HOME — I used to have a Klingon cookbook.  No, it was Lt. Uhura’s Cookbook.  But there was Klingon it it.  That was in university.  More than 20 years ago.

I never cooked anything from it.

Are you kidding?

But I moved it from dorm to dorm and house to house.  I thought its simple existence was funny [...]]]>

HOME — I used to have a Klingon cookbook.  No, it was Lt. Uhura’s Cookbook.  But there was Klingon it it.  That was in university.  More than 20 years ago.

I never cooked anything from it.

Are you kidding?

But I moved it from dorm to dorm and house to house.  I thought its simple existence was funny enough.  (Yes, not everyone shared my sense of humour then either.)

However, my daughter has just brought the world of Fan Fiction to my attention.  It seems that Star Trek was even a pivotal modern outburst of it.  Followed by Star Wars… And today people like Stephenie Meyer and JK Rowling, for the Twilight and Harry Potter series, even actively encourage it, saying they read it.

It’s a really interesting phenomenon.  And not one without it’s legal and copyright implications.

So my question today is: Why don’t brands do it more?

People write Star Trek cookbooks because they are obsessed with the show.  And one assumes they buy other people’s Star Trek cookbooks.  But what about great brands and companies? 

Imagine some of the great BP fiction that could come out of the Deepwater Horizon situations?!

Okay, maybe that’s not the best example.

But what about other, more day-to-day examples?

I think it’s a heck of an idea.

I think I’ll talk to some clients about it this week.

/df

LEICESTER SQUARE — My colleague Chris pointed it out yesterday: Copenhagen is essentially a great big positioning exercise.  And on a week when we are doing this in the Boardrooms of two big multinationals, it’s interesting to watch.

Essentially the nations involved have asked that a written proposal, proposition… or positioning statement be put to them.  [...]]]>

LEICESTER SQUARE — My colleague Chris pointed it out yesterday: Copenhagen is essentially a great big positioning exercise.  And on a week when we are doing this in the Boardrooms of two big multinationals, it’s interesting to watch.

Essentially the nations involved have asked that a written proposal, proposition… or positioning statement be put to them.  And then they’ll argue the detail of it.  Consensus should flow from that.  And even if it’s not consensus (let’s be grown-up about this) then at least the lukewarm, middle road will come with greater insight.  Everyone will know where the problems are, and then we can work around them.

We tend to have too black and white a view of these kind of things.  Compromise is still success.  Everyone goes away with more knowledge and able to start to act on the things that they know need addressing.

At the same time, I am fascinated by how this is still a movable feast.  I’m not talking about the debate over data (I looked at that earlier this week).  I am talking about yesterday’s report that the recession has helped the environment.

Imagine that?

We consume less and the earth benefits!

Then there’s the fascinating world of cross-cultural negotiation.  I was reading about that last night.  I am thinking we might develop a course on it for another client.

Although I have worked on every continent, and therefore negotiated contracts with many types of people, I haven’t thought of the science of it before.

And there’s lots of science.

Copenhagen will be brilliant for that. The academics will be rolling in it for years.

Woohoo.

/df

Even with the multitude of internet search engines and idea makers, it’s still hard to think about what your communication and change management professional might want for Christmas.  Therefore as a public service we offer our list of things to buy your loved one:

1. A smart phone Let’s be honest about it.  Hard working communication and change [...]]]>

Even with the multitude of internet search engines and idea makers, it’s still hard to think about what your communication and change management professional might want for Christmas.  Therefore as a public service we offer our list of things to buy your loved one:

1. A smart phone
Let’s be honest about it.  Hard working communication and change professionals aren’t always the most organised people.  They disappear into their work and sometimes show up with mismatching socks.  So a smart phone (iPhone, Palm Pre, etc.) can help them consolidate all the complexity of their lives into one place.

2. Superfreakonomics
We won’t talk about all the old books that they could/should have read.  Like the original Freakonomics or the books of Malcolm Gladwell.  But if you want your friend to expand their brain and become even more annoying at cocktail parties and while watching All Star Family Fortunes, then this new book will do that.

3. A great biography
I am partial to Roy Jenkins’ biographies.  His Winston Churchill is an easy, but excellent read.  But we also enjoy silly things like Richard Branson’s biography.  Even a footballer’s bio, or a TV star will be good. You learn a lot from the lives of others.

4. A SONY reader
Yes, you can get a Kindle too.  They may even be easier to find and a bit cheaper.  But to us the SONY is the real thing.  Just imagine being able to search all the annotations you have ever made in a book?  Yea.  That’s cool.

