Perception, Reality & Earth Day 2008
I serve on the Board of Director’s of our trade industry association – The Film & Bag Federation. In that capacity, I recently attended the Society of Plastic Industry’s (SPI) annual meeting. The meeting’s keynote speaker was James T. Harris, a historian, teacher and Milwaukee radio host (www.JamesTHarris.com). His talk to this group of +200 businessmen & women, engineers and operations experts focused on the generational and cultural differences between us and many others in our society. I like most of the attendees focus on facts and the impact of factual information on our decisions. What else do you expect from a trained albeit non-practicing chemical engineer (BS – Univ. of Tennessee; Go Vols). Today’s youth, 13-30 year olds, grew up with the internet and now My Space & YouTube where there are no fact checkers, passion is more meaningful than reality and truth is lost in the message. The question that James Harris raised in light of the current anti-plastic environmental push is – How do we as an industry communicate with this generation and environmental movement in a way that leads to common ground and effective solutions? The reality is that this communication gap goes beyond environmental issues but also impacts how we manage most aspects our business: Hiring, training & developing employees; Improving customer service; Gaining new customers. Obviously, there is no single answer but it certainly something for us to consider.
Not surprisingly comedians and social commentators have already recognized this gap. I was recently sent the following YouTube link to a show by Penn & Teller. It highlights how the words we chose can impact others perception and thus the truth. The link is below and unlike some of Penn & Teller routines, it is G rated.