Ana Adi · #22 Heather Young_Women in PR with Ana Adi
Here are more episodes and transcripts of the Women in PR podcast.
Episode summary (AI generated)
In this conversation, Heather shares her journey from Canada to Japan, detailing her career in public relations and communications, including her role with the Special Olympics. She discusses the importance of inclusion in sports, as well as her experiences of adapting to Japanese culture in her current role, and the dynamics of leading a diverse team at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology. Heather emphasizes the significance of curiosity, patience, and the universal principles of PR, despite cultural differences.
Takeaways (AI generated)
- Heather’s journey into PR began with a master’s in publishing.
- The Special Olympics focus on inclusion for individuals with intellectual disabilities.
- Cultural adaptation is crucial when working in a new country.
- Building communication norms helps facilitate teamwork in diverse environments.
- PR professionals in Japan often rotate through various roles, gaining broad experience.
- Networking and relationship-building are key in the Japanese PR landscape.
- Curiosity and patience are essential traits for success in a foreign environment.
- The core principles of PR remain consistent across cultures.
- Humor can bridge language barriers and foster connections.
- The future of PR education should include cultural literacy and communication skills.
Transcript (AI generated)
Ana Adi (00:08.033)
Heather, welcome to the show and thanks so much for coming. Hello, thank you, thank you. So one of the things that I ask every guest on this show is how on earth do you end up in PRM cont.
Well, originally I was curious about the publishing industry. So I did a master’s in publishing and while I was there, I thought I love books, love magazines, I love online publishing. But I was really intrigued by the communication side of that. So how, when we publish all those different elements, when we make those things public, we’re communicating with really
different diverse, interesting audiences. And so I started learning more about annual reports and sort of that corporate organizational side of it. And so that was really the beginning from there. Then I did an internship at a publishing house, which was awesome. And then when I was looking for a job, an amazing opportunity came up as a communications manager.
with Special Olympics, which is an organization I’d been involved with, well, now for two decades, but at the time, much less. And so I jumped in all the way. I jumped in the pool with two feet and then was able to use those skills in publishing and apply them to communications. Special Olympics, by the way, have just happened in Berlin. it’s a small That’s right. The World Games were there last week. I’d forgotten about that. Yes, absolutely.
What people sometimes don’t know about Special Olympics is that they actually have been year round in communities around the world. So training competition happens every single day, but the fortunate few can go to the World Games. And yes, they were just in Berlin. wow. I didn’t know that. I knew that they were somehow attached, right? At least every four years or so they seem to be in tandem with the big Olympics, as the other people call them.
Ana Adi (02:17.166)
They’re not actually, so they’re distinct from the Paralympics. So it’s the Paralympics and the Olympics, Olympics that happen in sync and they, of course, winter and summer offset each other. And then, of course, Paralympics and the Olympics happen just consecutively in the same city. But in fact, the Special Olympics are distinct from theirs. So the Special Olympics are for people with intellectual disabilities, where the Paralympics are for people with
physical disability. you have separate program, separate schedule, but same philosophy around inclusion and the spirit of using sport as a vehicle. Well, for so many things in life, for meeting people, for excelling. So yes, it’s a different topic. Indeed, but you know, now that you say it.
In the spirit, in that spirit of inclusion that you’ve mentioned, I think that then the Special Olympics should be brought closer to the Paralympics and the Olympics, you know. Because if that’s the case, it kind of feels like we’re missing out. And that’s something that probably we’ve taken for granted rather than say we’ve skipped and not thought of. But there’s certainly something that probably could be done to make
world a better place and to show indeed that sport is and can be inclusive and not only be useful in politics, which can happen as well. Absolutely. And in fairness to folks too, there are folks who are thinking about that. So the Paralympic spearheaded a campaign the year before last called We the 15. It was about the 15 % of the world that
have different disabilities that come in different forms. In fact, that was including so many different organizations, including the Special Olympics. And the president of the IPC, the Paralympic, International Paralympic Committee was at, they’re based in Germany, he was visiting the Special Olympics World Games. So those conversations are happening because inclusion is inclusion. Right. We did go off a tangent. Take me a little bit back through.
