Curating Authenticity

A pug in a Toronto Blue Jays bandana

OPENING CAVEAT:

There was an episode in the US version of “The Office” where Jan Levinson (Melora Hardin) conducts training for her female colleagues on how to succeed in a male-dominated world. One of of the topics is understanding and using sports analogies. It’s not ONLY because of Jan, but I am deliberately trying to use fewer such metaphors and analogies. Sports familiarity and fanaticism are not restricted to men, but skew that way. Geographic and cultural specificities can make these unfamiliar or unwelcome to some (e.g. “hockey” for Brits). Plus, these stories tend to contain unhelpful orientations: win/lose competitiveness, short-term results, “walk-it-off” attitudes toward recipients of harm, etc.. Stories from other realms can be more effective for what I am trying to do.

With that as a set-up… here is a sports analogy.

Toronto as a city, Canada as a nation, and Canadians as a people are swept up in the Toronto Blue Jays’ three-decades-in-the-making return to the Major League Baseball World Series.

There are so many stories and lessons being shared that I am hesitant to add to the list, but I wanted to comment on two small moments of which I took note:

STORY #1 - Hazel Mae interviews Trey Yesavage after Game 2 of the American League Division Series

‘You guys are awesome!’: Yesavage gets emotional after stunning playoff outing (VIDEO)

NOTE: If you are pressed for time, jump to 1:50 of the clip.

I heard analyst coverage the next day unpacking the business of baseball. The commentator acknowledged that the actual performance on the field was a big part of the experience for the fans and for the city, but went on to talk about the investment required to capture such moments:

• the skills of the interviewer (Hazel Mae),

• her understanding of her job (Does she set out to make these grown men cry?).

• staffing a broadcast team sufficiently to be ready to catch those moments.

This analysis had me recall the scene in the movie “The Truman Show,” where Ed Harris is revealed to be meticulously producing every scene. I envisioned Hazel getting specific instructions through an earpiece: “We are close. Just let that question sit for 10 seconds, Hazel. 9-8-7-6…” We all know this is not the case. Hazel is a professional who has and maintains excellent rapport with her subjects… I do think she may be bonused by her TSWoC numbers (Tears Shed While on Camera).

STORY #2 - Jays Team “On Message” after Series Win

This is not the headline of an article, but would have been for a LinkedIn thread that I read and can no longer find!

The thread was started by a Communications Professional who was commenting on the strength of the Blue Jays messaging and giving kudos to the PR team. Players, coaches and other affiliates routinely came back to such consistent “talking points” as:

• We win as a team

• Everyone is their best selves

• We are not done yet

One of the comments posited that perhaps, more than “talking points,” this was actually how the players felt.

QUESTION: Can/should you curate authenticity?

My good friend Marie Deveaux shares an anecdote whereby team leaders were seeking to better understand how to connect with their people. Part of the discussion surfaced the approach of “actually caring about them,” evoking the logic that if you truly believe this, then your actions will follow, but also, what if you don’t actually care. This contains shadows of the Groucho Marx quote, “The secret to life is honesty and fair-dealing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.”

In my work in supporting collaborative environments, communication plays a massive part. I always draw the distinction between what you believe and what you communicate, on the understanding that a wide cap is not a good thing, but zero gap is unrealistic.

We do not expect Hazel Mae to start the interview off by saying, “Our viewers (and advertisers) love strong emotions, so I my question sequencing is designed to make your cry.” That said, it is easy to draw the connections between “demonstration of strong emotion in an interview”’ and outcomes that support the business model.

A reminder of key talking points does not mean that we don’t trust people, nor that we need “messaging” every time a team member speaks. That said, there is a recurring thought in performance that giving up some control is often the means to better results.

Being convinced helps us to be convincing. When situations involve complexity and ambiguity, authenticity takes on an important nuance in the spaces between what we think, what we say and what we do.