Expert Lessons in Strategic Communication

I  was privileged to have two brilliant guest speakers join my strategic communication course at the U.S. Army War College (Carlisle, PA) over the last few days. The course is one of several electives offered by the Center for Strategic Leadership this spring to senior military officers and government civilians from the United States and 66 other nations. Fellow faculty members Dennis Murphy and Ben Leitzel assist in teaching our strategic communication course to eight senior military and government service students from the United States, Zambia, Poland, and Lithuania.

Rear Admiral Hal Pittman

On March 30, U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Hal Pittman (biography) talked to students about the strategic communication program conducted by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) based in Kabul, Afghanistan. Rear Admiral Pittman, a U.S. Navy public affairs officer based at U.S. Central Command in Tampa, FL, just returned from one year in Afghanistan as the ISAF Deputy Chief of Staff for Communication. He provided our class with a fascinating briefing on what has to rank as one of the most sophisticated and complex political-military strategic communication programs achieved to date.

I described his briefing in more detail on the DIME Blog of the Center for Strategic Leadership, U.S. Army War College. Click the following link to read my post. You can also click this link to read and download an unclassified set of slides that Rear Admiral Pittman used to illustrate his briefing about the ISAF strategic communication program.

On April 10, our class hosted a visit by Mr. Ron Rhody (biography), an award-winning journalist, book author, corporate public relations executive, and consultant to Fortune 500 companies. Mr. Rhody is also a member of the U.S. Army War College’s Strategic Communication Council, which includes senior counselors like Harold Burson, founder and chairman of Burson-Marsteller; and Ed Block, founding director of the Arthur Page Society. Mr. Rhody was escorted by Dr. Frank Kalupa, Professor of Communication Studies, James Madison University. Dr. Kalupa served as the 2010-2011 Visiting Professor of Strategic Communication at the Center of Strategic Leadership, U.S. Army War College.

Mr. Ron Rhody

Mr. Rhody offered an insightful description of strategic communication from the perspective of corporate communication. This lesson served as a valuable companion to what we teach our students about government strategic communication. First, strategic communication is an essential senior leader function. According to Mr. Rhody, “I can’t think of a Fortune 500 company today that doesn’t count strategic communications as a crucial part of its overall operating plan.” Mr. Rhody elaborated that the key to successful operations is creating by-in among strategic audiences, or “the ability to understand your constituents’ wants and needs and find ways to associate their interests with your actions.” Furthermore, “The strongest single tool for achieving this is communication.”

This leads to the goal of corporate strategic communication: “to get people to do something, not do something, or let us [the corporation] do something…. Because they see how their self-interest is served.”

I am an advocate of research, planning, and evaluation in communication strategy. Communication is more than simply pumping out tactical messages. Therefore, I was gratified to hear Mr. Rhody stress the importance of the planning process in strategic communication. Here is his list of planning essentials: 

1. Be clear on the objective.
2. Be clear on who must be reached.
3. Determine what the audience needs to know, or think, or believe in order to hold opinions or take actions that support your objective.
4. Fashion messages and assemble information that will be persuasive and motivating to specific audiences; and then re-enforce those messages with actions that validate them (e.g., do what you say you will do).
5. Set an action timetable and provide sufficient resources (money, people, etc.).
6. Assign responsibilities to put the plan into action, then monitor, evaluate, and adjust as needed. 

In closing, I will share some universal words of wisdom provided by Mr. Rhody, which have obviously contributed in no small way to his success. This advice applies equally well to public relations as it does to strategic communication, so students, take note:

1. Always assume that anything that can go wrong will, so be prepared.
2. Make sure you have the facts.
3. Take the initiative and tell what you know, when you know it.
4. Get all the bad news out as rapidly as possible … or suffer dying by a thousand cuts.
5. Tell it straight … avoid spin.
6. Take the story directly to your constituents, in your words, with your facts.
7. Try to do what’s right.

If you are wondering how to achieve the kinds of success enjoyed by experts like Rear Admiral Pittman and Mr. Rhody, here’s a suggestion: become a student, study them, and follow their advice. If it works for them, it probably will work for you, too. Click this link for a copy of presentation slides provided by Rear Admiral Pittman. Click the following link for a copy of Mr. Rhody's talking points. You can also follow Rear Admiral Pittman on Facebook and Mr. Rhody on his blog.