Bulletin No. 1 | January – February 2001

COMMUNICATION

Communicating is not something that just happens. It requires attention to the substance of your message, how you present it, how to get the best chance of being correctly received and understood.
Here are some signs of poor communications that are expressed in the following statement : 

• I wish i knew what she was talking about
• I do not really understand what he means
• I’m not sure what he wants me to do
• If you really mean that, why didn’t you say so?

Different styles of communication are needed to meet your target audience. You will have to adjust your style on the purpose of sending an idea, whether : to inform, to persuade or to collaborate.

Selling the Boss on Your Idea

If you think you have a good idea for a new product or service or any development plan, consider the following strategies : 

• Find out what makes the idea good. How does it fit to the organization’s overall strategy?
• What resources and skills will be needed?
• Get support from senior management, colleagues, and coworkers
• Know your limitations. You may be good in marketing, but ignorant in finance. Get a mixture of expertise in your team
• Start requesting a small budget to test the idea
• Commit less but do more. Do not over promise
• Find the right time to publicize your effort. Internal publicity at the wrong time can cause jealousy

(Source : Marshall Loeb’s writing in Fortune)

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PUBLIC RELATIONS

Myth and Reality

Myth :
Public Figure – Someone who like people – celebrity party organizer – artist – glamorous publicity, extensive promotion, dealing with the commercial world and external public only.

In reality :
Public Relations is dealing with issue management, reputation management, crisis management, engineering of trust, establishing relationship of an organization and its public based on mutual understanding and acceptance. It deals with both the internal and external public of an organization. It is mostly concerned with strategic communications based on truth, ethical code of conduct and professional standard of performance.

Theoretical framework of public relations

• Is a management function which evaluates public attitudes, identifies the policies and procedures of an individual or an organization with public interest, and plans and executes a program of action to earn public understanding and acceptance. (Cutlip, 1985)
• Public relations practice is the deliberate, planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organization and its publics. (Harlow, 1976)

In practice – public relations refers to many things.

• Some people refer to just public relations, PR – Purel or Humas (in Indonesian). It appears with anything that attracts media attention. Others see public relations as an effort to hide the truth or putting a positive spin on bad news. Public relations means different things to different people and often has a negative meaning (Cutlip, 2000)

Some not’s of public relations

• Not a free or unpaid advertising
• Not a soft sell neither promotion nor publicity
• Not meant to cover up bad management concept