Is anyone really addressing the global crisis?

By Dennis Bumstead, PhD

I’ve just returned to the USA, after some weeks in the Third World, in part on a spiritual retreat. I’m struck more than ever by the lack of productive address to our multi-toothed-and-clawed Global Crisis – and by the lack of any comprehensive critique in the mainstream media.

The dire situation in the Third World

For those in the Third World, the escalating global crisis comes on top of long-established deprivations caused by poverty, malnutrition and environmental degradation. They also suffer the effects of the many wars which are often conducted, sponsored or ignored (and always armed) by the so-called “developed” nations .

Yet the mainstream media seems unable to connect the dots in global crisis. For example Dean Baker writes in The Guardian on Economics in a bubble: The cheerleaders for America’s toxic boom want us to bail out US banks. They were wrong then – and are wrong now.

Baker offers an intelligent critique of a significant aspect of the mainstream view of current economic problems. But his critique is very much limited to a litany of economic woes in advanced economies (the housing bubble; financial institutions; government response and so on) and never mentions the broader global implications, or anything beyond the confines of the dismal science itself.

The Financial Times reported on 22 April that the IMF sharply cut back their outrageously optimistic and inaccurate world economic forecast of only three months prior. Doubtless the revisions are still optimistic. The IMF continues its role of trying to prop up the status quo, and accruing benefits to its masters in the “developed” nations. The report does not point out that, even if the IMF’s revised optimism were to prove justified, their forecast signals a death sentence for thousands, perhaps millions more Third World people. These are people who would not need to die if the global system were managed for the benefit of all, instead of for the few.

Millions in the Third World are already sentenced to death by the effects of disease and malnutrition.

Cynics in the mainstream western media seem to assume that a few hundred thousand more during a recession is collateral damage as the system is fixed. Calling the Third World the “developing world” is supposed to make us all feel better about these depredations visited on poor countries by our systemic global “fixes”.

A very sanitized explanation of the effects, all price statistics and no dead bodies, is found in a UN News Center report on food prices in developing countries:

High food prices persist in developing countries despite an improved global cereal supply situation and a sharp decline in international food prices, FAO warned today in its latest Crop Prospects and Food Situation report. This is creating further hardship for millions of poor people already suffering from hunger and undernourishment.

In all the acres of newsprint dedicated to the current crisis, nothing I am seeing in the mainstream media addresses the global totality of the escalating crisis we are in. Nothing.

An alternative: The Ordinary People’s Way of Global Cooperative Order

However, in the newly published edition of the book Not-Two Is Peace, The Ordinary People’s Way of Global Cooperative Order (2009), the author Adi Da has spelled out in detail:

• what the problems are,
• why the system cannot and will not continue – and that
• it will be determined, by our understandings and actions, “in the next handful of years” that

“The future is either going to be catastrophic disaster, or it is going to be the turnabout moment in human history, in which humankind will step out of its dark ages of “tribalism” into a new mode of human cooperative order.”

Adi Da points out that the world’s political economy simply can not continue, built as it is on a model of growth for the rich and depletion for the poor. The system as is simply unsustainable, as more and more nation-“tribes” try to get in on the so-called “good life”.

Can we expect the “G-establishment”, (the G8, G20, GSacks, GM etc etc) and creatures thereof, (the World Bank and IMF) and personages thereof (the Geitners, Summerses, Gordon Browns, Sarkozys et al) to lead us anywhere except toward the vain attempt to re-establish the status quo / business-as-usual?

The mainstream economist critics I read, such as Krugman, Stiglitz, Roubini and Sacks, indicate that proposed solutions may not be enough, but also confine their proposals to sub-sectors of the total system.

Many propose change. But who is proposing real change? Change which is political, and social, and cultural, and psychological and spiritual, not just economic?

Al Gore has been a sustained and effective communicative voice for environmental change. But that is only part of the problem and environmental challenges are not soluble without radical change in other arenas. Many alternative writers / activists like Hazel Henderson and David Korten likewise address critical sub-sets of the issues. Hawken’s book Blessed Unrest suggests there is a mostly invisible movement already tackling many of these issues.

Adi Da is the only writer I have come across who fully addresses the issues that others treat in isolation. He proposes the formation of a Global Cooperative Forum, functioning on the basis of “prior unity” and managing the globe for the benefit of all instead of the few.

These ideas are likely to appeal to ‘early adopters’, those who are already beginning to notice that attempting to reinstall the status quo is very unlikely to work and interested in exploring real alternatives.

The book is fundamentally very clear. But it’s a challenging read none the less. In part because – well, it would have to be, wouldn’t it? It addresses the conventions of global life that we have all been taught to assume but really no longer make sense.

Not-Two Is Peace :The Ordinary People’s Way of Global Cooperative Order, by Adi Da can be read on line.

