How to make people run?
Plant your dream in a document to allow it to take root and grow into reality.
This month (November) last year (2022), we were organising a marathon for school students at Rajapalayam, my hometown, situated in south Tamil Nadu. We had a club, Rajapalayam Runners, and I was its secretary.
For the planning of the event, I relied on one of my occupational skills: press release writing. No sooner had the idea struck, I created a Google Doc and wrote a short press release. Following are the first two paragraphs:
Children’s Day Marathon 2022 Held with the Participation of 200 School Students at Rajapalayam
About 200 children from 25 schools in and around Rajapalayam took part in a kids marathon organised by Rajapalayam Runners, a not-for-profit organisation, dedicated to the cause of promoting running and physical health among people, on World Children’s Day, 2022, which is celebrated annually on November 20, 2022.
Comprising a 5 KM and 10 KM run, the Rajapalayam Kids Marathon 2022, is organised for the cause of ‘child’s right’. Mr. J. Meghanath Reddy, Collector, Virudhunagar District, flagged off the run.
This press release was written on 2nd July, and we were planning to organise the marathon on 20th November. At that time, even the venue for the starting and ending points was not decided.
Gradually, the team size increased, and a few influential and resourceful people joined hands. As a result, the scope of the event increased. And the press release travelled with the changing times, accommodating all modifications. Fortunately, the kids marathon was a grand success. The final press release we issued on November 20, 2022 stated:
Rajapalayam Kids Marathon 2022 Attracts Participation of over 1000 School Students
Over 1000 children from 15 schools in and around the city took part in Rajapalayam Kids marathon organised by Rajapalayam Runners, a not-for-profit organisation, dedicated to the cause of promoting running and physical health among the public, on World Children’s Day, 2022, which is celebrated annually on November 20, 2022.
Comprising a 5 KM and 10 KM run, the Rajapalayam Kids Marathon 2022, was organised for the cause of ‘child’s right’. Mr. J. Meghanath Reddy, Collector, Virudhunagar District, distributed the prizes to the winners. Earlier, DGP. A. K. Viswanathan IPS flagged off the runs.
The final, post-event press release was different from the fictional pre-event press release. The number of student participants rose by five times (and only 15 of the 25 schools sent their students) and we had a new chief guest.
I am no more a part of Rajapalayam Runners, and there is no marathon happening in my city for the children this year. But the event gave me one more opportunity for me to use press release writing for visualisation, vision documentation and very much for event management. As during the planning days, I wrote a few other ‘subordinate’ press releases for different milestones. These evolving documents helped me understand what needs to be done (by whom and when) for the d’day.
Visualisation can turn out to be a vague and abstract daydreaming exercise, unless it is not documented. The format of documentation is the dreamer’s choice - if not a press release, a storyboard or something else. Once captured on a document, it can help us work backwards and make clear decisions in terms of allocation of resources, and delegating responsibilities. The only thing is that documenting dreams should be reserved ideally for big projects - and not everyday assignments. It could be a wedding or a product launch or constructing a house.
I would like to call it Press Release Management, a discipline for visualising the future, keeping dreams alive, making them realistic with ‘quantifiables’ such as dates, time, and amount, and also working to transition them to the realm of reality.