Yesterday, I received the digital tablet that I won in a drawing at the recent IABC World Conference in San Diego. No, not an Apple iPad…a Blackberry Playbook.

My expectation that this would finally replace my long-dead and missed Palm T/X was soon shattered. Turns out that the Playbook doesn’t offer a contact/calendar feature that I thought would be standard on these tablets.

No, to get those, I would need to use the Blackberry Bridge software to add the contacts and calendar items from my Blackberry smartphone.

Trouble was, I didn’t have a Blackberry smartphone. Neither does 99.9% of the world’s population. This seemed like either a real oversight by Blackberry, or a misconceived plan to attract tons of new business on the strength of the Playbook’s appeal.

In my case, it kind of worked. Rather than hand my new Playbook over to my teenaged daughter, I looked into my AT&T contract, and saw that, for an $18 fee and 2-year recommitment, I could get a refurbished Blackberry Pearl smartphone.

So I did that this morning, and expect the “new” Blackberry Pearl to arrive sometime next week.

I hope that Blackberry hasn’t gone out of business by then, based on the bad news that I read later.

This is another reason why Apple continues to dominate. Its competitors keep shooting themselves in the foot, while Apple methodically churns out nice products that people buy in droves. Unless those people get stuck with the leftovers, like me.

On June 29, 2011, I joined a group of professional communicators from across North America in downtown Chicago for the “Writing Across All Media” Workshop presented by Steve Crescenzo and Jim Ylisela.

This was a very practical, and very engaging, seminar in which Write (Steve) and Jim (Rewrite) explained how to:

1. Transform your communications department from a funnel pumping out every content request to a filter making good decisions about what to write, how to write it – and what doesn’t make the grade.
2. Create a “news desk” to decide which channel a piece of content belongs in – print, online, social media, audio or video, e-mail or face to face.
3. Change your web (or intranet) writing style to adapt to dramatic changes in the last two years.
4. Compose an effective blog that will draw readers and inspire comments.
5. Master the art of Print 2.0 – and give your publication new life.
6. Make the best use of Twitter’s 140-character limit – it still demands good writing.
7. Write for podcasts and other audio channels, which are fast becoming the most popular corporate communication tools.
8. Write for video, to create stand-alone video stories that go beyond “talking heads.”
9. Draw a crowd around typically boring corporate topics and initiatives by telling those stories across various media.

Listen to this 5-minute post-event interview of Steve, attendees and even Scout, the young daughter of writer David Murray. Scout didn’t attend the workshop, but she did attend the Chicago Cubs game afterward, along with her parents.

The news broke this afternoon:

Weiner resigns in wake of sex photos scandal
By KAREN ZRAICK and ANDREW MIGA, Associated Press
NEW YORK – Seared by scandal, New York Rep. Anthony Weiner announced his resignation from Congress on Thursday, done in by lewd photos he took of himself, sent to women online and then adamantly lied about after being caught.

Weiner finally feels some of the professional consequences of the choices he made. My hope for him and others is that they learn the value of considering consequences before making decisions or taking action.

His scandal also highlights how social media has changed the world, by speeding the dissemination into the public eye of comments, thoughts and mistakes that, a couple of generations ago, could have been downplayed or contained.

I wish Weiner and his wife well. I wish he had learned from the mistakes of others before him. That just doesn’t seem to occur as frequently as one might wish.

    What consequences?

The condition is remorse over one’s behavior and decisions—without a corresponding acceptance that behavior and decisions carry consequences.

This condition is evident in children who, when caught doing something such as lying, stealing, cheating, or hurting another human being, demonstrate remorse—typically with tears and cries of, “I’m s-sorry!” They’re looking for a way out of the situation, but don’t consider that they might have to face consequences of their behavior and decisions. They don’t want a time-out, or spanking, or to ask forgiveness of the person from whom they stole, to whom they lied, or whom they hurt. Their immediate, typical response when told about consequences? “But I SAID I was SORRY!”

Weiner isn’t a child, but he isn’t much of an adult, either. An adult assumes responsibility for his or her actions and decisions, and when it’s clear that an apology, or restitution, or a change is necessary because of those actions and decisions, an adult makes good. A child thinks of how to save face, or “get out of trouble.” An adult thinks of others; a child thinks of himself or herself.

It isn’t just politicians who suffer from this condition. In the wake of the economic meltdown of recent years, while financial services firms were doling out huge bonuses to their executives and employees, the public screamed. How many of those executives and employees, many of whom expressed some form of remorse in public comments, stepped up to accept consequences of their decisions and actions which flamed the meltdown? I believe the answer is: none.

I have two close acquaintances who separately ended up being divorced because of marital indiscretions on their part. My church lost a pastor who, as it turned out, years before in a different congregation, had an affair with a church member and kept it hidden until the church member’s husband uncovered evidence of the affair and confronted them both.