Take a look, and let me know what you think in the comments area below.

Dennis Bumstead

Dennis grew up on three continents and studied economics, sociology and psychology, at Cambridge and Manchester and M.I.T. He taught at Manchester University, M.I.T., London and Antioch Universities, and was a consultant for Shell companies, for I.C.I., British Airways, J. Walter Thompson, Motorola and on the staff at the World Bank. For the past 10 years he has been working in the non-profit world. Since 2006 he has been the General Manager of the Global Cooperation Project.

Kudos to speechwriters Vinca Lafleur and Jeff Nussbaum for a recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education on 6 Ways to Make a Commencement Speech Soar.

They note:

…graduations are high-quality speaking occasions, with a sizable, knowledgeable, multigenerational audience; an upbeat theme; an aura of pageantry and pomp; and a decent chance of sunshine. A well-prepared speaker with a well-crafted speech can entertain, inform, inspire, and give a performance immortalized for posterity on YouTube.

The piece of advice I liked the best:

This day is about your listeners, which means that you need to apply your worldview to theirs. A commencement speech is not a scholarly dissertation. It is a meditation on life by someone who has presumably lived more of it than his or her audience.

What are the liabilities governing blogs and other social media vehicles? Does the risk mean you should prohibit blogging by corporate officers?

With the rise of blogs, Twitter, Facebook and other forms of social media, communications professionals have a wide range of options to connect with audiences. These extend beyond that of delivering a speech in an auditorium or sending an e-mail or press release to a distribution list.

Web 2.0 makes it easy to reach a worldwide audience, but the heady possibilities come with potential liabilities. Any errors in communication will be amplified. This is why many companies find the concept of social media pretty scary.

Allowing employees to blog, tweet or post Facebook updates is obviously more risky than not permitting anything outside the standard channels. Especially if those employees are C-Level executives or the CEO, where regulations exist which govern the disclosure of information by publicly traded companies.

When Web 2.0 rubs up against the staid world of investor relations, finance and legal departments there will inevitably be some friction. But rather than implement a blanket prohibition against any and all communication of corporate information, we need to be aware of the regulations and plan accordingly.

The surprising fact is, social media are often more congruent with regulations than not. Consider the Securities and Commission (SEC) and their Regulation Fair Disclosure (Reg FD).

Reg FD — now a blog friendly regulation

Reg FD prohibits the selective disclosure of “material information” by senior executives. This means communications must be available to all interested parties (such as investors) and not limited to specific sub-groups (such as favored analysts). In August 2008, as a result of a dialog between Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz and SEC Chairman Christopher Cox, the SEC approved the use of Web sites and blogs as compliant with Reg FD.

This means that a company that maintains an up-to-date, freely accessible Web site which is a “recognized channel of distribution” can post updates on a blog without requiring safe harbor statements or other restrictions.

Blogs of publicly traded companies are probably more accessible to the general public than traditional channels of communication such as BusinessWire and PR Newswire. The new ruling could disintermediate them.

There is, however, a challenge for companies with inactive, out-of-date Web sites. It might be argued that posting important information to a moribund blog makes the disclosure ‘selective’. The moral is: blog frequently and make it easy for people to subscribe to your RSS feed.

Avoid anonymous postings

In the world of social media, commonsense rules still apply. It’s not wise to make hidden or anonymous attempts to influence the public perception of your company in any forum. The same considerations apply with online content. Michael Sebastian covered this topic on Ragan.com in December 2008. Attorney Bruce Johnson’s advice was to avoid false advertising or the use of fake identities or anonymous postings by executives.

Prepare for curbs in online advertising

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is reviewing new guidelines for bloggers and social networking site users who advertise or engage in ‘viral marketing’ for a company’s products. The Financial Times reported on April 2 that giving free samples to bloggers and people who tweet favorably about your product might be curtailed:

If a blogger received a free sample of skin lotion and then incorrectly claimed the product cured eczema, the FTC could sue the company for making false or unsubstantiated statements. The blogger could be sued for making false representations.

It’s a small world

Since social media are available on the World Wide Web, you need to be aware of regulations outside the United States. European Union (EU) regulations apply to companies doing business in the EU. The Unfair Commercial Practices Directive guards against false representation. EU privacy rules also impact the collection of personal information and email addresses on your website.

Always check with your attorney

This article does not constitute legal advice. I am not an attorney, nor do I play one on TV. Your responsibility is to develop a sound social media policy which is then approved by your legal department. It’s beyond the scope of this article to review all aspects of such a policy. I recommend taking a look at chapter six of Joel Postman begin_of_the_skype_highlighting     end_of_the_skype_highlighting’s new book SocialCorp: Social Media Goes Corporatewhich includes sample social media agreements and policies which can be adapted for use in your company.

