Too Many COVID-19 Emails?

A Fast Company article criticizes brands for sending emails without real connections to customers. Consumers are getting annoyed at seemingly random emails from companies that happen to have their email. The author offers this advice:

The best way that brands should be responding is if they actually have something to say or contribute. Our patience for marketing fluff is low at the best of times, but now it’s positively toxic.

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Discussion:

• Think about the emails you have received recently. Which were more useful or meaningful to you than others? Why is that the case?

• What advice do you have for companies debating whether and what types of emails to send?

Common Writing Mistakes Infographic

An editor at Macmillan Publishing created an infographic to show the most common mistakes writers make. Misplaced commas, wordy sentences, and run-on sentences get top billing.

The list is interesting and helpful to alert writers to what they should focus on when they revise their work. I wouldn’t try to attack all of these issues on a rough draft.

Of course, some of these mistakes are more serious than others. Although they’re prioritized by frequency, other organizational strategies might be useful.

Advice at the bottom of the infographic is useful for anyone.

Discussion:

• Which of these common mistakes are problems in your own writing? How have you been able to tackle them?

• How else could this list be organized?

• How useful do you find the advice at the bottom? What other advice would you offer writers?

Quantifying a Tweet

When someone in an organization goes rogue and sends a tweet, what’s the potential damage? The NBA found out the hard way that the financial impact could be significant.

In October 2019, Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey supported Hong Kong protests in a tweet. As a result, Chinese advertisers pulled their ads and broadcasters wouldn’t air games. Now, NBA commissioner Adam Silver admits the loss will total “hundreds of millions” of dollars and “probably less than $400 million.” Silver expanded on the damage:

“It’s substantial. I don’t want to run from that. We were taken off the air in China for a period of time, and it caused our many business partners in China to feel it was therefore inappropriate to have ongoing relationships with us. But I don’t have any sense that there’s any permanent damage to our business there.”

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Discussion:

• Review the situation from October. What lessons can managers learn?

• What’s your view of Silver admitting the loss? What are the arguments for and against his honesty?

Kids and Email and Phone Etiquette

A Wall Street Journal article tells us what we probably already know: kids could improve how they email and talk on the phone. Referring to email as seeming like “an ancient craft” and “so last century,” the author gives examples of missing subject lines and salutations.

An HR manager sees issues when young people are in the workplace and blames changing technologies:

“You can graduate high school without hardly ever having made a call. You can do everything online—book reservations, book an Uber. Teens aren’t hearing their parents make calls either. When I was younger, my parents did all of that out loud and I was learning by listening. You’d pick up all that etiquette.”

College students seem to have trouble with the phone as well. Employers tell me students are uncomfortable leaving voice mails and taking their calls.

The article lists basic etiquette guidelines for email from The Emily Post Institute’s Daniel Post Senning.

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Discussion:

• What guidelines would you add to the email etiquette list?

• How did you learn email and phone manners? Or are you still learning?

• How can you help your young siblings or other young people prepare for the workplace?

Tips for Writing Headlines

An infographic written by Feldman Creative and designed by Infobrandz offers tips for writing headlines, particularly for online content. The advice focuses on capturing attention, which makes sense in our cluttered online world: posing a question, focusing on the reader, using a colon or m-dash, and using visceral language.

Read the entire infographic on Ragan.com. Some of this advice is useful for email subject lines, which may inspire receivers to read or delete your email.

Discussion:

• Read the past 50 or so subject lines of emails you have received. Which of these principles are followed? What differences do you notice in marketing and other emails?

• What advice do you find useful from the infographic for online content? What about email subject lines that you write?

Emails Show USC's Potential Role in the Admissions Scandal

Actress Lori Loughlin and her fashion-designer husband Mossimo Giannulli have been charged with bribing University of Southern California athletic officials to get their daughter admitted. Now emails from USC show that the school was courting them by asking for donations and arranging for personalized campus tours. In one email, a university official wrote, “I’d also be happy to flag her application.”

A New York Times article summarizes how accused parents plan to defend themselves against charges:

Motions by several of the defendants suggest they will argue, essentially, that they could not have defrauded the university, as prosecutors say, because the university was actively seeking such donations and offering a leg-up in admissions in return.

