The Touro Communication Club Notes - #104 – February 3, 2010 Tourocommunicationclub.blogspot.com

Five Communication Quotes of the Week

“Whenever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires courage.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson, 19th Century American essayist and poet

“Courage is the ladder on which all the other virtues mount.”
Clare Boothe Luce, American playwright, Congresswoman, ambassador,

“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.”
Eleanor Roosevelt, civil rights activist, First Lady from 1933-1945

“If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream.”
Martin Luther King, Jr. in “The Trumpet of Conscience,” American clergyman
and civil rights activist

“Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.”
Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister during World War II, author, orator


The Touro Communication Club
2 pm - Wednesday, February 3, 2010– Room 223
“Student Needs”
On this first week of class, it is appropriate that we focus on what students need. This topic came up during one of the Club discussions. It was unclear which direction it could go – personal needs, school needs, needs for the past, present or future. We’ll start with a “tabula rasa” (a blank slate) and see where we go.

A Note to Communicators:

In the Lion’s Den

In “The Wizard of Oz,” the Cowardly Lion needs courage so the Wizard pins a medal on him and suddenly he believes he has courage.

Such an external badge of courage is certainly not what President Obama was expecting when he went to the Republican Conference in Baltimore the day after his first State of the Union Speech.

What the media labeled as “Going into the Lion’s Den” and “having courage,” says more about the media than it does President Obama. He did not have to “screw his courage to the sticking place,” as Lady Macbeth advises her husband.

Despite the Democrat’s loss in Massachusetts the week before, Obama felt that he has a mission to complete. “I don’t quit,” he asserted in his speech on Wednesday. Completing his mission is a characteristic of commitment, not courage.

It is quite simple when you are committed to something or someone. You just do it. No hesitation. It’s just part of the job. You don’t know any other way. No drama. It just is.

Leadership, as we talked about last week, is not about popularity, although Obama is certainly popular. However, popularity is fickle, It’s like fireworks on the 4th of July – pretty and then gone. Popularity is about the person’s ethos. It helps for a leader to be popular, but leadership is more than responding to the whims of the public.

Leadership is about commitment to certain principles, regardless of the political weather. Leadership is not about taking polls or assembling focus groups.

Leadership demands daring, well-timed and unexpected actions. This is an important strategy. It is a daring and unexpected strategy for Obama to appear before the opposition party in the current hostile atmosphere where the Republicans consistently oppose 100% any Democratic proposal.

Once Obama made the decision to address the Republicans, he could follow other presidents and just talk to them privately... He already knows he’s going into a hostile territory. To raise the ante, Obama chose to have a Question-and-Answer period following his speech with the cameras rolling.

Clearly, confidence is the sibling of commitment. Preparation makes for confidence. Obama knows his audience. He knows the issues. He know the Republican strategy of saying “No” everything. His experience under pressure allows him to anticipate every question, every attitude.

I actually thought Obama was “playing” with the Republicans. The staging was crucial. Physically he was above the audience and behind a lecture with the Presidential seal on it. Lots of power symbols.

The light was on the President. The audience was in a subordinate position below him and in relative darkness. The theatrical non-verbals of were all against the Republicans. The lions seemed to be defanged.

While he was in the lion’s den, he asserted his position, but allowed the subordinate Republicans to score a few points. Obama did not have to be defensive: He was the President and he was in charge of his message.

Against the picture of a person in entire control of himself and the situation, the Republican leadership of John Boehner, Eric Cantor and Mike Pence looked grumpy and unhappy.

Let me make my position clear. I am separating his political positions from his communication skills.- our primary interest in the club. I am observing President Obama as a superb communicator, the best in many, many years. The messenger’s ethos must enhance his message.

UPCOMING CONVERSATIONS:

February 10, 2010 - “Asking Questions in Class”- I have noticed in my classes that most students don’t ask a lot of questions, other than “When is class over?” I don’t know why. I must be boring. Maybe the students have been things to do with their minds. For me, questioning is the best avenue of learning anything. When you ask questions, your mind is engaged with the material. When you ask questions on a date, your mind is engaged in the relationship. Let’s see what happens.

February 17, 2010 –“How Do You Fire Someone?” In our work or love life, we may have been fired or told to get lost. Why does this happen? Can you tell if you are going to be fired? What do you say to someone who you want to get rid of? Lots of emotion surrounds these situations. We’ll talk about some ways to prepare to fire someone as well as your options if you suddenly learn you’ve been fired.

February 24, 2010 – “The Power of No” The word “No” is a powerful word. Negatives always are. “No” is the favorite word of a two-year-old child. “No” blocks forward movement. “No” stops the thinking of some people. “No” provokes negative emotions. “No” can be a powerful position. What do you feel when you say “No”? What do you do? Swear at the person who says “No.” We have lots to talk about. And then there’s passive resistance…..

What about one of these topics?
“Cold Calling in Sales”
“Rodney King: ‘Why Can’t We Get Along?”
“Repetition”
“Meaning”
“The Seven Heavenly Virtues”
“Why Does History Repeat Itself?”
“Heroism”
“Concentration”
“Coping with Adversity”
“Distraction”
Dean Donne Kampel on “Women & Leadership”
James Baldwin Dialogue featuring two Touro faculty members,
Student Poetry showcase
“Empathy”
“Connecting the Dots”
Role play of cynical people
And dozens of others!