In all of those cases, the original bad decision/action didn’t have to cause the death of a marriage or pastoral ministry. But the offender would have had to see the wrong, admit to it, and then agree to whatever consequences that the offended party would see as a way to restore the relationship. To my knowledge, that never occurred in any of the above situations.

Representative Weiner’s forceful refusal to consider resignation indicates to me that he doesn’t think that his decisions and actions require him to face consequences. Sadly, his innocent wife has been subjected to media hounding as people wonder why she hasn’t either stood by her husband’s side, or left him. She is reaping consequences of Weiner’s acts. Why can’t he see that?

Finally, I don’t know that I’m seeing more of this condition in the work world, but I certainly see daily evidence that people think a simple, “I’m sorry” should excuse their every decision and action—without consideration of how those decisions and actions have impacted the people around them. These people don’t seem to think that they might have consequences that are a natural outcome of those decisions and actions.

Someone might say that these people just don’t think. I disagree. They think a lot…but not about consequences.

Don’t be so hungry for blog comments that you feed the SPAM monster.

I don’t think that most people are surprised to read statistics that credit SPAM with producing the majority of email traffic worldwide. And if you write a blog that allows comments, you probably have to continually contend with sifting legitimate comments from the SPAM chaff–even if you have anti-SPAM measures in-place.

I’ve never had a problem recognizing SPAM comments, and I thought that SPAM would be easy for anyone to spot. But I’ve recently visited blogs from long-time communication professionals who have inadvertently approved SPAM comments. These are blogs that moderate comments, so I can’t blame this on anyone but the site moderators.

Granted, most SPAM messages aren’t overtly malicious or dangerous; but like weeds, they can detract from the beauty of your blog. Best to deal with them before they spread.

Here is a screenshot of recent SPAM messages that came to this blog. One of them made it through the Akismet spam blocker plugin, but I quickly spotted it as SPAM and sent it to my SPAM folder to await final deletion. The sender names and links alone reveal these as SPAM messages.

SPAM comments usually promote a product or service, or suggest that you visit a website.

Even a quick look at the sender name and return email address are suspicious. When the return email address is a site that clearly promotes a product or service, the SPAM alarm bells should ring loudly!

My hunch is that the comment moderators on my colleagues’ blogs approved the comments without reviewing them closely. Perhaps they were viewing the comments on a smartphone, where the smaller screen prevented them from seeing the sender’s entire return address and link. Or perhaps they were just in a hurry. Either way, their blogs are now part of the SPAM weed-fest.

As I’ve often said, communication is part art and part science, and the announcement yesterday that terrorist Osama Bin Laden has been killed offers an important lesson in the science of communication.

The specific science is psychology, and the specific lesson is that a communicator needs to plan beyond the emotion and hoopla which follow a major victory or defeat.

Dead Terrorist Messages
In the hours following the announced death of Osama Bin Laden, news reports and television pundits focused on the immediate reactions to the announcement by officials and the general public—which in the U.S. involved a feeling of relief and outbursts of celebratory chanting by citizens.

It would be easy to get swept up by the excitement, but if you did, you might overlook some important realities. The search for Bin Laden intensified after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, but even with a massive outpouring of military and intelligence agency resources, it took a decade to locate and eliminate him. The communication lesson is to keep your eye on the entire situation at-hand, because it continues to evolve.

In the case of the “war on terror,” during the years when we were pursuing Bin Laden, he became less and less involved in the operational side of his al qaeda terrorist organization. So we have removed a figurehead of the organization, but we have not mortally wounded its organization. In fact, in the short-run, we may see increased terrorist activity, as Bin Laden “wannabe’s” attempt to increase their “street cred” among fellow terrorists through new acts of terrorism.

Unless those harsh realities are communicated to, and understood by, the general public, the premature celebrations of Sunday evening and Monday morning may soon turn to anguished cries and disillusionment.

Moby Dick
In 1851, American author Herman Melville published a novel titled, “The Whale,” which we today know as the classic, “Moby Dick.” One of the more commonly discussed of the novel’s many themes is the obsession of Captain Ahab to kill the white whale to revenge the sinking of the captain’s previous ship, and the loss of his leg.

Let’s compare Ahab’s obsession to kill the whale with the desire of two U.S. Presidents to capture or kill Bin Laden. In the case of Captain Ahab, the individual obsession killed the individual. In the case of Presidents Bush and Obama, public opinion has been divided as to whether the investment of millions of dollars and hundreds of lives has been worth the results. Negative public reaction to President Bush’s decision to invade Afghanistan and Iraq helped lead to Obama’s victory in the 2008 presidential election. You might say that Bush’s obsession with Obama (and Saddam Hussein for that matter) led to his eventual political “death.”

If you work as a communicator for someone who is exhibiting tendencies toward obsession over a particular issue or goal, remember these three points:

• Obsession tends to make someone microfocus attention. Keep the big picture firmly in mind.
• People are impatient, so if something is going to take long to accomplish (or remain open-ended for quite some time), explain that clearly at the start, and then regularly as you go along. That might cause some people to spout off, but you will face far less antagonism from the majority of your audience than you would by announcing unrealistic (and unachievable) deadlines.
• Obsession can be a career-killer (or literal killer in the case of Bin Laden and Captain Ahab). Find ways to make your boss understand the current and potential consequences of continuing on a path that won't pay off, or celebrating a victory too soon.

