The Great Unwashed

I was browsing through the latest edition of Atlantic Monthly the other day, and was shocked to discover that women are cleaner than men. According to the intrepid researchers at the American Society of Microbiology, women are more likely to wash their hands after using a public restroom than men. Fortunately, we have upstanding corporate citizens like The Soap and Detergent Association, which has been protecting our right to be clean for the last 80 years and spending thousands of dollars to research firms, such as Harris Interactive, to prove these truisms in the first place.

"Good health is within reach," said Brian Sansoni, vice president of Communication at The Soap and Detergent Association. "Washing with soap and water is still the gold standard when it comes to removing dirt and grime from our hands."

Well, that's a relief. And I was starting to get real worried about the Avian flu.

Any father of two sons knows that boys can be a bit challenged when it comes to public cleanliness, and I gather than some men have continued these habits into adulthood. While it seems a little creepy to me that a group of scientists actually hung out at public bathrooms, clipboards in hand, measuring the hand washing activities of patrons, the SDA press release stresses these observers used discretion as they watched and recorded people at four heavily traveled locations, including Penn Station in New York.

For the public record, Harris' "observational" study involved 6,336 adults, presumably in the correct, gender specific washrooms. Ninety percent of the women washed their hands; only 75 percent of the men followed the same practice. In Penn Station, men did even worse. They used soap dispensers only 64 percent of the time.

As a onetime commuter at Penn Station and an occasional user of the facilities there, I can attest this particular survey may be a little skewed. Soap wasn't always an option during my visits, nor did the faucets always feature running water. Experienced travelers know a portable dispenser of Purell hand sanitizer can be handy in these situations.

Of course, when later contacted by phone interviewers, men lied by a wide margin that they indeed wash their hands in restrooms (96 percent), but sadly both genders scored poorly when it comes to washing their hands after they sneeze or cough.

As another sign of the coming apocalypse, the survey also noted that our hygiene habits are actually on the decline, and have been so for the last seven years. Apparently, the Visigoths in the Capital One TV commercials have managed to escape into mainstream society.

The good folks at the SDA should be commended for encouraging all of us to adopt good public health practices (and sell more soap in the process), and I can't fault Mr. Sansoni for manufacturing news through creative research. Some organizations will pick unusual ways to get a little attention.

For example, if an appeal to the latent paranoia that characterizes our risk adverse society does not work, try sex. Reuters recently noted that UK employees schedule out of office meetings on Friday afternoon as "an excuse for a rendezvous with their lover" according to research commissioned by Genesys Conferencing. Just another good reason for your boss to insist you use that conferencing bridge instead.

The Internet promotes a democracy of information that erodes the editorial oversight of news professionals assigned to determine what's newsworthy. So all of us need to adopt the same "buyer beware" practices we deploy when we approach any goods or service. As a former news assignments editor, I would like to think I know what I would have done if I had received SDA's press release as I planned my news lineup for the day.

Then I would have made sure to wash my hands.

For Adults Only

The season came to a depressing close for the local high school football team last weekend, as they lost to its traditional Thanksgiving Day rival.

It was a strange year. Midway through the season, the team's coach tried to kick off the squad an alledged malcontent who apparently used some poorly selected words on the sidelines during a game. The school administration intervened and thought a more appropriate punishment would be a one game suspension. Peeved at this slight and with no one on either side willing to compromise, all the coaches resigned, leaving the high school principal, some parents, and finally a few "professionals" to guide the squad through its final four games, all losses.

The kids worked hard to put their team in a reasonable position to finish with a winning record and possibily reach the playoffs. Instead they got what might be perhaps a more important lesson.

Sometimes even the adults need adult supervision.

I pondered this same thought as I considered the status of former Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein this Thanksgiving. Two years ago, he was sharing turkey with Curt Schilling and his family, and setting the stage for one of the biggest trades in the team's history. This year, as the now unemployed Theo contempted what he might be thankful for this past year, the folks he left behind were putting the finishing touches on their own blockbuster deal, netting Josh Beckett, Mike Lowell, and Guillermo Mota as Florida begins a holiday sale of its high priced talent.

By all accounts, Theo happens to be a smart, likable fellow who had both the acumen and good fortune to preside over one of the greatest three year runs in club history (the past three years have been great, but they still fall short of the magical 1915 to 1917 period, in which the Red Sox won two world championships in the first two seasons and finished second to the world champion White Sox in the third year).

In retrospective, it appears that Theo had his dream job, but not his dream manager. In the November 28th issue of Fortune Magazine (one of a number of business publications that have seized upon this story) team owner John Henry admits that a "trust" issue existed between Theo and his boss/mentor Larry Lucchino, who originally hired Theo as an intern at the Baltimore Orioles and groomed him over the years to be in a position to assume the lofty post of general manager at the tender age of 28.

Fortune likes to spread the blame around. Maybe Theo chafed under Larry's "hand-on" approach. Maybe John should have intervened when he noticed that Theo and Larry's negotiations were not going well. Maybe Theo should have shown a little more maturity, and recognized that some of his "success" involved a fair amount of luck (His manager's first choice for DH in 1993 was Jeremy Giambi, whose overall ineffectiveness opened up an opportunity for David Ortiz).

But most of all, maybe Theo should have realized that even dream jobs contain imperfect moments. I'm fortunate. I have had many dream jobs in my career, in which the good stuff outweighed the bad stuff. I learned over time to appreciate the bad stuff; it helps keep your perspective on what's really important--like finding time for family and friends.

Despite all the hand wringing within the hyped-up Boston sports media about Theo's departure (ever wonder how many of these writers or commentators might pass baseball's new drug testing for amphetamines?), the recent Beckett trade confirms what Larry himself told the press a few weeks ago. The Red Sox are bigger than any one person, and while Theo will be missed, the kids left in charge can rely on some seasoned veterans , such as Bill Lajoie and Jeremy Kapstein, for advice and counsel. For whatever faults he might have, Larry does appreciate the value of adult supervision.

