Thomas Graham is the founder of Crosswind Communications and occasionally posts Insights and information on the state of business, government, media and, from time to time, life. We welcome your feedback and input.
I’m pretty bad at remembering people’s names. I hate to admit it, but I am, and you’d think given my profession, name recall would be easy.
I once served as the Communications Director for a prominent state senator. We were traveling together and one of the stops on the trip was a county fair and rodeo. As we’re making our way through the crowd, one the senator’s financial supporters began to approach him. The Senator leaned over and asked, “Real quick, what’s this guy’s name?”
Turns out the Senator’s name recall was worse than mine, but when I looked at him quizzically it became apparent we were both about to be embarrassed. I improvised and turned to the man, thrust out my hand and re-introduced myself to this prominent cattle rancher and in close enough proximity the senator overheard the name exchange. The senator put his hand on my shoulder and leaned in to his friend, called him by name and said, “Please forgive Thomas, he should know he’s met you before!”
Turns out, my improvising is a recommendation, in fact it’s No. 6 on an interesting list in Forbes about “How to Remember Names.” They call it “Lead the way” by doing other people a favor and helping them out in recalling your name. “If you know that your name will be hard to remember or pronounce, do other people a favor and help them out. They’ll return the favor–or, if you’re chatting with a Mike or a Bob, maybe they’ll make some big production out of their own common name, making it stick in your mind.”
Southwest Airlines, or @southwestair, provided a pretty good example over the weekend of how to use the Social Web to get ahead of the game when managing a negative customer experience. Film maker Kevin Smith tweeted his frustrations at being kicked off a Southwest flight for, he claims, being too fat.
I follow @southwestair but not Kevin Smith – although I do now – so I tuned in when I began seeing Southwest’s multiple tweets, including this one which really got my attention:
“I read every single tweet that comes into this account, and take every tweet seriously. We’ll handle @thatkevinsmith issue asap”
Here’s the complete recap, thanks to Mashable.com, and it’s mostly straightforward:
The incident, which took place on Saturday, resulted in dozens of Tweets on Smith’s account (he has 1.6 million followers at the time of writing). A brief sampling:
Dear @SouthwestAir – I know I’m fat, but was Captain Leysath really justified in throwing me off a flight for which I was already seated?
Wanna tell me I’m too wide for the sky? Totally cool. But fair warning, folks: IF YOU LOOK LIKE ME, YOU MAY BE EJECTED FROM @SOUTHWESTAIR.
Dear @SouthwestAir, I’m on another one of your planes, safely seated & buckled-in again, waiting to be dragged off in front of the normies. (accompanied by a Twitpic (), top right)
Southwest, which also counts over 1 million Twitter followers, responded:
@ThatKevinSmith hey Kevin! I’m so sorry for your experience tonight! Hopefully we can make things right, please follow so we may DM!
Hey folks – trust me, I saw the tweets from @ThatKevinSmith I’ll get all the details and handle accordingly! Thanks for your concerns!
I read every single tweet that comes into this account, and take every tweet seriously. We’ll handle @thatkevinsmith issue asap
I’ve read the tweets all night from @thatkevinsmith – He’ll be getting a call at home from our Customer Relations VP tonight.
@ThatKevinSmith Ok, I’ll be sure to check it out. Hopefully you received our voicemail earlier this evening.
@ThatKevinSmith Again, I’m very sorry for the experience you had tonight. Please let me know if there is anything else I can do.
@ThatKevinSmith We called you on the number you had on file in your reservation. If you prefer a different number, please DM me. Thanks!
Our apology to @ThatKevinSmith and more details regarding the events from last night – http://cot.ag/96KHC7 #Southwest
Two thoughts: I commend Southwest for its use of Social media and its willingness to engage an upset customer. I also doubt this is over. Kevin, based upon his latest tweets, is none to happy about the experience and seems intent on making sure the world knows of his negative experience. You can follow him, and his continuing fuming, here: http://twitter.com/ThatKevinSmith
In the past few weeks, several polls have shown Governor Rick Perry building a larger and larger lead over his rivals in the Republican Primary. Today that lead is virtually insurmountable and Perry will very likely win the Republican Primary and the fall general election, according to a poll released by the Texas Tribune and the University of Texas.
