Communication – Page 14 – The Consulting Artist

My Kind of Town

In just over a month’s time I’ll be stepping onto the runway at Chicago’s O’Hare airport, Illinois SHRM 2013 is getting closer.

One of the most exciting things about conference going is catching up with friends. I can’t wait to say hi again to Dwane, Susan, Sabrina, Broc, Laurie, Nicole, Crystal and John all of whom I’ve been fortunate to meet before, and to have the chance to say hi to the likes of Paul, John, Kris, Andi and hopefully many others for the first time. I’m going to channel my great friend Steve Browne and try to meet as many people as I can, and more importantly, encourage others to do likewise.

I’m excited to be talking on the Monday morning about connections, and how HR can become better connected with colleagues and customers alike. Neil Morrison and I often talk about HR as the oil in the machine when we see each other, and I want to play with that idea, and explore aspects of creativity and vulnerability as powerful connection points too. I’m looking forward to listening to other speakers also, and to enjoying many good conversations.

I visited Chicago earlier this year for the first time, and it left a wonderful mark in my memory. I shared a lovely lunch with Susan, Sabrina and John, I walked along the frozen edge of Lake Michigan down Lakeshore Drive (from where I took the above photo), and I was bowled over by the Picasso exhibition that was running at the Art Institute, and the fabulous giant sculpture Picasso donated to the city which stands in the Daley Plaza. This picture below is of Francoise Gilot, who Picasso met in 1943. They had two kids together during their ten year relationship, and this lithograph, made in 1946 is for me a wonderful example of how a great artist can capture so much from a few simple lines.

It’s no secret I’m a big fan of the USA, I think I’ve visited seventeen states so far on my travels across the years, and from my experience they all have different things to offer. So I’m revisiting Chicago both with the expectation that I will again see at least part of what made my last trip such a powerful experience, and the hope of something new too. As I once watched Frank Sinatra say in a video as he introduces ‘My Kind of Town’, ‘What a wonderful moment is it when you get to sing for a real live, right now, breathing type audience’. Illinois SHRM – live in Chicago – 19th and 20th August 2013. Bring it on.

Propaganda : Power and Persuasion

Careless talk costs lives

Your country needs YOU!

I want you for the US Army

Buy more beer – get drunk here

Coughs and sneezes spread diseases

All the above are iconic propaganda straplines (except for the beer one, I just made that up), and even though they belong to a bygone age, they still resonate with a lot of people. It seems that effective propaganda sticks. I took myself along to The British Library last Friday to check out the exhibition Propaganda : Power and Persuasion.

Definitions of propaganda abound, and they often contain words like coerce, mislead and humiliate. So on the face of it, you’d think an exhibition about propaganda would be quite heavy going, and to a large extent you’d be right. The black backdrop, subdued lighting and sinister haunting music go a long way to help giving you the creeps, and raising suspicion as you wander through a really well laid out history of…. manipulation.

At first I thought I got it. Fight the baddies, shut up and dig, respect the leader at all costs, blah blah blah. A poster of Chairman Mao for example, published when he was in his 70’s depicts him as a young man ready for the struggle, fist clenched to show determination, wearing a smock for the common touch, clouds parting to show a brighter future. You can clearly see where the propaganda machine is coming from. And you quickly get to see that propaganda is very much in the eye and mind of the beholder. The exhibition plays tricks by showing different perspectives along side each other and this photo of some guy, I think it’s Adolf Churchill, summed up the whole juxtaposition thing nicely.

There’s a section on health, including various pieces exhorting us to stop smoking, eat less crap, take more exercise, don’t get VD. I was less sure that this is propaganda, more like slightly heavy handed common sense.

I was smirking a little about how unsophisticated a lot of the messages were, and thinking how gullible people of previous generations were. This stopped when I came across an exhibit focussed on the suitably unsubtle 1983 campaign Protect and Survive, all about how to survive a nuclear attack. I was in my late teens when this came out and though I don’t recall being ‘fooled’ by it, I do recall reading it at the time. Propaganda is timeless, and as if to prove it, I stumbled upon something that looked remarkably like an advert for Despicable Me 2.

The exhibition finishes with a giant Twitter wall showing how people have related to a few recent incidents including the London 2012 Olympic Games opening ceremony, and the Sandy Hook massacre and resulting ding dong between Obama and the NRA. Is propaganda becoming co-creative? Compulsive viewing for advertisers and internal comms specialists methinks.

I left blinking into the light having enjoyed my experience and at the same time feeling a little down, and even a little suspicious. Is that a gun in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me? Recommended viewing, ideally when you’re in a good mood.

Why I Love the ConnectingHR Unconference

Today I had the privilege of attending my fifth ConnectingHR unconference. I couldn’t stay all day but I didn’t want to miss the vibe. Here’s the essence of why I travelled an hour and a half each way to spend an hour and a half with the group.

Community

Diversity

Involvement

Creativity

Fun

Something else I really like about these get togethers, when we first meet, there’s no job title, no hierarchy, there’s simply your name. And the conversations flow from there.

It’s still going on – right now. If you’re on Twitter – check the #chru13 hasthtag, but be warned, there is a very high risk that you will find a bunch of people dedicated to shaping a better working future, and having a damned good time doing it.