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Communications Line - Number 54 of October 25 2007

Communications Line

Number 54 of October 25 2007
By John Bishop

A funny old day

There is a note in my diary for Monday 22 October, placed there many months ago. It reads ‘celebrate World Cup victory.’ Once upon a time we believed that it was possible, as if wishing something would make it so, that it was our turn, surely, and that we had the players, if only they would play to their potential. And there were many other pieces of wish fulfillment, self justification and supportive exclamation. Victory was as evident and as inevitable as the sun rising tomorrow. Well it wasn’t. In contrast to my own fears of earlier this year, the nation has responded bravely, handled defeat well and moved on reasonably quickly. I would advise the ref not to visit NZ in his current life time, but apparently a majority of us wish Mr Henry to continue. Because rugby says so much about what we are, I am offering three perspectives, and hope never to revisit the matter again.

The Strategy of Winning

In 2007 we used the same strategy as in 1999 and 2003. In all three cases we put our faith in a coach (and his assistants), in his approach and we backed his choice of players and did everything we could to assist that coach – even when we had doubts, qualms and on occasions were bloody upset and disgruntled with what was happening

Three times we have picked a so called wundercoach and backed his judgment. Three times we have failed. The failure of the 2007 All Blacks didn’t occur just at Cardiff Arms Park. It occurred well before the players even got on the plane for Europe. Arguably the strategy the NZRU has followed for over a decade is flawed.

The NZRU backed Henry all the way. Was there no occasion where they might have said no? Because giving the management absolute freedom to do as they will, and giving them everything they ask for, is not good governance; it’s corporate irresponsibility. Which may be why Jock Hobbs feels some responsibility for what happened – and rightly so.

In those circumstances the players are almost irrelevant – with perhaps a couple of exceptions they were the best thirty available. Certainly they had to perform, but if the structure is flawed and the strategy is unsound, it is hard to succeed, and because of that, the players may well feel that there was an element of “set up to fail’ about the whole deal.

Dealing with defeat

For what is it worth here is the John Bishop method for dealing with calamitous events. Step one; detach quickly. Make up your mind about the cause of the defeat (we were outplayed on the day is my verdict), and don’t deviate from that. Two, refuse to embark on any further discussion and debate; disengage totally. Three, distancing may help. I am now and have always been a Phoenix supporter – even before the club came into being, I was a supporter. And finally diversion. I use humour to divert attention and distract myself. That Sunday morning I sent out a message in French to various friends and colleagues, (allez les Bleus), but the French, unreliable bastards that they are, couldn’t carry the day against the Poms or the Argies. Buggeur!

It’s not the holocaust

A view common among non rugby followers is that it’s only a game, get over it. That’s fine, as far as it goes. The problem is that for us, it is not only a game. It is identity and happiness defining. But why? One reader asked “I wonder what people I know who have survived Cambodia, Vietnam, Stalin's Russia and the Holocaust make of it all. Fancy being seen bawling like a baby on nationwide television over a lost game.”

Compared to those tragedies (add 9/11 and the Boxing Day tsunamis) the catastrophe in Cardiff is nothing. But New Zealanders have not suffered and are unlikely to suffer such tragedies (earthquakes excepted). We don’t experience suffering comparable to concentration camps, divided countries, starvation, refugees, terrorism and the like, and the ‘luxury’ of this country is that we can indulge in the ‘tragedy’ of sporting defeat because it is (genuinely) the most significant tragedy in our collective lives. To understand that is to understand the role of sport and sporting drama in New Zealand.

“Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it's much more serious than that.” Bill Shankly, the legendary manager of Carlisle United and Liverpool Football Clubs, once said.

The police and the terrorists

The last time we had talk of terrorists seeking to overthrow the government was during the 1981 Springbok tour. In its aftermath obsessive conspiracy theorists like Ross Meurant (who ran the notorious Red Squad during the tour) used to rant in Parliament about the secret forces in the protest movement seeking to undermine law and order and decency.

Within hours of the raids the protagonists had staked out their positions. The raids were intrusive, an over reaction and affected the mana of the people they raided. They were done to support further anti-terrorism legislation to crack down on dissidents, activists and protestors. The alternative view is that the police had heir reasons. They acted lawfully and reasonably. Latte drinkers who lived in safe areas didn’t know what it was like ‘out there’, said the police's surrogate spinmeister, Greg O'Connor of the Police Association, and the intentions of ‘fringe groups’ were truly terrifying.

Neither perspective is helpful because neither perspective is about making sound judgments about the reality of the so called threat. It was a retreat to the polemical barricades, and it occurred immediately.

