Pouring Concrete
Chapter 3 of Made to Stick, by Chip and Dan Heath, focused on what I believe to be the very core essence of public relations work: being concrete. The chapter discussed various case studies and success stories illustrating ideas of abstraction vs. concreteness and the variety of issues the combination may produce. What I gathered from the reading was that as public relations professionals, or human beings for that matter, using concrete terms and ideas is the hands down best way to practice effective communication.
When the chapter discussed the dangerous differences between two parties communicating on different levels (concrete vs. abstract) I thought the message was made most clear with the following passage found on page 114:
“Novices perceive concrete details as concrete details. Experts perceive concrete details as symbols of patterns and insights that they have learned through years of experience. And, because they are capable of seeing a higher level of insight, they naturally want to talk on a higher level. They want to talk about chess strategies, not about bishops moving diagonally.”
This passage, I believe, illustrates the worlds need for public relations professionals. I regarded the “novices” as the consumers, shareholders or any aspect of the community that a company serves. The experts are then the employees and board members of the company. Those who work in the company obviously understand a great deal more about its systems, strategies and ideas than those who do not. Because the consumers do not work for the company, their understanding of messages and strategies may be hazy at times. Therefore, the need for a “middle man” is created and gives jobs to people like us.
As public relations professionals, it is our job to take the message of our client or organization and paraphrase it in concrete terms so that our publics can more effectively convey the message.
An example I’ve seen of practicing to be concrete is our wonderful writing quizzes in my J452 Advanced PR Writing class and the edits on our assignments. Our professor, Tiffany Derville, Ph.D., consistently instructs us to cut out filler words or unnecessary globs of information. After reading this chapter, the reasons for doing so is vibrantly illustrated: More words = less concrete.
It is important for us as budding PR professionals to understand this idea and exercise it diligently. Let our personalities and qualities provide the color to our work, but keep the messages concrete and they will be embraced.
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