Writing Boots

On communication, professional and otherwise.

The sound of authenticity

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Speechwriters and others talk about "authenticity" all the time, but for examples we're usually forced to find our examples from outside the absurdly artificial context of the corporate world.

Say what you will about this testimony from the Iraqi  journalist who chucked his shoes at President Bush in December; the dude is telling his truth:

While he was talking I was looking at all his achievements in my mind.
More than a million killed, the destruction and humiliation of mosques,
violations against Iraqi women, attacking Iraqis every day and every
hour …

A whole people are saddened because of his policy, and he was talking
with a smile on his face …and he was joking with the prime minister and
saying he was going to have dinner with him after the press conference.

Believe me, I didn't see anything around me except Bush … I was blind to anything else. I felt the blood of the
innocent people bleeding from beneath his feet and he was smiling in
that way. And then he was going to have a dinner, after he destroyed
one million martyrs, after he destroyed the country.

So I reacted to this feeling by throwing my shoes. I couldn't stop the reaction inside me…. It was spontaneous.

And, for better or worse, it was authentic, too.

Communicator illustrates why leaders don’t turn to us

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As the great speechwriting teacher and gentleman farmer Jerry Tarver once told me from personal experience, "David, when you have a bulldozer, every problem looks like something to be pushed over."

A freelance speechwriter blogger wrote yesterday,"What happened on the way from the campaign based on hope to a White House based on fear and pessimism? … He did a 180 from lifting the nation's spirit to scaring the daylights out of us with dark rhetoric."

A good question, with a number of potential answers, the most obvious one being that hope is the currency of a campaigner, but hope don't sell an $800 million stimulus package. Obama knows as well as anyone that a leader is a dealer in hope, and I hope and trust he finds the first opportunity to tell us at the very least some version of the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

"The solution?" suggests our speechwriter. "There's only one I know of and which I recommend for leaders who are no longer leading. That's to get a speech coach, Bro. And maybe also a fresh speechwriter.

"Note: I do both. And, Mr. President. I will do both, pro bono to save the country—and the economy. Today the DOW was down almost 300."

Most communicators don't actually believe they can improve their leaders' fortunes, let alone keep the stock market afloat, by pretending to be more optimistic. (As if the leader hasn't thought of that!)

Most of us understand that ours is a supporting role—irreplaceable and occasionally crucial—in helping society along.

But because we're rhetoricians, leaders and others in our organizations are naturally disposed to view us as bulldozer operators in a china shop, and it's why they don't bring us in on the tough stuff.

So it's painful to see someone, anyone, reinforce it, especially by way of offering her own services to "save the country—and the economy."

How about, save your breath.

CEOs race to be first to excoriate own industry

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So last week Pfizer's CEO divulged that the company and its industry has a credibility problem and issued a call for healthcare reform.

Yesterday ConocoPhillips CEO Jim Mulva said basically the same thing about the oil industry, in a speech at the International Petroleum Week conference in London:

Nearly everyone agrees that renewable energy and lower carbon footprints are needed. But those here tonight realize that fossil fuels will remain essential for decades to come. Unfortunately, the public views oil companies as the people standing spread-eagled to cast shadows on solar panels. They don’t want to hear what we have to say. So our ability to influence public opinion and government policy is declining.

He went on to tell a joke:

It’s like the executive who was walking down the street when he saw a small child being attacked by a Rottweiller. Without hesitating, he grabbed the dog with his bare hands and wrestled it to the ground. After a life-and-death struggle, he subdued it and rescued the child. As he lay there bleeding, a passing journalist ran over to ask what happened. “What a story!’ he said when told the details. “Local hero saves child. By the way, what do you do?” “I’m an oil company CEO,” was the answer. And the next day the headline read, “Corporate fat cat strangles family pet.”

Like that fellow, we need to work harder at engaging shareholders.

The speech isn't as substantive as its Pfizer counterpart, but if another speech like this comes out next week, I think it'll be safe to start calling this a trend.

Download ConocoSpeech here.

(Hat tip to New York Speechwriters Roundtable doyen Dana Rubin for the heads up.)