Ana Adi (04:32.91)
through your career journey. You’re currently in Japan, but I know that Japan is not your home. It’s just, it happens to be your last stop. We’ll talk about Japan extensively. I mean, this is what we’re here for, but how did you end up in Japan? So take us a little bit through a world tour. Sure. So I’m Canadian.
So I’m from Waterloo, which is about an hour from Toronto. From there, then I lived in Montreal for a while where I did undergrad, grad in the back, Toronto, Montreal. And then I spent the last 20 years in Vancouver, so the other side of Canada, before coming to Japan. So after the Special Olympics, then I had the good fortune of working for the Workers’ Compensation. It’s a statutory agency organization in British Columbia, really on the health and safety side.
Then that was, I should say, overseeing all the proactive communications. Then I went to a not -for -profit called MyTax, which is a Canadian organization that looks after, fosters innovation by pairing academic researchers with industry to really grow innovation in the country and working with international partners too.
then I was looking for a new opportunity from there. that’s I’d been looking abroad. I was curious about working abroad. And then that’s how Japan entered the picture. Why Japan? You know, I hadn’t been looking originally in Japan to be fair. I’d been looking at sort of more traditional places. I saw a job posting. People often ask how.
Yeah, how did you find OIST? And I saw a job posting on LinkedIn, so there’s a push for LinkedIn. I saw the posting. I read the job description. And I thought, hmm, that’s interesting. I actually felt like the job description had been written for me. That’s how much it resonated, but it seemed a little farfetched. It seemed just a little little a little bananas a little out there anyway, so I didn’t apply right away.
Ana Adi (06:51.704)
But I must tell you, a day or two later, I was still thinking about it. So I went back to the job description, I looked at it again and I thought, this is just too interesting to not give it some serious thought. I have the distinct pleasure of being the vice president of communications and public relations at OIST. So that stands for the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology. So I started doing my homework.
and learning about the school, learning about Okinawa, learning a bit more about Japan. And it was certainly intriguing. mean, the more I learned, the more I wanted to learn. And so I thought, you know what, why don’t I put my application in? And so I submitted my resume and letter and I didn’t mention it to my husband because it just seemed so out there. seemed…
It seemed perfect, so I didn’t even mention it to him. So fast forward, I can’t remember a month or two when they called and the process started in earnest and I got the first interview, of course, then I had to mention it to him. I by the way, honey. But through the process, did seem unimaginable because it was just.
because I hadn’t been looking there because Okinawa is a really unique place. Not only does it have really fascinating and important history, but it’s also, it’s not really that close to the mainland of Japan. I mean, we’re closer to Taiwan. So we’re bordered at the East China Sea on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other side. So we’re pretty remote here, but you can imagine where the story goes. Separate interviews, panel interview.
several interviews later, then my husband and I were having a pretty serious conversation at home about this very interesting opportunity. wow. Wait, because I’ll come back to, you know, far -fetched and ending up in what you described as a remote corner of Japan. But you said that you were considering more traditional roles. What are those? Not traditional, traditional locations. You know, when you think of working
Ana Adi (09:13.366)
or when Canadians think about working at the What’s traditional place Canadians look for to work? Canadians look a lot in Europe, in the States, in Australia. And I was looking in those places too, partially because I work in communications. I mean, I was looking towards English speaking countries because of being in communications, I was looking at that.
I was looking a little bit in French speaking places. I do speak French, now not to the level that I am in English where I’m writing speeches and things like that. So I was looking a little bit, especially at companies and organizations that, know, where they’re working languages, English, even if they’re working in different languages. So yes, was looking, yes, Canadians sort of traditionally stick to some of those places.
But not exclusively, more just because they were coming up. And that’s where some of the opportunities were. No, I mean, we’ve had previous conversations about this, but I go back to it because, of course, Canada is bilingual, if not more than that. And we often speak about how inclusive and how global in a sense public relations as a profession is. And yet the reality of it is you’re not in a sense the first
guest on this podcast to point it out. It’s heavily language dependent. So all of a sudden, if you come from a place where English is not your first language, but rather something else, all of a sudden, the possibilities of switching markets, of switching countries, of switching places seem to dwindle. And there’s always a question, you know, is it really because
we’re not courageous enough in applying outside of countries that we don’t know. Or is the other way around that, you know, there is a level of assumption or rejection towards people who apply from, you know, outside of these markets. And it’s probably somewhere in the middle, you know, the truth is somewhere in the middle. But that’s why I’ve asked, you know, what is traditional just so that we point that out.
