Citizen Brand

The Red Phone

As we head to the next showdown in the best political race in a generation, Rich Harwood has a nice take on the ad campaigns of Obama and Clinton evoking the fear tactics of the Walter Mondale's Red Phone or Reagan's Bear in the Woods ads of years gone by.  I will reprint it below or you can link to it here .  Rich is a smart guy who makes you think beyond the answers of the moment and focus on what can be in the moments of tomorrow.

It’s jolting and ominous. Indeed, the dueling Clinton-Obama “red phone” ads are a throw-back to previous eras, a time of the cold war, a bear in the woods, daisies and detonation. The red phone is an icon of fear, often used when other arguments fail. But that’s just it: the red phone is about the past. I want to look to the future, one rooted in our present-day reality.

This campaign has given us Senator Obama, who has captured many people’s imagination; Senator Clinton, who has demonstrated just how tough she is; and Senator McCain, an American hero. But my concern here is not about media buys, “get out the vote” operations, or how to excite people and motivate them to vote. I have no problem with tough-minded ads.

My concern is that I want candidates who call us to look to the future by genuinely reflecting and understanding the present. We’re squarely barreling into the 21st Century, whether we like it or not and things have changed dramatically from the 1990s, or even from 2004. For instance:

•    In just the past few years the auto industry has undergone a total makeover, well beyond changes in the 1980s and 90s. With tens of thousands of workers recently laid off or bought out, the auto industry of the future is not the one of our childhood.

•    The Internet has altered how we get information and news and with whom we connect, changing what and who we know, and how communities function. 

•    While younger Americans are re-entering politics, the huge baby boomer generation is retiring and seeking meaningful things to do; yet no one is clearly proposing how to tap into this energy, other than to say, “Vote for me!”

•    National security issues have fundamentally changed in the last eight years, with terrorism, the further emergence of China, an increasingly testy Russia, just to mention top-of-the-head issues.

With fundamental shifts taking place in this country and around the world, old discussions about the same old issues won’t work. Nor will simply updating various policy proposals, arguing endlessly about who voted for NAFTA and what they think today, or talking about speeches vs. solutions. 

I remember sitting in a restaurant in New Hampshire in 1995 with a group of citizens I was interviewing for a project with the Pew Center for Civic Journalism. The project was built around listening to Americans talk about their concerns and hopes. People talked movingly and with deep frustration about how their factory jobs had gone overseas.  They were clear that something was changing in America, but weren’t exactly sure what, and they were holding on for dear life to the past.  Of course, that’s not uncommon, we all do that.

But there’s little doubt today that the world has gone through a major transformation and that we are not returning to the 1980s, or even the 1990s. What’s more, no president alone can shape the future, or craft a new, complete and cogent narrative for the nation. Such changes emerge only over time. And yet, a candidate for the presidency and future president can help us “turn” toward the future, so that we can begin to see it and address it. You see, the fundamental choice before us is not simply a matter of debating one policy or another, but a choice about our orientation concerning the next leg of our common journey.

When I was 23 years old, several presidents ago, I was a young aide to senior staff for the Mondale for President Campaign. That campaign also produced a red phone television ad, one used against Senator Gary Hart (D-CO). Just a few short years later, in 1987, I made the decision to start what has become The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation, in part because I felt that politics had become more about striking fear into people’s hearts, than tapping into their aspirations and solving problems.

In many respects, politics is on the upswing this year. The positive changes have been a long-time in the making, a manifestation, I believe, of Americans’ long-held aspirations for a better politics and public life. Which leads me back to the red phone: this year’s race, I believe, is the first in recent times to be squarely about the new century, about an era already upon us, one which represents a fundamentally different trajectory for our nation. If, as I believe, our trajectory is fundamentally different from era’s past, then I want a campaign which talks about that different path and how we can take it.

William Allen White

Besides death and taxes, there is one other absolute in my life - that I was going to attend the University of Kansas and have a life long love affair with all things Jayhawk.  When I turned 13, another absolute cropped up - that I was going to major in Journalism and become the next Walter Cronkite.  That Cronkite part turned out not to be an absolute.  But that's okay.

All of this background is to say that the marriage of the absolutes revolving around KU and journalism meant I would have the privilege of attending a great school of journalism - the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications at KU.  I have been blessed in my career but it would not have happened without the jump start I had from KU and our great J-School. 

So last week I had a great honor and thrill to attend my first meeting of the William Allen White Foundation Board of Trustees -- as a trustee.  I was asked to join this group several weeks ago by the Dean of the School, Ann Brill, and the executive committee of the Board.  The group serves as an advisory group to the KU J-School and selects an outstanding journalist each year to be recognized with the Foundation's National Citation.

Needless to say, for me to be asked to serve on this Board is amazing when I think back about that 13-year-old writing a career paper about becoming a broadcast journalist and going to KU.  The Foundation has been in existence since 1944 and serves to continue the legacy of William Allen White and his incredible influence on journalism and the education of journalism.  The big names of Kansas journalism and media have served on this group over the years and it is an honor to be asked to do my part to continue the legacy of Mr. White.

So just who is William Allen White?  Simply stated, he was a pioneer and a giant of American journalism.  He was plain spoken.  He was a fighter for the things he believed in and did not back down from a fight.  And he didn't do his work from one of the great American metropolises where other giants of journalism were plying their trade.  He did it from America's heartland - from the Emporia Gazette.

William Allen White wrote the original "What's the matter with Kansas?"  He had owned the Gazette for a year or so when he penned this piece that catapulted him into the national limelight of that year's presidential election between William McKinley and William Jennings Bryan.  It was a clarion call that focused the eyes of the nation on fundamental economic and political issues of the day that were impacting not only Kansas, but the rest of the nation as well.

