Should we?

"Yes, we can do that. But should we?" is a response I became fond of using during my school communications career.

I don’t necessarily recommend that approach. My colleagues were, understandably, less fond of this rhetorical device because it implied that I didn’t really value their priorities.

Like a gas, marketing and communications work expands to fill whatever space it’s given. (There are other ways in which school communications is gas-like, but that’s not what we’re talking about today.) Identifying the vital work and gently setting aside the rest becomes just as important, if not more so, than the communicating itself. 

When I was a communications office of one, I expected to always operate at full tilt. Later, I led a team of six and figured I’d have the opportunity to shift my focus to full-time, big, strategic thinking. Maybe while stroking my chin and looking out the window.

Those chin-stroking moments were very satisfying, but they were predictably fleeting. We were never more than a few minutes away from an unanticipated request needing prompt attention, a real or perceived crisis, or colleagues with opinions about what the communications function ought to be doing, all of which require what we’ll diplomatically call “expectation management.” 

Every department in a school operates in some version of this reality, which makes the case for prioritization even clearer, everywhere.

Much like schools fall short when trying to be everything to everyone, the communications function cannot properly address everything that comes its way. There’s probably a better way to say it, but “should we?” is a great strategic starting point for any communications discussion.