Hot Take 2: Unintended Messaging

I recently viewed a video montage from my daughter’s school that pulled together teacher messages and for families and students to view online. It was created to help teachers reconnect with their students and it was lovely. It was sweet...teachers from their homes telling kids they love them and miss them and how much they look forward to everyone being back in the classroom and together again very soon.

And yet, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. What was it about a lovely message from their teachers that irked me? After several days, I realized that it was the false hope of "everyone being back in the classroom and together again very soon."  

Schools in PA are closed indefinitely, but a 3rd grader hearing that she'll see her teacher soon is misleading. That's not okay. Don't get me wrong, teachers are doing their level-best to find ways to reconnect with their kids. Let me repeat, this isn't about teachers doing something wrong. I can't stress this enough - we need to pay them more, treat them better, honor them always. But we also need to avoid unintentionally undermining them.

So really, my issue is that district leaders were a little careless about messaging, which got me to thinking about how easy it is to let good intentions get in the way of good messaging. In the case of my daughter’s school, who was checking their messaging to make sure it was on point? Someone should have questioned the use of "see you soon" when everyone, everywhere is saying, "stay at home."

I’m happy to give them a pass on this one because communications - and messaging in particular - is important, but only a small facet of what they do to make the world a better place. Teachers especially get a pass, because their hearts are ten times the size of us regular people. School leaders? Well, they get a pass, but a little begrudgingly, if only because they should be more mindful of what's being put into the community.

Education providers - you don't get a pass. I'm increasingly concerned about some of the overstated messaging I'm seeing. Promises of delivering remote learning solutions that will transform education ‘in these unprecedented times.’ Mixed messages about free services, only to be led down the up-sell path. Not good.

If you’ve been around this market long enough, you’ll remember that everyone and their brother was putting out an NCLB solution. Then it became the Common Core solution. In the rush to outpace competitors, companies often put out poorly constructed messaging. But I’ll save Bandwagon Marketing for a future Hot Take. 

The point I'm really trying to make is that leaders must always be connected to the messages their organizations deliver. This means ensuring your entire organization is clear about the core message, how it relates to specific audiences, and whether it is in line with the organization's ability to deliver.  

So if you're an organization leader, empower your staff to generate and evolve their communication and market positioning strategies. Encourage them to come up with relevant, forward-looking statements that add real value. If you want them to inspire, let them inspire. If you want them to deliver hope, let them deliver hope.

Just don't assume, however, assume that your team’s good intentions will always lead to good outcomes. Check with your teams to make sure they understand the foundation of your story, the pillars of your value proposition, and the tone that underscores what your organization stands for. Leaders don’t have to write copy, design ads, or create the slide decks. Leaders do, however, have to make sure their team knows how to be clear, consistent, and, most importantly, intentional. 

The purpose of this Hot Take (other than continuing to associate my name with the words "Hot Take") is to push our collective thinking about how we manage our stories and deliver our messages. It's the work we do at First Step, so I hope this article helps.

Feedback and pushback are both welcome, just so long as your intentions are clear.