Two days ago I went out to start my car and the car did not cooperate and engaged in inappropriate behavior. It would not start and flashed a big sign on the dashboard, "check brakes." Oops there must be a major problem here. I then proceeded to engage in what I call "catastrophizing." I thought the worst. This is going to cost a lot of money, the car has to be towed, and on and on. Then I caught myself--wait a minute, what if the brakes would have gone out when I was on the road? I should be very grateful that the car warned me before I ever left the parking garage. I then proceeded to think about a positive spin on a negative event--I was safe and my car could be fixed. Yes, it may be a chunk of change but I did not get hurt and no one else did. I can also use this as an opportunity to walk more since I won't have a car for awhile.
How does this apply to communications and marketing? We sometimes engage in negative thinking and communicate it in our writing to our members. Think about it. We may have had a meeting and we wanted more people to come so we say, "We only had 12 people attend." That statement conveys our disappointment and also can be construed as negative to the members who did attend. Wouldn't a better approach be to say, "We were delighted that 12 ladies joined us today for a great workshop."
Imagine that you have a speaker cancel and you share the bad news like this, "We are sorry that our speaker just cancelled on us and we won't have a program today." A positive spin would be to say, "Our originally planned speaker won't be with us, but you are in for a real treat today, Linda is going to give a legislative update including information you need to know that impacts you."
Here is another example. We are looking for new officers and are discouraged and send out our newsletter stating: "We can't get any officers for the next biennium. We need new blood. No one is stepping up to the plate." An alternative might be to say, "We are looking for members to join our chapter leadership team and we respect and welcome everyone. Join the team and share your ideas to move forward."
It is very difficult to change our way of thinking and avoid a negative bias but we feel better when we look for a positive spin and our readers want to hear good news. We have to intentionally take a happening that might be negative and think about how we present it to focus on the positive.
Keep spinning the positive.