With a little courage and a lot of common sense you should find the rewards of fully engaging with social media outweigh the risks.

(This article was originally published on ragan.com)

Pat Obuchowski is the CEO (Chief Empowerment Officer) of inVisionaria, a seven year old leadership, team and life coaching organization. She helps clients achieve their vision on both a professional and personal level by sharpening their leadership, interpersonal, coaching, presentation and organization skills. She coaches for results.

Most recently she served as an internal Lead Leadership Coach with Pacific Gas & Electric Company where she coached corporate leaders and teams to be more impactful and productive. Her special talent includes accelerating the learning and integration of organizational leaders and teams into new roles brought about by transitions, such as promotion, transfer, growth, mergers or acquisitions. She believes people are more fulfilled by mastering their strengths and managing their weaknesses.

Creative Vision Statements

She is a Certified Professional Co-active Coach through the Coaches Training Institute and completed their Co-Active Leadership and Leadership Mastery course. She is a leader for Vision Statement work
and a Bigger Game coach, workshop and certification leader.

Pat created the 2008 Vision Statement Movie for NSA Northern California.

Pro-Track Profile

What differentiates Pat from others in the coaching field is her operational experience in working at all levels and in all aspects of business. This experience provides her with a 360 degree understanding of business systems, leadership impact, and organizational politics. She helps people create plans that inspire and then coach them in the implementation of these plans.

She is a community activist who most recently served on the Executive Board of the Silicon Valley Coach Federation. She currently serves as a Global Board Member for the International Coach Federation.

I spoke with Pat about the status of her current projects and what attracted her to the NSA Northern California Pro-Track program. To hear what she told me, click on the podcast icon below.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:10 — 1.2MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Appearance is everything at this weekend’s Group of Eight food crisis meeting. Delegates from the eight leading northern hemisphere economies met in Italy to discuss world hunger.

Adverse publicity in advance of an “aperitif and gala dinner” caused the lavish dining arrangements to be replaced with a working dinner and no wine tasting.

The Financial Times report concludes with a reminder that a 2002 UN Food and Agriculture Organization meeting was embarrassed when a lobster and foie gras menu was offered at a forum on global hunger.

Executives and politicians (and their PR handlers) need to maintain constant vigilance as contradictions in lifestyles between the have’s and have not’s threaten the legitimacy of their words if undermined by their actions. The 21st Century is as rich as breeding ground for this hypocrisy as ever was the France of the Sun King or Victorian England.

The Detroit auto executives maladroit arrival in DC in “the jet” (as corporations refer to their private aircraft fleets) is but one example of the speed with which the current crisis is undermining previously non-problematic behavior in the C-Suite.

Executive communicators should be aware of the overall context of a spokesperson’s actions, not just the content of their speech or PowerPoint slides taken in isolation.

Authenticity is a valuable commodity.

Gourmand tastes should be indulged in private. You are what you eat.

The Northern California Chapter of the National Speakers Association (NSA/NC) was founded in 1980.

Ken Braly was one of the founding members. He served as President in 1984-85. Ken is still active in NSA/NC and is also a member of the Pro-Track class of 2009 – taking his speaking career to the next level.

The 2009-10 Board held a retreat at Asilomar in Pacfic Grove, near Monterey, at the weekend. Ken stopped by to share some of the history of NSA/NC. These two videos are taken from his talk.

Part 1 of 2:

Ken recalls when the Chapter had over 300 members and would attract 500 to meetings. What’s changed? Ken explains.

Part 2 of 2:

Ken discusses some of the best features of NSA/NC meetings over the years. Ideas we could implement in today’s meetings.

How to temper lofty goals with reasonable expectations

President Obama campaigned on a promise of hope. And while it was an effective message, some believe Obama’s goals aren’t realistic. Case in point: In President Obama’s Feb. 24 address to Congress, speaking of his recovery plan, he stated:

“It will launch a new effort to conquer a disease that has touched the life of nearly every American by seeking a cure for cancer in our time.”

MyRagan.com readers were asked if that claim was science fiction, as many had dubbed President George W. Bush’s goal to put on man on Mars. Or was it inspirational, like JFK’s famous speech to a joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961:

“I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.”

Putting aside the invective and the ad hominem attacks, Ragan.com readers were divided. Some saw this as a “rash claim” and a “baseless promise” that crossed a dangerous line — playing with the emotions of cancer sufferers and their families. Some criticized “inspirational rhetoric” and warned it would wear thin. On the other hand, there were those who applauded the president’s “vision for the country” and saw the goal of conquering the disease as realistic.

Quite clearly, the lofty rhetoric Kennedy (and Ted Sorensen) employed in 1961 inspired the audience. It was a call to action that marked the start of a nine-year program. Policy was formulated. Technicians implemented the details. Gantt charts planned out specific milestones to design rockets, train astronauts and develop the space capsule. What began with rhetoric ended in success.