“I know I didn’t put a lot of effort into this but I am stuck for good ideas, please help.”

The team manager’s entreaty was sincere…and all too common. I’ve received countless written and verbal requests like this over the years, as have most of you, if you are a communications professional.

One possible response would be to allow myself a smug smile, and then to craft a well-written and designed communication piece. A harsher response would be to tell the team manager that I’m swamped, and leave him or her to create and send a communication that would provide the information they wanted to convey, just not as cleanly and clearly as they would want. A middle-ground approach would be to tell the team manager that I don’t have time to create the email, but I’m providing the general structure for the email, along with ideas for graphics and a headline. Then the team manager could get practice putting the pieces into place.

Which would be the “correct” response? They all could be “correct,” depending on other factors. However, I think a better question would be, “What is the team manager’s communication objective, and is this email an appropriate tactic to accomplish that objective”?

The team manager confused “good ideas” with “creativity.” Communications is part art and part science, as we use proven methodology to determine and measure the most appropriate communication objectives, and art in the writing and design of those communications.

This team manager wanted a creative communication that would grab employees’ attention. What he needed was to better understand that the best “good idea” I had to offer was to help him achieve his communication objective–although he would first have to be shown how to do that.

In the course of my work day, I get more opportunities than I could comfortably accept to enlighten coworkers about effective communication planning. I get many more requests to “pull a communication rabbit” out of my tactician’s hat.

I piloted a communication education course at work that I developed. The participants gave me top marks for my delivery and grasp of the content. They clearly saw me as a subject-matter-expert. They did want more time spent on the “how-to” part of communications.

In summary, I have many opportunities to share my communication experience and skills. But most of the people who have met with me to discuss a communication challenge or project don’t want to learn how to do it themselves; they either think they already know what to do, or they have thrown up their hands and want me to do it for them.

So I ask some questions, and use their responses as the basis of a conversation that probably won’t give them the immediate satisfaction they desire. Yet it will benefit them, and me, the most in the long-run.

For some reason, I’ve been thinking a lot more about my career and personal life, and what I should be doing with both.

I have one project that I need to continue with until it is completed. Everything else seems to be less important.

I also have been feeling that it’s time to step aside in the communication field, and not try to stay relevant with the latest generation of communicators entering the field. Many of them most likely don’t see me as being relevant anyway.

I also want to be free to talk about God, and faith, and things that matter to me, but that don’t matter to a lot of people.

Hmm, buy an iPad 2 or pay for my daughter’s driver education class. Does she really need to drive? Do I want her to “hate-text” me?

Limited budget = Limited Choices = Decisions, Decisions!

I had barely begun my work day last Thursday, when my mobile phone rang. It was Kim, who started the conversation by saying,

“The police just left. Before you freak out, don’t worry, both our kids are fine.”

Hard to believe that hearing THAT might “freak me out,” right? Kim’s opening salvo had done its job–I was now speechless and listening intently to her. (There’s a communication tip here, but let’s not stop to examine it just now.)

     Why would THAT freak me out?

As the details poured out of Kim’s mouth, the story reminded me of a bad sitcom plot–only it was true. The main characters in this true-life drama were Kim, my daughter, Caitlyn and her mobile phone, an adult leader in my church’s high school youth ministry, and the Gurnee Police Department.

Caitlyn was sitting in her school auditorium, watching a touring theatre company’s production of “Romeo and Juliet.” Her mobile phone was in a rear pocket of her jeans. What happened next is still under investigation (by me), but here are the undisputed portions of the next series of events.

• Caitlyn's mobile phone dialed the home phone of the adult youth ministry leader.
• The adult leader saw from her Caller ID that the incoming call was from Caitlyn. Although the leader wondered why Caitlyn would call her, she was even more concerned with what she heard from the other end of the phone call.
• The leader heard muffled, unintelligible talking, but soon heard loud yelling or screaming. Thinking that Caitlyn was in trouble, the adult leader hung up and dialed 9-1-1.
• The Gurnee Police Department responded to the 9-1-1 call by dispatching a squad car to my home, to ensure that neither Kim nor I were holding Caitlyn hostage. (Let the record show that A) Caitlyn was safely in school, and B) I appreciate the police department's policy, because it might save some other victim of a domestic dispute or home invasion.)
• After confirming that Caitlyn was not in danger at our home, the police officer contacted Caitlyn's school. In these situations, school officials need to verify that the child is, indeed, where she was supposed to be. By that time, Romeo and Juliet were both dead (perhaps that was the screaming that our youth leader friend had heard), and Caitlyn was at her next class. The school security guard confirmed Caitlyn's presence, and our excitement was over.