Communicating the Future by Pam McConathy Schied
Alum Pam McConathy Schied gave a guest lecture to Seminar class last week on “Communicating the Future”. The lecture was based on her Master’s Project for the Futures Program. Pam has had a long career as a public relations professional and used her futures studies degree to help her launch her Futures Communications Group in 2008, where she advises clients on public relations, communications, and the future.
Her advice to the students fell into two categories: how can you be a more effective communicator in general, and how to deal with the particular challenges of communicating about the future (yes, there are a few!) For instance, she cited Professor Emeritus Oliver Markley’s quip that: “We are in the business of trying to sell ideas whose time has not yet come.”
She pointed to a few works of “essential reading” on the topic: Lori Silverman’s, Wake Me Up When the Data Is Over and Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath.
We talked a lot about how to blend your personal style with best practices in communications. It’s best to “be yourself,” but that doesn’t mean forgetting the principles of effective communication.
Among the ideas we discussed was establishing oneself as a thought leader. Here Pam noted the myriad of social media tools available to promote one’s work and suggested we take advantage of them. And that we need to keep the conversation going — not just post when we want to sell or promote something, but rather build an ongoing relationship with our audience.
It was a great contribution to our class and really nice to see our alum giving back to the program — thanks Pam! Andy Hines