What happened on Wednesday,
January 13, 2010?
Compare the notice of the session with what really happened
“Leadership”
We are surrounded and led by people who have titles, but are they “leaders”? Advertising tells us if we buy their product, we can be “leaders.” Are you a “leader” if you are a single working mom with three kids who’s going to Touro? Are leaders the ones who are on TV? What is a leader? How do you get to be a leader? We’ll explore this topic and Professor George Backinoff’s favorite version of leadership he calls “Followership.”

Rosica Mohammed joined us for the first time (She was waiting for her mother to pick her up.) Other regulars included Donne Kampel, Charles Mason, Lorinda Moore, James Millner, Ronald Johnson, Jermaine Nurse, Drani Gabu, Carlisle Yearwood and Hal Wicke.

Hal put several items on the blackboard:
· Watch President Obama’s State of the Union Speech tonight at 9 pm.
· “A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste.”
· “Great Beginnings, Lousy Endings?”
· Relationships, New semesters, New jobs - Election campaign vs. governing
· “Connecting the Dots”
· Definition – Situation – Formal & Informal – Adversaries – Decision Making

The discussion got off to a quick start discussing President Obama’s ‘State of the Union” speech. There was a lot of back and forth on Obama’s perceived ability to run the country.
· The failure of Obama’s attempt at bipartisan governing in the face of the Republicans refusing to vote for ANY of the Democratic legislation, particularly health care in the Senate.
· The Massachusetts election ten days ago in which the Democratic candidate for the late Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat lost to an unknown Republican, Scott Brown.
· The Supreme Court 5-4 decision on free speech to allow corporations which are considered individual people to spend unlimited money on the candidates and issues of their choice.

Several words - tabula rasa (blank slate) – and issues had to be explained so everyone would understand the context. The subjunctive - shoulda, coulda, woulda – needs to be used sparingly.

· Obama is popular as a person
· Health care is dead
· The lessons of the Clintons in the 1990s on health care were disregarded.
· The loss of Massachusetts equals the loss of Ted Kennedy’s legacy on health care.
· Obama accused of socialism.

· Donne asked, “What am I expecting to be his (Obama’s) plan for leadership?
· JFK – “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”
· Franklin Roosevelt – “Nothing to fear but fear itself.” – Works Projects Administration,
· George H.W. Bush – “A thousand points of light.”
· Machiavelli and “The Prince”
· The Baby Boomers – born 1946-1964 – are affected health care.
· Obama’s skin color – Harry Reid’s comment quoted in “Game Change”
· Veiled attacks on Obama’s person, e.g., birthers.
· Coakley’s campaign in Massachusetts was badly managed
· “Recount”- the Kevin Spacey film dramatizing the 2000 Presidential Election between Gore and Bush that was decided by the Supreme Court. How Jim Baker planed a “street fight” when Warren Christopher behaved as a gentleman.
· Obama needs “cohones.” He learned his trade in Chicago, famous for its dirty politics.

Jermaine felt that we have to learn one day at a time. The media hyped Obama’s image. He could walk on water. [The New Yorker cover cartoon shows four panels of Obama walking on what appears to be water and then falling in in the last panel.]

· When “take the high road” fails, take the low road.
· Obama should “man up.”
· Obama quote – “I’d rather have one good term than two mediocre terms.”

Carlisle reminded us of T.S. Eliot’s famous 1992 poem, “The Waste Land:” which mourns the desolation of “King Europe” on the face of a baby.

· Obama was a lamb going into a lion’s den.
· A Chicago face on an innocent baby.
· Change starts from within
· “All politics are local.” [The late Congressman Tip O’Neil’s favorite phrase.]
· This is how the Republicans won Massachusetts.

Jermaine reminded us that a President needs to know how to harness the people. “I am one person. I need your help. I need partners. I cannot do this alone.”

· Grass roots organization is the key.

Sidelight – Carlisle speculates that Mayor Bloomberg will run in 2012 because he hired Howard Wolfson, the campaign director of Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential bid.

· “An old broom knows all corners.”
· Create a “Switfboat” negative ad campaign
· Reconfigure, no reconsider.
· Donne Kampel’s forthcoming book, “Women and Leadership” will be a scheduled topic for a club meeting.
· Connecting the dots
· Bill Bradley [NJ Senator and Knicks basketball star] “Whenever you play, you will always meet someone on the court who has worked harder and longer than you have.”
· Wayne Gretzsky [former NY Rangers hockey star, called “The Great One”] – “A good player watches where the puck will be, not where it is.”
· To Obama – don’t talk about scoring, score! Fish or cut bait.
· Better to have half a loaf, than no loaf
· Obama: “I don’t quit.”

Drani – “Make deductions based on evidence – the forest has a lot of trees.”

For the last half hour, people slowly drifted out with other commitments. Only Drani and Hal were left. Drani commented that he “grew my teeth” during these club meetings. Now, he says, he can “chew” issues. This was a touching comment on the value of these sessions.

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We always have a great time exploring these issues. So often our daily life never focuses on these Communication issues. If you have something you want us to discuss please let us know and we’ll add it to the list.

Next time bring a friend. The Communication Club is always an open discussion, limited only by time. Everyone gets a chance to speak. All opinions are welcome. Here is an opportunity for students to challenge professors’ views outside the class without any homework or assignments. You just have to show up and listen and talk if you want.

Hal Wicke