5. Music that tells great stories
There will be different views on this.  But you can’t do better than Arlo Guthrie’s Alice’s Restaurant.  Anything by Neil Young works for us too. More contemporary you can look at Elbow.  I am sure you have others.

6. A great bottle of Port
Controversial, I know.  Many people don’t drink, and that’s good.  But for those who do, there’s nothing like a great bottle of Port to make you push back your chair and discuss the shape of the world.  And you’re certainly going to feel better for it, even if the world doesn’t.

7. A work of art
There are some excellent galleries in London and in most cities.  If you have a bit of money set aside you can buy something inspiring for less than 1 year’s Sky or cable subscription.  Put it on the wall and walk by and say ‘oh’. (There’s a gallery on the Fulham Road beside the Library in London where I want everything.)

I think that’s it. 

What have I missed?

I am sure you have your won suggestions.  Write them below.

Now.

/df

SUNDAY MORNING — My 6-year-old has discovered Spotify.  Which is a break, at least, from football cards and other plastic doo-dads that they seem to sell kids at every newsagent.  And he’s busy filling up his account with song from Alvin and The Chipmunks.  And dying to get me to listen.

To a 6-year-old the story [...]]]>

SUNDAY MORNING — My 6-year-old has discovered Spotify.  Which is a break, at least, from football cards and other plastic doo-dads that they seem to sell kids at every newsagent.  And he’s busy filling up his account with song from Alvin and The Chipmunks.  And dying to get me to listen.

To a 6-year-old the story that goes with Alvin allows him to better understand, place and get excited about the music.  The characters make the experience seem more real.  It’s the wrong word, but it’s like the anthropomorphisation of experience — the turning of experience into something more human.

Most of us work with abstract thoughts all day.  We aren’t actually sawing wood or boiling eggs for a living.  And within those abstract thoughts are patterns that we create to be able to remember our way and make progress on new work.  Many of the milestones we use in our brains are drawn from a variety of senses.  Touch, feel, smell, taste all play a part in that.  For my 6-year-old music is more fun if he can imagine a bunch of Chipmunks dancing and singing to it.

For me change is easier if I have been through something similar before.  It’s easier if I can identify the change with a set of ideas that I can imagine in the future.  Or a feeling I expect to have.  Or a person who seemingly embodies that change.

Without that clarity of what I am working for, it is harder to stay focused.

Does that make sense?

/df

LONDON — There seems to be quite a bit of excitement out there about Google Wave.  Here’s a blog I was sent to earlier today.  Look how many comments there are in a few hours.

There’s a lovely short video here too that will show you what Google Wave is all about.

To me it looks quite [...]]]>

LONDON — There seems to be quite a bit of excitement out there about Google Wave.  Here’s a blog I was sent to earlier today.  Look how many comments there are in a few hours.

There’s a lovely short video here too that will show you what Google Wave is all about.

To me it looks quite similar to the demo I saw in August of Microsoft’s OneNote.  A lovely guy from Pfizer explained to a group of us how it’s should change their project processes.  And I find both quite compelling.  Here’s a video about it too.

In many respects I am dying to try both out. 

In many other ways I suspect that I won’t and I can’t.  My brain is already programmed to using email and other software.  I recognise that this is better.  I even suspect that in a few years or month I will be using it.  But I can’t get excited now.

The Google Wave video says “email was invented more than 40 years ago, Google Wave is what we would do if we invented it now.”  Well, I was invented 40 years ago and I don’t think I have out-stayed my welcome yet. 

In fact, I am still quite keen on writing letters.  You know, start at the top and work down from left to right on a piece of nice paper?  I like that too and people are still doing it (although not in Britain with a Royal Mail strike).

/df

LONDON — It started as an idle comment on Twitter.  Either Rach or Lee started it.  Well, actually Wedge started it…  Maybe I should start again.

Anyone interested in social media and communications will know that Wikipedia, while fantastic on the marriage of Britney Spears, is not so great on topics like Internal Communications.

In fact, the [...]]]>

LONDON — It started as an idle comment on Twitter.  Either Rach or Lee started it.  Well, actually Wedge started it…  Maybe I should start again.

Anyone interested in social media and communications will know that Wikipedia, while fantastic on the marriage of Britney Spears, is not so great on topics like Internal Communications.

In fact, the patchwork of an Internal Comms page was started by Wedge many years ago, but he takes no responsibility now.  Acknowledging that it’s a mess.

