And, out of our discussions came idea of writing a case study. If you're not familiar with them, case studies are histories of business initiatives.

They're like articles, but they put reader into shoes of a person making a difficult decision. Other professions also use case studies; you've probably heard of medical case studies, for example. Medical students get a set of facts about a patient, and perhaps some background or context, and then must diagnose patient's condition or disease.

Business case studies have proven popular at many university business schools (with profs, at least). In some senses, case study is next best thing to being involved in a real case.

Now, how is this relevant for you? Well, if you have to persuade others to adopt your point of view, or buy your products, or vote for you, then you might find a case study useful.

In fact, you may be doing something like that already. Whenever you tell a story that's designed to make a certain point, you're using a form of case study. During my brief foray into life insurance sales, for example, I learned that emotion sells policies, and not logic. That's why people in business have a raft of stories about people who did or did not have protection when they died.

The moral, of course, is that you should not only have life insurance, but you should have right kind, and in right amount. Now, if you sold life insurance, you would quickly find that no one listens when you explain logic, but they will listen -- and act -- if you have your case studies (your anecdotes).

Managers: A Key to Your Survival

Most business, non-profit and association managers live to tell about it only IF they achieve their operating objectives. Very little wriggle room there.

But among such managers are those who fail to do anything about behaviors of those outside audiences that most affect their business, non-profit or association.

On top of that omission, they risk their careers by choosing to pursue their operating objectives without using fundamental premise of public relations. Thus, they fail to produce external stakeholder behavior change leading directly to achieving those very same managerial objectives.

Then, despite wonder of it all, they end up failing to persuade those important outside folks to their way of thinking and, finally, fail to move them to take actions that help their department, division or subsidiary succeed.

Wow! Why would any clear thinking manager operate that way? I don’t know why. What I DO know is that they can start turning things around in a New York minute!

Best advice? Start with that fundamental premise of public relations mentioned above, because it’s action blueprint you need to reach your objectives. People act on their own perception of facts before them, which leads to predictable behaviors about which something can be done. When we create, change or reinforce that opinion by reaching, persuading and moving-to-desired- action very people whose behaviors affect organization most, public relations mission is accomplished.

There’s no end to number and variety of results this process can achieve -- politicians and legislators starting to view you as a key member of business, non-profit or association communities; prospects starting to do business with you; community leaders beginning to seek you out; fresh proposals for strategic alliances and joint ventures; growing numbers of membership applications; customers starting to make repeat purchases; a welcome jump in sales floor visits; and even capital givers or specifying sources beginning to look your way.

Enlist PR folks assigned to your unit and spend some time with them nailing down those outside audiences whose behaviors help or hurt you in achieving your objectives. Then list them according to how severely they impact your operation. For starters, select audience in first place on your list.

I would guess that you have very little current input as to how most members of that key outside audience perceive your organization. Of course, these data would be available to you if you had been regularly sampling those perceptions.

If budget isn’t there to defray cost of professional survey work, your PR team will have to monitor those perceptions by interacting with members of that outside audience. Ask questions like “Have you ever had contact with anyone from our organization?” And, “Was it a satisfactory experience?” And, “Are you familiar with our services or products?”