In a statement, USC downplayed the special treatment:

“What was being offered to the Giannullis was neither special nor unique. Tours, classroom visits and meetings are routinely offered. The primary purpose of a flag is to be able to track the outcome of the admission review process. It is not a substitute for otherwise being qualified for admission to USC.”

Parents are expected to say that their donations were legitimate, but USC is expected to say that the bribery was specific to the crew team official, who “agreed to pass the couple’s two daughters off as coxswains.”

Image source.

Discussion:

• What’s your view of this situation? Do you agree more with the parents’ or with the school’s perspective?

• What, if anything, do the school’s emails reveal? Consider this message to the parents: “Please let me know if I can be at all helpful in setting up a 1:1 opportunity for her, customized tour of campus for the family, and/or classroom visit?”

Boeing Internal Documents Don't Reflect Well on Safety

The lead article in today’s The Wall Street Journal is titled, “Internal Boeing Documents Show Cavalier Attitude to Safety.” In 150 pages of emails and other documentation, employees worry that they don’t have enough time to correct safety issues and refer to regulators as “morons” and “stupider.”

In February 2018, one employee wrote, “Would you put your family on a MAX simulator trained aircraft? I wouldn’t.” A pilot wrote, “I still haven’t been forgiven by god for the covering up I did last year. Can’t do it one more time. Pearly gates will be closed.” Still another employee wrote, “This airplane is designed by clowns, who in turn are supervised by monkeys.”

A defense attorney argues that employees were just “blowing off steam” in their emails.

In the past few months, Boeing’s culture has come to light—once lauded as a place where people felt proud to work but now a place where people feel stressed and remorseful. CEO Doug Muilenberg has since been terminated and replaced temporarily by CFO Doug Smith.

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Discussion:

• Read more about the internal communications. What lessons can employees and their managers take away from this story?

• What’s your view of the emails? Do they indicate big problems at the company, or is the attorney right that employees are just venting to each other? How does the concept of “cherry picking” come into play?

• What should Boeing do to manage this situation? Consider this news in light of the company’s crisis communication planning you read about in another post.

Facebook Memo Goes Public

Facebook executive Andrew Bosworth wrote a 2,551-word memo about the company’s role in the upcoming election and more. Bosworth compliments President Trump’s use of Facebook ads and admits that the site impacted the 2016 U.S. election. A Vox article describes Boswell’s logic:

Bosworth’s memo has much more in there, which is getting plenty of deserved attention, including the assertion that Facebook did indeed help Donald Trump win the 2016 election — by giving him the tools to run “the single best digital ad campaign I’ve ever seen from any advertiser. Period.” And the memo also reveals that Bosworth, a self-described “committed liberal,” fantasizes about using Facebook to prevent Trump from winning in 2020, but won’t.

The memo is also attracting attention because Bosworth compares Facebook to sugar and places responsibility on the user: “At the end of the day we are forced to ask what responsibility individuals have for themselves."

Bosworth ends the memo with a question:

To bring this uncharacteristically long and winding essay full circle, I wanted to start a discussion about what lessons people are taking away from the press coverage. My takeaway is that we were late on data security, misinformation, and foreign interference. We need to get ahead of polarization and algorithmic transparency. What are the other big topics people are seeing and where are we on those?

Boswell image source.

Discussion:

• Read the entire memo . What surprises you most?

• How damaging is the memo to Facebook’s image, particularly with another election coming up? How does a memo like this—posted on an internal site—become public?

• What business writing principles does Bosworth follow, and how could he improve the memo?

Should We Call Climate Change Something Else?

An AdAge writer wonders whether renaming climate change would change perceptions. Reframing is a common strategy for influencing behaviors, thoughts, and feelings. Already, climate change seems to be the evolution of global warming, a less convincing idea, in part, because sometimes it’s quite cold, as President Trump says.

A brand team pondered the following new names:

• Global Meltdown, Global Melting

• Climate Collapse, Climate Chaos

• Boiling Point, Melting Point

• Scorched Earth

Earth image source.

Discussion:

• The author identifies “parameters and guideposts” for the new name: audience, reach, and message. What is important for each of these categories?

• What’s your view of the proposed new names? Which do you like best and least, and why?

