AmericanVisionaries.com

The Civic Cycle and Volunteerism

July 7, 2006 - "College graduates, shaped by such events as Sept. 11, Hurricane Katrina and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, are applying to service organizations such as AmeriCorps and the Peace Corps in record numbers." (USA TODAY)

In October of 2005, the Peace Corp announced the highest level of volunteers in 30 years:  7,810 Americans serve with the Peace Corp in 77 countries. The Peace Corp volunteer level peaked at nearly 15,000 in 1966 and was at record lows in the 1980s - in fact, only 5,380 served in 1982, the lowest level in Peace Corp history.

Are there more young adults age 20-24 than there were in the 1980s?

• 1980 - Adults 20-24,  8 % of the total US population (22,441,863)
• 2000 - Adults 20-24, 6.7 % of the total US population (18,964,001)

So, there were 3,477,862 more adults 20-24 in 1980.*

Are there fewer jobs for college graduates now, than in 1980?

" ... the National Association of Colleges & Employers notes job prospects for seniors are up 14.5% over 2005." (USA TODAY, July 7, 2006)

Photo courtesy of the Peace Corp.

"On October 14, 1960, at 2:00 a.m., Presidential Candidate John F. Kennedy stands on the steps of the Michigan Union at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. In an impromptu speech, he challenges them to give two years of their lives to help people in countries of the developing world." (www.peacecorps.gov)

Five months later, President Kennedy issues an Executive Order creating the Peace Corp.  This year, 2006, the Corp celebrates its 45th Anniversary.

That was 1960 ... but who has challenged this generation to serve?

In the USA TODAY article, one 26-year old, who had just left a career in corporate banking to serve with the Peace Corp in Panama, stated "There's a lot of need in this world, and it wasn't doing anything in my heart to help make the rich people be richer."

So are 20 year-olds different than they were in 1980?  Why the increase in volunteerism?

Twenty year-olds are different than they were in 1980.

My friend, we are ALL different than we were in 1980.

There's an increase in volunteerism across the population spectrum.  New organizations like Global Service Corp and Cross Cultural Solutions offer programs for all ages to serve, with flexible commitments (even 1 to 12 weeks).

Read my founding partner, Roy H. Williams' "Marketing in 2005 and Beyond;" you'll understand this transformation.   

From the memo, and the book Generations, he talks about the swing from the "idealistic generation" of the 1963-2002 forty-year cycle to the new "civic generation," beginning in 2003 and lasting through 2043.  In the memo (written in November of 2004) he predicts the increase in volunteerism, the end of the term "upwardly mobile" and the decrease in the effectiveness of current advertising.

Sure 911, Katrina and Iraq have something to do with it.  But it's deeper ... it's inevitable.

For me, like the 26 year-old, I felt it in my heart.  Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs went out the window and I live with a different triangle.  Self-actualization became more important than safety in this new world.

In 2004, I realized the ethics of the company I served no longer matched my own.  The Emperor had no clothes.  After 25 years in television and network radio, I resigned.  Three months later, I was diagnosed with cancer -- my second diagnosis in 4 years. 

I realize there are Emperors and Empresses all around me ... but they don't come in the form of CEOs, politicians or sales performance winners at the annual conference.  They come in the form of my husband, my Mom, the nutritionist at the Cancer Therapy and Research Center, the teeth and soap-deprived old man on the bus that made the bus driver stop to return the checkbook I left on the seat, my friends and family who send me cards and pray for me.

Over the past two years my lifestyle has changed.  When I look back I think of 7 things that were the highlight of my career.  The seven trips I took, alone, to the top seven western art museums in America.  Those trips replenished my soul.

I know art has that effect on everyone ... it's because of the way our brains are wired.  That's why I provide the tools to the corporate world on the difference the right art program, when properly executed, can make to employees, stakeholders and customers.

*US Census, 2000

Branding and the Narrative

"Brands provide a story to tell, the brand is all about the narrative and the American culture today is a narrative culture ... If a brand has a story and can prove itself, it's kind of like a candidate running for office.  Candidates with a better track record tend to get the nod."

- Paul Earle, RiverWest Brands, a Chicago firm specializing in Brand Resurrection

The above is from a great story: Heritage Brands to Get Wake Up Call, But Will Anybody Care? (Brandweek/Spotlight, 3/20/06).  I encourage you to read it.  But the reference to a well-run political campaign scares me.  It's not our Civic Generation's idea of authenticity and reality.

Now, about today's "narrative culture."

When Jacob ran for his life to lands unknown, he collapsed and  found a rock to lay his head on.  In a dream, Jacob saw angels climbing up and down a stairway (or ladder), extending from heaven to earth.  God appeared.  God told Jacob he would not die, that he would own the land he was sleeping on and that his decedents would be as numerous as the particles of sand beneath him. 

