Watching PR Game Film

Since my professional football career never took off like I intended it to, I have never actually experienced the process of watching game film. However, my perception is that it actually serves two purposes of equal importance:

1. Watch film on your opponents to prepare for your upcoming game(s) and
2. Watch film on your past game(s) to evaluate strengths and weaknesses

This week while at work I found myself "watching film on one of last year's games" in order to prepare for a pre-season opener. Last year school district public relations professionals, myself included, were not prepared for the game when President Obama decided to speak to the nation's students in September. We did not have time to prepare for the unexpected feedback, emotions, logistical issues, personal beliefs, etc., that this situation created. Regardless of political affiliations, President Obama's sporadic decision to address the students was similar to that of Boise State's use of trick plays a few years ago (no, I am not at all saying The President tricked us, just an example). As I previously stated, one of the purposes of watching game film is to watch film on your opponents to prepare for an upcoming game. Well guess what? We didn't have the advantage of watching game film last year...but this year we do.

This week I pulled out my folder titled "Presidential Address to Students" and evaluated how we as a school district managed the crisis situation last year. I'm not calling the President's decision a crisis, like a school shooting or natural disaster would be, but situations created like this one get filed away in my "crisis" folder because I evaluate it much like I would a crisis. There are three distinct stages of a crisis: pre-crisis, crisis and post crisis. Many successful crisis situations and outcomes are determined in the first stage. I will explain it like this: pre-crisis stage=watching game film on your opponent. Effective planning during the pre-crisis stage can help determine if you will walk a way with a win. The next two stages can be a little less painful if the first stage is executed well.

This year we are lucky because we know The President is planning on speaking to the nation's students again, we have game film to watch so we can prepare for our "opponents," and we have our past game film to use to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses from last year's crisis situation. I am not too proud to say that last year we looked like Shane Falco and The Replacements but this year we will look like Drew Brees and the World Champion Saints!

Pic: I took this at a local CVS, I would love to build one of these in my house.