Why and How to Go on Tour, Public Meeting Style

It may be time to go on tour.

No, not with your acoustic guitar. With your very own self (or your spokesperson), a short and sweet presentation, and a leave behind.

Why? For the same reason everyone else goes on tour. To show your audience what you’re made of, to connect with your fans, and to make new ones.

This approach applies to projects too, more or less.

Your project, when completed, will do amazing things for its community. It’s going to right an environmental wrong, turn a beige industrial plot into a lively city block, or give kids and dogs a new place to play outside.

The catch is getting there. Your project will change traffic for three months, or block an apartment building tenants’ view of the river, or ratchet up the local sound level all summer.

And if you don’t tell them what’s going on, why, and who to talk to if things aren’t working out as planned, they may dislike your project and dislike you.

Failure to reach out to that audience can be socially inhibiting. And costly. Complaints mid-project can result in slowing and even stopping progress.

Yes, there’s your web site, and Facebook, and Twitter, and paid ads, but…sometimes, the best, most effective approach in community outreach involves genuine, direct outreach. Ask any politician/rock star.

Holding or participating in a community meeting will get you in direct contact with the people who are actively involved in their neighborhood. They’re the ones who can make – or break – your project.

Whether you hold your own meeting, or request to be on the agenda of a regular community meeting, here are a few tips to get the most out of the experience.

1.     Don’t be afraid. While there may be a few strongly opinionated folks in the audience, in most cases, the majority will be neutral and curious. In fact, most will appreciate the fact that you’re drawing them into the loop early in the project’s life cycle.

2.     Don’t bring your entourage. Arriving with your staff and lawyer makes it look like you’re invading the community, or are up to something that needs to be defended. Optics matter, and it rarely looks good when a van of suits pull up in front.

3.     Dress sharp. But not too sharp. See how your audience will dress, and follow their fashion cues. Look approachable.

4.     Get to the point. Your audience wants to know why you’re here, and what this have to do with them? In terms of messaging, they really don’t want to know how you make the donuts, or the history of donuts. They do want to know about the expansion of your parking lot, which will affect traffic on their street. A short intro is enough to launch into the talk on how this project will affect your audience.

5.     Engage. Make eye contact. Talk with, not at. Hold questions until the end, but by all means, take questions. Be aware of your body language and strive for openness. Be prepared to answer hard questions, but if you don’t know the answer the something, say so, and promise to follow up.

6.     Presentations can be helpful, but they can also be too long and too boring. Keep them short and to the point. Be prepared to do without if the facility doesn’t lend itself to audiovisual equipment.

7.     Develop a leave-behind that includes a description of your project, a map that shows the area affected, artwork showing off the “after” effect, if possible, with a link to a web site where more information can be found. And of course, provide contact info for follow up.

8.     And follow up. If someone in your audience asks a question you can’t answer, get back to them as soon as possible with an answer.

Showing up, meeting and greeting, and putting a face on your project – including the after bonus of what the community will get in the long term – will pay dividends in reduced friction. And it isn’t nearly as scary as you think it may be.  

Getting That Creative Project Done (for Real)

Starting is great. Sticking with it is good. But finishing is priceless.

Let’s say you’re taking on a major communications project. It may be a web site redesign, or an annual report, a video or an important white paper. The project is made up of many parts; some complicated, some with different timelines, some requiring the time and expertise of someone who seems to live in airplanes.

And you’re in charge.

What to do?

The first thing is to be in charge. Someone has to organize those great, creative ideas and see to it that a final product is delivered. You have to own it – and have the license to make assignments, deadlines, and ensure all the parts are completed on time and are of the highest quality possible. Without a leader, or worse, a leader who’s never around or can’t make decisions, the project will drift.

Once that’s secured, break down the tasks needed to get the job done. For multi-faceted projects, I like to create a grid that breaks a larger, complicated project down into smaller assignments. Each assignment has an “owner” and a deadline. I also add a column for notes – the important critical details. For example, maybe the anointed author of a critical part of a report will be on Kuala Lumpur for most of July. That’s worth noting; it also worth determining how this could affect the overall schedule.

Ah, the schedule.

Sometimes creative projects have vague deadlines. If someone is told, “there’s no deadline,” they hear, “this isn’t very important.” If there is no deadline, create one (remember, you’re in charge). Amazing how things get done when there’s a deadline.

Next step: back the schedule into the deadline. Keep track of those notes. Be realistic. If you can avoid it, don’t create a schedule that will only work if half the talent works through every weekend and a holiday. Schedules like that have failure written all over them.

Don’t forget to factor in time for both review and production. Important products need approval, usually from the busiest people. Reviewers should have a deadline too, but again, be realistic. If production or any other technical task is involved, ask someone in that field how long the task should take. Factor it in. Assume nothing.

Finally, being a perfectionist is good; not finishing is bad. If you’ve managed a project well, you’ll know exactly where the weaknesses are well before the deadline looms. Deal with them. Do everything you possibly can to move the project to the finish line on time.  

When things start to feel like they’ll never come together, remember: the difference between a great idea and a finished anything is huge. Keep going. Rattle the cage. Come up with Plan B. Find new talent. But by all means, finish.

Keeping It Simple, Even When It Isn't

My best summer college job was canvassing door-to-door. And one of the most enduring aspects of it was a training lesson that continues to this day to be valuable.

I worked for a group that sought support for environmental legislation. As a canvasser, I knocked on doors asking for petition signatures and contributions. My manager determined my “turf” –the neighborhood I was canvassing. I might spend Tuesday in an upscale subdivision, and Wednesday in a trailer park. We had a nightly quota, so failure to raise a certain amount of money meant a quick end to a canvasser’s summer job.

Talking to strangers about policy issues and then asking for something is intimidating. Like all things challenging, however, there is a way to get started. And that approach works, not only in canvassing but also in fundamental business communications, whether it’s meeting a potential client or presenting an idea to a group.

The lesson is to start off with: I am, we are, we do, we want.

Sounds simple because it is: introduce yourself, your organization, explain concisely what your organization does, and ask for what you want.

It’s surprising how effective that simple “rap” can be. Your audience simply wants to know who you are and what you want. Once they understand, they’re often happy to help you. At the very least, they should know who you are and why you’re on their doorstep—or in their conference room.

The beauty part of this is its simplicity. Despite the complicated things we do, whether it’s in biotechnology or financial services, we ought to be able to introduce an organization and a concept simply, to the point that the listener understands what you’re talking about. In fact, Albert Einstein said, “If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself.”

Of course, I had a few doors slammed in my face. But for every resounding, “not interested,” a dozen more would follow who wanted to know more, to chat, and to act.

During three summers of canvassing, and beyond in my career as a communications professional, I’ve found that “rap” has been one of the most effective, fundamental approaches to get something done.