Turkey M&M Pizza
A pizza with turkey and M&M candies
I saw this on Twitter (aka “X”) and laughed and kind of wanted to cry as well. Most communications and marketing folks will know why this image can prompt tears as well as laughter, as we all have had the experience of a “group project” press release, article, blog post or piece of collateral that spirals out of control and is no longer effective.
It is not that stakeholder input is not vitally important - it is! But it is most valuable at the beginning of the process when the communications or marketing professional is collecting information on the purpose, message, the audience, and key points. Once those key pieces are conveyed, it is important to trust your communications and marketing folks to take it from there to write the piece with further input from a smaller, tight circle of stakeholders.
The best approach is to identify relevant stakeholders and discuss the purpose, message, audience and key points, and then let the comms/marketing folks draft the work and share with that tight circle of stakeholders who value the skills and knowledge of the comms and marketing teams. The process gets derailed when the comms and marketing folks don’t have clear direction, when there are too many people involved in the process, and there is lack of clarity. Other stumbling blocks, which can be kind of touchy to address, are that some people want to contribute just to contribute and it doesn’t substantially improve the piece, and the other is that many folks fancy themselves excellent writers. To quote Carrie Fisher from “When Harry Met Sally” - “Everyone thinks they have good taste and a sense of humor, but they couldn’t all possibly have good taste and a sense of humor…” not everyone is a good writer, but perhaps more importantly, not everyone knows what best practices are for communications and marketing across a multitude of platforms.
Maybe there is an occasion for turkey and M&M pizza, but more than likely, there is a lack of clarity about what should be on the menu.
P.S. If you haven’t seen the classic film, “When Harry Met Sally” here is a link to the wagon wheel coffee table argument scene with the brilliant Carrie Fisher.