Ana Adi (11:27.286)
Now, tell me a little bit about this far -fetched place that you were How did you prepare yourself? You I mean, you said that there were multiple layers of interviews. Erin Meyer, for instance, speaks about Japan and how important in Japan is to read the silence. Something for Europeans that you don’t really… You can’t really imagine. So how did you prepare? How did that go?
Well, the preparation was made difficult by COVID because we weren’t able to visit for the interviews or for a housing visit. So we depended on a lot of online resources. So even things like videos, like amateur videos, as opposed to the clean, beautiful produced videos. So a lot of videos of people walking around, people talking to people.
So a lot of videos. And then certainly the traditional books around business etiquette in Japan and online resources like that. But the reality is, after you read the books, I mean, then the rubber has to hit the road. mean, then when you’re actually in front of people, yes, there are things, know, things, know, especially body language and nodding that are unique to Japan.
But at the heart of it, I people are people. You know, where you can read other parts of body language, you can see on people’s faces. So yes, yes, we need to be more attuned to that. But at the same time, I just come back to this people are people because say on my team and at OIST, staff at OIST come from over 60 countries around the world. So there aren’t enough books or websites.
There’s not enough time, rather, to do all the research. I mean, in the communications team alone, so about half of my team is from Japan and about maybe half of those.
Ana Adi (13:34.968)
people from Canada, of course, the US, England and Scotland, Mexico, Taiwan, South Africa. I hope I haven’t forgotten anyone. Now we do skew of towards again towards English speaking countries exactly to your earlier point because we have to because we’re working in English and we’re working in Japanese. So.
We try to develop norms in our teams to be able to communicate as well as we can across all those different cultures and languages. But back to your original point, yes, mean, do, we do cognizant of, sometimes nodding can actually mean no, which is counterintuitive to me.
So it’s a balance between doing your homework, but then also just keeping a really, really open mind and being really, really curious. Can you remember an instance, you know, when you thought you were saying yes and somebody else understood something completely different?
Not necessarily that opposite like that, but it happens. It happens in meetings where your Spidey senses go off because someone nods or even says, you know, yes, yes. And I think no, no, I think that’s what I read about that. don’t think that’s yes. And so then, so then I ask questions, you know, so just try really hard if I.
If I don’t truly think.
Ana Adi (15:18.616)
things not clear if I don’t understand if I’m afraid that someone else doesn’t understand. So it means lots of questions, which sometimes I think leads to the North American sensibility. We can get frustrated because we just want to know what’s going on and then move to the next thing. So it does make me slow down a little bit, which on the one hand, I don’t necessarily want to slow down, but of course I want to make sure that we understand. So yes, I would say.
That’s maybe not daily, but weekly. Right. So it heightens up your reflection, right? It heightens up your attention to what goes on, maybe to a level that you took for granted or you did not consider before. Go ahead. Sorry. I was going to say that reminds me another thing in these sort of situations is that
At OIST, think people are really good at not taking offense. So if you don’t understand something before you’re not home, someone might get rubbed the wrong way right away because it just something wasn’t exactly as they expected, or it just sounded a little funny. People are really generous with one another because everyone’s aware that we’re working across cultures, languages, religions, and other societal norms. So would say people are really good about just digging in a little bit. tell me about that. Or what do you mean?
as opposed to at home where think people are a little quicker to take offense. Interesting. You said a word that I picked my senses because you you developed with your team norms to facilitate in the sense you’re working together and you’re intra -team communication. Can you tell me a little bit more about that? How do they look like these norms of yours?
The big one, I’m just thinking of our big division meeting, so we have about 25 people. So that’s a lot of folks, a lot of different, I told you the different countries, a lot of different cultures and norms. One of the things I try to do is allow for an environment where people participate at the level where they’re comfortable at. And I mean, you can probably hear from my voice.