Earlier this summer we fell into some idle conversation about fixing it.  Social Media superstar Rachel Allen, former CIPR head Lee Smith, communications dean Liam Fitzpatrick, tech-god Wedge and I.  Soon Twitter’s only permanent resident, and Virgin Media Internal Communications head, Abi Signorelli was also involved.

We pledged to get together in one afternoon and “fix it”.

Tomorrow afternoon (Thursday 20 August) from 3 pm to 5 pm BST (10 to 12 EST) etc. we will gather and try to take a crack at it.  We hope that others will join in online.

A few people have had to drop out for reasons ranging from travel to ‘real work’, but we will persist.  Some others have already written their sections and all that remains is to post them.

You know, it may not work.  Wikipedia works in mysterious way.  They may dump us out entirely.  But we will soon see.

I hope you’ll come by and have a look.  Write a bit… Or even simply follow us on Twitter at CommsFlashMob.

/df

CAPE COD — I am in shock.  I have just emerged from a food store.  There is a whole row just dedicated to marinades and BBQ sauces.  The shelves of food that I might buy in London is a few rows in the very centre of a football field of “family packs” and convenience meals.

I [...]]]>

CAPE COD — I am in shock.  I have just emerged from a food store.  There is a whole row just dedicated to marinades and BBQ sauces.  The shelves of food that I might buy in London is a few rows in the very centre of a football field of “family packs” and convenience meals.

I have no idea what I bought in the end.  It was like an insulin overdose.  I lost all sense of direction.

America takes a bit of getting used to.

They are a strange kind friendly here.  They don’t really say hello, or wave on the road…  But they talk to you a lot at the shop counter.

As we were driving into our house I waved at an older woman walking two terriers.  She looked at me as if to say “if these dogs were only bigger, I’d set them on you.”

<<< — >>>

BREWSTER WHITECAPS — I’ve got four kids with me at a local evening baseball game.  Brewster Whitecaps against the Hyannis Mets.  The grandad from Ohio in front explains the Cape Cod summer baseball league has been going for almost 125 years.

There’s something lovely and peaceful about baseball.  Even the players look well-fed, comfortable and languid.

<<< — >>>

ON THE PORCH WITH THE TIMES — I love the New York Times.  The business pages are full of challenging articles.  I said to one of my holiday buddies that I missed the fact that we don’t have Yahoo, Microsoft or Nokia as clients at the moment.  But we have had them in the past.  And I always liked that because I could really find the enthusiasm to read all about the battles in that sector. 

There’s so much change going on in business at the moment.  And what I love about the United States of America is that the rules are never really accepted.  Things change… and people need to adapt.  In their own special way, innovation is always welcome here.  Today I am excited and amazed by Polyvore – a website that allows you to create your own fashion ads.  In June they had more traffic than Vogue and InStyle.  They’re set up by two asian and a fellow from India… in California!

Then there’s the story of the pharma ads that fill US TV.  I wrote last February about the unsettling “4 hour erections” that Viagra warns of in the middle of the afternoon.  (You can find them on YouTube but then prepare for a lifetime of spam.)  Now the Federal Government is starting to react to pleas to call your doctor about ‘urinary urgency’, ‘deficient eyelashes’, ‘restless leg syndrome’ and the like.

Apparently you might not be able to get a tax break on these soft-music ads as a business expense any more.  America is going to ‘just say no’ to prescription drugs.

No worries.  There’s $1.5 billion in sales for just the top two erectile dysfunction drugs.  Their $320 million in add sales will pop up in the economy somewhere else…  And I am guessing someone in America is already thinking about where that will be.

Bless.

/df

ON THE 14 — I like hearing about these things.  It may even be a wind-up, but it makes me happy.

Have you ever heard of steampunk?

It’s a club, dance movement.  Apparently.  The music is goth in the US, but in the UK it’s a more pleasant mix of music hall, jazz and… punk.  Try The [...]]]>

ON THE 14 — I like hearing about these things.  It may even be a wind-up, but it makes me happy.

Have you ever heard of steampunk?

It’s a club, dance movement.  Apparently.  The music is goth in the US, but in the UK it’s a more pleasant mix of music hall, jazz and… punk.  Try The Men That Will Not be Blamed for Nothing as a sample of it.

And the basis is a throwback to Victorian style, the industrial revolution and the values that go with all that.  People dress up in goggles and pith helmets… Anything ancient and crank-shaft like.

What I like about it is that it has a socio-political explanation as well.  It’s a hearkening back to ’simpler’ times… Before quantitative easing or double dip recessions, when we could debate real issues like the proposal of that madman Darwin about the monkeys thing.

What’s not to like about that?