Fabricated Letters to the SEC

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is planning a policy change that, as a Bloomberg article describes, “would shift power from investors to corporate boards” and “limit[s] the power of dissenting shareholders.” Unfortunately, when Chairman Jay Clayton announced the change, he cited several fabricated letters of support to the SEC.

The SEC failed to recognize that many letters followed a similar template and included a random line in the mailing address—“A Coalition of Growth Companies.”

Clayton was impressed that the SEC heard from such a variety of people, such as veterans and retired police officers, but people contacted said they didn’t write the letter or agreed to having their name on a letter without understanding the implications.

The Bloomberg article reports Clayton’s response:

The SEC declined to comment on any irregularities with the letters. In a Tuesday interview, Clayton sidestepped a question about how the agency ensures comment letters are genuine. He did emphasize that the regulator’s potential revamp of shareholder voting rules are proposals, adding that there will be ample time for people on both sides to weigh in before any changes are finalized.

“We welcome input in all ways,” Clayton said in the interview with Bloomberg Television’s David Westin. “On this issue, where there are a lot of different views and a lot of different interests, we encourage people to come in and talk to us, send us their comments.”

Discussion:

• How does something like this happen? Who is responsible?

• Assess Clayton’s response. How well is he handling the situation? What, if anything, should he do differently?

• What leadership character dimensions are illustrated by this situation?

T-Mobile's Full-Page Ad

In signature pink, T-Mobile ran a full-page ad in Sunday’s New York Times. The ad also feels like T-Mobile because we see “From the desk of John Legere,” the charismatic CEO and frequent tweeter with comments such as, “One of our best weapons is the ineptness of the competition. #sorrynotsorry.”

For a persuasive message, the ad is curious and a good example for business communication students to analyze.

Discussion:

• Who are the primary and secondary audiences for this ad?

• What are T-Mobile’s communication objectives, and how well does this message achieve them?

• If you were advising the company, what suggestions would you have for revisions?

Plain Language from Financial Advisers

A Wall Street Journal writer asks financial advisers to speak to us in plain English. A new Securities and Exchange Commission rule—described in 564 pages—calls for simpler writing. But the author wants advisers to go further, for example, to use more visuals and categories: “color-coded from red to green, for instance, or arrayed on a scale from 1 to 10.”

Fortunately, the rule includes a summary, although students of business communication will find problems:

The Securities and Exchange Commission (the “Commission” or the “SEC”) is adopting new rules and forms as well as amendments to its rules and forms, under both the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (“Advisers Act”) and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Exchange Act”) to require registered investment advisers and registered broker-dealers (together, “firms”) to provide a brief relationship summary to retail investors. The relationship summary is intended to inform retail investors about: the types of client and customer relationships and services the firm offers; the fees, costs, conflicts of interest, and required standard of conduct associated with those relationships and services; whether the firm and its financial professionals currently have reportable legal or disciplinary history; and how to obtain additional information about the firm. The relationship summary will also reference Investor.gov/CRS, a page on the Commission’s investor education website, Investor.gov, which offers educational information to investors about investment advisers, broker-dealers, and individual financial professionals and other materials. Retail investors will receive a relationship summary at the beginning of a relationship with a firm, communications of updated information following a material change to the relationship summary, and an updated relationship summary 2 upon certain events. The relationship summary is subject to Commission filing and recordkeeping requirements.

Plain language in government documents started as an initiative in the 1990s, and the group highlights before-and-after examples.

Discussion:

• How could you rewrite the summary, above, for easier reading?

• Review the Plain Language website. What are your impressions of the group’s work?

Business Leaders Sign Letter to Top Officials

Fifty CEOs and business school leaders signed a letter to President Trump and other top-ranking politicians urging action to allow for more international applications. The letter comes after a report by the Graduate Management Admissions Council showing declining applications.

Report conclusions follow:

[A]llowing top talent to study and work in the country of their choice helps create jobs, not take them. It offers insight into changing trends for historically talent-attracting and talent-supplying countries. Business school applications are a powerful metric—and forecast—of the success of individual economies in prioritizing talent and therefore leading innovation and growth. A survey of these latest metrics shows change in our midst—and for certain economies, warning signs for the future.

