Applying PR principles to everyday life

It has been occurring to me recently that common PR principles could and should be applied to everyday life to make some of the challenges we face in the daily melee - challenges that often can be parallels of commercial or political challenges - easier to manage. Here are a couple of examples:

The Reactive Statement
I have been having some fun with a recently pregnant friend of mine around this. Close friends - particularly women - develop the rare ability of telepathy. So when one mother-friend tells another mother-friend that she isn't drinking alcohol, then it only takes a second for the second to guess that the first is pregnant.

Its a common scenario and one of the best examples of how PR can inform daily life. A new pregnancy is probably the most delicate public announcement a person will make. Once its out there, its out there. You face the jinx/hex old-wives-tale about announcing in the first 3 months; then the reality that pregnancies are vulnerable in the first 3 months.

Jokingly advising my newly pregnant friend then - as her pro-bono PR consultant you understand - I briefed her that she should prepare a 'reactive' statement or position that she could meet in-coming enquiries with. Afterall, no one wants to lie to a friend! Therefore, as long as she doesn't 'pro actively' take out the news in the first 3 months, she can feel safe that she hasn't broken the '3 month' rule. Thus unwanted enquiries can be 'managed' carefully and the news carefully restricted within a tight circle.

Thats how the corporate communications function carefully manages unwanted attention without compromising itself by lying or evasion.

Do not speculate...
Furthermore, a similar analogy exists in the issue of speculation - otherwise known as gossip. Another friend recently found herself in quite an uncomfortable position with her husband after passing comment on one of her husband's friends, leaving him quite unable to defend her and seriously jeopardising a friendship with one of his close friends. (Its very, very appropriate that - and you'd understand of course why - I can't decorate this example with more detail.)

Without much effort, we can always get ourselves into trouble in our personal relationships by being frivolous with 'news' or commentary. No one wants to be a gossip but we rarely think too carefully about what we are saying about people. Two commercial positions can be helpfully informative in how we manage news:

• "We do not comment on industry rumour or speculation..." Just as in business and politics, perhaps its often best not to pass comment on someone else's affairs (in the boradest sense of the word of course!) until a consensus has emerged and the event or issue has reached some sort of denouement. Too many turns of fate can occur to prove you wrong, harsh, naive or just nasty. Best to stay out of it until you think your opinion can sit comfortably on the record: "I really couldn't say, I don't know all the facts."

• "We don't discuss our customers without discussing it with them first..." Friends and loved ones are like customers - they make us who we are as customers make companies and members make parties. As in the Communications business, always take 'stakeholders' with you, make sure they are on board with your public statements. "Do so-and-so want children?" "I really don't know, you'd have to ask them."

Does this make us boring? Well it certainly makes PR sometimes a very, very boring business but the caution and the prudence it teaches you makes for a far less stressful life that you can sit easier with. I have been finding that watching some of life's scenarios unfold - seen partly through this PRism - I'm learning more about life and work.

Or perhaps I'm just thinking too much!

Oh well, as Radar used to say at the end of his announcements in M*A*S*H:

"That is all":)