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.

Tools and tactics

Uhura or Deanna Troi?

by Deborah Hinton

Maybe it’s due to the Time Warped posts, but I’ve been thinking about …  yes, you guessed it Star Trek.  And I discovered something pretty interesting.  Somewhere between Star Trek and Star Trek: The next generation the communication officer disappeared.  What happened?

Remember Uhura, she was the communication officer on Star Trek.  She was a major character in this early version of the show.  Communication was a technical challenge and seemed pretty transactional. I always felt the character was barely hanging on getting her ‘phone’ to work.  Uhura seemed like a female Scotty – ‘Captain, the dilithium crystal is overheating. We’re going to blow up.”

By Star Trek the next generation the communication officer is gone [or at least not a main character] to be replaced instead by Deanna Troi, the empath.  She’s just there.  No big drama.  No big “oh my god can she do it? Can she get us out of this mess?”  She’s just present and adding value by helping the Captain navigate the different creatures and cultures they encounter.  She’s all about relationships.  And, technology serves only in as much as it supports the relationship.

I don’t know about you, but I’d rather see our profession evolve in the direction of Diana Troi.  More empath than technician.  What will it take?  [check out the Commscrum discussion on LinkedIn:  Building communication mastery in a cross-disciplinary inside/out world and here]

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Deborah Hinton Monday, November 15th, 2010
Permalink Communication, Corporate communication, External communication, Internal communication No Comments

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Corporate Karaoke

by Deborah Hinton

There is no one solution for employee communications.  But one thing is for sure, formal cascades are still around, and unfortunately in many organizations they are viewed as just that: The way we get information out there.

Now I’m actually a supporter of formal cascades – for the right kinds of communications, and done the right way at the right time and never as a standalone.  Check out our tip sheet.

More often than not though, messages are pushed out to managers who don’t know exactly what and when they have to communicate [we've forgotten to tell them]; don’t have the skills or the time to translate them for their employees; are ill prepared to answer questions; and worse don’t have the courage to have honest conversations with their superiors about the issues and concerns they and their employees might have.

It’s like a really bad night of Karaoke.  The lyrics are beautiful.  The tune catchy.  The voice is excruciating.  The pacing painful.  And, the drinks are watered down.

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Deborah Hinton Tuesday, October 19th, 2010
Permalink Communication, Corporate communication, Internal communication 1 Comment

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Great idea #1 – Mayo Clinic’s roving video reporter

by Deborah Hinton

An occasional post on a really great idea for internal communications – simple and high impact.

The Mayo Clinic is not only a globally recognized medical institution but it turns out they’re pretty accomplished communicators too.

They’ve created the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media “to improve health globally by accelerating effective application of social media tools throughout Mayo Clinic and spurring broader and deeper engagement in social media by hospitals, medical professionals and patients.”  Now that is a great idea!

And, one of the best internal communication ideas I’ve seen in a long time takes the old idea of a reporter at large and refreshes it creating a video reporter at large.

A member of the Mayo Clinic’s internal communication team [i.e. an employee] roams the halls and interviews staff and patients with a videographer in tow.  The reporter happens to be fun and charismatic.  The choices of topics interesting and aligned to their overall brand positioning.  Scripted and unscripted.  And the pacing just right.  And, bonus, they post it on YouTube and link it on their website, getting both internal and external impact.  It really works.

The Mayo Clinic’s approach is a real contrast to the usual talking heads and static interview style of most internal videos.  A simple idea.  Executed well.  It’s great.  Take a look.

YouTube Preview Image

Now, this production is pretty snazzy.  So for those of you who are thinking – yes, but…  here are a couple of things to think about.

1:  Hand held cameras create videos people really trust, so, maybe the production values in most other contexts would actually work against it in some way.

2:  You can produce professional looking video at very low cost today.  What it takes is a little imagination. My 15 year old nephew Matthew is making great video productions using a 3 year old JVC camera and using editing software he got online.  He doesn’t even use an external mike.

The potential’s incredible.  So, grab your teenager’s video camera and editing software.  Find yourself the right stories and the right employee reporter and go.  Have some fun!

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Deborah Hinton Thursday, August 5th, 2010
Permalink Communication, Corporate communication, Internal communication No Comments

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