There’s an old saying in politics and public relations:
If you don’t like what they’re saying, change the subject.
Now, I understand the idea. But I think we’ve gotten the meaning wrong.
Changing the subject shouldn’t mean hiding from the truth.
It shouldn’t mean distracting people.
And it sure as hell shouldn’t mean pretending something didn’t happen.
Because negative press isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
In fact, negative press can be incredibly valuable.
If I’m running a business, running an organization, or someday serving as mayor, and somebody says, “John, this isn’t working,” I have two choices.
I can get pissed off at the person who said it.
Or I can ask:
Are they right?
That may be one of the most important questions a leader can ask.
Because criticism is information.
Sometimes the criticism is fair.
Sometimes it’s partly fair.
Sometimes it’s complete bullshit.
But you still have to look at it.
You don’t attack the newspaper.
You don’t attack the reporter.
You don’t blame everybody else.
You don’t spend the next six months whining about how unfairly you’ve been treated.
You look at the problem.
And I think there’s a pretty simple five-step process:
Hear it.
Face it.
Fix it.
Explain it.
Move on.
First, hear it.
What are people actually saying?
Not what you wish they were saying. Not what your staff tells you they’re saying. What are they actually saying?
If ten people are complaining about the same pothole, maybe we ought to go look at the damn pothole.
Second, face it.
Is there actually a problem?
If there is, say so.
There’s tremendous power in somebody standing up and saying:
“Yep. We screwed that up.”
Imagine that!
A politician saying:
“We screwed up.”
Half the country might faint.
But admitting a problem isn’t weakness.
It’s the beginning of solving it.
Then comes number three:
Fix it.
This is where leadership actually happens.
Not at the press conference.
Not on Facebook.
Not in the carefully written statement.
Solve the damn problem.
If garbage isn’t being collected, figure out why.
If a city program isn’t working, figure out why.
If somebody is being underserved, figure out why.
If money is being wasted, figure out why.
And then do something about it.
Which brings us to number four:
Explain it.
Tell people what happened.
Tell them what you learned.
Tell them what you changed.
And tell them how you’re going to keep it from happening again.
You don’t need twenty-seven consultants to write a statement that nobody understands.
Just talk to people like adults.
“We had a problem. Here’s what happened. Here’s what we did about it. Here’s where we are now.”
That’s transparency.
And then comes the part we seem to have forgotten:
Move on.
That’s where I think the old saying about changing the subject actually makes sense.
Once we’ve confronted the problem, once we’ve fixed what we can fix, and once we’ve explained what we did—
change the subject.
Because leadership cannot spend every waking hour staring into the rearview mirror.
There’s a windshield for a reason.
We have things to do.
There are neighborhoods to improve.
There are businesses to attract.
There are roads to repair.
There are people who need help.
There are ideas nobody has tried yet.
And there is tomorrow.
Negative press shouldn’t become a permanent political food fight.
It should become feedback.
And feedback should produce improvement.
Think about any successful business.
If customers complain about something, a smart company doesn’t declare war on the customers.
They figure out what the hell is wrong with the product.
They fix it.
Government ought to operate with some of that same humility.
And here’s something else:
Sometimes the press will get something wrong.
That happens too.
Then put the facts on the table.
Calmly.
Clearly.
No screaming.
No revenge.
No enemies list.
Just:
“Here are the facts. You decide.”
Because a free press isn’t supposed to make government comfortable.
Sometimes it’s supposed to make government uncomfortable.
That’s part of the deal.
And if I’m ever sitting in the mayor’s office and everything I read about myself is wonderful, I’m probably reading the wrong newspaper.
I want to know what’s not working.
I want people to tell me.
Because I can’t fix something I don’t know about.
But I also don’t want Greensboro—or any organization I’m part of—to become paralyzed by criticism.
We acknowledge yesterday.
We learn from yesterday.
But we build tomorrow.
So maybe we update that old saying.
Instead of:
“If you don’t like what they’re saying, change the subject.”
How about:
“If you don’t like what they’re saying, find out why they’re saying it.”
And if they’re right—
fix it.
If they’re wrong—
show the facts.
And when the issue has been addressed—
move the hell on.
Because criticism isn’t the enemy.
Failure isn’t even necessarily the enemy.
The enemy is refusing to learn from either one.
Hear it.
Face it.
Fix it.
Explain it.
Move on.
Then get back to work.
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