This blog is about the relationship between organizations and the people who work for them. And, it’s dedicated to the millions of people around the world who go to work every day wanting to do a great job.
Communications
Shining eyes
“A [symphony orchestra] conductor doesn’t make a sound. His job is to awaken the possibility in other people.”
This is what Benjamin Zander, conductor of the Boston Philharmonic, says.
And, how do you know you’re doing it?
“If their eyes are shining, you know you’re doing it… It’s about how many shiny eyes are around us.”
As a leader, how many shiny eyes are around you?
Random Posts:
Why oh why do presenters put so, so much text on their PowerPoint slides?
Recently the LinkedIn HR discussion group I follow asked the question: “PowerPoint slides loaded with paragraphs of text … is this laziness? Lack of awareness? Do people really think this is good visual support? What do you think?”
The answers:
they don’t know what they’re doing
they don’t know they don’t know what their doing
they’re lazy and they don’t know any better
it used to be ok, but not now. The world has moved on, but they haven’t
they don’t have the time to do it right
many companies want these kind of slides
people who are afraid of public speaking do this in order to hide behind text-heavy slides
they have no respect for the audience
they’ve never heard of Pecha Kucha, the 6×6 rule, Prezi, the drop the slide at your feet and if you can’t read it it’s got too much on it rule …
they’re consultants
they think it makes them look smart
they don’t know the material
Great fun and a good way to let off steam. Given that you’re not an academic or a consultant, the question is, “Why do you do what you do on the job?”
Random Posts:
Be aware, be very aware
Dale Carnegie once said people will judge you not only by what you do, but also by how you do it, and what you say, and how you say it. In other words, words and speech matter. True, but strong and silent men and women have even more problems. Because in the real world people will judge you not only on what and how you do and say it, but when, where, why, and to whom you do it and when, where, why, and to whom you say it. Not to mention, who said and did what immediately before and after you did. In other words, words, speech, action, and context matter. This is why communication is so difficult. The lesson for communicators in organizations is “be aware be very aware.” A lesson everyone else would also be wise to learn,too.
Random Posts:
If the US Army is embracing social media, you can too!
Imagine this paragraph from the opening letter to the US Army’s social media policy - Army social media – Optimizing online engagement - written for your organization:
The US Army isn’t embracing social media as a nice to have. It’s a critical element of their operational strategy.
If the US Army is embracing social media, isn’t it time you did too! And not as a nice to have but as key to your operational strategy.
Random Posts:
What do we do?
Good question.
“I’m an internal communications specialist.” Silence. ”Oh you mean you do employee newsletters?” Sigh.
“I work at the intersection of the brand, human resources, and business strategy. I help my clients involve their people and achieve the goals they are after.” Silence.
Then a conversation last week with a client who’s worked with me three times before – once as a colleague, and twice as a client. “You know what you do for me isn’t communication. It’s OD or change management or something. It’s not really communications… ”
This shouldn’t be so hard. I’m a communications professional after all.
Apparently I’m not alone. Just this week, the PRSA launched an initiative to update the definition of public relations. They set up a website where people can submit their definition and see it in a word cloud. Cool.
And then, Richard Edelman’s address to the IPR crossed my desk. “Re-imagining our profession. Public relations for a complex world” sheds some light and reinforces a view I’ve been trying to express – badly: ”…policy and communications cannot be separated… both are tied to operating reality. Communications must be a core element in the business planning process.”
I’d go further. Communications is core to doing business. Strategy and operations must be aligned and the only way to achieve that is through communications. Relationships with employees, customers, suppliers and vendors, governments and shareholders need to be built and sustained over time. And the only way to do that is by communicating.
Edelman goes on to say that “PR needs to create coherence out of complexity. As the stakeholder discipline, we are the profession that pays attention to the broad interests of the corporation… one foot planted on the policy side and the other on the communications side.”
The best of us [and as organizational leaders you should be demanding nothing but the best] think about the world from that place where the interests [and point of view] of key stakeholders, the operation and the strategy come together to create an institutional experience. That’s where I live and work [with a particular passion for employees].
Whatever it’s called it’s ….it’s what I do. And as my clients will tell you it helps them achieve their business and professional goals. Now I guess I need to find a better label than communications! Be seeing you!
Random Posts:
From campaign to composition
Let’s face it, we live in an event, event, event world. One event after another. Big events and small events. A new brand. A new executive. A new policy. The latest quarterly results. A new acquisition. A divestiture. A new product. A flood of separate moments. From an employee point of view it can all look pretty disconnected and confusing.
The challenge we have as leaders is to have these discrete events build momentum toward the business results we’re after.
But in an event, event, event world here’s what usually happens. A big shiny new brand launch. A month or two of hints about what’s coming. Lots of energy and hoopla focused on the day of launch. A campaign. Internally all goes incredibly well. Better than expected in fact. Then nothing. Or maybe a little something. And then nothing.
Communications based on discrete events will only ever be just that. What’s missing? The composition, “the plan, placement or arrangement of the elements” in relationship to each other. The same events communicated in the context of the whole will build momentum and action toward the business results we’re after.
To move from a series of campaigns to composition takes a change in perspective. It means looking at the events in context and understanding how each event impacts the other as well as how separately and together they support the overall business objectives over time.
It means understanding what these events separately and together look like from an employee [insert any other important stakeholder here] point of view. What does success look like? If the new brand [insert any important business event/announcement here] is a success, what will we see? Specifically how will it advance the business? What are the proof points? How and when will we know? How will we tell that story over time?
As business leaders isn’t it time to insist on integrated communications strategies that will help build business momentum. Isn’t it time to move from communications campaigns to composition?
Random Posts:
What’s the value of a good relationship?