In their letter, the business leaders write that the U.S. is “needlessly capping our growth and can do better.” They urge U.S. politicians to allow more movement by taking the following action:

• Removing “per-country” visa caps, modernizing our visa processing system, and reforming the H-1B visa program to make it possible for the most talented people to have a reasonable chance of gaining entry to the United States.

• Creating a “heartland” visa that encourages immigration to the regions of the United States that could most use the vitality of these talented individuals.

Discussion:

• Analyze the letter. Who are the primary and secondary audiences? What are the communication objectives? How do you assess the organization and writing style?

• What persuasive communication strategies do the writers use? Which are most and least effective?

• Analyze the report using the same questions.

• How well does the infographic summarize the report conclusions? What could be improved?

Tips for Managing Email

My colleague at Cornell, Andrew Quagliata, offers helpful tips for those of us who struggle with managing our daily email:

• Don’t check your email immediately after you wake up.

• Don’t begin the workday with email.

• Open your email applications only during designated times.

• Turn off notifications.

• Move emails out of your inbox after you read them.

• Filter messages.

• Establish a priority framework for responding.

• Use signatures for common responses.

• Send fewer emails.

Read more about Prof. Quagliata’s advice on his blog—and you might find more helpful ideas.

Typing image source.

Gmail image source.

Discussion:

• Which of these tips do you find most useful? Which have you tried before, and which are new for you to consider?

• What tools for managing email have you used and found helpful or unhelpful?

Harvard Admissions Decision

A federal judge has decided that Harvard did not discriminate against Asian students during the admissions process. The Crimson, Harvard’s student newspaper, provides an analysis of the case.

In its defense, Harvard revealed its admissions process, which included personality ratings. The plaintiff group, Students for Fair Admissions, criticized the system as disadvantaging Asian students. However, in her decision, the judge cited testimony from admissions counselors, shown here.

The judge explained the role of diversity in her decision:

Ensuring diversity at Harvard relies, in part, on race-conscious admissions. The use of race benefits certain racial and ethnic groups that would otherwise be underrepresented at Harvard and is therefore neither an illegitimate use of race or reflective of racial prejudice.

Although she decided in Harvard’s favor, the judge did provide recommendations to Harvard:

 She recommended that admissions officers participate in implicit bias trainings, maintain clear guidelines on the use of race, and monitor any race-related statistical disparities.

She said the task of considering race in admissions is a “a particularly delicate job” to execute lawfully.

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Discussion:

• What’s your view of this case? Read more about the case in the judge’s decision.

• What’s your own experience during the college admissions process? How might this affect how you view the case?

• Analyze the Harvard Crimson article. What business communication principles do the author follow?

Amazon Response to Employee Walkout

Like many around the world during the Global Climate Strike, hundreds of Amazon employees walked out of their offices yesterday. Employees have been urging Amazon leaders to take more steps to reduce fossil fuel dependency and wrote an open letter back in April. The pressure seems to be working.

On Thursday, CEO Jeff Bezos announced The Climate Pledge, with the following commitments:

• Commits to net zero carbon by 2040 and 100% renewable energy by 2030

• Orders 100,000 fully electric delivery vehicles, the largest order ever for electric delivery vehicles

• Invests $100 million in reforestation projects around the world to begin removing carbon from the atmosphere now

• Launches new sustainability website to report progress on commitments

The Pledge encourages other businesses to sign on, with Amazon leading the way. Bezos said, “We’re done being in the middle of the herd on this issue — we’ve decided to use our size and scale to make a difference.” Amazon employees reacted positively.

Discussion:

• Analyze the employees’ open letter. What persuasive strategies do they use? Look for examples of logical argument, emotional appeal, and credibility. What organizational strategies do the writers use?

• The Amazon announcement doesn’t mention employees’ influence in the decision, although news articles and employees make the connection. Should Bezos include this recognition? Why or why not?

• Describe a CEO’s dilemma in situations like these. When is it appropriate for leaders to meet their employees’ demands, and when should they resist? Did Bezos take the best course of action?

Howard Schultz Update

Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has decided not to run for president, after all. He communicated the news in an email and on his website. In the email, fonts changed in the middle, but it looks better online. At right are the first few paragraphs.

The full message explains his reasons, which include the election process and his health.

