Jennifer Frahm Collaborations

Well, hasn’t this just been one of the most fascinating 24 hours of 2009.  It starts with a visit in October from Chair of the International Association of Business Communicators Chair Barbara Gibson or @Barb_G in Twitterville.You *must* twitter she cries. We *must* twitter I tell you.

 So some-what reluctantly I tweet , think first stage of @rohitbhargava  ’s 5 Stages of Twitter Acceptance.  I absorb, I immerse, and let me tell you right know I can think of as many reasons why not to be on Twitter as there are why you should be, but that will be my 100 days of Twitter post ; ) . But I connect. With some very interesting, generous and knowleadgeable folk.

 So 24 hours or so ago one of those clever folk I follow @bradjward’s produces a  couple of “Tweazes”… or a tease by twitter.  ”The story just keeps getting BIGGER AND BIGGER”. And indeed it did. Basically, over 300 Facebook groups targetting graduates of 2013 have been set up by representatives of one company, posing as students.  The ins and outs and implications are really well explored at Brad’s blog

But the real story (for me) is the investigative journalism and collaborative engagement by the tweeting / blogging community. Brad set up a collaborative spreadsheet via Google Docs and a very diligent 12-14 folk worked through the US night sourcing, cross checking, doublechecking links within Facebook and the company that set the “initiative” up. Virtual collaboration, real time conversations, leads and red herrings worked through.  I tell ya, there is a movie in this one. Thankfully, the chat text has been preserved, it will make a great screenplay. Well the nerd in me thinks so.

I think the implications for organisations are profound. What would it take to have your employees seeking to protect your company reputation and protect your customers and other employees in this way? Real time information, respectful dialogue, clarifying, communicating, creating…real change.  Not sure I have the answers (yet), but I am very excited about what it could mean…

Last week I had the immense pleasure of mixing it with some very savvy folk at my Ark Masterclass in Change Communication.  There were some terrific conversations, inspirational stories, and great opportunities for reflection. The class has a fairly diverse mix of participants, people coming from varying disciplines (change management, IR, HR, Internal Comms, company secretariate, Public relations).  One of the activities I like to cover is “Clarity on your role”. So asking - just what is the role of the change communicator and what is it not? It can be a really powerful activity that provides space to carve out some boundaries and really focus on what the unique contributions of the change communicator are.

It’s an interesting activity as it often raises the debate around - well who are these change communicators? Why do comms folks think they can tell us what to do in a change project? Can I be a change communicator without extensive change management experience?  What is the overlap between change management and communication.

My take on it?  You can’t successfully create or manage change without thoughtful, considered and inspired communication. Great change communication results from conversations between the various disciplines. There are models and frameworks in change management, that comms folks must become conversant with. Similarly, there are comms theories and strategies that are critical for change management folk to employ. HR, IR, PR all add value to.  Be inclusive of the differences and create better change communication. What’s your thoughts? Just who are these change communicators?

 So one of the ways I spend my day time is as a lecturer at one of Melbourne’s universities.  The last couple of years I have been fortunate to be involved with the honours year in a Department (School) of Management and Marketing.

 For those out of Australia, an honours year is a 4th undergrad (the normal is 3 years). It is a research year  + thesis, and quite competitive to get into it. It becomes an entry path to the PhD or fast track to a consulting career. I love working with the honours students - it’s super challenging in many ways, but really rewarding. Ánd it’s great when you can keep contact with them after the year. One of this years cohort, Ami Bateman, is a savvy sustainability change agent. She’s now working for the good folks at Synovate, and mentioned she was doing a presentation on how to introduce more sustainability goals. 

I’ve worked with a few sustainability folk and it is a notoriously difficult area to introduce change as it involves making deeply entrenched behaviour change with people who are often really passionate about their area of specialisation, but no so skilled at having the conversations of change.  Here’s a set of 6 tips I sent Ami to assist in her goal.  You may find them useful for other areas of change too.