The next morning Jacob anointed the stone with oil and called the place Bethel, House of God.   

Nearly two decades later, God asked Jacob to go back to Bethel.  A landmark was built reminding all future generations of the promises to Jacob and his decedents at that site.  The story never left them.  (Genesis 28)

We've always been a narrative culture. 

Stories are evocative.  They evoke and communicate feelings, sometimes feelings we didn't even know we had.

Our legends, our symbols (if worthy) call to mind a story and a hero or demon.  Since ancient days, our narratives connect us to our arts, our architecture, our sculptures, our dances, our journeys, our homes and our music.

The Alamo, the Statue of Liberty, the Cross, the Art of The Palm Restaurants, DisneyLand, the Art at Rockefeller Center, the post office murals of the depression-era Public Works Projects, the Flag, the Star Spangled Banner, the depots of yesterday, hotels of legend like the Driskill in Austin and the Menger in San Antonio ... all are our stories, symbols with narratives.  We know their presence. 

If we don't know your story, we probably won't care about your symbol and your brand.  You can't be "cheap" enough, "service" oriented enough or buy enough real estate ("convenient locations") to make us care.

For some, like Tom Gilliland, the owner of Fonda San Miguel in Austin (3/21/06 Post), this knowledge and understanding is like breathing.

For others, it takes a black and white snapshot of what your balance sheet will look like in 5 months, 5 years, 50 years and 150 years.  But not too many companies really care about having a story or a brand that lasts that long.

Do you?

Art:  Ernest Martin Hennings, The Sheep Herder

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

American Visionaries is designed to celebrate the best of blending the arts, culture, community and commerce.  These stories are mostly case studies of the innovators in the 20th century.

But, Starbucks Snow (3/2/06 Post) and Spring Break and No Escape (3/10/06 Post) have delved into a darker side.  The desperate expressions from the media, advertising and corporate worlds that have led us into new frontiers.  The grasping side that appears to lack the integrity and authenticity our young Civic Generation wants and deserves.  (Remember - we're all part of this new Civic Generation from 2003-2043 ... it has nothing to do with when you were born, it has everything to do with when you live.)

• The grasping side that honors advertising on the side of a coffee cup you just bought. 
• That plasters hotel lobbies and elevators with a brand's posters. 
• That allows your hotel room's pillowcase and shower curtain to be sold to carry a brand.

After a well-publicized battle for control, the new team at Six Flags announced last week they'd be showcased on the big screen -- new ads in theaters surrounding their locations will break on over 1,100 screens in June 2006. 

I thought what a few others thought - see these quotes, following the release from thrillnetwork.com:

• "That is exactly what I was thinking sfft.  Another thing to add to the already elongated section of previews." - G_Adv_123
• "Lol I think this sounds cool... If I have to sit and watch ads for crappy movies I  might as well watch a SF ad." - James

And, why not incorporate theater advertising into the plan?

"We have a captive audience watching your advertisement. No interruptions! The patrons sitting in the theaters are not going anywhere."
                              
                              - ScreenVision Cinema Network web site speaking to potential advertisers.

"CaptiveAudience.org has one primary goal:  to urge theater owners to discontinue showing invasive TV-like commercials before the beginnings of movies."

They encourage movie-goers to print "Reserved" seat signs like the one below to come early, get your seat and go somewhere else while the advertising is showing.

 

 

 

 

 

Ralph Nader distributed a news release, in 1998, stating, "We are calling for commercial-free movies – no ads, no product placements," Nader said.  "Movie theaters should be a sanctuary, a refuge from the ad barrage.  We are challenging movie and theater companies to rid themselves of commercials and product placements."

One of the major points mentioned by Jason Thompson, Director of Captive Motion Picture Audience of America is that "Commercial presentations continue to detract from the escapism and unique experience that movie theaters provide."

Destroy the integrity of the experience and you destroy the experience.

Spring Break and No Escape

In yesterday's New York Times, Julie Bosman reports that marketers are spending over $ 75 million "to reach the 18 to 24 year-old demographic, which is typically resistant to traditional advertising, (and) to associate their brands with the positive memories students have of their vacations." 

Marketers, who in the past have set up tents on the beach and given away free samples, are going to greater lengths to get attention.  Company brands are represented on pillowcases and shower curtains.  Axe (a Unilver line of men's deodorant and shower gels) is putting their logo on room keys, providing "Mission in Progress" door hangers and putting up posters in hotel lobbies and in elevators.

