Summer Solstice: I Hope This Email Doesn’t Find You

But if this email does find you, hello and happy summer solstice!

I love how winter solstice makes us hibernate and how summer solstice makes us play. It’s especially true in Seattle, where a couple of warm days make everyone so sun-drunk they start every conversation with: “OH MY GAWWWD. Can you BELEEEEEVE this weather?![i]”

I love it! It’s a delightful time to be alive. There’s a lot of extra daylight hours and I’m only spending a few of them getting therapy on Instagram[ii].

There is so much winning and learning to be excited about!

At least, I’m trying hard to always be doing one or the other, winning or learning. But look around:

Our civic and social lives are coming back to life. I’m tired of WFH and am coming downtown a lot. I love being on the bus with my neighbors again, and shopping, eating and meeting downtown. Seattle is shaping an important chapter in our country’s post-pandemic urban life, and it’s interesting to watch.

I like it when people can find good jobs in an urban core: It’s good for equity, families, communities and the environment. I hear the concerns about “big business,” but at this point, big employers are more solution than problem. Let’s leverage the good, mitigate the bad and keep moving forward.

Reenergizing downtown is going to take perseverance and flexibility, but we have that. Shout out to the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber, the Downtown Seattle Association, and all the BIDs. They are steadfast in making the case for responsible and community-based growth. And frankly, if you don’t like big business, you’d better be busting your butt to support small businesses.

Old-fashioned pandemics and new-fangled technology are pushing more long-term strategic thinking. One of the great joys of my professional life is the opportunity to work across industries. In government, private industry, public safety, health care and the arts, I’m noticing more forward-thinking. There are still plenty of media crises, but there are also calls in anticipation of problems, and that’s better for everyone.

Instead of just putting out fires, governing boards and executives are leaning into questions like:

“How will this choice affect our organization’s reputation in 1, 5, 10 years?”

“Are we hiring the kinds of people who can lead through major disruption and transformation?”

“Are we investing enough in staff development, support, and cohesion?”

If a CEO is afraid of bad press and that motivates preventative action, halle-fricking-lujah. Fear can be healthy in galvanizing us to get ahead of problems, but not if you ignore it. That’s why you need a media or communications lead at the very top of executive decision-making. You need them there in the context of both problem identification and the development of major initiatives. But too often, internal comms staff and your communication consultants are brought in at the end to “sell it” or “fix the story.”

 That’s dumb. Reputation and information dissemination are essential tools in achieving success. Incident Command structure recognizes the operational importance of communications. Public Information Officers are in command staff, at the director’s right hand – not buried in some other section or department. All decisions should be made with both communication projections and revenue projections in mind. We can see around corners, is what I’m saying.

 That said, there is progress here. And interestingly, more executive leaders are being promoted from communications, which is great news. These are people who understand the importance of culture, trust, sensitivities, audiences, messaging and perception. What better skill set for a CEO?

Don’t get drunk on the good stuff: The state of media is concerning. In one ear, my client-friends complain about inaccurate and unfair coverage. In the other ear, my reporter-friends complain about irrational management expectations, or they just quit.

Reporting was always hard work, but because media owners failed to find a sustainable business model for good journalism, reporters are getting pushed harder to produce more content on tighter deadlines. Add to the mix: news-regurgitation websites with the nutritional content of Cheetos. The result is a degradation of overall quality (see: basic economics).

Of course reporters make mistakes, and can be lazy, rushed, careless, poorly edited and overly dramatic[iii]. I’m not excusing lazy reporting; it pisses me off. But it’s also true that we can’t expect good product from people working under crap conditions in a dying industry. That impacts the communication business, but more importantly, our civic life. Something to keep an eye on.

 Don’t harsh my glow: Optimism is incredibly practical and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Here are three sunshiny-things for your June-uary.

1. The most expeditious way to minimize bad stuff is to maximize good stuff. Whether you’re responding to a bad media story or a bad day, an essential component of the short- and long-term response strategy is to pour good stuff into the glass/news cycle/your mind. You can’t make a bad story go away, but you can crowd it out with better stories. Watch the video sum it up.
   
   
2. It’s graduation speech season. Watch at least one. A graduation speech is such a gorgeous sexy challenge of rhetoric. There’s no audience-targeting allowed: You’ve got every generation, political stripe, origin story, walk of life, color, gender and hat size in front of you, and they are hot and bored. By the end of the speech, we must know the challenge is real, the sacrifice was worth it, and the kids are all right. I mean… wow.
   
   Reshma Saujani’s speech to Smith College on so-called “impostor syndrome” is so good. (In short: “They” want you to think of yourself as an imposter. You’re not. Don’t buy into their sh*t.) Patton Oswalt also has great political commentary in “To the graduating class of 2023, I say three words: you poor bastards.”
   
   
3. Optimism isn’t delusional, especially when you add realism and persistence. Simon Sinek explains toxic positivity versus optimism, which gets to this. So does the Stockdale Paradox[iv]. Even before them, though, was Aesop. The North Wind and the Sun[v] made a bet about who could get a traveler’s coat off. The North Wind blew, and the traveler held tight. The Sun shone (relentlessly, annoyingly), and the traveler dropped the coat.  

 That’s long enough. There’s work to be done, and a summer to enjoy. Get out of here. 

I’m so freaking tired of looking at my computer. Lemme know how it’s going with you– I’ve got a secret little downtown rooftop where we can sit and talk about all the things.

In the meantime, I’ve gotta go. I’ve got magazines to flip through (Smithsonian, Atlantic, HBR and the Esquire with Harrison Ford), books to read (Chemistry, The Art of Gathering, Why Should The Boss Listen To You), margaritas to make, and a pile of tennis shoes by the back door. 

Thank you, friends! You make life so good.

MK