I don’t know what was happening up in the Ureweras. I don’t assume that armed insurrection was being planned, just because of some telephone intercepts from a eco-freak nut bar talking about declaring war on New Zealand, or because Tame Iti is involved, but I don’t dismiss the possibility of attacks on people and institutions either.

So far we have some charges under the Arms Act against people who apparently had some guns but no licences, and some other weapons which might be dangerous. So far, no napalm, no terrorist type explosives, and most importantly no conspiracy. Where the plans for an armed insurrection, the plot to blow up public buildings, and the evidence of preparation for political assassinations?

The political positioning is interesting. Helen Clark is making it clear the raids were a police operational decision. That’s protection for the government if the whole thing goes pear shaped. The coded message is: you are on your own Howard Broad, and don’t forget it.

Secondly, we have ACT’s Rodney Hide and the Green’s Keith Locke making common cause on the new legislation; representatives of the left and the right united by an aversion to state control of political activity. Thirdly if there were ever an opportunity for the police to stumble and for their reputation to fall in the eyes of the public this would have to be it. They are playing a very high stakes game, and if it turns out that there is no real threat, or if the raids were undertaken as some bizarre PR plan to revive their public standing, it will be open season on authority all round.

The protest movement is relishing the chance to rubbish the charges laid so far and the media is falling for it. One example; Close Up interviews Tame Iti’s family. And what do they say? Our Dad’s not a terrorist. What a surprise. Cutting edge current affairs at its best.

Back in the 1970s, the Maori activist group, Nga Tamatoa, talked about gathering weapons and there were even some tentative moves to do that. The rationale was that it was a defensive move, because the cops were out to get them, and self defence was called for, but whatever the reason, the move petered out. New Zealand has remained remarkably free of terrorism – from either left or right. Even the Trades Hall bombing that killed Ernie Abbott in 1984 was not ever claimed as a political act.

Nazi interrogators talk

Earlier this month a group of World War II veterans involved in interrogating Nazi suspects got together for the first time since the 1940s. Many of them lamented the chasm between the way they conducted interrogations during the war and the harsh measures used today in questioning terrorism suspects.

Back then, they wrestled with the morality of bugging prisoners' cells with listening devices. They felt badly about censoring letters. They took prisoners out for steak dinners to soften them up. They played games with them. "We got more information out of a German general with a game of chess or Ping-Pong than they do today, with their torture," said Henry Kolm, 90, an MIT physicist who had been assigned to play chess in Germany with Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess.

Several of the veterans, all men in their 80s and 90s, denounced the interrogation techniques currently used by the US military during award ceremonies in their honour. When Peter Weiss, 82, a human rights and trademark lawyer in New York City, went up to receive his award, he said "I am deeply honored to be here, but I want to make it clear that my presence here is not in support of the current war.” Levene Breaking News 7 October 2007

By the right?

Was there a swing to the right in the local government elections? And even if there were, what does that tell us about politics at a national level? In Auckland Dick Hubbard thought there was a swing to the right, while Yvonne Sharp from the Far North saw the mood as one for change. Both may be correct in their own terms. North of the harbour bridge, four mayors were swept away. In Auckland the centre right Citizen & Ratepayers group now controls the city council and John Banks is back as Mayor.

The centre left lost mayoralty races in Wellington, Lower Hutt, Hamilton, Auckland, and Christchurch, although the new Mayor of Manukau City, Len Brown, is regarded as left leaning. The centre right won the mayoralty races in Auckland City (Banks), Hamilton (Bob Simcock),Wellington (Kerry Prendergast), Lower Hutt (David Ogden), and Christchurch (Bob Parker).

Almost unnoticed, two former ACT Party MPs have climbed back into public life. Penny Webster won the mayoralty in Rodney, north of Auckland and Gerry Eckhoff, a Central Otago farmer who wanted to farm kiwis in order to save them, is now a member of the Otago Regional Council. ACT activist Aaron Bhatnagar also made it onto the Auckland City Council,

Where were the Voters?

Much has been made of the low turnout in the elections. Voter apathy is lamented and there has been much hand-wringing about the apparent disconnection of voters from local government. However it is worthwhile remembering that voters will turn out where there is a major issue facing a council, particularly where there is a vigourous contest. Major issues and vigourous contests have been missing in most places this time.

Secondly, councils are bound to consult citizens on just about any major initiative, and that means voters have a ready check on councils and can engage when the voters choose, not just at election time.

Thirdly voters also know that any action a council proposes that annoys or upsets even just a few streets worth of people, an action committee will be formed before anyone says Local Government Act.