According to the Tribune’s story, “Gov. Rick Perry is well ahead of U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and former Wharton County GOP chair Debra Medina, who are locked in a statistical tie for second place in a GOP gubernatorial primary that could go to a runoff.
Perry had the support of 45 percent of self-identified Republican primary voters — short of the majority required for an outright win. Hutchison had 21 percent and Medina had 19 percent, a two-percentage-point divide that’s smaller than the poll’s margin of error.” In the Democratic Primary, Houston Mayor Bill White possesses a commanding 50-11 lead over Farouk Shami.
Having followed the Republican Primary campaign somewhat closely, I can tell you that I am not surprised by these numbers and find them to be perhaps the most accurate I’ve seen thus far as well as demonstrative of Perry’s building momentum and Hutchison’s flailing efforts. On the few occasions I have encountered Governor Perry in this election, he has had a keen sense of purpose and energy about him and his campaign has been extremely well run, void of gaffes and singularly clear on message. Hutchison, on the other hand, has only produced moments of energy, rarely connecting with a message and failing to communicate her vision for what a Kay Hutchison-governed Texas would and should look like.
Medina has created a quite a buzz, tapping into voter disaffection for the political process but, as most of us were aware, she is not quite ready for prime time. I suspect her numbers will peak at 19 and she will fade a bit between now and the March 2nd primary.
The question is will Perry win without a runoff. I believe he can and likely will. He is a passionate campaigner and his team is running on all cylinders. I have quietly questioned the team’s continued contrast message — that’s negative campaigning for you neophytes — at this stage of the game and suspect we will see more about his vision from the Perry camp in the closing weeks. He should pick up a few more points from Medina followers, those who flirted with her but recognize she’s really not in a position to govern, much less win. Hutchison hasn’t demonstrated a willingness to stick with a strategy — any strategy — over any extended period of time. With Perry currently at 45, he only needs a few points from both and he’s over the top and off to face White in November.
For his part, White has run a smooth, although easy, campaign while Shami has run a surprisingly disappointing race, in my view.
Tribune editor Ross Ramsey breaks out the entire race here and provides the detailed questionnaire as well as the cross tabulations for those who really want to dive into the numbers.
I noted a presentation last week in D.C. from political pollster Frank Luntz regarding the language around climate change that I thought you’d find of interest. Luntz’s firm, The Word Doctors, conducted a national poll of 1,007 registered voters (+/- 3% margin of error). The firm also conducted a series of “Instant Response” qualitative dial sessions around the country.
But his research highlights a few points which I think may be relevant as organizations chart their path forward in the climate conversation. Specifically, I think they should consider these points from the research:
The national security that comes through energy independence is the primary reason that cap and trade is the right policy.
The economic rebound will be driven by clean technology companies and investment
“Carbon neutral’ is not a persuasive message with both opinion elites and general consumers of information while “clean technology’ is recognized as being compelling.
While not necessarily highlighted by the reporting and Luntz’s presentation, I think each of these points provide insights into how clean technology and green energy companies can and should be shaping their branding and communications programs.
In addition to the items I noted above, Luntz had the following observations about the current political landscape and the conversation around cap and trade.
Luntz’s research unveiled areas of clear agreement on climate legislation between Obama and McCain voters, and among the general public:
“Americans want their leaders to act on climate change – but not necessarily for the reasons you think,” Luntz said. “A clear majority of Americans believe climate change is happening. This is true of McCain voters and Obama voters alike. And even those that don’t still believe it is essential for America to pursue policies that promote energy independence and a cleaner, healthier environment.” In reference to recent political events, Luntz added: “People are much more interested in seeing solutions than watching yet another partisan political argument.”
Republicans and Democrats agree thatnational security is the top reason to enact comprehensive climate policy. Luntz noted that national security “crosses demographic lines, is embraced by opinion elites and doesn’t require a belief in climate change.”
Pitted against economic and environmental arguments, national security was consistently the highest priority.