Ana Adi (17:38.446)
pretty outgoing and want to bring people into the conversation, but people are at different levels. So for example, something I used, I wanted to do a big check -in. We were having a really, really busy time and I wanted to just check in with everyone, but it’s not an environment where, when I’m looking at 25 people that people want to stand up and say, hey, I’m having a hard time. I’m cognizant that people are at different places. so one tactic, one little tool, tool I guess that we used is,
check in with people. And so people put up their hand to indicate where they’re at, how they’re doing. So if you put up a fist that indicates zero, know, zero is not very good. Five fingers, if you open up your palm, five fingers, okay, that means I’m doing really well. But of course there are, you know, you could be anywhere from zero to five. And so you put up your numbers. So we ask everyone to put up their numbers and it’s a moment that people, again, participate and if you don’t put up your hand, that’s okay. But people have that opportunity. They’re invited to participate.
And it’s a low risk, like low entry way to share where you’re at. And it also invites other people to look around and see, you know what, if some of their colleagues are at zero or one or two, that maybe they can give that colleague a little more space. Maybe they can give them a little grace. Maybe they, if they’re close to them, can say, can I check in with you? So that’s just one little tool that we’ve used that I hope, I think it seems to go across.
different cultures. but forgive me for asking. The little knowledge that I have of Japan is that they might be reluctant, right, in sharing things that they might perceive personal and asking someone to check in in a public space. Public, okay. Even a teen space can be, you know, can feel very, very public in Japan. Might, might require quite a lot. So how do your
colleagues, you know, your Japanese colleagues, how do they come across? How do you make them feel comfortable to play in? Yeah, I mean, keep in mind that OIST is a pretty unique environment. know, we’re not a traditional Japanese environment. That said, you know, we’re a research university, but on the administration side, we do, we are heavily weighted on the Japanese.
Ana Adi (20:05.358)
So we’re mixed. So people already that find themselves at OIST, I must say, mean, it attracts such neat, neat people that choose to work in an international environment. They choose to work at a young university for 10 years old that has a really ambitious mandate. So, no, that’s not to say that we don’t have to, you know, we have a big range of personalities and comfort levels and experience. Some people have worked internationally, some haven’t.
So on the one hand, we’re not the usual environment, but I hope that my leadership style, that of my managers, and my managers, they’re diverse group too. I hope that we create an environment where people feel comfortable. At the same time, that example, it’s an invitation to participate. And people are ready at different rates, but I must say,
that there is something special I think about being invited into that space and express yourself in that way. And it is an easier, it is a lower risk than other sort of more traditionally what I would call North American ways at saying exactly what’s on your mind. Right. And how do your meetings go, you know, how do you organize your meetings when you have things to do?
Considering that there’s so many different people in your team, how do you… How do they run and how do you get anything done when, you know, I don’t know, time and distance and authority and language, let’s put that into the mix. All of these can make the work fun, but also can bring a level of complication to it that maybe some might not want to have to deal with. So how do your meetings work? How do they look?
I think they’re pretty international. What I mean by that is I work with the managers to set the agenda and go through things. In probably a very Canadian fashion, quite frankly. But what I point out is that in Japanese meetings, from what I read and understand, people answer in a very hierarchical way.
Ana Adi (22:30.072)
And we do have some of that, people do nod, but I find it, I wouldn’t call it in a hierarchical way, I’d call it in a very respectful way of hearing from different people at different times, as opposed to in what I gather Japanese meetings where people are really very careful exactly the different order where people speak. We don’t have that. I am conscious that there’s certainly times where the foreigners put up their hands first.
and do break the ice sometimes. So on the one hand, or even may I just more comfortable. So on the one hand, that’s good. Breaking the ice is good and showing that impact input is welcome and we want input. We want diverse perspectives so that we can create a better project or whatever we’re working on. But you know, I would find in Canada that we’re introverted people, quieter people, we’re speaking up regardless of culture.
And so often I will say in meetings, let’s hear from folks we haven’t heard from already. But that’s something that I would do anywhere. But I am conscious of, certainly some, know, are just some people or some personalities or some groups that have speaking out first. Okay, if the timing doesn’t matter, but is everyone getting that space? I mean, and then, but it’s about using other tactics, I think too. So folks that want to think about things longer, folks that want to
digest folks that don’t want to speak there, inviting them to send input by email or in other ways afterwards. So that way, again, we can allow for different styles, not just talking out loud, but also different styles of thinking. So we try to do that, which also then sometimes means we can’t take a decision in a meeting. so again, we still need to move things ahead and we still need to.
advance and move to the next thing. it just depends on the project. But I think being aware of that, being conscious of it can help sort of lower the anxiety and allow us to just be really aware of where people are at. And I hope it brings us a little patience. Yes, but do you have sort of follow -up emails?