There’ll be a telephone tree and an email group formed in five minutes. Pamphlets alerting resident to the supposed danger, risk and cost of the developer’s proposal and the council’s alleged inaction will be in letterboxes and there’ll be a public meeting in the local church hall within a week. People don’t have to engage at election time. They can engage anytime and they know it.

Where’s the Brand?

One of the remarkable things about the local government elections is the lack of party branding. Most candidates either label themselves as independent or they simply don’t have any affiliation at all. There are some who gather around a personality (Team Ray Wallace for example in Hutt City). Citizens & Ratepayers used to mean the National Party in disguise and perhaps still does, but they seem to be active only in Auckland. There are some City Visions or 2020 teams which generally connote a Labour leaning group.

Ironically the absence of parties in local government makes it harder to discern patterns as voters choose individuals because they have a public profile, (Christine Rankin in North Shore), or are known and liked (Kay Gregory in Hamilton), or because they are at least familiar (incumbent mayors and long serving councilors).

Very few candidates ran on a discernible party ticket like Green or Labour. Indeed individuals, who make up the vast majority of the candidates, generally seek to avoid political party labels and actively distance themselves from them, insisting that they are interested in “the wellbeing of the local people.”

But it certainly helps to have had some political experience or at least some public profile. Michael Laws in Wanganui, Neil Kirton in Hawkes Bay, Peter McCardle in Upper Hutt City, Penny Webster in Rodney, Gerry Eckhoff in Otago, Richard Northey in Auckland, Fran Wilde and Chris Laidlaw in Wellington have all been MPs. Barry Corbett, a city councillor in Christchurch was a radio announcer, and Jim Hopkins, now a councillor in Oamaru, is a nationally known personality.

It is also remarkable how few candidates ran on a Labour ticket. Even fewer won: none from four in Wellington. None from none in Dunedin. There are only two Labour badged city councilors in Auckland, and none at all in Wellington, Christchurch or Dunedin.

Newspaper wars

According to Jim Brady, the executive editor of washingtonpost.com, he and his team are “in a battle every day for traffic.” Why? Because “luring new readers means connecting with them on the Internet through interactivity,” according to Ragan’s Media Relations Report of 16 October. The New Zealand Herald features a lot of crime stories because crime is the “number one driver of trafficker to the Herald website, the company tells me. Website traffic also means eyeballs exposed to ads, which generate revenue. Crime, police and court stories are also cheap to get, occur frequently (more than daily) and are inherently exciting, shocking and are talked about.

Understanding a Podcast

Whirlpool, a major US whitewear company, has a podcast strategy that I can understand. Unlike so many of the other corporate podcast that seem to be more about fashion, participating in the trend, the desire to experiment, or not to be left out, here I can see the connection between the effort and the results.

"A podcast helps you connect with people on a more emotional level," says Dan Cook, Whirlpool's director of interactive marketing. "We cover topics that are important to the life of the everyday consumer, It's an opportunity for us to connect our brand to her, that is, to the typical buyer of a Whirlpool appliance.” Recent podcasts have covered sports injuries in children, the value of solar panels, food sensitivities in women and silicone breast implants.

Whirlpool never discusses its products within the show, limiting mention of the company to the beginning and end of each transmission. It gets 30 000 downloads a show, and the podcast has generated a host of mainstream media coverage for the company.
http://www.whirlpool.com/custserv/promo.jsp?sectionId=563

Credibility in Writing

I got a two page letter from a small body I am associated with. It was a newsletter really, giving information to clients about what had been happening, new services and the like. In those two pages I counted 43 errors of grammar, and punctuation. The letter was written by an educated middle aged male. This was not text language; it was a formal business communication. So what were the errors? Well there was ‘there’ instead of ‘their’; two instances of apostrophes being used to make a noun plural.

There were nine instances of sentences running on into a new idea, where a full stop and a capital letter to begin a new sentence were required. (This is a very common mistake – I see it in my students’ work all the time.) Commas were absent when they should have been present (let alone used correctly). So was it comprehensible? Did the communications work? Well I suppose so, there was no real ambiguity, but bad and sloppy writing affects perceptions of the writer’s credibility and competence.

The ordinary bloke.

Back in 1978, one of the television current affairs shows decided it would be a good idea to have some comments from an “ordinary bloke” for their last show of the year. At the time, the ‘ordinary bloke” was a descriptor for the average person – as in Rob Muldoon’s often used phrase “ a fair go for the ordinary (or decent) bloke”. (The OB’s missus was included by association. It said a lot about the status of women at the time.)

