This is a Comms Cop series entry—exploring good and bad communication I see and hear—with satire and a straight face—offering fixes where I can. Through ongoing deliberate attention and practice, we can all get better—creating more smiles while reducing the wear and tear on each other.
It’s not going well.
I’m not cynical enough to believe my individual experience with my state’s election department is a contrived barrier to civic participation. If it was, it could make a nice plot line for a novel addressing devious control.
While the story’s specific, so much of it can be seen in other places too.
If you’re a leader of people, you’ll find at least a few value points along the way. The most important of which is the first fix I recommend at the end—
Senior leadership should connect more often with their team and the work they produce. More attention should be directed to embracing the leadership role of nurturing the joyful, ongoing pursuit of improving external communication and service for their customers.
Mmmm.
I was late to the game on looking into running for office.
For me, clear information was difficult to find.
So I emailed a general unnamed address at the elections department in my state.
Hi. Where can I find upcoming political races for which I might want to run? State and Federal.
Thanks—
Sam
Quick and kind response (couple typos) 7 minutes later without salutation from an unnamed human—
Please click on the link below to locate the 5 Year Election Calendar to see what election are up and coming.
Hopes this information is helpful.
https://www.elections.virginia.gov/casting-a-ballot/calendars-schedules/
It was the 4th link in the list on the page. It wasn’t what I was looking for.
Given the file name in the upper left corner, I don’t think anyone’s given the format improvement attention for a while. (Microsoft Word - 2013_2017_Calendar.doc) It needs it.
I emailed again.
Thank you. Is there a simple way to find out what I can run for given my zip code of residence (22122)1?
Sam
Another anonymous response.
No. The calendar provides you with what offices are up for election and the year.
Blunt. Fine. I like straight forward.
Still, I wanted help so I called the office. Through a comedy of guidance I’ll spare you, I was directed to a link that downloaded an Excel spreadsheet to my computer.
It opened to row 25 of 96. The data was thick.
A few days later, I emailed asking how many signatures I needed to run for a particular office. It was escalated to someone else who bumped up the formality.
I was now Mr. Parker rather than Sam as I signed in previous emails. But I was still the only named human being in the discussion.
The landing page was unclear to me so I emailed again asking for the person’s name. I thought if I can make a personal connection I might get better help.
Hi. Who is the person providing this response? Thanks—Sam
No response. I followed up a week later. Nothing again. A week later. Nothing. I checked my junk folder. Still nothing.
Given my research on the incumbent, maybe the person felt they were being kind and doing me favor in keeping me from wasting my time by running. Didn’t feel like it.
I can see now how I might have softened my request to improve my chances of connection. “Hi. Can you share with me who I’m corresponding with? Thanks—Sam.”
I love that for my future interactions but I still think the place has some…
Work to do—
Senior leadership should connect more often with their team and the work they produce. More attention should be directed to embracing the leadership role of nurturing the joyful, ongoing pursuit of improving external communication and service for their taxpayers.
The team should embrace the continual pursuit of communication improvement and do the work without threat or fear.
People should identify themselves to other people—treat them the way they’d like to be treated—communicating beautifully when possible. Make people smile. This seems especially obvious for public service.
Make it easy for people to understand what they can run for and how to do it. Seems like relatively simple database work, especially with AI tools. Frictionless is the goal.
Remove red caution labels from emails when replying externally. Reds and warnings can be perceived negatively. Human calming is a good thing.
If I were in the role of the person who last responded to me, I’d have offered a phone discussion. I understand not everyone likes talking with people on the phone but I assume this was a supervisor and I’m a constituent.
This is just one interaction experience among a few people. The website is filled with low-hanging opportunities for improvement.
I’d bet the organization itself has plenty of things to improve too. External communication can be an indicator of internal communication. If internal communication is poor, that’s painful for everyone. Goes to the smell of the place. (See below.)
How terrible it would be if this work is contrived to make it more difficult to run for office without a machine behind you.2
How many good people might make great candidates if things were clearer? What’s the broader democratic cost? What other states and localities have similar challenges?
There’s plenty of candidate gatekeeping for quality in the campaign process. It doesn’t need to start at inquiry.
Smell of the place—
I first heard that phrase in the context of organizational culture from Sumantra Ghoshal. He was a gifted Indian professor. If you need a reminder of the importance of culture in an organization, this 8 minutes is powerful. The first 1:39 is a tribute to him. His talk begins at 1:40.
For some reason, the word smell is as powerful to me as smell itself sometimes carries a memory.
A good development opportunity if you lead a team of people. Watch and discuss.
Two standout thoughts—
° Most companies, particularly large companies, have created downtown Calcutta in summer inside themselves.
° Individuals do not change fundamentally in who they are without a very serious personal crisis of some kind. Revitalizing people has a lot less to do with changing people, and has a lot more to do with changing the context that companies, that senior managers ... create around their people.
Sumantra Ghoshal | Indian educator | 1948 - 2004
If I missed you and you’re interested, my experience and improvement ideas for—
Please email me with edits, thoughts, comments, or suggestions (or put them here in the comments). Please don’t be shy or worry about my feelings. Quick, blunt, and maybe interesting or helpful is always welcome.
Not my real zip. How cool it would be if it was.
I now understand it’s probably better to work with a party or another group for a while rather than making a first inquiry at a department of elections. Still doesn’t change the obligation to be helpful to people.
Also maybe you could write a piece on the phrase “ it is what it is “ which makes me cringe when I hear it - seems as the white flag is raised versus taking an opportunity to change the “is” to what if
I think you should run for office you would be great ! And this….. could not be truer
“ Individuals do not change fundamentally in who they are without a very serious personal crisis of some kind.”