McCain voters in Luntz’s qualitative research strongly believe “the costs of our addiction to oil are too high in terms of lives, money, foreign policy and standing in the world.”
Reducing pollution and holding companies that pollute “accountable” enjoys broad bipartisan support.
Americans see climate legislation as more than just corporate social responsibility. When given a list of business and economic reasons to support the legislation, the top choice mirrored the public’s highest priority for Washington and Wall Street: accountability. The exact language of the statement: “Cap and trade will limit the amount of pollution companies can emit, giving companies incentives to reduce emissions—and holding those who don’t accountable…”
This was chosen as the top reason for supporting the policy among both Obama and McCain partisans – a rare example of bi-partisan public consensus.
Luntz concluded, “Americans want clean, safe, healthy, secure energy. That’s why Republicans and Democrats alike strongly support action to address climate change. Sure, Republicans are more concerned about the national security component and Democrats the health component, but support for action right now spans all partisan and ideological lines.”
Given my comments on her initial television spot, I feel compelled to comment on Kay Hutchison’s second effort out of the chute in her campaign to unseat the incumbent Republican Governor Rick Perry. Her second spot is a classic biographical spot highlighting her record on issues most likely to appeal to Republican primary voters: she voted against Obama, she’s worked to beef up border security and she’s opposed higher taxes. The best part of the spot, in my opinion, is the use of Perry’s comments that Hutchison “led the charge against a state income tax.”
This is a much improved effort and for the first time in a while shows that Senator Hutchison’s campaign to become Governor has a little life.
In today’s media-driven political environment, virtually every action by any political leader is questioned and viewed with suspicion. Today, I read that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger officially proclaimed Thursday, November 26 as Thanksgiving. Well, now it’s official. That’s leadership.
But what of the leadership that it took to declare the first national day of thanksgiving?
Our nation was in the midst of a tragic Civil War, lives were being given and lost each and every day and men and women struggled to provide for their families. Yet this man, whom many called a buffoon, proclaimed we pause and give thanks?
To read many of Lincoln’s words today is to read poetry in prose. To read the original Thanksgiving proclamation, written by Lincoln’s own hand and which called upon our nation to give thanks in the midst of the most trying of times, is to read leadership. Certainly, Lincoln was prompted by a personal letter from and a series of editorials by influential Ladies’ Journal editor Sarah Hale to proclaim a national Thanksgiving Day. But to call upon our nation to recognize God-given blessings even while we faced stress and distress as a nation and as families, demonstrates Lincoln’s leadership skills rightly applied.
For your review, Lincoln’s proclamation is posted below. Happy Thanksgiving, and may God continue to bless you and your family.
Lincoln’s Thanksgiving proclamation
The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.
In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict, while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.
Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well as the iron and coal as of our precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the imposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purpose, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union.
– Proclamation of President Abraham Lincoln, October 3, 1863
If non-verbal communication tells the truth, then Kay Hutchison is admitting defeat in her first television ad in her race for Governor of Texas.
Don’t get me wrong, I like Kay, and I think she had the potential to be an outstanding Governor of Texas. But her campaign continues to lack emotional horsepower and she has failed to connect with voters on virtually any level. Many political pundits suggested the campaign dynamics against incumbent Governor Rick Perry would change with Senator Hutchison’s first television buy.
Television is a political game-changer for its ability to allow effective communicators to step into the living room and have a one-on-one conversation with voters — to create that personal connection that otherwise is impossible in a state the size of Texas. I can see Senator Hutchison’s strategists telling her now: You need to go on television and tell the voters exactly why you’re staying in the U.S. senate instead of resigning to run for governor.
Unfortunately, she did. It just wasn’t with her words.
A classic 1971 communications study by UCLA Professor Albert Mehrabian suggests that 97-percent of all communications is non-verbal. That’s not to suggest that what you say is not important, it absolutely is, but the manner and method in which you say it is just as important. Mehrabian’s study found that there are basically three elements in any face-to-face communication: words, tone of voice and facial expressions (verbal, vocal, visual) and that the non-verbal elements are particularly important for communicating feelings and attitude, especially when they are incongruent with the words. If one’s words disagree with the tone of voice and facial expression, people tend to believe the tonality and facial expression.