Discussion:

• Analyze the message. Consider the audience, communication objectives, writing style, organization, and reasoning. What works well, and what can be improved?

• At what point does he announce the news?

• What are his strongest and weakest arguments for not running for president?

• What causes fonts to change in the middle of an email, and how can you avoid this in your own writing?

The Purpose of the Corporation

The Business Roundtable published a statement, The Purpose of the Corporation, signed by 181 of its 193 members. The Roundtable, a corporate lobbying group, includes CEOs of the largest U.S. companies.

In essence, the CEOs write that they have responsibilities beyond shareholders—to customers, employees, suppliers, and communities (including the environment). The statement is a step to improving the perception of businesses as solely driven by creating shareholder value through short-term profits.

Skeptics abound. A writer for the Washington Post called the statement a “truism”:

“What’s significant about the statement is what it does not say. The corporate signatories do not suggest in any way weakening the fiduciary duties of the boards and managers of ordinary for-profit shareholder corporations to manage such companies’ affairs for shareholders’ benefit.”

The CEO of Allstate and head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce wrote an opinion piece in the New York Times encouraging businesses to pay people more if they’re serious about serving more stakeholders.

A writer for Forbes argued that these companies are multinationals and have global responsibilities as well. He also accused the executives of being self-serving, warding off criticism about executive compensation.

Others noted company CEOs who didn’t sign, for example, Alcoa, Blackstone, GE, NextEra, Parker Hannifin, and Wells Fargo (whose representative said the CEO is interim and wasn’t asked to sign). Some companies, for example, Kaiser and State Farm, say they didn’t sign because they don’t have shareholders.

Discussion:

• What’s your view of the statement: significant, placating, diverting, or something else?

• Assess the statement itself. Consider the audience, purpose, writing style, organization, and so on. What works well, and what could be improved? What’s extraneous and what’s missing?

Backlash After President Trump Fundraiser

Equinox and SoulCycle customers are not happy about a fundraiser for President Trump sponsored by the companies’ owner, the chairman of a real estate firm. Threats of boycotts and cancelled memberships provoked quick responses from both companies.

SoulCycle CEO Melanie Whelan also said, “SoulCycle has nothing to do with the event and does not support it. … We know who we are and we know what we believe in, and nothing will ever change that.”

Capitalizing on the brands’ distress, other fitness companies are offering discounts and free trials to try to win business.

Soul Cycle image source.

Discussion:

• More company executives feel inspired towards political activism. What are the advantages and risks?

• Did the real estate company owner, Stephen Ross, act inappropriately by hosting a fundraiser? Why or why not?

• Analyze the companies’ statements. What persuasion strategies do they use to rebuild each brand?

• Compare the statements. Does one work better than the other? What criteria do you use to compare them?

Employees Pressure Walmart to Consider Role in Gun Violence

Walmart is in a tough spot after recent shootings. Some employees are pressing the company to do more to fight gun violence, but no policy changes are planned. After previous attacks, Walmart stopped selling assault-style weapons and raised the minimum age to purchase guns and ammunition, but it’s unclear whether the leaders will do more. Employees are asking Walmart to stop selling firearms and to disallow customers from carrying guns into the stores.

The company seems divided about employees’ activism. Chief Executive Doug McMillon wrote, ”We are proud to be woven into the American fabric as a place for all people. We are more resolved than ever to foster an inclusive environment where all people are valued and welcomed.” At the same time, the company blocked two employees’ access to Slack, encouraging employees to use “more constructive ways for associates to offer feedback such as emails or conversations with leaders.”

A study recently published in the International Journal of Business Communication found that employees are more likely to “express dissent to managers and coworkers” when they are more socialized in the company and when they believe their company is “more ethical and reputable.”

A Wall Street Journal article explains the risk for Walmart to take more action against gun sales:

“[A]ny change to its gun policies risks alienating Walmart’s core customers, who often live in more conservative-leaning rural and suburban communities. The company faced some consumer backlash after raising the minimum age to purchase guns to 21.”

Image source.

Discussion:

• How can the company balance employees’ and customers’ perspectives? What else, if anything, should company leaders say and do?

• Did the company do the right thing by blocking Slack access? In what ways are email and conversations more or less “constructive”?

• What leadership character dimensions are illustrated by this situation?