How to build a time machine for public affairs executives

• Published date: 01 February 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2055
• Author: Jason T. Voiovich,Craig S. Fleisher
• Date: 01 February 2020

ACADEMIC PAPER

How to build a time machine for public affairs executives

Craig S. Fleisher

1

| Jason T. Voiovich

2

1

Global Professional Services and Reconverge

SBU, Aurora WDC, Madison, Wisconsin, USA

2

Voiovich Group LLC, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Correspondence

Craig Fleisher, Aurora WDC, Madison, WI.

Email: drcraigfleisher@gmail.com

Temporal factors such as time and timing are so self-evident in public affairs that

they are rarely mentioned and even less frequently researched. Time is seen as the

independent variable—a scaffold that underpins a calendar of communication events,

legislative and regulatory processes, or issue lifecycles. However, time is a more com-

plex and essential variable to contemplate than public affairs (and most other) execu-

tives give it credit for. This paper explores 16 unique ways to think about time,

applying those dimensions to the Amazon HQ2 (second headquarters) selection pro-

cess to illustrate how public affairs executives could use them to illuminate aspects

of strategy and behavior they might otherwise not consider. Strategically, under-

standing interconnected dimensions of time improves clarity in the choice-making

process, allowing public affairs executives to exploit ideal timing as they execute their

strategies.

1|INTRODUCTION

Thirty minutes before the meeting with the board of directors, the

public affairs (PA) executive slips off to the Research and Develop-

ment lab on the ground floor of the gleaming corporate headquarters

building where she works. She boots up the organization's time

machine, setting the controls for 2 days in the future. She checks the

headlines—inconclusive. She dials it forward, 2 months this time. The

results of the board's decision come into a little better focus. She dials

it forward another 2 years. Finally, the results are clear. She knows

precisely the correct message strategy, how to position those mes-

sages among key stakeholders, who those messages will best resonate

with, and the precise time to release them. As she walks back to the

board room, fully confident in her decision, she wonders to herself:

What did we do before we built our time machine?

No matter how often they may dream of it, PA executives cannot

defy the laws of physics. They cannot test different decisions in multi-

ple parallel universes to learn which scenario or strategy turns out

best and then select only the best one. The only way to know the

future, for certain, is to make the best decision on the basis of the

available information, shape it yourself, and then watch how events

play out. However, this apparent impossibility limits PA executives'

perspective of the true nature of temporal factors such as time, a sur-

prisingly fluid independent variable, and timing, the various options

available for the practitioner to act. Clear definitions of both concepts

provide an important starting point for the purposes of this

examination.

Time is the indefinite continued progress of existence and events

or processes that occur in seemingly irreversible progression from the

past, through the present, and toward the future. Time is objectively

measurable and (outside of the realm of quantum mechanics) consis-

tent in all circumstances of human experience. In physics, time is

defined by its measurement, for example, the predictable decay of a

radioactive isotope such as Carbon-14. For most everyday purposes,

however, time is simply what a clock reads or calendar shows (Time in

Physics, Und.).

Timing is how individuals choose, judge, or try to control (through

sequencing and/or spacing) when an action should be performed,

especially when it is considered to have an impact (either good or bad)

on the outcome or result. Some individuals view this as an ability or a

skill, as in they have “good”or “uncanny”timing, pulling together ele-

ments and taking actions at the appropriate and most suitable

moments. In contrast to time, timing refers to an action performed at

a specific time and therefore dependent on the measurement of time

(also known as the dependent variable).

Temporal factors include elements of both time and timing (Allen,

1991). They impact how we interpret their applications within con-

texts. At different points in time, different environments and actions

emerge that become part of the larger experience of observers and

participants alike. Temporal factors have long been viewed to be a

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2055

J Public Affairs. 2020;20:e2055. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 1of12

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2055