1. Listen more, talk less

        A lot of times change agents think they have to sell better, talk louder, just give better information. Uh-uh. Good change agents listen, and listen lots. When you listen your audience feels valued and respected, and you find out the change levers and triggers for that person.

2. Suspend judgement, seek to understand

       Passionate change evangelists often forget humility. They become highly judgemental of those they seek to influence. This judgement creates  an exclusive audience of 1 (the evangelist). Focus more on understanding and create an inclusive and safe space to test ideas.

3. Establish commonalities

        People are more easily influenced by People Like Them. It’s a tribal association thing hard-wired in the brain. When you are listening and seeking to understand you can find areas of commonality. This establishes that you are Like Them and can have influence.

4. Baby steps before great leaps

        It is basic nature to reject what overwhelms (cognitive overload and bounded rationality). When introducing  new ideas make the complex simple. Start with a small notion, anchor that in understanding and then step up to the next level.

5. Heart, mind and credibility

         Aristotle knew it all – persuasive speakers have pathos (an appeal to the emotions), logos (an appeal to the logic by facts and figures) and ethos (an appeal from a credible speaker). Are you relying too much on only one of those areas?

6.   Persevere with patience & grace

          Productive conversations take time and perseverance is required. Be patient with the time it takes to sustain and energise, and appreciate the small wins  you achieve as your audience stays in the conversation.

An excellent article just hit my inbox from the McKinsey Quarterly on “Freeing up cash from operations”. It covers examples of how in previous financial crises, companies who have battened down the hatches, have done so to their detriment. It also provides pragmatic suggestions on how to generate more cashflow.

Certainly, I’m hearing from many colleagues of their company suffering ‘credit crunch paralysis’. The knee jerk reaction is to reduce spend by another 10% in the next 30 days (duck!) . Little consideration is made to the negative impact this has on previous improvement programs, cultural alignment, future commitment and productivity. By all means, use the economic environment as an opportunity to pause briefly and take stock, but don’t stop! Profit can be maintained (or even increased) by increasing revenue and managing cash better, not just reducing expenditure. Perhaps some of the suggestions in the McKinsey article might be useful to your organisation?

http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Operations/Performance/Freeing_up_cash_from_operations_2258

So, this past weekend I spent my waking hours as a volunteer in the Site Control Centre  for the Queenscliff Music Festival (QMF).  And I need to say, despite the exhaustion,  it was a truly extraordinary experience.  It’s a fantastic festival, with excellent artist programming and the most impressive committee I have ever seen / and or experienced. Each team leader was incredibly dedicated and committed and carried out their roles and responsibilities with extraordinary good grace and humour. I’ve been spending the last hour trying to distil what exactly it was, that made it so impressive. It would be so powerful if replicated in organisations particularly those going through change.  And when I reflect on the weekend, the secrets of success are not so unique. It was the synergy of bringing all those success factors together that made for such an enjoyable volunteer experience and, therefore, a really well run festival. So let me share:

1. A common goal: All of the committee members I met were really passionate about music, and artists, and the community of Queenscliff. There was an unashamed excitement about which artists they had met, and a deep affection for the locale.
2. A sense of connectedness: This tied in with the sense of community. Decisions were made with the community in mind, and with the knowledge that everybody’s role interacted and impacted on each other. A systems approach to managing the organisation.
3. Respectful interaction:  Team leaders, committee members and volunteers communicated with grace and respect…for the most part ; )
4. Expressions of appreciation. Volunteers and I include the team leaders in this were repeatedly thanked and told how their work was making a difference. It’s a reminder that rewards don’t need to be financial or particularly big.
5. A can-do attitude. The commitment to the vision meant that people looked for solutions. Bringing together multiple venues, and 8000+ people is not without some tension and difficulty. But again for the most part, people joined together in looking for how to make things happen.

 I supect I could go on further, but these five are the big ones that stand out. How might your organisation, association, or chapter change if your management team lived and breathed these values? What would your experience of work be like? How might you start to introduce these aspects or amplify them? I wonder…Kudos to the QMF, big kudos.