Ana Adi (24:53.24)
for instance, from these meetings, like in this meeting, here’s what we covered and here’s what we’ve decided upon and. No, we usually we usually don’t. We move pretty quickly around here, so so so it depends. Sometimes in executive meetings, if I want to remind people, I actually will send notes out to my executive colleagues as a little urging them, but on our in the communications department, we’re.
We’re a bit more casual. sometimes yes, sometimes no, it just depends on the project. Sometimes also the managers actually will follow up in their team meetings where people are more comfortable in a smaller group. But something like where we really want feedback or there’s something special. So there’ll be follow up that’s one on one or one on three. Okay, fantastic. I mean, it’s just, you know, that.
talking to you gets me an opportunity to think of the stuff that I might have been reading. And one of the pieces of advice, again, we go back to Erin Meyer’s culture gap and culture map. One of the advices that she gives to deal with teams that are culturally diverse is to set up norms and
path of these norms would include deciding as a group in a meeting, you know, who would do what and what the responsibilities would be, including written follow -up. But obviously your team works so well that no written follow -up necessary. I don’t know about that, but we’re trying to do what works. Tell me a little bit about the
PR work in Japan, because again, there’s little research that is available. mean, getting, for instance, any sort of sample or any access to a Japanese relevant or to a group of people that would share how their work looks in Japan is usually quite tough work. And I would imagine it’s tough work, again, going back to language, not because people might not want to share.
Ana Adi (27:13.388)
but rather because Japan can be perceived and act sometimes quite in an insular manner, right? So I’d imagine communicators in Japan do exchange notes and do talk to one another and are known to one another, but that might not necessarily be the case with the outside world. So how does it work? How does PR in Japan look like? Well, I don’t know that I can speak to the whole industry in Japan.
But a couple of was an ambitious question. Let’s rephrase. How does PR and how, you know, OIST look like? Of course. And the things that you do. Yeah, a couple of things that I’ve learned that have been really helpful. So there certainly are big firms that we can call on for help. And so that’s very, very traditional in my experience. But something that’s interesting that has really given me an appreciation for PR here is that
People rotate through jobs and a lot of government jobs or a university job. So for example, they may spend, well, they would spend some time in finance and some time in HR and then some time in PR and go around like this. And the idea I gather is to really create well -rounded, mean, it has a little bit of a grassroots feel to it, right? I just think of like, there’s some big companies who send their execs
You know, even say marketing, you know, they have to go do sales and they have to go and do things before they can get into their marketing role to have an appreciation. So it reminds me of that sensibility. But this is this is always always rotating. So the upside is you can really learn a lot, gain an appreciation. The downside is that, of course, you people working in different fields that. goodness, sorry. Sorry, my phone. It gives people.
or people are rotating so they don’t necessarily have those deep expertise that you and I might be used to. So for instance, OIST is on the organizing committee of the Japan SciComm Forum. So a volunteer run organization that gets science communicators together. We get together once a year, we’re hosting it in the fall.
Ana Adi (29:35.148)
And so there is an interesting mix of people that show up. So we have people who are career communicators, maybe just maybe generalists, maybe science communicators. We also have folks who are rotating through that function. And so it means when we put on this forum, this conference, we have such a wide range of people, but it’s an opportunity to mix and learn from each other. And so usually the folks that are new to the industry
come in and just aren’t sure what to expect and are just soaking it up and just happy to be exposed. It also means that it’s a chance for say, OIST and there are some other universities that have full time science communicators and communicators. It’s a chance for us to show some leadership and help elevate the profession across universities and across Japan. So it’s.
Really interesting and that I didn’t know that I hadn’t read about before coming here, but it’s a model that that always is sharing with other universities. Now you know you touched on this idea of of so being more insular and working across folks and I must say that yes, there is that feeling of sort of closed, but every time I’ve called.
