PARKINSON: Time flies — so do spacecraft

By J. Robert Parkinson  |  Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Last week I had the chance to watch as the most recent spacecraft returned to Earth. It was the first time in 45 years that such an event happened.

Needless to say it was exciting to follow the historic event with breath held and fingers crossed. We’ve all seen ample video and film footage about past events, and we know what is supposed to happen each step of the way. But even with that knowledge, there is a sense of anticipated excitement coupled with a helping of anxiety.

Fortunately all went well. Maybe there were some who might have doubted, but overall, most of us have come to expect successful outcomes.

I thought about such expectations as I remembered and compared the events of last week with the flight of Friendship 7. A large portion of today’s population didn’t exist when John Glenn took to the skies on Feb. 20, 1962.

Sometimes it’s difficult to conjure up and reconstruct past years, but some of those past memories are as if they happened yesterday.  The memory is vivid because of what occurred once Glenn was in the air.

I was a high school teacher at the time. A sense of excitement buzzed throughout the school that morning. This was history in the making. There was no video in classrooms in the early 1960s. Technology at that time meant piping the broadcast into every classroom via the sound system operated from the sound studio.

The daily routine of students going from one class to another wasn’t disrupted. They were able to continue listening to history in the making as they entered their next classroom. The excitement continued as Glenn’s orbiting the earth moved into its second hour.

One of my responsibilities was overseeing the sound studio operations. Everything was running smoothly with the broadcast throughout the school when suddenly I heard a knock on the studio door. There stood a young student with a message and a note from the music teacher. I’ll never forget what he said.

“Miss Middie wants you to turn off the program in her classroom, because all he’s doing now is just flying around. She needs time to rehearse for the Spring Concert.”

The world was changing and all Miss Middie could do was think about the need to rehearse her music while John Glenn was “just flying around.”  In the Teachers’ Lounge later that day, I heard her commenting that her students just didn’t seem to care about singing; all they wanted to talk about was that spaceship orbiting the earth. Clearly her young students were more interested in space travel than in the upcoming concert.

This brings me to my reason for relating this story. A major principle of effective communication is to know your audience, whether it is a group of students, prospective clients, customers, or an in-house meeting.  We need to give attention to what is important to them, what resonates with them.

Taking the time to analyze an audience can reap great benefits when you are looking for specific outcomes. Who are they? What are their demographics? What will get their attention? What will hold their attention?

Answering these questions will help you choose information and examples that an audience can relate to. And by understanding that what we have to offer is always about the audience and its needs, rather than what we like and our needs, will more likely lead to success.

Another takeaway to the story is that in business, and probably in life, we need to be flexible. It is always good to have a plan, but sometimes things happen that interfere or interrupt the course of events. When this occurs, remember to take a breath, analyze the situation and look for possible opportunities that may have just arisen.

Today’s world is certainly different from the world back in the ’60s. We can only anticipate where we are headed in the future. Last week’s return to space is just another step forward. I wonder what Miss Middie would have to say about that.

Siesta Key resident, J. Robert Parkinson, who has a doctorate in communications from Syracuse University, is an author, speaker, executive communication coach and consultant to companies throughout the U.S. and abroad. He’s written numerous books, including “Becoming a Successful Manager” (McGraw-Hill). “Be as Good as You Think You Are” (Motivational Press) and “Never Kick a Kangaroo” (Authors Place Press) were written with his wife, Eileen. Contact him at joropa@northwestern.edu.