Are your campus partners too busy scrutinizing your work to support the university’s brand?

Most college brands never make it to launch. The cutthroat world of higher ed (I said it — don’t @ me) means that committees full of leadership, professors, staff, students and alumni are too busy picking brand work apart based on minute in-the-moment details in a way that ensures any collaborative brand efforts will explode on the launchpad.

Cite whatever research or experience you want — that’s a lot of talented-but-brittle egos in one room. The reason people are so passionate is because they are invested in the brand. It matters to them. It will impact their lives.  

Feedback at organizations is meant to travel both up the ladder and down it. Too often in universities it travels down, but, because there is no channel for it to travel back up, it backs up and travels out — in the form of gossip, negative perception, rumors and other frustrated symptoms of a poor communication culture.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Even if your brand has blown up on the launchpad before, you can learn, reset and relaunch successfully. Multiple explosions may indicate a systemic issue.

The conversation will be won and lost not in what your brand promotes (although that’s still important). It will be won and lost based on what your brand does to prove that brand is true. How transparent are you during this time? How can you show it? How can you create a meaningful interaction with a prospective student?

Some of the most important skills and tactics you can use are the hallmarks of a well-planned, iterative process. Listening sessions that are managed to not devolve into small scale riots. Regular update sessions. Suggestion submissions that are read and heard.

This open communication lowers longstanding defenses, and it’s good for your team as well. As much as we hate to admit, those super-invested people often have legitimate issues to be resolved — even if their solutions or style isn’t the best. Open communication channels helps us to translate and understand each other better.

It’s a lot easier to move forward when everyone is pointed in the same direction.

Are you listening to your community? Email darren@dwhiteandco.com to talk more.