Welcome to Germaine Theory

I Know You’re Listening As technological advances in advertising methods have increased the efficiency in targeting market segments almost down to the cellular level, one has to ask, is this good business or an invasion of privacy? Depending on whom you ask and the day of the week the answer will vary. I have an Alexa Echo and two Alexa Echo Dots. I primarily use them to play music and for mundane morning tasks like checking the weather or traffic. I also have an Amazon Prime membership that is fairly active (we’re always ordering things). There have been times that my wife and I have had discussions about a product or service, with no mention of the activation word, ‘Alexa’, but we would get a notification about a similar product or service without prompting the machine. The light would turn green to alert us to the notification (for all non-Alexa users, the light is normally blue). Other times the conversation would lead to an immersion into the topic of the conversation on our A...

Leaderment; an Analysis of Leadership v. Management   Which is more important, leadership or management? It’s an age old question that has helped many leaders of industry better understand their roles and missteps, and guide their companies into the winning side of history. Those that misunderstand the concepts and continue to perform within the status quo are doomed to celebrate a life of mediocracy, at best.   In my beginnings as a young Noncommissioned Officer in the Army I received leadership 101; leadership is and management does. That was my crash course. I thought I had an understanding of what it meant, but as a young NCO trying to impress my boss, I said nothing, just smiled and nodded. What he was trying to tell me was as important as any lesson that I would ever receive. His words stayed with me throughout my career and are still applicable, and will be beyond my days as an Army NCO. The relationship between the leader and the manager is one of irony. The two...

The Servant Leader Welcome back my fellow theorists. Which leadership style best describes you? Authoritarian, delegative, participative? This week we will take a look at the concept of the servant leader. Alexander the Great was revered by his troops and is said to have lead them into battle from the front; doing the job that he asked of his subordinates. The idea of the servant leader has been around for quite some time. Leadership that turns the dial way up in the empathy, humility and constructive criticism departments and conversely turns the dial way down on reprimanding, public embarrassment, and distrust. There are different ways to lead subordinates. As President and Chief Executive Officer of the Deseret Book Company, Sherri L. Dew knows something about leadership and motivating others to accomplish a goal. According to the Bloomberg article, titled ‘How the Mormons Make Money, How the Mormon Church Makes Its Billions’ , Ms. Dew took a struggling company and made it profi...

Say Again, Over Communication is something that is vital to life but unceremoniously recognized for its importance, like breathing. Communication is a fundamental part of the human experience and is a relatively simple concept to understand. A message is transmitted from a point of origin and received at its destination. We will take a look at the process of receiving the message and the importance of Active Listening.    As an Army leader, the counseling of subordinate Soldiers is one of the most important things that you will ever be tasked with. As stated in Army Training Publication 6-22.1, ‘ The Counseling Process’ , “Counseling is the process used by leaders to review with a subordinate the subordinate’s demonstrated performance and potential. Counseling, one of the most important leadership and professional development responsibilities, enables Army leaders to help Soldiers and Army Civilians become more capable, resilient, satisfied, and better prepared for current...

Thanks for Your Service, But Not My Baby... Welcome back my fellow theorists. This week we take a long look at 'Word of Mouth' advertising and influencing, and the absolute importance of understanding an early adopter's significance in the diffusion of innovation.  As many of you know, I am an Army Recruiter. I’ve been a recruiter for almost 10 years now and have seen and heard pretty much everything in regard to reasons against joining the Army by parents of young Americans . “My son isn’t mature enough for the Army”. “I’m not letting my kid go to fight for somebody else’s oil”. “My kid is going to college and doesn’t need the Army”. “You think I want my kid to be a homeless drunk”. “Thank you for your service, but not my baby…I don’t want him getting killed over there” . A vast majority of my day is spent dispelling urban myths about what people think the Army is and does. We often look for new and innovative approaches to reaching our target demographic of 17 – 24 ye...

Hola, my name is Germaine Powell. I am currently a graduate student majoring in Strategic Communication at Troy University. Professionally, I have been a recruiter for the United States Army for the past decade, so it's safe to say that strategic communication has been an integral part of my life. As human beings, even though communication is a major part of our lives, it's one of those things that most of us just inherently do and don’t really give much thought to the mechanics. I wanted to take a peek behind the curtain and understand how to maximize my communicative efforts. My blog will follow the weekly topics discussed in my current course; principles and theories 'germane' to effective communication. We will dissect the theories that govern facets of strategic communication and take a good look at the real world application of these theories and attempt to better understand the reasoning behind their overall successes and/or failures; making us better communi...

To have a true understanding of the Diffusion of Innovation Theory in practice, you must first understand the theory in and of itself. So just what is this Diffusion of Innovation Theory that was mentioned in my previous introductory post? Dr. Everett M. Rogers, author of Diffusion of Innovations, Fourth Edition, defines diffusion as “the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system. It is a special type of communication, in that the messages are concerned with new ideas”. (Rogers, 1995, p. 5) The main characters of this theory are classified by segments, the innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and the laggards. Think of the Diffusion of Innovation Theory as a five lane highway. In the lane farthest to the left (the HOV Lane) are our Innovators ; they arrive at the destination first. These bright men and women are the dreamers; the ones that saw a problem and thought of a solution to corr...