Build a Garden
For the last several years, as the world has slid into what seems like a Dali-esque reality, I’ve found myself singing along with an acoustic jam that Lukas Nelson released as one of his “Quarantunes” during the COVID-19 pandemic.
While you can find the produced version of the song on one of his last albums with Promise of the Real, I prefer the acoustic video. It reflects the time, place, and circumstances, and resonates more purely because of that.
The song speaks for itself, lyrically. I think we can also let it open up some conversations around the big picture decisions we make in marketing and communications—in particular, those involving service-oriented businesses and nonprofit organizations.
Take the Generational Approach
“I believe that every heart is kind / Some are just a little under-used / Hatred is a symptom of the times / Lost in these uneducated blues”
When we’re thinking about communications and content, it can be tempting to think in terms of right now and immediate conditions or needs. The problem is, that’s a recipe for scattershot messaging and broadcasting a sense of waffling about your purpose and value from campaign to campaign.
What the most stable organizations do, instead, is to tie their identity and foundation to a generational concept of purpose. Think about it … Charles Schwab, GE (et al), Doctors Without Borders, the Smithsonian Institution … they’ve been household names for 50 years, a century, or more.
Each one is working in a field with a tremendously long horizon and regular fits of volatility that directly affect the business and its customers, donors, or beneficiaries. But do you remember the steady identity and presence? Or the last content initiative, campaign, or communication you saw?
Consciously Avoid Reactivity
“I just want to love you while I can / All these other thoughts have me confused / I don't need to try and understand / Maybe I'll get up, turn off the news”
This is why you don’t remember those most recent communications. Each of these name-drops is currently addressing current affairs, industry conditions, and mission-critical concerns in their content. But they are each taking a deliberate approach driven by their long-term knowledge.
To do that, a business needs to have a very strong sense of purpose and a culturally ingrained focus that forces every messaging, campaign, and content decision to be weighed in the light of both legacy and possibility—not present circumstances in isolation.
Taking a more journalistic view of current affairs can help an organization develop this discipline. That means reading your reality with curiosity and analytical thinking, so you can identify a way to meaningfully participate in the wider dialog, rather than reacting to sensationalism.
Wear the White Hat
“Trust builds trust / All that negativity's a bust”
When surrounding conditions are chaotic or concerning, solutions stand out. Especially in the era of social media and user-generated content, the repetition of opinion and data snippets is exhausting for your audience. Remember, they’re getting it at work and home.
So take your time to speak, and when you do, offer something meaningful and valuable. That doesn’t have to be a product or service. It may simply be perspective, knowledge, wisdom, or a sense of calm amid the storm. All of those things reflect positively on your organization and contribute to your audience members’ decision to interact with you now or later.
Be the trustworthy expert who makes their experience simpler, clearer, and calmer. In every cowboy movie, the audience knows the white hats will ride in and take care of things. Be that reliable presence they can expect.
Understand What Is Fact and What Is Truth
“Turn off the news and build a garden / Just my neighborhood and me / We might feel a bit less hardened / We might feel a bit more free”
This is a core principle of communications, and it’s more important than ever. Facts are concrete, verifiable, objective pieces of information that are not subject to opinion or belief. Truth reflects the application of subjective value or context to facts.
A great example is the story of the blind men and the elephant. Each of the men touched some part of the elephant and deduced facts: rough, flat, etc. They then applied contextual subjectivity to tell the truth about what they believed they’d touched: a tree, a hose, a plant frond, etc. (Of course, without bringing their beliefs together in consultation, they were missing the overarching reality that it was an elephant.)
When you communicate how circumstances affect your audience, remember to clearly distinguish fact, “This is what was said; here is the video,” from truth, “and this is what it means for you in the context of your relationship with us.” That’s the foundation for your discussion of solutions.
Present the Possibility with Humility
“Turn off the news and raise the kids / Give them something to believe in / Teach them how to be good people / Give them hope that they can see”
An audience, thanks simply to human nature, is highly likely to respond when you appeal to their sense of group identity or ability to join you in uplifting the common weal. So even when you propose your solution, consider how to position it as an invitation to a shared initiative.
While you might take the first steps and blaze the trail, when you’re thinking generationally, the path is one that you walk with people—not for them. You’re not solving their problem, but offering an opportunity for them to solve their own problem or overcome their own circumstances.
Sometimes, that requires acknowledging the relative simplicity of the shared activity in light of the magnitude or complexity of surrounding conditions. And that’s okay. Your audience is looking to you to be expert in what you do, how you do it, and how you run your business—so hew close to those areas when you offer solutions and you can’t go wrong.