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February 21, 2008 Leave a Comment

Strategic Thinking

“Tactics is knowing what to do when there is something to do.  Strategy is knowing what to do when there is nothing to do.”

– Savielly Tarakover

Name one thing that Sen. Barack Obama has accomplished … Political pundits (Chris Matthews, etc.) have been challenging / brow-beating their guests to respond to this question. Political opponents (Sen. Clinton, Sen, McCain) have been trying to use this rhetorical question to their advantage. So, courtesy of Time Magazine’s Joe Klein, here is one significant accomplishment for Sen. Obama:

He is the only significant candidate whose campaign has not gone broke! He and his staff have defined a successful strategy to capture the Democratic part’s Presidential nomination. 

If nothing else, a presidential campaign tests a candidate’s ability to think strategically and tactically and to manage a very complex organization. We have three plausible candidates remaining–Obama, Clinton and John McCain–and Obama has proved himself the best executive by far. Both the Clinton and the McCain campaigns have gone broke at crucial moments. So much for fiscal responsibility. McCain has been effective only when he runs as a guerrilla; in both 2000 and ’08, he was hapless at building a coherent campaign apparatus. Clinton’s sins are different: arrogance and the inability to see past loyalty to hire the best people for the job and to fire those who prove inadequate. “If nothing else, we’ve learned that Obama probably has the ability to put together a smooth-running Administration,” said a Clinton super-delegate. “That’s pretty important.”

Strategy and tactics – both are important; they are intertwined. Your strategy defines and points you towards your goal. The tactics that you employ enable you to reach your goal.

A clearly defined strategy guides and informs your staff. It shows them they way and tells them what to do – especially when no one is there to tell them what to do; when no one is there to answer their questions.

Your clearly defined strategy provides the answers to these questions: What? Why? and When?

The tactics that they employ to successfully execute your strategy answer these questions; “How? Where? and Who? Continue reading “Strategic Thinking” »

Filed Under: Business Communications, Business Practices, Leadership, Main Page, Political Strategy Tagged: , , , , ,
February 19, 2008 Leave a Comment

Who’s Line is It?

“People will accept your ideas much more readily if you tell them Benjamin Franklin said it first.”

– David H. Comins

I love quotations! I enjoy collecting and categorizing them. I enjoy reading them. And I use them – liberally – in my writing, speaking and training. I strive to always cite the source of the quotation, but this is not always possible or practical.

With all due respect to Mr. David H. Comins – and I assume that he is a decent, honest and wise man – I could not easily locate any biographical information on him. I remembered this quote and I verified it on the Quotations Page website. But a Google search and a search on Amazon.com did not turn up any background information on Mr. Comins.

So… is my audience more interested in Mr. Comins or in his pithy comments?

And, since I am not a citizen of the fine state of Massachusetts, I must admit that I knew nothing about their current Governor Deval Patrick – up until this past weekend, that is. The 24-hour news cycle continues to churn out stories about Sen. Barack Obama’s alleged plagiarism. Obama “liberally lifted” a riff that Gov. Patrick had previously used – “Don’t tell me words don’t matter.”

As was to be expected, Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign was watching and vetting Sen. Obama’s speech that night and quickly alerted all parties who would listen – not to mention all ships at sea – about this “outrageous plagiarism.” Full of high dudgeon, they demanded that justice be served – or at least that the press properly criticize Sen. Barama on this matter.

The press did indeed criticize Sen. Barama on this matter. They also played a video tape of Gov. Deval Patrick when he delivered these lines and compared it to Sen. Obama’s speech in Wisconsin. It is almost scary to see how closely Sen. Obama invoked not just Gov. Patrick’s words but also his tone of voice and even his body language.

The question is: “Was this plagiarism?” The answer is: “I don’t know. It depends…” Continue reading “Who’s Line is It?” »

Filed Under: Business Communications, Main Page, Political Strategy, Presentations, Public Speaking, Quotations, Training Tagged: , , , , , , ,
February 10, 2008 Leave a Comment

Who Writes this Stuff?

“(President) Reagan was the most natural speaker in politics, but he was a natural because he practiced so hard. He’s the one who worked and reworked everything and practiced emphasis.”

– Peggy Noonan,’ from On Speaking Well’

Considering the number of speeches that a politician or business executive delivers each year you expect them to employ a speech writer. Full-time, part-time, or one-time only. A single writer or a staff of speech writers. Nameless, famous or infamous, speech writers can be either a pen for hire or evolve into the role of trusted adviser. The very best are able to “channel” the ideas, sentences and phrases of their client. They speak and write as one.

Do you need a speech writer? That depends upon the importance of the speech, your time constraints and your audience. Do you need to write out every speech that you deliver? Yes, if if it is important for your speech to deliver an impact and if you want to show respect for the time that your audience has invested in listening to your speech.

Sen. Barack Obama appears to have a natural gift for delivering speeches that galvanize his audience to take action. He also knows how to engage his audience while he delivers the speech – a “call and response” technique popularized by pastors such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rev. Jesse Jackson. However, I suspect that just he employs a rigorous practice schedule much as Ronald Reagan did. He puts a great deal of emphasis on emphasizing his key words and phrases. He establishes a cadence in his speeches. The cadence propels the speech to a dramatic conclusion.

You might be surprised to learn who Sen. Obama employs as his chief speech writer. You may recognize the name – Jon Favreau – but it is not the actor / writer from the 1996 movie, Swingers. No, this Jon Favreau is a 26 year- old graduate of the College of Holly Cross. Click here to read an article on Mr. Favreau from the New York Times. Continue reading “Who Writes this Stuff?” »

Filed Under: Business Communications, Main Page, Political Strategy, Public Speaking, Speeches Tagged: , , , , , , ,