Crisis Communications Podcast with Gerard Braud
As I mentioned in my CommaKazi Speek blog, it was an eery coincidence that I was moderating a comment here from Gerard Braud just minutes before the first shots would be fired on Monday morning at Virginia Tech.
Gerard and I today recorded a podcast on the topic of crisis communication that you can hear on my podcast site. I’m looking forward to learning more about the importance of leadership in crisis communications when I join a group of communicators this June to participate in Gerard’s pre-conference workshop and bus tour prior to the start of the IABC International Conference in New Orleans.
April 23rd, 2007 at 7:18 am
Tom,
While I’m not crazy about the spelling of your blog’s title, I feel I have to request correct spelling in the body copy. It’s “eerie,” not “eery.”
April 23rd, 2007 at 9:39 am
Wilma, thanks for correcting the misspelling of eerie, and for giving me an opportunity to explain the spelling of my blog title.
I chose to use “Speek,” rather than “Speak” because this is a new form of communication that is part “speech” (conversation) and part writing. It is electronic, and I considered whether to use a lowercase “e” in front of a word; e.g., e-mail (although I prefer “email”), eWorkforce, eBusiness.
Instead, I substituted the second “e” for the “a” in speak, and named my blog, “CommaKazi Speek.”
Creating a new form of a common word also interested me because of a science fiction novel I read in my youth. The author of that novel created a new language that I had to learn to understand the novel. That was one of the first times that I understood that language is ever-changing and remains fresh and exciting–so long as we embrace the changes.
Why our grandchildren may even use the word “eery” someday. I, on the other hand, will avoid its use in this blog and elsewhere!
April 25th, 2007 at 8:03 pm
George Orwell, author of “1984″ had a somewhat different take on the deliberate creation of new words and languages. In short, he saw it as a divisive influence, used by those in power to suppress opposition.
An example that stands out in my mind had to do with the early colonial slave trade. These merchants of human cargo would deliberately comingle captives from different tribes in the holds of their ships before setting sail to the Americas. By doing so, they assured themselves of a relatively peaceful voyage knowing their prisoners couldn’t easily communicate with each other to foment mischief or worse.
In the U.S. today, all one has to do is to listen dispassionately to the debates taking place on all matters of global importance. Highly complex and technical arguments are rendered all but opaque by buzzwords, the sloppy use of language, inflammatory rhetoric, infantile name-calling, illogic, and a general inability of even the educated to articulate coherent points of view.
We don’t need even more linguistic debris turning our communication into cancer simply because it’s cute, novel, trendy, or personally intriguing.
April 26th, 2007 at 4:09 am
Words can be a weapon or a balm, Ron. Sometimes, they can also point to a changing world. Speek, to me, is a word that points to a different way to communicate–electronically, yet in a conversation. We don’t have to be afraid to adapt just because someone will think we’re cute, novel, or trendy. We don’t have to adapt if we don’t want to either. Language is fluid, but new words and phrases typically aren’t universally accepted overnight.
I hope that, with whatever language you choose to use, you find ways to be a balm. People are being enslaved even today across the globe–it isn’t a past-tense matter. That’s more important than the use of a word like “speak” or “speek.” This is not a debate on a matter of global importance.
April 26th, 2007 at 7:57 am
Tom,
I am compelled to jump into this conversation.
Our purpose in writing or speaking is to be understood. We use words, syntax, punctuation, inflection and body language to help our audience get the message we are imparting. We shouldn’t be doing anything that gets in the way of understanding.
To me, “CommaKazi Speek” is the electronic version of a logo: everybody has to have one, it has to be unique (cute) and it comes out as meaningless. If I want to read something that Tom Keefe has written, I’m going to look up “Tom Keefe” and not a made-up word that has no meaning to me (although it clearly has meaning to you).
When I try to figure out what “CommaKazi Speek” means, I determine that the first word connotes an all-out attack on commas (or all punctuation?) and the second word is a deliberate misspelling of “Speak.”
“Kamikazi” in its original form has a wonderful definition: “divine wind.” In the WWII re-definition, it became associated with suicide attacks by by pilots who would aim for and dive their plans into battle ships.
It never occurred to me that “Speek” was a combination of “speak” and “speech.”
If we have to keep explaining ourselves to our readers, we may not be doing the best job we can of expressing ourselves.
The English language has evolved from a few thousand words in its infancy to half a million today. In the interest of clear understanding, we might consider using some of them.
And, yes, the use of language — and all its interpretations — is most definitely a matter of global importance!
April 26th, 2007 at 9:25 am
Wilma, the “About” page on my blog explains the origin of CommaKazi. I just added the information about “Speek” there.
You might visit websites dealing with contemporary slavery, genocide, and environmental decay — it may compel you to jump into advocacy for matters of more global importance than the choice of Speek vs Speak.
