Having been to see two colleges this week, one in Henley the other Reading, I have been reflecting on how organisations create a good reputation and engender enthusiasm from their new and existing supporters. At Henley College they do an Applied Marketing A’Level course, so how to create a ‘buzz’ is clearly central to the topics the students learn. They also offer Psychology and Sociology as A’Levels which would give even more insight into how humans think, feel, respond, and act. Reading College also offers these two A’Levels and both have an Applied A’Level option which enables pragmatic research and real-life study.
As I’ve also been canvassing for the Liberal Democrats in addition to attending their Conference in Bournemouth, it’s occurred to me that creating the right sort of ‘buzz’ is critical to them getting elected. All the alternative Political Parties have held their conferences this month too, with varying levels of publicity in the News and different degrees of impact. It would be interesting to see how the polls respond after they’ve all been featured…
In 2020, I wrote a book called Leadership Now and self-published on my blog here. In Chapter 3: Secret leadership is not seen but it is heard. and in an associated talk, I suggested that ‘positive gossip’ is essential to running a large organisation. In response, one of the comments I received was that ‘gossip‘ is never positive. I disagree. I would say that the ‘buzz‘ in any organisation is critical to being effective, creating a positive working environment which supports the Senior Leaders, and retaining staff. Oddly ‘buzz’ refers in effect to ‘gossip’ but is seen as a positive description of the activity, whereas ‘gossip’ is seen as negative. Both words describe the activity of talking about the latest news with friends, colleagues, or on social media. Social Media is fundamentally designed to share gossip – we feature weddings, births, deaths, our holiday photos, and social events on our latest feed. These were all shared in person previously and often the people in receipt of the latest social news would share that with someone else not present at the conversation. Old fashioned gossip. It’s a natural human tendency to want to share our lives with others and have those people reciprocate in kind. It’s normal to talk and to share – we start as soon as we can talk.
For the LibDems to get elected or for the Colleges we visited to get sufficient applicants, both need to attract people in and to take positive action. One enrolment in a course, the other a vote. This is more likely if there is a positive buzz around their organisation, which inspires and then prompts the individual to take action. To vote or not to vote, that is the question! In the case of the LibDems there needs to a radical shift towards thinking of them as a winning party, capable of governing well. In Sales we might refer to talking up a product or service as an Elevator Pitch; 30 second summary of the advantages and reason why to choose them. It has to be short, to the point, compelling, and must catch the recipients interest in order that they consider action. Usually an elevator pitch suggests a possible action for the person to take, whether that’s straight to ‘please vote for us’, ‘you can find out more here…’ or something like ‘please watch this video telling you more’.
One of the statistics relating to customer service and the reputation of a company, is that if a customer has a good experience on average they will tell 4 people. However a bad customer experience will result in them telling 10 people. In both cases the person that customer describes their experience to will tell others, though I don’t know the cascade effect in numbers. This is also true of social media, where these days even more people will see that bad or good experience and share accordingly.
Based on this trend and Barack Obama’s campaign (featured in A Promised Land) in the 2008 US election for President, the key differential in winning was to convince people who did not think their vote was of value that… their vote is of value. What if something similar happened here? What if tactical voting for a non-preferred but least worst Party who a voter thought would get in, is transformed into a vote for the actual Party preferred by that individual? Who knows, like not buying bottled water, the compound effect of many voting as they actually prefer could change our country at it’s very roots. Most people want a fair, trustworthy, and genuine, Prime Minister. Most people want a fair, trustworthy, and genuine, overall Political Party. I have a feeling many would see the Liberal Democrats as offering this desired option, but also think they won’t get in at the next General Election.
What if the LibDems do get in? What if Ed Davey, Party Leader, who essentially looks like the ideal Dad leads our country? What if people trust him because he looks like the Dad they would look up to? What if he looks like someone who cares for his family, has had the life experience of many normal people with the loss of his parents and a disabled son, and probably mows his lawn on a Sunday? What if these attributes are actually what we are looking for as a country, given the air of distrust currently hanging over our politicians?
If we all voted as we want to vote, rather than as we think we should vote it could result in radical change in our country. To bother to vote and to vote according to our real opinions might really result in change for the better.
Just a thought! Looking forward to delivering my LibDem leaflets this week to the unsuspecting public… Probably best not to answer your door 😂.
Kind regards, Ruth
Header photo by Shelby Cohron on Unsplash
Well Thought Through 