It remains to be seen if we’ll ever set foot on Mars or conquer cancer.

The question for speechwriters is, how far should lofty goals be tempered with realistic expectations? When does a call to action lose credibility? What guidelines can be employed to inoculate inspirational speeches against a skeptical response by an audience?

Guidelines to follow

Effective speeches often motivate by highlighting difficulties, tempering vision with realism.

On December 8, 1941, with the U.S.S. Arizona still smoking, Franklin Roosevelt addressed the nation:

“We are now in this war. We are in it – all the way. It will not only be a long war, it will be a hard war … We don’t like it – we didn’t want to get in it – but we are in it and we’re going to fight it with everything we’ve got.”

Motivational speeches are effective when they draw attention to a perceived weakness in the speaker, turning doubts to advantage in the audience’s mind.

In 1588, Queen Elizabeth I, visiting the troops at Tilbury on the eve of the battle with the Spanish Armada, said:“I know I have but the body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart of a king.”

Acknowledging difficult aspects of the current situation can motivate listeners. Dr. Martin Luther King’s most famous speech mirrored a series of obstacles with their opposite:

“And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream….I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice … I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight …”

So is Obama guilty of being too like Pollyanna in his speeches? Of being too wrapped up in “inspirational rhetoric”? I would argue not. The opening minutes of his Inauguration speech show a classic tempering of expectations:

“Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real, they are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this America: They will be met.”

To be effective, speakers must understand the limits of empty inspirational rhetoric. Avoid groundless optimism. Temper expectations. Know audience expectations and your own ability to bridge the gap between what is and what might be. While reaching for the moon, keep your feet firmly on the ground.

(This article was originally published on ragan.com, April 2, 2009)

As I noted in February, word is that presenters now need to be aware that audiences might be using Twitter to discuss their speech while it is in progress.

There’s more on the implications from Mark Ivey who has a useful article on How Speakers Can Manage Twitter- and Live to Talk About it.

The goal, of course, is to channel the Twitter discussion into a force that works for your speech. For speakers (and communications managers) it’s time to reassess presentation styles and start planning to adjust.

Mark advises specific ways to mitigate the potential disruption Twitter can cause.

Imagine you had to give a presentation on the current economic crisis. We read, for instance, that the Federal Reserve will purchase securities up to $1.25 trillion this year. How would you convey the scale of this to an audience?

One option might be to say that the if these were $100 bills a stack of a trillion would reach 64,834 miles – a quarter-way to the moon. The problem you face as a speaker is that very few audience members have a clear concept of how far 64,000 miles really is; fewer still have been to the moon. But people are fond of these analogies:

One trillion seconds would take you back 31,709 years to the time of the hunter-gatherers. If you lined up the 1.5tn (British) pound coins that were reported to have been wiped off the global markets on one single black Friday, they would get you from here to Mars.

These words impress, but they only replace one abstraction with another.

Better is a picture (worth 1,000 words – which is the approximate length of this blog posting…).

This is one time when a speaker would benefit from a PowerPoint slide.

Pictures illustrating the enormity and scale are much more effective than words.

Here’s a powerful set of illustrations from OneNote which brought home for me what a trillion dollars really looks like – especially in relation to a $10,000 wad of cash, which is something most audience members can grasp:

A packet of one hundred $100 bills is less than 1/2″ thick and contains $10,000. It fits in your pocket easily:

Believe it or not, this next little pile is $1 million dollars (100 packets of $10,000). You could stuff that into a grocery bag and walk around with it:

While a measly $1 million looked a little unimpressive, $100 million is a little more respectable. It fits neatly on a standard pallet:

And $1 BILLION dollars… now we’re really getting somewhere (Bill Gates would have 40 of these stacks if he cashed in his chips):

Finally, 1 TRILLION, which is a million million, or a thousand billion. It’s a one followed by 12 zeros (note the pallets are double-stacked):

Incorporating images like this in a presentation that deals with large numbers forcefully brings your message home to the audience.

Word is that American’s are not feeling quite so brave these days. At least not down in Texas. Many of them are buying guns and lobbying to be allowed to carry firearms on their morning commute. They fear an increase in crime sparked by the economic downturn. This according to the Financial Times:

In November last year there were a record 1,529,635 background checks for gun licences in the US, up 42 per cent from the same period a year earlier, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In January 2009 the number of background checks re­quested was 1.21m, up from 942,556 in the same month last year, and rose in February to 1.3m, up from 1m in February 2008.

In 2004 over a third of American households reported owning a gun. In 2005, 10,100 homicides involved firearms in the US of A.

In this economic downturn, firearms are a growth industry.