So we’re in Okinawa, it takes about three hours to get to Tokyo by plane. Every time I’m there and I’ve reached out to counterparts in Tokyo, every time people have responded and been lovely. I mean, it’s like anything, it takes time to build a relationship and build that trust, but everyone’s been lovely. And when I have asked for ideas and insights, or geez, what do you think about this?
Again, think people are people. People appreciate being asked and appreciate connection. And I think quite frankly, being a newcomer here, I should be asking questions because there’s so much to learn. I think maybe people appreciate that curiosity too. It’s funny because when you mentioned this rotation, what came to my mind was a crime thriller that I’ve read many years ago.
Ana Adi (31:58.03)
And I had to go through my Kindle history and look through it. It’s called 6 -4. yes! By Hideo Yokoyama. And I ordered it because I wanted, you know, back in the day I wanted to read something else. Now mind you, my reading list quite often includes doom and gloom.
So I remember looking for something else and looking for something else also distinctly geographically something else. I was quite shocked but also very surprised because the main character there was a policeman, was a crime investigator, so a detective who was being deployed in the press department. And he was very begrudgingly doing that. Of course, at the end of the book, he ends up loving it and finding it really interesting.
But that while you were talking about, know, these rotations that brought back, know, a new renewed this question that I’ve had does PR face in Japan the same sorts of pushback and the same negative perceptions and we that we seem to battle with in other parts of the world. And do you see that with people who might not come to to coms and PR from a coms?
Root? I haven’t thought of this until you asked, just my first sense off the top, actually, my first sense is that, no, it doesn’t necessarily have the same pushback in other places where, mean, quite frankly, some people think it’s easy, anyone can do it. And I would say my general sense in Japan is that people do see it as the profession.
that it is. the part that I’m just wondering is maybe it’s because so many people have had the chance to dip their toe in it and gain an appreciation for it. So I think in Europe, there’s only one place that I knew of a comms onboarding that actually included rotations in other departments. And she’s been our guest many, many years ago. It’s Ildiko Kuvač who
Ana Adi (34:16.334)
trials, tested and deployed something like this in her team at Continental. I think Japan is onto something. But if we want to get rid of the pushback that Combs seems to be facing, maybe rotations overall might be a better idea. The other thing that we were thinking about, Thomas Stockel and I, was that maybe we should start teaching Combs, and persuasive Combs in particular, like Combs Literacy.
with all the aspects of interpersonal, intercultural media literacies and persuasion literacies in STEM schools, you know, to those who, and business schools, you to those who will end up most likely ending up interacting with comms, but clearly having a judgment from the answer that it’s very easy. I do see that conversation happening a little bit around science and STEM STEM schools because
As of late, of course, there’s been such an apparent need to be able to communicate science and to communicate it well. And it’s very different than a journal article. It’s very different than an academic poster, research poster. So I do see those happening. Of course, COVID has not necessitated, but it brought that to the top that we have to communicate the research that’s happening in the science. So I can see how that is applicable in other areas too.
How interesting. We’re running out of time. It’s ridiculous how fast these conversations are going. But if you also think of yourself at the time when you’ve applied… By the way, I imagine the husband came with you, did he? Yes, he did. He did. Thanks for asking. Yes. I just thought I heard a wee. But no, if you think back of…
the process of you going through the interview of prepping, of reading. How does that compare with Japan and the Okinawa because I understand it’s a microcosm in itself and even more so. How does that compare with the stuff you’ve found?
Ana Adi (36:35.927)
So I’ve here for, well, I’ve been at OIST for over two years now. Keep in mind the first six months because of COVID, we were actually stuck in Canada, but been at OIST for over two years. The reality is, is that it feels like a little bit of a roller coaster. There’s lots of highs, but there are down, there are valleys too. There are times where it’s tough. It’s time, there are times where…
you know, it’s frustrating and we’re human. And then the next moment, it’s amazing. You my team is just wonderful. So there are ups and downs, but I have to tell you that even on the tough days, I have no regrets. Even on the tough days, it’s been such an awesome experience working abroad, working at this level, working for such an interesting institution with an important mandate.
So yes, it’s maybe probably more ups and downs than I had expected or predicted, but that also makes it, I think, more meaningful too. So all in all, it’s been an amazing, it’s amazing two years and there’s no end in sight. How do you cope? Because, know, going through ups and downs sounds exhausting from this side, you know, we’re in Germany, of course.
