Here, ask yourself which of above abberations is serious enough to become your corrective public relations goal? Clarify misconception? Spike that rumor? Correct false assumption? Fix those inaccuracies? Or yet another offensive perception that could lead to negative results?

Once you firmly set your public relations goal, you can assure you’ll achieve it by picking right strategy from three choices available to you. Change existing perception, create perception where there may be none, or reinforce it. Especially important that your new strategy naturally compliments your new public relations goal.

How will your message deal with offending perception when you address your key stakeholder audience to help persuade them to your way of thinking?

Identify your best writing talent to prepare message because s/he must put together some very special, corrective language. Words that are not only compelling, persuasive and believable, but clear and factual if they are to shift perception/opinion towards your point of view and lead to behaviors you have in mind.

Now it’s time for rapid fire communications tactics to carry your message to attention of your target audience. Making certain that tactics you select have a record of reaching folks like your audience members, you can pick from dozens that are available. From speeches, facility tours, emails and brochures to consumer briefings, media interviews, newsletters, personal meetings and many others.

Of course, how one communicates often affects credibility of message, so you may wish to deliver it in small getogethers like meetings and presentations rather than through a higher-profile media announcement.

It will soon be time to show signs of progress. And that will call for a second perception monitoring session with members of your external audience. Employing many of same questions used in first benchmark session, you will now be watching carefully for signs that offending perception is being altered in your direction. Of course you can always accelerate program by adding more communications tactics as well as increasing their frequencies.

At day’s end, managers to whom this is addressed, also know this essential truth: they need an aggressive blueprint such as this one that will deliver behavior change among their most important outside audiences leading directly to achieving their managerial objectives.

end

Bob Kelly counsels, writes and speaks to managers about using the fundamental premise of public relations to achieve their operating objectives. He has been DPR, Pepsi-Cola Co.; AGM-PR, Texaco Inc.; VP-PR, Olin Corp.; VP-PR, Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co.; director of communications, U.S. Department of the Interior, and deputy assistant press secretary, The White House. mailto:bobkelly@TNI.net Visit:http://www.prcommentary.com

There’s a new power emerging in work realm called trust. Trust is critical in an era where intellectual property is competitive edge for both companies and countries. Companies need best ideas they can get to prosper, and best people passionately working to make them happen. Results of human intellect will bring 21st century profits to bottom line; technological and scientific breakthroughs to world. They’ll also bring personal satisfaction and meaningful work to those involved.

But to do that, information must be shared. Shared information multiples as it reminds us of Italian proverb: "All brains are not in one head." Here people realize lighting next candle doesn’t diminish flame of original one, and information is critical in lighting ideas, opening possibilities and creating new horizons for themselves and their companies.

If you want to be winning at working, realize your power is in trusting and doing, not in just knowing and certainly not in hording. Trust builds a larger universe of relationships where a big idea comes from two smaller ones, a shared problem brings imaginative solutions, and a common vision produces uncommon results. Like carbon atom that has capacity to form graphite or diamonds, so do you. You will create more work diamonds operating with trust and eliminating squirrel effect.

(c) 2004 Nan S. Russell. All rights reserved.

Sign up to receive Nan’s free eColumn, Winning at Working, at http://www.winningatworking.com. Nan Russell has spent over twenty years in management, most recently with QVC as a Vice President. Currently working on her first book, Nan is a writer, columnist, small business owner, and instructor