Senator Hutchison’s television spot features her sitting in a warmly lit living room setting. Her hands are, presumably, folded politely in her lap while she says “I’m gonna doing everything I can to stop the government take over of healthcare, and that’s why I am staying in the Senate through the primary…”
She nods her head, she blinks her eyes. She emphasizes all the right words. But her body language is defeated. She is sitting with her back against the chair. Shoulders virtually motionless and her voice monotone as all the right images are flashed on the screen.
I’ve seen Senator Hutchison get passionate about a subject. She leans forward. She looks you in the eye, she uses her hands for emphasis and she confirms she has the will and fire to fight. To effectively communicate through an object sitting in someone’s living room (or on their desk) requires emotion and passion communicated visually and vocally. Senator Hutchison does neither.
The spot is titled, “Fighter.” But everything about it communicates defeat.
The Texas Tribune launches today and its inaugural publication includes a University of Texas poll the Tribune commissioned on the Texas political landscape. Not surprisingly, its poll shows Governor Rick Perry leading Senator Kay Hutchison by 12 points, 42-30. You can find more of the results including the poll and relevant cross-tabulations here.
I am confident in the polls findings. Hutchison’s campaign has been nothing short of lackluster and abysmal. While she has won a few rounds of sparring – she’s hit Perry pretty hard on a few issues – but most of Perry’s hits have been self-inflicted and from which, I believe he can regain his footing and recover. Her missteps, on the other hand, have been disabling. Will she or won’t she resign her Senate seat to run for Governor? That’s an issue she created and continues to stir with inaction.
The election is months away – March – and 12 points can be closed in that period of time. But for her to close that gap will require a life from her campaign I have seen only sporadically and a momentum swing that will be extremely difficult to produce.
A great deal has been written in memory of Ambassador Teel Bivins, who passed away last week after a long illness. He was 61, and, as his friend Karl Rove noted in the memorial service, “we were denied the fullness of his life.”
And we were. Teel lived his life with complete passion and enthusiasm but it was cut short and Texas, while better for his service, was denied his continued influence and zest for life.
One writer in particular captured the essence of his service, and I’d like to share it with you. Bill McKenzie didn’t know Bivins particularly well, at least not on a personal level, so his writing captures the public view of the man’s service. Calling him one of the ‘four horsemen’ of the Texas Senate, he says Bivins served with skill and grace. I have to agree with that.
I am saddened by the passing of my good friend Teel Bivins, who died this week of a particularly heinous disease which robbed this brilliant man of control of his limbs, but his mind, I can attest, was sharp to the end.
We visited just a few weeks ago and talked at length about politics, policy and life.
We laughed about time we spent on his beloved ranch hunting quail and entertaining senators and policymakers from around the country. He was a crack shot and loved hunting with his brothers, Tom and Mark. I was mostly along for the ride as the junior-most participant whose primary role was to organize the attendees and make sure we had lunch prepared – a particular soul food restaurant in North Amarillo would prepare the seasoned fried chicken, and I’d swing by to pick it up on the way to the ranch.
We laughed about the time spent in his Suburban traveling the High Plains from one county to the next – each claiming to have the best chicken fried steak. They seldom did.
We talked politics and the current race for governor here in Texas. He was keenly tuned into its developments.
We talked about our kids and how much we each loved ours sons and daughter.
When I worked for Teel, He was a freshman member of the Texas Senate and he approached the job with zeal and an open mind for meeting the state’s policy needs. He became one of the most influential members of the Texas Senate and, because his friend George W. Bush was running for President, he became an extremely effective political operative in Iowa, Michigan and New Hampshire. Bush named him Ambassador to Sweden.
But the Ambassador’s heart was always in Texas.
He loved Texas and service to Texans more the life itself. Given his family’s fortune, he could have chosen virtually any path for his life and been considered a success. He chose to enter the arena of public service and always – in every instance – sought the best path for Texas and those who were less fortunate.
He would end the speeches that I wrote for him by quoting his friend the former Lt. Governor of Texas Bob Bullock by saying, “…and may God Bless Texas.”