Yes, there are ups and downs in Germany too, but it’s sort of built in on that. We’re striving for consistency, we’re striving for balance. So how do you cope with all these ups and downs? And how can you stay so cheery in a thing? If you’re… That’s sort of the state that I’m at. Well, I’m a people person. You won’t be surprised to know.
So I try to just, I genuinely try to connect with the great people that are here. I mean, really. And that takes different forms, different days. know, Okinawa has beautiful nature. So I do try to swim a lot, to do tight, to walk a lot, just to take care. But that’s anywhere, right? mean, PR communications, is stressful, busy field. So, you know, that’s something I would try to do anywhere.
Ana Adi (38:53.634)
But I should tell you just on the topic of connecting with people, we did a news conference last week. We were announcing a type of rice, an insulin resistant rice. So it was a very traditional news conference and we had two women there who had named the rice because it was given a name and they both had come up with this name. And I forgot that we didn’t speak the same language. So afterwards I just…
I’d met them a little bit, but I wanted to say hello and we were taste testing the rice. And so I went over and we were essentially sort of talking with each other about the rice. And I almost didn’t realize there was just lots of nodding and hand movements. And it wasn’t until the interpreter rushed over a minute later and began filling in the gaps that I realized, my goodness, we were just sort of smiling and pointing and saying little bits here and there that we actually didn’t speak the same language.
And I’ve just been reflecting on that over the last week. So thought, you know, that’s a pretty beautiful moment to forget that you’re not speaking the same language and just just naturally improvising. And, you know, it’s like those moments, those moments are the highs, those opportunities to connect with people, which I just did intuitively because I was just so drawn to them and wanted to connect. So it’s those sorts of things that I just that I love.
If you were to meet with yourself a few years back, your younger self, and somebody would come to you and say, hello, we need a list, a list of things that you would say make comms in Japan for a foreigner easy, so managing a team in an environment like that, what would you say that would be?
Ana Adi (40:47.246)
I would say a couple things and we touched on this already. Be curious. Be curious, be curious. And the other thing too is you don’t forget to laugh because funny things happen even you know when I have the little earphone in my ear because things are getting translated and then of course something funny happens. I mean this was really funny. You know when I.
I have like a delayed laugh, you know, if there’s a little joke. And then of course I laugh a little. And the first time that happened, of course it just made me laugh more because it was so funny. And then they’re laughing because my laugh is delayed. But like that’s a pretty beautiful moment. So I would say don’t forget to laugh even if the timing is a little off. But the other thing too is I would say like to be patient because the other…
living stuff and we haven’t talked about that but the other living stuff around the comms. I mean in some ways the comms is easy. mean the fundamentals are the same. You what’s the business need or opportunity for the audience. What are the goals, the measurement, the budget, the challenges. Like those things are universal. They’re the same here. We still have to do great work and affect our stakeholders and engage them and all this sort of things but it’s you know as far as the bigger picture in Japan
Be patient with some of the other stuff, the living, the driving on the left side of the road and the getting something done at the bank and the doctor’s office and the food and things like that. I hadn’t. Again, I’d watched videos, but I’ve been really focused on the people and the business etiquette and that sort of stuff. put some of these other daily living cultural things a little down the list, so maybe I would have.
thought about them a little more, but also those are the kind of things you just figure out. yes, I think I should have been more patient. I think I should continue to be more patient with myself with some of those things. Well, fantastic. So I’ll take curiosity and patience. Funnily enough, they don’t come into any PR course. And the more I hear, the more I think they should. And again, curiosity, right? Well, without that,
Ana Adi (43:04.194)
What’s really comforting though, from what you’ve said, is that the core of PR work, the strategic core of the PR work is the same. I mean, that is in a sense comforting, right? To know that languages might learn, people you might meet, you might be able to identify and build the network to support skill and knowledge gaps that you would be aware of having.
but that strategic foundational research -based insights work is the same. Maybe we do have a chance of calling this a global profession after all. Absolutely, I think we should. Heather, thank you. Thank you so very much for making time for me today, for sharing this wonderful story of you embracing Japan and taking your husband along. I really look forward to us
to crossing paths again. Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you so much for the opportunity.