The best communicators embrace the TWIN framework:
TWIN = Targets to Win, Influence, and Neutralize.
In a complex communications effort, you will likely have 5, 7, 9, 11, and 25 targets (audiences) that you need to win, influence, and neutralize.
This ability to identify targets rests on classic stakeholder management, engagement, and situation awareness.
To succeed in a complex communications effort, ask yourself which targets (audiences) you need to win, influence, and neutralize.
Of the 5, 7, 9, 11, and possibly 25 targets, identify them and place them into one of three columns - win, influence, or neutralize.
Which targets (audiences) do you need 100 percent on your side to win?
Which targets (audiences) do you need to influence?
Which targets (audiences) do you need to neutralize?
Pro-tip, mathematically the win and influence audiences should be bigger.
Podcast Notes | Marc Ross on Communications Strategy
A few weeks back, I joined the Human Risk Podcast hosted by Christian Hunt.
The Human Risk Podcast focuses on "the risk of people doing things they shouldn't or not doing things they should" and examines how behavioral science can help us mitigate it.
In this discussion with Christian, we focused on communications strategy.
We discussed which politicians on the campaign trail are good at communicating and those who need help.
We explored how people who aren't natural-born communicators can communicate their message to differences between political and corporate communications.
And finally, how communications have shaped the war in Ukraine to the expertise of a communications strategist to keep things out of the news.
Here are some highlights:
The benefits of high-low communications: It is equally important to attend Davos and speak with CNBC, the Financial Times, and BBC News as it is to speak before a local chamber of commerce event in St. Louis and be interviewed by a business journalist the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Humans want to connect: We are hardwired to hear stories, share data, and accept information. One's ability to share information in an engaging, compelling, and educational way is super important.
The ability to be a chameleon: From speaking to the board members of Goldman Sachs to entrepreneurial founders at Startup San Diego, you could share the same information, but how you connect to those two audiences needs to be different.
Communications is a superpower: You could have the best idea in the world, but if you can't tell that story and convince enough people, you won't be able to make your idea work.
Learn communications skills from comedians: Spend an afternoon binge-watch a slew of different comics on Netflix. Watch how they move, speak, connect, and control a room. Take improv classes and get comfortable with the spoken word, being on stage, and connecting with an audience.
Here are two frameworks discussed:
The best communicators embrace the E-STOCK framework: E-STOCK = Event, Strategy, Tactics, Organization, Consistency, and Know-how.
What is the event - the context of the communications effort?
What is the strategy - what are you trying to achieve?
What tactics or tools will you use to best communicate to your audience?
What are the organizational requirements, staff, and systems needed to best communicate to your audience?
What is the cadence and pace of your communications - what will you do daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annually?
What expertise and know-how can you share that no one else can - what makes your communications unique?
The best communicators embrace the TWIN framework: TWIN = Targets, Win, Influence, and Neutralize.
In a complex communications effort, you will likely have 5, 7, 9, 11, and 25 targets (audiences) that you need to win, influence, and neutralize.
This ability to identify targets is classic stakeholder management, engagement, and situation awareness.
To succeed in a complex communications effort, ask yourself which targets (audiences) do you need to win, influence, and neutralize.
Of the 5, 7, 9, 11, and possibly 25 targets, identify them and place them into one of three columns - win, influence, or neutralize.
Which targets (audiences) do you need 100 percent on your side to win?
Which targets (audiences) do you need to influence?
Which targets (audiences) do you need to neutralize?
Pro-tip, mathematically the win and influence audiences should be bigger.
You can listen to the complete episode here.
If you need help with your communications strategy, Caracal is here to help.
Enjoy the ride + plan accordingly.
ITK Daily is geopolitical business intelligence for senior executives with global ambition.
ITK Daily curates news @ the intersection of globalization, disruption, politics, culture, + sport and provides actionable insights and sharp commentary.
On soft power.
Joseph Nye, former Dean of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, coined the term soft power in the late 1980s.
Simply put, soft power is a nation's ability to persuade others to do what it wants without force or coercion.
Nye states that the world's most successful nations need both hard and soft power -- power which is the ability to coerce others and shape their long-term attitudes and preferences.
Nye initially set out three primary sources of soft power: political values, culture, and foreign policy.
Traditionally, power in international relations is easily measurable metrics in inflexible terms - think military and economic might.
Soft power uses tactics that are often hard to measure, can take years to bear fruit, and aren't as sexy as a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.
But today, soft power matters more than ever and shuns carrots and sticks.
Soft power succeeds in building relationships, using communications and storytelling, operating under universal international rules, and harnessing a nation's unique resources that make a country attractive to the greater world.
The United States can undoubtedly dominate others through money and might, but America has excelled in using soft power.
From companies like Apple, foundations like Charity Water, and universities like Stanford to sports leagues like the National Basketball Association, America is a soft power hothouse.
When I read about the Thucydides Trap leading the US and China down a path to increased competition and possibly even war, I think no.
What are we doing if the US can't succeed with Walt Disney World, Levi's, Tesla, Harvard, Serena Williams, Coca-Cola, Run DMC, Kelly Slater, and Detroit-style pizza?
Sitting in London Heathrow a few years back, I was observing a family from Norway. The kids dressed in Under Armour, the parents wore smart casuals from the GAP, and the entire crew was teched-out in designed-in-California Apple devices.
It was the all-American family living in Oslo.
US culture and aspirations have been influential in helping the US government secure partners and enhance alliances.
Sure, there are limits to soft power: it tends to have diffuse effects like jello, and sometimes it is not skillfully wielded to achieve specific outcomes.
However, US economic success and security hinges as much on winning hearts and minds as it does on winning wars.
Plus, with more of the world easily accessed by trans-continental flights and the internet, countries like Germany, Canada, Brazil, South Korea, India, and China are using the same tools and tactics to improve their strength and influence.
If you need help understanding how soft power and geopolitical business communications intersect, Caracal is here to help.
Enjoy the ride + plan accordingly.
-Marc
ITK Daily is geopolitical business intelligence for senior executives with global ambition.
ITK Daily curates news @ the intersection of globalization, disruption, politics, culture, + sport and provides actionable insights and sharp commentary.