" 'It's sort of a veritable wasteland for logos and branding and that kind of thing, but not so much in engaging with that audience,' Kevin Roddy, the executive creative director for Bartle Bogle in New York. 'If it isn't done right, it's irritating, especially to this audience.' " 

Would you be irritated by this, if you'd spent $ 229 a night for a room at a resort where you just wanted to have a good time and escape?

I can't wait to hear how they respond.

Leadership during a Civic Cycle (2003-2043)

In the final chapter of Conrad Hilton's book, Be My Guest, is his guide of "the art to living."

His first acquisition of a hotel was in Cisco, Texas in 1919.  His leadership of Hilton Hotels continued well past the publishing of his 1957 autobiography Be My Guest.  This makes him instrumental in our study of leadership in a Civic Cycle.  The last cycle began in 1923 and lasted forty years until 1963.  We've just entered a new Civic Cycle, in 2003, which will extend forty years to 2043. 

This is what one Civic Generational Leader believes about the art to living:

1. Find your own particular talent.
2. Be Big:  Think Big, Act Big, Dream Big.
3. Be Honest
4. Live with Enthusiasm
5. Don't let your Possessions Posses You
6. Don't Worry about your Problems
7. Don't Cling to the Past
8. Look Up to People When You Can - Down to No One
9. Assume Your Full Share of Responsibility for the World in Which You Live
10. Pray Consistently and Confidently

As a man who served in World War I, (whose life back in San Antonio, New Mexico would never be the same after seeing the great cities of San Francisco, New York, London and Paris), as a father to the men who would serve in World War II, and as a man of conviction during the Cold War and the fight against Communism, he authentically spoke of freedom, liberty, the power of prayer and the power of one man expecting a positive outcome -- a positive vision.  It was the vision of seeing each other in the "image of God."

Authenticity, transparency and vision.  He published this prayer, on full page ads in major magazines on July 4, 1952, and was overwhelmed with thanks and support, not only from the U.S., but from the world.

It's timeless -- but I doubt you would have seen a major corporate CEO do anything like this in 1980.

"Our Father in heaven:  We pray that You save us from ourselves.  The world that You have made for us, to live in peace, we have made into an armed camp.  We live in fear of war to come. 
We are afraid of 'the terror that flies by night and the arrow that flies by day, the pestilence that walks in darkness and the destruction that wastes at noon-day.'
We have turned from You to go our selfish way.  We have broken Your commandments and denied Your truth.  We have left Your altars to serve the false gods of money and pleasure and power.  Forgive us and help us.
Now, darkness gathers around us and we are confused in all our counsels.  Losing faith in You, we lose faith in ourselves.
Inspire us with wisdom, all of us, of every color, race and creed, to use our wealth, our strength, to help our brother, instead of destroying him.
Help us to do Your will as it is done in Heaven and to be worthy of Your promise of peace on earth.
Fill us with new faith, new strength and new courage, that we may win the battle for peace.
Be swift to save us dear God, before the darkness falls."

- Conrad Hilton, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale and Fulton Oursler

Cold Callas

  "I hate flowers -

I paint them because they're cheaper than models and they don't move."

- Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986)

Georgia O'Keefe's Calla Lilies, 1924
Private Collection © Juan Hamilton (http://www.okeeffemuseum.org/visit/exhibitions/lily.html)

Each one of us has our Calla Lilies ... something we hate, but they're inevitable.  For me, it's cold callas (calls).   

Because of my projects in network radio, I became very close to one of the VPs at our headquarters.  We'd tell each other many times, as we tackled the next phase of each project, "Hey, if it were easy everyone would be doing it."      

I've been in sales for nearly 20 of my 25 years in this profession.  The first five years of my career was in media planning and buying; then, I endured the age of the old "I'll just talk 'til you buy or fall asleep" style.

Then, on to television and network radio ad sales, the next 20 years of my career.  The decades of the consultative sale.  It was more my natural style, because of my background.

But it's not working anymore.  Or, maybe it's just not working for me anymore.

Meet Steve Clark and Sharon Drew Morgen, two alpha voices leading us to a new way to help people determine their problems and find solutions.   Steve, a Wizard of Ads partner, owns New School Selling; Sharon is the author of Selling with Integrity and Buying Facilitation. 

Everyday, in every way, I hear EVERY industry whisper, "Isn't there a way for us to make money and do it right?"  Clark and Morgen are showing the sales industry how to do it right ... making money is a secondary benefit.

By the way, Steve Clark has a TeleClass beginning January 10, 2006, eleven bite-size weeks. 

One more thing, six of Georgia's Calla Lily paintings sold for an unheard amount of $ 25,000 in 1928 (the largest amount ever paid for a group of paintings by a living artist).  Georgia became known as the "lady of the lilies," until a fateful trip ... her first visit to New Mexico in 1929.  The journey transformed her style and her passion.