Jennifer Frahm Collaborations

A recent book to hit my desk is Iggy Pintado’s Connection Generation . Part sociology, part business, part communication, it’s a very interesting read with direct application to Business Communicators.

The central argument of the book (as I read it) is that society can be divided five distinct categories of connectors enabled by technology and social media. Now, I ask you, who doesn’t love a book with categories and characteristics? That’s a win straight away - “that’s me, she cried, that’s me, I’m not so strange after all!!”

1.     Basic connectors are those who are conservative in use of technology, if at all, and use technology for a specific and often limited purpose

2.     Passive connectors are those that understand what’s available, but prefer not to engage with much of the technology available.

3.     Selective connectors are those who recognise the value of networking, however are instrumental in their choice of what they use and with who.

4.     Active connectors understand connection technologies very well and use it proactively for personal and business gain.

5.     Super connectors manage a multitude of connection technologies in a strategic and deliberate approach to expanding their network.

Pintado provides examples of each of these ‘connectors’ with a list of bullet points on how to recognise them. I think this has direct application to those working in the communications arena, and the primary way is the classic “Understand your Audience”. It also gets away from the sometimes trite categorisation of gen y / gen x behaviours.

As we all come to terms with how to use social media and collaborative technology in the workplace there is opportunity to make faux pas, assumptions and errors of judgements based on our own use of technology, and our own view of what networking is. As a selective connector, I know many people get confused when I don’t accept them as a friend on Facebook, and I won’t connect on LinkedIn.

To clarify - Facebook is not professional for me, it’s for real friends. I connect to people on Linkedin I have either worked with and can recommend (good or bad?!), or some-one has recommended to me (and therefore I can say “Haven’t worked personally with, but I do know [x] who has and says “….”. Up until this point I have looked on with bemusement at those who ‘collect’ connections. I still think my professional network is stronger for some level of discernment,  but I have a better understanding now of why those that seek to build up their networks in a more random fashion do.

It is also a very good reminder not to assume that your new fandangled communication technologies are going to reach your entire workforce. There are Basics and Passives amongst us all. But perhaps this becomes a demographic we can include in communication audits of our workplace?

The second half of the book provides some very concrete examples of how to achieve your communication goals irrespective of audience, by leveraging networks, and understanding the best way of using connection technologies. There’s an ethusiastic group of acronyms inserted to assist anyone trying to explain to the rest of the business what you are trying to do. For instance, HITS - Hunt, Interactive, Test and Trial; GROUP - Gather, Regulate, Owner, Unify, Participation.

While the book is pro technology and social media, it provides a balanced view of the world by dedicating a chapter to the challenges of a connected generation (for instance connection overload, anti social behaviour and accessibility).

Overall, I would say it’s well worth the read. If you really enjoyed Malcolm Gladwell’s Tipping Point, this is a good supplementary text. Pintado’s background is corporate intrapreneur within IBM and Telstra, so he is well placed to provide value to others within large organisations. But the principles apply to marketing, PR, and communications discipline as well as small business and large.

Greetings all,

As I noted in March I’ve been involved this year in the start up of a new professional networking group in Melbourne: Change Management Professionals.  The Change Management Professionals was established to be a community of practice that supports, develops and enhances the profession of change management.  Our primary form of communication is the LinkedIn group, which we are delighted to see has grown to 84 members.

 Clearly there is an appetite for connection amongst those who work in change management. We like to think we are fairly inclusive in the sense that we understand that many types of people end up working in change management (for instance HR, IT, Project Management, OD, as well as the hard core change managers). Our goal is to provide opportunities for these experienced practitioners of change to talk, share knowledge and experiences, tools and thoughts. This way the practice of change management improves in a holistic sense.

We’ve had three events this year, and at each event we have had an average of 25 experienced practitioners at each.  Last week’s event was focused on: Right (Change) Person, Right Job. As a group we had collectively noted a number of pitfalls in the recruitment process. Our discussions with a few recruiters suggested they were equally frustrated. The frustration derived from a lack of common vocabulary around change management. 

Clients were finding it hard to find the right hire, as they didn’t know what they really wanted, as they didn’t really understand change. Even the really good recruiters struggle to get a brief from the client, as the client says “I don’t know what I want, but I’ll know when I meet them”. When you dig deeper you find that even those who understand change have contrasting and often contradictory definitions of common terms in change management.

The ideal?  Recruiting firms can start educating the client by discussing the needs of change management job, and testing understanding of central terms to assist them to build a job description and position statement that finds the change manager with the right skills set.

So we put together a panel discussion in the boardroom of SHK (a recruiting firm that is very experienced in placing change management roles) and the very generous hosts of the evening and future events (thank you!). We had a representative client (Nick Mescher), a representative recruiter (Andrew Staite), and a representative change manager (Kym De Lany). It was a really exciting and stimulating conversation. Many thanks to all of those who particpated.

One of the things that dropped out of the discussion was a list of 25 terms that need further elaboration, or definition to ensure the change recruitment process improves, and ultimately the client experience of change. We (perhaps foolishly) made a commitment to putting some definitions to these terms to distribute to those in the group, but we are conscious if it is just the definition of  Kym, Verity and I,  it is not a shared understanding, and thus contributes to the problem. So how about a lovely collaborative crowd sourcing approach? ; ) We would love it if you left your thoughts in the comments on how you would define 1 or more of these terms.  We’ll go from there!

1.  
   1. Strategy
   2. Plan
   3. Flexible
   4. Engagement
   5. Impact analysis
   6. Business readiness
   7. Cultural fit
   8. Process facilitation
   9. Project lifecycle
   10. The end-game
   11. Steady State Assurance
   12. Sponsor
   13. Change agent
   14. Change champion
   15. Framework
   16. Change lifecycle
   17. Change milestones
   18. Change Metrics
   19. Change communication
   20. Change context
   21. System engineering
   22. Process engineering
   23. Transformational change
   24. Change Leadership
   25. Emotional intelligence

 We anticipate the next CMP event being a festive one…perhaps themed with “What would a change manager want Santa to bring them”…As always, looking forward to you thoughts.