Being open. Being collaborative. Being innovative. We all say this is a good thing. But how does being open, collaborative, innovative add value to your organization?
The focus on social media – the tools and tactics – is taking us away from this more important question.
What’s the value of a good relationship to your organization? Here’s a conversation between Charlene Li and Gary Hamel.
What’s a good relationship look like? with your employees? your customers? your supply chain? your board? And what’s the value of that relationship to the business. Is anyone in your organization is really thinking about that?
Random Posts:
Annual performance reviews may be making things worse. Now what?
If, the idea is to improve organizational and employee performance, then the annual performance review may be making things worse not better. Today’s Globe and Mail confirms that according to an “academic review of more than 600 employee-feedback studies… two-thirds of appraisals had zero or even negative effects on employee performance after the feedback is given.” [link not available - "Every year not enough, try weekly performance reviews", Rachel Emma Silverman]
Since it’s that time of year, the time of year when I know many of you are focused on reviewing this year’s performance and defining next year’s team and individual objectives, I thought you might be interested in learning about something completely different. Something that will really increase your chances of improving performance next year.
The “Managerial moment of truth” presents a framework and an approach to skill building. As Robert Fritz describes it, “the managerial moment of truth is a one trick pony. But, it’s a really really good trick.”
It’s not personal. It will help you build an institutional and individual ‘cycle of correction’ and learning. It will enable you to effectively increase organizational and individual performance.
Here’s co-author Bruce Bodaken, CEO of Blue Shield of California, speaking about the impact of this approach on his business’s leadership and performance. He believes that this approach has helped him and his team unleash between 25 and 40% of the underutilized capacity in his organization at little or no cost. In his 5 years as CEO, BlueShield has become the fastest growing health plan in California. They’ve doubled membership and grown revenues from $3B to 8B. A remarkable achievement indeed. Worth checking out the full video, especially after minute 6.
Random Posts:
Close encounters of a third kind
It’s the end of summer and the skies are filled with falling stars and comets in this part of the world. Thoughts of end of summer movies and UFO’s are somehow on my mind. So, I hope you’ll indulge me.
As I’m sure you all know [; )], close encounters with UFOs come in three kinds: sighting, physical evidence, and contact. Now, imagine the CEO [read executive leadership] as the UFO [for fun you could actually make employees the UFO and see what that looks like from an executive leadership point of view]:
Close encounters of the first kind - sighting. Pretty rare in most organizations. Employees may see or hear the CEO in big announcement ‘townhalls’ [most often online], and very occasionally as they and their entourage rush quickly through the plant, store, office, or cafeteria for a ‘meet and greet’, or “Christmas” party.
Close encounters of the second kind – physical evidence. Employees can see the effects of the CEO pretty regularly – the welcome letter in the orientation package [if you're in an organization that takes your orientation seriously you might also get a video clip welcome], the quarterly newsletter, the financial results e-mail [and 'townhall', see above], the occasional e-mail and video for a launch of a new brand [identity], introduction of a new product, divestiture, acquisition and/or change of organizational structure or leadership, and even more indirectly in policy changes, the congratulations note for years of service. Physical evidence may still be the most common kind of CEO encounter.
Close encounters of a third kind – Contact. The most direct and the rarest. This is where CEOs and employees actually connect. Human scale, face-to-face contact. Conversations about what matters most. Feedback about what’s working and not working. Personal commitments for support and action. Direct follow-up.
Random Posts:
We have no bananas!
Yes, I’m sad to say we have no bananas today.
I’ve been in and around the blogosphere for 4 or 5 years. And, I’ve seen a lot. Some of it good [great]. Some of it bad. Some of it ugly. Today, I saw all three in one day.
And, I have an observation. Most of the communication, management and marketing blogs, LinkedIn and Facebook pages and groups I frequent start off very well; very well, indeed. They have a strong editorial point of view. They’re strategically oriented. Edgy, stimulating and provocative. The people they attract are from different backgrounds. All of them looking for insight and perspective. The conversations that follow are driven by the “founders”. Then there’s a moment when either the authors/founders lose interest, or where they take a decision to change the model.
On blogs, they invite guest bloggers. This isn’t so bad, since they are usually like-minded thinkers. On LinkedIn and Facebook pages and groups they open up to public postings. Despite what any of us may think about democratization of information and crowdsourcing [both of which I am in favour of by the way]. I haven’t seen a crowdsourced blog or page that really stands up.
Vision, an editorial point of view and “curation” are important. They lead to more vibrant and interesting discussion. They help attract the ‘tribe’ of “like-minded” followers.
Instead these sites end up losing everything they originally stood for. The thinking – strategic not tactical, systemic not siloed, innovative not iterative is replaced by discussions on questions like – what are the top 10 things great managers do? what are the best practices for process mapping? what’s the best social media tool for ceo’s? etc. It’s more a pooling of ignorance or a thinly disguised “marketing” approach than anything close to something that will further the profession.
What’s happening? Lost is the thoughtful and thought generating discussion. Found is watered-down free association.
Please, please can we have more bananas!
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Recent Posts
- Do you know the 3 best headline writing tricks ever … anyone can do, guaranteed!
- You have a presentation to make
- Shocking news!
- Shining eyes
- Why oh why do presenters put so, so much text on their PowerPoint slides?
- Be aware, be very aware
- If the US Army is embracing social media, you can too!
- Thriving in chaos
Authors
Recent posts
- Do you know the 3 best headline writing tricks ever … anyone can do, guaranteed!
- You have a presentation to make
- Shocking news!
- Shining eyes
- Why oh why do presenters put so, so much text on their PowerPoint slides?
- Be aware, be very aware
- If the US Army is embracing social media, you can too!
- Thriving in chaos
- Rest, renewal & the global situation
- Learning from the Bishop’s wife