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.

Michelle Sullivan

Storytelling, media & me

by Deborah Hinton

Today, I read an article about the growing demand for people who are able to tell stories in every media - photographs, text, audio, video, alone or in any combination - and made the case for pr [read communications] professionals to build these skills. The medium, it seems, really is the message.

So, I thought it was a good time to check in and see where we stand in this world of ‘content’ production.

Me?  For the past couple of years I’ve been experimenting with different social media and getting used to writing and sharing ideas and stories online - here, as support to Michael for From Marshall and me, on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and FourSquare [which after much frustration I've stopped using] and by commenting on other blogs when I feel I have something to add to the discussion.  I’ve attended a two Montreal PodCamps and several Third Tuesdays to get a deeper understanding of what technologies and applications are out there, how they are used, and what opportunities there are for institutional communications. I’ve met amazing people - Mitch Joel, Julien Smith and Michelle Sullivan - who have advised, provoked and inspired.

In the past few months, I’ve been revisiting and rebuilding my structural thinking and consulting skills.  The most recent training was last week.  I attended a fabulous 5-day Advanced training with Robert and Rosalind Fritz.  The importance and power of structure to the creative process and in storytelling was clearly evident. I always knew this training was key to my professional consulting practice.  Now I know it is key to being a good storyteller.

Today, I’m officially committing myself to the next step in my journey to create compelling content and learning how to share it in different ways.  Sure, I will continue to blog and do the stuff I’ve been doing, and, over the coming months I’ll be learning and building mastery [OK getting competent] with as many communications technologies and applications as I can.

This is a pretty big step for me. As those of you who know me will attest I’m no geek!  Here’s my starting point.  What technology is usable and what’s not!

Ouch!  And, it is a secondary choice to a primary choice to producing great, compelling stories that I can share. Standby.

You?  I’d love to hear about what you’re doing to build your storytelling and media skills?  What were your successes? What did you learn from your failures?  What can you recommend?

BTW: I’ve already started experimenting with my new camera [Canon S95] [no commercial relationship].  I’m still not working with the SLR  or video features, but I’m looking forward to that.  And, the scanner is plugged in and ready to go so that I can start a family project I’ve been thinking about for years.  An opportunity to experiment and learn to tell a different story in a new way…

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Deborah Hinton Tuesday, August 23rd, 2011
Permalink Communication 1 Comment

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Will 2011 be a reap year?

by Deborah Hinton

A friend of mine, Eunice Ajambo, is starting an NGO for educating young women entrepreneurs in Uganda [UgWO - sorry no website yet]. In a recent e-mail she said she felt next year was going to be a year of reaping.  Of course we won’t know until this time next year.  Today, what I know is that 2010 for me was a year of learning and consolidating.  And it was fabulous in so many ways.

As a communications professional, I’ve been trying to find ways to explore social media in a more direct way.   Move my understanding from theory to experience to practice.

This blog is part of that exploration.  I was fortunate to have met Mitch Joel a few years ago and he got me seriously thinking about it.  Interestingly that turned into my husband Michael diving in first with his ode to Marshall McLuhan.  But, thanks to Mitch I started reading more blogs and commenting – building my nerve as it were.  And thanks to that voyage I’ve met a whole raft of amazing professionals through CommScrum.  These connections have felt a bit like coming home – but a lot less warm and fuzzy.

The turning point on blogging for me happened earlier this year with the encouragement of Michelle Sullivan, Leslie Quinton, and Lisa Chandler – who all in their own way said: “Come on, who are you kidding, you’ve got opinions on everything.  Just do it.” Thanks ladies – I think.  I’ve learned more about what I really think and value than I ever expected.  Putting your ideas down and pressing post is a very humbling experience.

But for me not nearly as humbling as my experiments with Twitter.  Here I’m still a bit lost.  Tamsen McMahon @tamadear, my apologies for not responding to your response to my tweet.  It’s not because I didn’t want to.  It’s because I didn’t and still don’t know how.  Sigh.  Much more learning to do here.

There have been other experiments – FourSquare, Sharepoint, Goodreads, Skype, Facebook, LinkedIn. Some of them have been a success and are now fully integrated into my way of working and living.  And others haven’t.  And there’ve been some challenging and provocative conversations [Julien Smith – you know you are].

All of this is making me a better professional.  And though I’m sure there will be a few more Mount Everests of social media for me to climb, the journey so far has been very enriching.

Next year may be a reap year as my friend suggested, I just hope the learning and the opportunity to meet new communities of like-minded [or not] people continues.   I wish the same for you in 2011.

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Deborah Hinton Friday, December 31st, 2010
Permalink All categories, Communication 2 Comments

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“Resistance is futile”

by Deborah Hinton

At first glance social media is pretty alien.  It’s another technology getting in the way of face to face relationships.  And, as communicators we know in our hearts this is not a good thing.

And yet this is the irony of social media.  This technology that on the surface seems to dehumanize in the end enables us to accomplish one of the most human of all needs – to connect with each other.

In the past week or so I’ve been reading about how GM management believe that giving employees access to social media “humanizes” the company with their clients and potential clients.  But, I’m afraid this misses the real power of social media:  The power to “humanize” institutions internally.

The organizations that embrace social media on the inside are enabling their employees to connect with each other across:

  • time,
  • geography,
  • function, and
  • level.

They’re helping employees access the information and expertise they need, when and how they need it to do their work.  They’re energizing not just the formal organizational networks, but the informal as well.

Today the number of  organizations who are giving employees full access to social media inside and out are few.  Tomorrow they will be many.  “Resistance is futile.”

What will this change mean for the Corporate Communications or Internal Communications functions? Not only what we do, but how we do it. I’d love to hear what you think.

By the way, as predicted by my social media mentors – Michelle Sullivan, Julien Smith, and Mitch Joel - I’ve learned that social media doesn’t get in the way of face to face relationships.  In fact, quite the opposite.    And, that’s a very good thing.  Thanks you guys.

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Deborah Hinton Tuesday, May 18th, 2010
Permalink Communication, Internal communication No Comments

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