Ok so this blog may be for your pure entertainment but you can learn something from it.
Diabetes WA being a not-for-profit organisation has a large base of volunteers, fondly referred to as the vollies. One of the National Diabetes Week campaign activities was sending out around 6 different types of promotional collateral (posters, flyer etc) to pharmacies, schools, health clinics and local community groups. It was a really large job as each place required different things, so I had make a large spreadsheet with all the orders and did a large mail merge for the vollies. Now the lovely vollies were all women above 55 and like a little club, they come in help with the mail outs and have alittle gossip and cup of tea whilst doing it.
So that's the background, in comes me with my spread sheet thinking "I got this" little old ladies always love me (must be my sweetness ;P ). Boy was I wrong, I spent almost an hour with the ladies explaning to them just how to read my spreadsheet. I recieved comments like "The fonts too small," "You try and do it then! (in frustration to the other ladies taunting her)", "why," , "Can't we just send them everything?" (My response no, these are orders) and many more. After the initial resistance though we worked out a good system that had them working with a partner. It was a change from how mail outs usually happen. As pubic relations practitioner we need to be prepared for people to resist change and find good ways of communicating the change.
The marketing and communications staff got joy out of watching me "manage a different kind of stakeholder group." The business manager even popped over to my desk to comment about it. She asked how it all went and as I was about to have a little whinge she tells me one of the vollies is her mother! So lucky I didn't say anything!
The lessons to learn from this;
1. Don't assume anything about any stakeholders! We must gain an understanding of them before we can communicate effectively with them.
2. Push through all challenges because more than likely you'll get through with perserverance.
3. Don't gossip! You never know the person you have problems with could be your boss's mum! But even so like my earlier blog (PR in Perth) the Perth network is so small, don't burn any bridges for yourself.
1 comment:
Hi Jess,
It’s the funniest thing when you actually stop and realise that what all our lecture have been constantly drilling in is actually true.
It's all about the client/publics, communication is the key and research! and do it well. Three points you hear every semester but learn when you make the mistake of doing otherwise.
I'm with a modelling company that is use to doing shows in nightclubs, they got a gig to put on a parade at a shopping mall and I was asked to help style. After the first show we had to reformat the parade because it was a bit to risque for a family atmosphere. Don't get me wrong everyone was covered, but the key was we were no longer in our comfort zone of a boozy nightclub, but a family oriented shopping centre.
At least we've learnt what not to do in the future.
Very amusing story, thanks
Ivy
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