Professionalize your communications program

This week I’m handling 150 “students” on a three-day Strategic Communications Seminar at the Development Academy of the Philippines. This is one area I am very passionate about because it gives me the privilege to train government employees or officials regarding communications, developing key messages, understanding media in the Philippines, developing personal and interpersonal communications skills, branding and image development as well as the obligatory “how to” prepare for and conduct press conferences, media briefings, as well as radio and TV talk. It’s hectic, intense and a “designed to terrify” experience in the event that students end up before Congress, face investors, or their executive board.

Fortunately, more and more executives both in government and the private sector have come to appreciate the importance of such trainings in the light of disastrous media events in the recent past. The federalism charter is currently “frozen” because the framers of the charter focused on coming out with a proposed constitution but forgot to put someone in charge of developing a team and a campaign plan to promote and insure the public acceptance of that federalism charter. The single biggest mistake they made was not to treat the proposed charter with the importance and stature it deserved. Such an important piece of work should have been placed in the hands of real professionals in terms of information dissemination and promotion. From what I gathered, the roadshow or information campaign was left in the hands of the very people who wrote the charter, people who may be great legal minds but no experts in communications and public information. They also forgot the advise of Jesus Christ: “A prophet has no honor in his own home/town.”

The closure of Boracay was one of the many PR disasters of the Department of Tourism simply because a “Comms plan” was always treated as an after thought and not a mandatory requirement. Many PR disasters stemmed from lack of planning and preparation of a communications plan that should always go side by side with every project or even a potential crisis. Subsequently DOT officials found themselves answering questions about media plans, media buys, ratings etc. in front of the Senate. Even the MMDA’s HOV or carpooling policy has come under fire first due to lack of public consultation, a serious lack of public information and poor presentation and preparation.

The most tragic situation I observed was two weeks ago when the NAIA virtually shut down due to the Xiamen Airline crash-landing. After interviewing NAIA Manager Ed Monreal, I discovered that the NAIA or the Department of Transportation does not have a delegated Crisis Management Team. NAIA GM Monreal was left to his own devices to deal with an aviation disaster that affected 136,000 passengers and over 600 flights that stretched through a 48-hour crisis. Sadly, the NAIA GM had to deal with the crisis while doing the work of “spokesperson” giving media briefings. That should have been left to someone else. Had Malacañang prepared for such a crisis, the team would have been called in, various government departments and agencies would have stepped up to assist the thousands of passengers and the public would have seen their tax money being used to assist them. At the very least, Monreal’s team would have taken over all announcements at all 4 terminals of NAIA. These announcements would have been every 20 minutes or when required to update passengers and the public on the status of the crashed plane, the tarmac, directions for passengers as well as airlines.

In addition to all that, Secretary Art Tugade would have been and should have been seen and heard at NAIA for much of the 48-hour crisis, because that is a vital part of communicating continuing service to the public. If Secretary Tugade and his team had gone through the paces or training simulation in advance, they would all have realized that a Crisis Committee needs to have unilateral authority over anything and anyone concerning the NAIA that the NAIA management does not have.

Many executives and government officials don’t support corporate or strategic communications development because they equate it to unnecessary expense and an unnecessary activity requiring more personnel or staff. Others are scared due to ignorance while others are so O/C and controlling. In one instance a CEO complained to me that their corporate comms officer spent most of her time wining and dining members of the media and the CEO asked me if he chose the wrong person for the job. I suggested that he give the comms person a membership card at a gym of her choice because in performing her job so admirably the young woman would probably end up being fat and ugly.

Executives focus on the cost not on the value and the fact that communications is as much marketing as advertising is to sales. When people see, read, and hear your message, your people and your product in articles, Radio, TV interviews and social media posts etc. you have positioned yourself in front of your target market. In terms of plans, programs and campaigns, when people have a good or positive understanding of your ideas or intent, it becomes easier to gain public support especially when the public is aware that your plans or project came from suggestions of the public or their community.

Because they treat “communications” as an after thought, many government offices or agencies don’t have money for “PR,” media campaigns etc. But that is the penalty or the price you pay for your “after thought” mentality. You don’t have the money because you did not propose a funded communications program. Today’s strategic communications programs are simply the “Educational program” or “Public Information campaign” of yesterday. Then and now, such programs are vital to inform the public as well as to influence policy makers and decision makers both in public and private.

But in order to benefit from communications, one must first understand it, learn it, plan for it and actually use it. That’s how you make communications work for you.

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