What is potentially of interest to people who won’t be going down to the clubs in a hurry (that’s me) is the idea that we are returning to some more small-c conservative viewpoints.  That will influence company values, strategies and what people look for in their employment.

/df

HOME — I do like to watch shows that I shouldn’t like.  Or shows that seem like they’ll be good for you.  And Ian Hislop’s Changing of the Bard about the ‘great’ British tradition of Poet Laureate is one of those.

I didn’t know much about the role.  Not as much as I thought I did [...]]]>

HOME — I do like to watch shows that I shouldn’t like.  Or shows that seem like they’ll be good for you.  And Ian Hislop’s Changing of the Bard about the ‘great’ British tradition of Poet Laureate is one of those.

I didn’t know much about the role.  Not as much as I thought I did anyway.  But now I do.  And I think I am uniquely qualified.

I am British.  (Just.)

I am definitely a more personable character than Ted Hughes.  I have better facial hair than Tennyson – by far.  But that may not be enough.

I also love poetry.  And in a different time, when one could make a living writing verse, I would have jumped in with both feet.  The fact that I can’t spell shouldn’t hold me back.  (Try reading Shakespeare in the original.)  And nor should the fact that my earliest poetic musing were in French.  (One of our first Poet Laureate’s patrons couldn’t even speak English.)

But what a job!  I’d love it.

So, without wanting to launch a reality-TV style competition for the next naming… a little less than 10 years from when the role will come up again… here’s my submission for your consideration.

Take your time.  We’ve got a few years yet.

On Royal soil

What the hell happened to our life in the noughties?
Politicians have once again lost their senses
And we can’t stop the Tele from talking expenses
Let’s flush them out like pheasant for Royal retirees

Chung, clack, BOOOM!
Chung-a, chung-a, clack… BOOOM!
Squaak, flutter / flutter… plunk.

What does the new world order hold for Britain?
Noble bankers we were, but now it seems we’re not
What do we do with the suits we have bought?
The right to dress up’s in the Constitution we haven’t written

‘Point of order!’ BOOOM!
‘Mister Speaker, sir…?’ BOOOM!
‘Where’d they all go?’ Go… go…

I know.  It’s amazing.  What am I doing sitting behind this desk?

/df

HAMMERSMITH — I am meeting my friend Gillian today for a tea.  She’s become a bit of a corporate goodness guru.  And I love talking to her.

Personally, I am still unsure about CSR programmes and how they fit with company communications and change.  Is that a bad thing to admit?

I suspect it is.

I believe strongly [...]]]>

HAMMERSMITH — I am meeting my friend Gillian today for a tea.  She’s become a bit of a corporate goodness guru.  And I love talking to her.

Personally, I am still unsure about CSR programmes and how they fit with company communications and change.  Is that a bad thing to admit?

I suspect it is.

I believe strongly that organisations and corporations need to develop means and processes to behave more consistently as “good corporate citizens”.  Better regulations for banks, for example.  And environmental standards, and connections into the community, are all good things.

But I am less sure about PR-driven CSR programmes.

Let me give you two examples:

1. A global resource business that wants to be known and appreciated for it’s environmental record and concerns…

…which is just not going to happen.   When your primary business is taking stuff from the earth — that you cannot replace — it is unreasonable to be expected to be seen as a poster-child for the environment.

Does that mean you shouldn’t do the responsible, environmental, community-focused work?  Of course not.  What it does mean though is that we need another reason to do it… Other than that it can be good PR.

2. A company in the Arab world, that is government owned.  It does a sizable number of amazing things.

If employees need to buy a house the business will collect cash and pass it on to the employee.

If a local school needs to be built, the company just does it.  No naming rights.  No gala openings.  Kids just get taught.

If an employee loses a relative, the business pays for the funeral arrangements.

What do you do with that?  It is serious CSR.  But it’s also driven by religious and cultural norms.  It’s just “the way we do things around here.”  Publicising it actually runs against the reasons why they do it.

The problem I am getting to here is that “corporate social responsibility”, “sustainable development”, community outreach, volunteering programmes… have all got their own reasons to exist.  And they are many.  And they need to be many.  That is where the value of CSR is, in shaping the complete view of the business.  They can’t be a tactic for building a reputation, they need more reasons to exist than that.  They need to be one of the ways that a business succeeds.  They need to check a dozen different boxes:

- Employees can participate
- Employees want to  participate
- The business takes more responsibility in the community
- Governments have to spend less
- Needy situations get addressed faster
- New expertise is developed

That’s a bad list.  But there can be a good one.

/df