Questions People Ask Me...

Equity partner at a mid-sized law firm:

Partner: "Litigation is a high profit area for us, so are these administrative challenges. Our clients are happy with what we're doing. Why should we bring in some new "multidisciplinary" program and share the work with PR firms?"

Me: "What if you could make your clients happier? ... If something might improve your chances to win, shouldn't you at least look at it? If there are 10 weapons out there to help you win a war, why would you go into battle with only 5? We're lawyers; we like to win. It's in our nature."

Partner: "It just sounds like some kind of fad."

Me: "You think the world's going to get less connected?"

Lawyer: "I don't know ... but we're probably going to wait and see if this goes anywhere."

Me: "What if your competition doesn't wait? You show up with tanks and machine guns, and they show up with tanks and F-15's."

Principal at a development company:

Developer: "Sometimes we run into local opposition, anti-development groups, on our bigger projects. Maybe we'll give you a call if we see anything like that on this next one."

Me: "[Thanks] ... Why don't you let me walk you through how we can bring in the social side right from the start - when we're mapping out the permit path. You can save a lot of time and a ton of money if you defuse the opposition before it gets started."

In-house communications professional:

PR Pro: "Most of the time they bring us in too late and expect us to un-screw-up the mess somebody else made. We can help way more than they realize, if they knew what to look for. But they don't know what they're not seeing."

Me: "Bring somebody in. I know it's self-serving, but it's still good advice. Bring in somebody for half-a-day of training. Or to meet with Management and Legal and Communications - and have a candid conversation about how this kind of multidisciplinary problem solving works and what it might look like in your shop. And talk through how it could impact costs, timing, resources, results... Look at the secondary benefits, too - strengthening your brand, energizing your customer base, reinforcing your networks..."

"There's a new way to solve problems. Maybe it's going to work for your company, and maybe it's not. But the decision should be deliberate and informed. It shouldn't be made by default because nobody took the effort to look."*

* Full disclosure: I wish I said that last paragraph, but I didn't. I thought of it later. (Which is not to say it isn't true.)