White got into a public debate about labor rights and free speech with a Kansas governor in 1922.  He was facing arrest and a possible jail sentence.  When the charges were dropped, he wrote his Pulitzer Prize winning editorial - To an Anxious Friend.  This excerpt is as relevant today as it was in 1922:

"You tell me that law is above freedom of utterance. And I reply that you can have no wise laws nor free entertainment of wise laws unless there is free expression of the wisdom of the people - and, alas, their folly with it. But if there is freedom, folly will die of its own poison, and the wisdom will survive."

William Allen White had his private side as well.  Tragedy struck he and his wife in 1921 when their daughter died in a horse riding accident.  His prose was never finer than in his tribute to Mary White.

"A rift in the clouds in a gray day threw a shaft of sunlight upon her coffin as her nervous, energetic little body sank to its last sleep.  But the soul of her, the glowing, gorgeous, fervent soul of her, surely was flaming in eager joy upon some other dawn."

This legacy of journalism serving the greater public good lives on at the School of Journalism that bears William Allen White's name.  At the Board meeting, we heard about two programs that are great examples.  One is called Covering Communities.  It's a site designed to bring together journalists, educators and citizen journalists to work together to create more meaningful journalism and create stronger and better communities.  These are the guiding principles of the program:

Name Your Aspirations.  You can produce coverage that has the greatest impact when you name your aspirations.

Know Your Community.  The ability to produce journalism that is authentic and carries authority begins with community knowledge.

Engage People.  People find the most meaning in community coverage when they are fully engaged.

Act Publicly.  What does it take for you to maintain credibility with the public?

This is a great project that is a collaboration of the KU J-School, the Harwood Institute and the Knight Foundation.

The second project has KU Journalism students spending time with 6th, 7th and 8th graders in the Rosedale section of Kansas City, Kansas and opening their eyes and minds to journalism as a career.  We had two of the KU students speak to the Board meeting and it was moving to hear the impact they were having on kids who might never have considered journalism as a career.  And to hear about the impact the young students had on the "older" students as well.

Hats off to KU professor Peggy Kuhr for providing leadership on both of these great projects.  Both are a great tribute to the man whose name graces the Kansas School of Journalism.

The day ended with the annual awarding of the William Allen White Foundation National Citation Presentation.  This year's award was given to a distinguished graduate of KU and one of the great photo journalists of all time, Rich Clarkson.  Clarkson was named by American Photo as one of the 50 most influential photographers of all time.

More evidence that the legacy of William Allen White lives on.  Take some time to study White and you will find someone who is as relevant today as he was in his own time.

Front Porches vs. Backyard Decks

It has been a full day of ideas and discussion at the first annual Public Innovators Summit.  The event is sponsored by The Harwood Institute and Fast Company along with a grant from the Kellogg Foundation.  Leaders representing government, nonprofit, corporate and media sectors have come together this weekend in the mountains of Utah to figure out how to generate innovative thinking to address societal challenges.  There is a consensus that the private sector celebrates and rewards innovation and that a similar approach is needed if we are to improve education, health care and the general standard of living for many people who are in need.

A common theme of our discussions is how to create a greater sense of community overall.  We have talked at length how technology can be both a hurdle to community development as well as a great generator of communities.  Not surprisingly, this group understands the power of technology and many ideas emerged about how to leverage technology to help non profits grow stronger both financially as well as reputationally.

My favorite analogy of the day came from Art Dunning, Vice President of the University of Georgia in Athens.  He talked about how there was a greater sense of community in the days when most homes had front porches.  Sitting on the front porch guaranteed interaction with your neighbors or anyone else who might be happening by.  People who knew each other and communicated regularly were more likely to be interested in each other and watch out for each other.

Art said all that changed as people moved to the suburbs and replaced the porch on the front of the house with a deck in the backyard.  The social center of the house moved from the public arena at the front of the house to the privacy of the backyard.  It became invitation only.  Neighbors were redefined not as people who you knew but as people who lived on the same street as you.

I thought this was a simple and powerful observation.  What we need to do is figure out what the front porches of the future are going to be to help us reconnect with each other.

Public Innovators Summit

I'm just outside Midway, Utah at the Zermatt Resort (feel sorry for me?) to attend the first annual Public Innovators Summit sponsored by The Harwood Institute and Fast Company.  The Summit is supported by a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

The list of attendees represents a cross section of leaders in business, government, education and non profit organizations.  The driving force behind the Summit is Richard Harwood, founder of The Harwood Institute.  You can easily understand the reason for this Summit when you understand the Institute's mission.  This is from their website.

Rich Harwood founded the Harwood Institute for Public Innovation to help people imagine and act for the public good. For almost 20 years, he and his colleagues have been evolving both the ideas and the practical approaches for changing the negative conditions in society that too often divide people and keep them from making progress in their neighborhoods, communities, and the nation as a whole.

At The Harwood Institute, we seek nothing less than to spark fundamental change in American public life - so that people can tap their own potential to make a difference and join together to build a common future. We are a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works within a long tradition of small, catalytic, and public-spirited organizations in American history that have sought to improve public life and politics.

We believe there is enormous potential to unleash in America if we can pursue an alternate path for ourselves, our communities, and this nation.

What attracted me to this Summit and my desire to be selected as a participant is part personal and part professional.  One of the drivers of our company is to help our clients get on the path to becoming what we call Citizen Brands.  We believe it is now a must for corporations to be engaged in helping to improve society, not just sell their products and services.  That is my professional reason for being here.

On a personal note, I love the idea of spending a couple of days engaging with other people who share a common interest of figuring out how to make a difference in the world and to help convince others to do the same thing.  Not to mention, I'm back in the mountains for a couple of days.

I look forward to sharing some of the discussions that come out of the Summit.