If you visit the above-mentioned sites and then still believe that Speek vs. Speak is of “gobal importance” (we were only discussing that and my misspelling of eerie)–then I have to bow out of this discussion to keep my head from exploding.
April 29th, 2007 at 8:06 am
… so as you were saying Tom — the topic is Crisis Communications.
Here’s a Sunday morning thought for you — As communicators, we have the ability to save lives.
Let me say it again:
As communicators…WE HAVE THE ABILITY TO SAVE LIVES!!!
That thought struck me in Mass the morning as the priest discussed the horrors of the Virginia Tech shootings.
To set the scene, I’m sitting on my front porch swing on a beautiful Sunday morning at 10:30 a.m. . Jazzfest is going on 30 minutes away in New Orleans and I wish I were there. Instead, I’m working on handouts for a teleseminar I’m teaching this week, examining the VT shootings and how communications could have saved lives.
Whenever I sit here on the porch, I lament about what my yard looked like before Hurricane Katrina. Katrina blew down a dozen large oaks and pines, half of which use to shade my front yard. I love working in the yard and sitting on the swing, but I’m never able to sit or work here without a visual image of it the way it used to be pre-K. I suppose I’ve got a bit of posttraumatic stress. I thank God I have a house, but the soul can’t help but grieve what it has lost.
In Katrina — At VT — Where each person works — Communications can save lives. Nearly 1000 people died in Katrina because Ray Nagin failed to communicate. Twenty-nine people died at VT because the university did not communicate fast enough. I look at photos of the faces of the dead at VT and I can’t help but see the face of my oldest daughter and her Facebook friends at LSU. We lost 29 sweet lives in part because of a poorly written and poorly executed crisis plan — a plan that had almost nothing about communications in it.
That is both eerie and eery.
Now it’s time to get back to my work and my Bloody Mary. I’m on a mission to save lives. God bless those we’ve lost because of the sins of failed communications. (Regardless of their spelling errors.)
[Disclaimer: as a child with a speech impediment who indured 2 years of speech theropy and eventually went on to have a 15 year career as a TV reporter and currently speaks at conferences around the word -- please know that for some of us, spelling is as much a disability for us as it is for a person with legs that don't walk. All the spell checking in the world can't guarantee us a document with perfect spelling.FYI - there are 2 misspelled words in this disclaimer.]
May 4th, 2007 at 1:42 pm
1/ it was the “Kazi” part that bothered me. To close to Nazi for my taste. Talked to a guy at the Toronto car show who won’t buy anything German because of unhappy memories, half a century later.
2/ isn’t “balm” a great word? Sounds just like “bomb” yet means the opposite.
3/ “battleshiips” is one word and correct, in context.
4/ Regarding, “Our purpose in writing or speaking is to be understood.” Maybe I spend too much time watching CNN and reading newspapers quoting politicians and people from universities, but it seems to me they are intentionally providmg words to be misunderstood. But, yes, mostly, I’m in agreement. Thus “fanny” and “table” should not be used when the Queen is visiting the United States of America.
5/ I’m still trying to figure out how “communication” would have reduced deaths at Virginia Tech, once we get past having the mental hospital noiify the gun registration people that the shooter was nuts.
Best I can come up with is having a dozen cops cars with loudspeakers drive up and down all the streets surrounding the multitude of buildings that make up this 25,000 student school, with “Run and hide! Some loony with a gun killed two people a while ago and we don’t know who the murderer is or what he or she looks like or where he or she is, so beware of everyone you seel! Everyone hold up your hands so everyone else can see you are gunless!”
6/ I’m willing to bet that sales are up over at the company that made the .22.
7/ My sympathies to all who experienced loss in New Orleans.
BAK
May 4th, 2007 at 8:04 pm
Thanks for the observations, Brian.
As my blog’s “About” page explains, I came up with the moniker, “CommaKazi” a long time ago–way before I worked for a German company. But even then, I wondered whether people would misconstrue my reference to kamikazi. I knew that I could play it safe and not invite any references to the Nazis. But then I thought, why should we forever link anything ending in “azi” with Nazi Germany? Doesn’t that let hate-mongers win a little battle?
So instead, CommaKazi references a professional communicator who may be a little nuts at times, but who definitely is not dangerous.
Your more important question of how communications could have saved lives at Virginia Tech is timely. I just posted a follow-up podcast with Gerard Braud, who addresses that very question. Listen, because he makes a compelling case for how communications–and a crisis communications plan–could have saved most of the lives lost two weeks ago at Virginia Tech.
Tom
May 21st, 2007 at 11:37 am
[...] of the conference on IABC’s official blog, the IABC Cafe, was one I wrote related to a planned crisis communications preconference workshop. That post was on April 18. It was followed by two weeks of silence from the rest of the Cafe [...]