Theo walked away from millions of dollars to pursue his quixotic request for the perfect situation. We all wish him luck. If he finds the magic formula, I'm sure all of us in the real world will be eager to apply it to our own lives as well.

Pecking Order

Public relations professionals can take comfort knowing that their bosses regard them more highly than some turkeys.

A new telephone survey by Harris Interactive concluded that business leaders at Fortune 1000 companies give high marks for the effectiveness of PR, with 84 percent saying that it raises awareness about public issues and 81 percent saying it brings attention to issues that the news media might not normally cover.

"The good news is that business leaders we surveyed realize the value that public relations brings to the decision-making table," said Judith T. Phair, president and CEO of the Public Relations Society of America, who can be assured these new statistics will end up on PR agency sales presentations everywhere. "More challenging to the public relations profession is that it shows there may be some misunderstanding about what we do and how we do it."

This "misunderstanding" stems from a lingering public distrust for PR professionals. A high percentage of those consumers surveyed (85 percent) said that public relations professionals occasionally take advantage of media by providing misleading information that favors their clients. At least a slim majority was willing to accept that PR people do try to present fair and balanced information to the public.

Harris did not include turkeys in its recent poll, although some shared their opinions directly with one PR practitioner, according to a recent Wall Street Journal article. Betsy Kosheff, a PR consultant in Western Massachusetts, found herself running for her life as 30 turkeys chased her during her jog along a back road in the Berkshires. Fortunately, she was rescued by a friend driving by in her pickup truck, but not before the turkeys forced Betsy to run several times around the vehicle. "It was like that scene in the The Birds," except there was no phone booth," she said.

Wild turkeys now number in the millions in the United States, and multiple news reports of turkey attacks suggest that some of them may be out for revenge.

There are few things on this earth more macho than male turkeys. As Toms encounter people in suburbia, they automatically assign humans a lower slot in the pecking order of the flock, and they are not afraid to demonstrate their dominance through aggressive behavior. Some communications people may be all too familiar with clients who adopt the same technique.

Naturalists who study turkeys suggest that often you need to take a "Three Stooges" approach with Toms. Slap them around a few times and don't be afraid to use a broom. They will quickly realize who is the boss.

If client relations were only that easy.

It Bloggles the Mind

(This article first appeared in PR Week in 2001)

Since it burst upon the public consciousness in the mid-nineties, the Internet has represented a major challenge for the public relations industry. The Web disrupts our carefully cultivated relationship with the mass media, which for decades served as our primary channel for communicating our client's messages through stories or events. An explosion of alternative sources of information on the Web occurred mostly outside of the control of the editors and producers of traditional media.

The latest extension of this phenomenon are weblogs, commonly known as blogs. These not-so-private "personal" diaries have been around since the early days of the Web, but two critical developments have pushed blogs beyond cult status. First, a number of services, such as Blogger, allow users to post their thoughts for free through a series of easy to use Web tools. Just pick a template, fill out a form, and push the button to upload. Voila. You are a Web publisher.

Second, some weblogs, such as MetaFilter or Slashdot, serve as human portals; they encourage commentary and interaction by stringing together links to content that reflect a consistent theme or opinion. As Rebecca Blood notes in her unofficial history of weblogs, these human portals reach significant audiences when they "provide a valuable filtering function for their readers. The web has been, in effect, pre-surfed for them."

On the surface, weblogs represent another way to monitor the motivations and interests of a specific audience. Equally important, their popularity confirms that people have a natural affinity to express themselves online, as long as you give them intuitive tools that make it easy to participate.

Organizations can incorporate a variant of weblog technology within their own Web sites to actively encourage public consensus around an idea, a product or a company. Blogs provide a natural forum for marshalling support around any grassroots initiative; they open a new channel for the public to express and communicate their advocacy. By extension, corporations that use blogs as an adjunct of their own Web sites can build a dialogue with their customers or constituents.

As public relations practitioners, we should actively seek ways to speak directly to our audiences, to find out their interests, and answer their questions. We should build our Web sites around technologies that make it simple for these audiences to respond directly to us. When we accomplish that goal, we capture the true spirit of the blog phenomenon.

Pax Hubris

When I was senior in college, I took an honors thesis class on European history that examined the period between the two world wars. My classmates had some spirited debates about the role of the "common people" and whether they had any influence on the big political decisions that shaped that era.

I held a fairly conservative viewpoint--the people in power write history. I agreed that democratic nations, such as Britain or France, remained highly sensitive to public will, and crafted their decisions with an eye towards future elections. I could not, however, be swayed by any argument that suggested that Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy or Stalinist Russia followed similar public impulses.

I suspect a similar debate will continue to wage about blogs and their growing impact on the world around us. When Business Week addressed the issue earlier this year, I found its enthusiasm a little breathless, similar to e-commerce seers who held a collective sway at the end of the last century. Even during my days as an Web consultant, I always felt that the Internet is foremost a decentralizing communications tool that shifts the editorial power of the media elites to a much wider group spanning from corporate marketers to angst-ridden teenagers.

Personally, I believe that blogs tap into old human impulses. Deep down most of us have an innate bit of arrogance that we let out of its cage once and awhile. We all want to feel that we have something important to say, and that our lives should be viewed with more respect than cosmic dust.

I've watched this phenomena from the sidelines, and I thought it might be fun to join the conversation without, hopefully, adding to the cacophony. My boss has a motto on his desk that make sense to any budding blog editor--never bore. That's about as fine a goal as anyone can achieve, no matter what the endeavor.