have grown up with this technology and typically use it with ease.

5. Measure results by again surveying or asking your stakeholder audiences. Measuring social media is virgin territory. A few claim to have measurement methods, but I haven’t seen anything that doesn’t have draw backs. As a follow-up to a social media pilot, why not resurvey your audiences and see how they liked it. Give it some time to take hold and build on small victories.

6. Be a social media champion within and on behalf of your organization.  It’s not a fad. We all heard the same naysayers when the Internet sprang up. We have to believe in and fight for this new communications tool. Social media has lots of potential and we are the most logical professionals to use it and shape it going forward.

I recently came across a helpful blog post on making the most of tradeshows today. It appeared on one of my favorite blogs, PR Meets Marketing. The post also includes a great list of other sources on the topic.

I agree with blogger Cece Salomon-Lee in that opportunities still exist for companies to make great connections at tradeshows, if they approach them strategically. Figuring out which shows offer the most potential is always tricky and mostly trial and error. Tradeshows are usually where PR meets marketing on several levels so it pays to have a well thought-out strategy — one that is focused on getting not only sales leads, but media introductions.

One trend discussed is virtual tradeshows that seem to be gaining in popularity. It would seem to me, however, that a combination of the real tradeshow and an online tradeshow would be ideal. The online tradeshow would be a good place to revisit companies you meet at tradeshows when you get back to the office. Archiving the virtual tradeshow also offers a valuable follow-up resource for attendees.

If you are involved with internal communications for your organization or clients, you may want to review and contemplate this interesting prospective on the future of the workplace in 2020.

The author, Andy Hines, is an instructor at the University of Houston’s College of Technology in the Futures Studies Master’s program and also a former futurist with DOW and Kellogg’s.My take? Further evidence (do we need more?) that social media technologies will become increasingly important to the workplace. Companies that take the lead in mastering communications that connect their workforce as it evolves into the “free agent nation” will likely have an edge in attracting and keeping top talent.

Today marks a curious milestone for me. It’s Leap Day, 2008, (how fitting) and I am happily launching a new blog that aspires to focus on the future of our rapidly changing profession.

In some ways, I am an unlikely author of such a blog. After all, I’m a 25-year veteran of communications, beginning my career as a newspaper reporter, moving to advertising copy writer, corporate communicator and most recently, PR flak.

Ironically, I also just walked away from a six-figure salary with a top agency to start my own communications consultancy.

Yet, I hear the naysayer just behind me or is she in my head. “Shouldn’t you be strolling (or shuffling) off toward your golden years and that fantasy land of boomer retirement paradise?”

Not likely, you see. Because I am part of the Boomer Nation and if you are a trend watcher, many of us are recreating our golden years by continuing to work on our own terms because we love what we do (and still need the money). Besides, I’m not that old, yet.

In fact, I have spent the last few years earning a master’s degree in futures studies and have been inspired and stimulated by the topic and can’t stop talking about it to everyone I know. (BTW — I recommend both activities highly to others — getting an advanced degree and studying and thinking about the future.)

Hence, the birth of Future Comm. My friends will be relieved to find that I will be blogging my thoughts on the future of communications here (mostly), so they won’t have to listen to me drone on about how cool systems thinking is or that another cool social media site has launched.

So, with a giant leap on Leap Day, I christen the blog Future Comm, and push away from the safety of the shoreline into the vast waters of lies beyond the horizon for our industry.

“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”

John F. Kennedy (1917 - 1963)