They got Ross Jolly to do it. He sat in a big arm chair – part of a chesterfield suite, dark round neck sweater, ciggy in mouth, ashtray balanced on one of the worn arms of the chair in easy ash flicking range. He rambled on about what sort of a year it had been. “Not a baaad year, I suppose. The All Blacks had played all right, the weather had been ok-ish.” The economy was picking up a bit, but prices were still rising too quickly and the controls on wages made life a bit harder, but overall it was “not a bad year.” Which by the standards of taciturn and unemotional Kiwi males of the time was about as close to an expression of contentment as we were going to get.

Muldoon had just won a second term for National the 1978 general election and the needs of the ordinary bloke (and his family) was the dominant political paradigm of the time. Progressive causes were reviled or ignored. Even Labour’s leader Bill Rowling had worn his brown tweed jacket with an RSA badge during much of the campaign and had talked about the ‘peepull’ a lot.

The Ordinary Bloke was the man behind Rob Muldoon, cheering him on while guzzling from a jug of draught beer, laughing when he put down protestors, poofters, sheilas, academics and assorted liberal ratbags who wanted to run down the country and replace rule by ordinary decent people who’d ‘fought in the war you know’ with trade unionists, manufacturers, uppity feminists and assorted hairy radicals. He liked Rob, because he promised to keep things safe for his way of life, and because he (and National) respected his values.

So where is the OB today? Well he probably doesn’t smoke any more, and he probably drinks Stella or Steinlager, but sculls a few Tuis as well. (or Speight’s if down south). He’s been known to drink wine and like it, and he munches on brie as long as it isn’t runny and there aren’t too many people watching.

But does he vote National, or will he vote National? Out in the provinces he does as the last election showed when a slew of electorate seats went blue. But it’s the party vote that counts, and here National fell short. Is John Key just a bit too slick and rich for the taste of the OB of 2007, even if Key is of state house stock? That’s one of the intriguing questions of the next election. (And there will be more on the OB next issue)

Now for something completely different; a Coke drinking camel

http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=1095190&fr=

Cartels warned

Changes to the Commerce Act are expected in a government review due out soon. The chair of the Commerce Commission says so.

See http://johnbishop.co.nz/writer/articles/art121007.shtml

And Paula Rebstock is also warning the cartels are in the sights of the Commission. See http://johnbishop.co.nz/writer/articles/art121007-1.shtml

Gossip trumps truth

Gossip is more powerful than facts, a study from the Max Planck Institute has shown. People believe what they hear through the grapevine even if they have evidence to the contrary. In the study, researchers gave students playing computer game money that they could then give to others in a series of rounds. The students also wrote notes about how others played the game and all the players could read these. Subjects tended to give less money to people described as "nasty misers" or "scrooges" and more to those depicted as "generous players" or "social players.”

The researchers then took the game a step further and showed the students the actual decisions made by fellow players. But they also supplied false gossip that contradicted that evidence. In these cases, the students based their decisions to award money on the gossip, rather than the hard evidence. Clearly this has implications for internal communicators engaged in change management, and for those handling public issues where there is an absence of full information immediately. (The terrorism raids are a case in point here.) Reported in Levene Breaking News 17 October 2007

What’s a letter worth?

The pebble containing the image of the Virgin has now attracted a bid of $10 000 (although the owner still wants $50 000), but in the US, former Speaker of the House and now conservative talk show host, Rush Limbaugh did much better auctioning a letter from his political opponents. He had described a group of Iraq war veterans who criticised the war effort as "phony soldiers.” That got him a letter of complaint signed by 41 Democratic Senators. He decided to auction the letter, which he described as "this glittering jewel of colossal ignorance," for charity. It’d be worth about a million dollars, he said on air. Nope. The winning bid on the eBay auction was $2.1 million, the largest amount ever paid for an item sold on eBay to benefit a charity.

Jews need to evolve

Ann Coulter, the acerbic right Christian commentator, has fired up another storm with her comments that America would be a better place if everyone was a Christian. She told TV host Donny Deutsch (The Big Idea) that Christians are perfected Jews. Donny, who is Jewish, said the remark was hateful and anti Semitic. Coulter denied this and went on to say that Jews should seek to become Christians, calling for them to be "perfected". Her use of the war ‘perfected’ set off the storm. Her defence; Christianity evolved on and up from the Old Testament, and Jews should aspire to this too. Watch yet another round in America’s culture wars at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVtL80HqjEk

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Communications Line is published by John Bishop, a speaker, writer, trainer, facilitator, communications and PR consultant, and a journalist and commentator. Feedback to saymoretojb@yahoo.co.nz Web: www.johnbishop.co.nz

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