Month: February 2008

The Parable of the Bagel

Once upon a time there was a guy. Let’s call him Lee, because that was his name.

Lee was attending a great conference in San Francisco, where he learned a lot about using Social Media for Internal Communications.

On the third day of the conference, when he arrived for breakfast he found that:

  • The continental breakfast table had bagels.
  • The continential breakfast table had cream cheese.
  • But there were no knives to spread the cream cheese.

Did Lee go hungry? Did he eat a dry bagel?

No.

Lee thought creatively.

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=4WijLtAIYGA]

He used a spoon — not for its intended purpose, but to meet his need.

(And even better, he got someone else to do the work while he videotaped.)

The Parable of the Bagle has two major applications:

  1. You’re better off if you can pick the right tool for the job. Even though the bagel was pre-sliced, it would have split more nicely with a knife.
  2. Consider the social media tools you have, and how they can be used creatively to meet your needs. The spoon wasn’t intended as a cream-cheese spreading device, but it does a fine job of it. Likewise, Twitter and Facebook and blogs and other social media tools may have had purposes and applications envisioned by their developers, but what you need to do is see what capabilities the tools have, and how they might meet a need for you.

Twitter might just be a way to quickly activate a disaster response-team. A secret Facebook group might enable you to manage collaboration among external vendors without giving them access behind your corporate firewall.

Think creatively.

Comprehensive List of Communications Channels

Kay Sessions Golan from the CDC asked whether there is a comprehensive list of Communications Solutions or Tactics that communicators can use in their planning, to have a wide spectrum of old-to-new media as a reference that could be incorporated into an integrated plan.

So I said, “Let’s put it on a wiki!”

Sorry about jumping right to a solution, but this is a good way for people to get a feel for how to use some of the social media tools while also pooling our knowledge. So please go here to the SMUG wiki, where I have created a section called Comprehensive Communication Channel List. Add things wherever you think they make sense, or reorganize as you see fit. Let’s create the mother-of-all-tactical lists!

Change Communication Planning

bonfiremap.jpg

Bonfire’s Audience-Centric Communication Planning Map (click above to enlarge) moves through these steps from left-to-right in the map below, instead of just jumping to the final step. When the CEO says, “I want a blog,” that’s just jumping to a solution.

They recommend instead starting with:

  1. Audience Concerns: Who is the audience and what do they care about? Aggregate audiences by concerns and how the technology will impact them instead of artificial hierarchical structures or functional roles. For example, look at technological skill level of audiences. Create tiers of concerns. Some will cut across functional roles. What information is most essential? What will get people’s attention and address their concerns? What do people need to hear to jump on board? What is the connection and disconnection between the communicator and the audience? The great thing about Web 2.0 technologies is that they enable users to choose what they want to receive, and what information is relevant to them.
  2. Sponsor Concerns/Business Outcomes: What do we or our sponsors expect us to achieve? What business metrics are we chartered to move or influence? What are the stated and unstated expectations? What behaviors or actions are we to inspire or reinforce? What is the fundamental issue that we are trying to address? What are the business objectives you’re looking to achieve in how people Think, Feel, Know and Do in the Current State vs. Future State. What is the fundamental shift needed to get people to Think, Feel, Know and Do what you would like them to do? Example: a casino shifting to a consumer-driven healthcare environment. How do you get people who work in smoky casinos start to make healthy choices? “Just do it” wouldn’t work. Instead it was “Choose wellness where it works for you.” Tagline was: “Be at your best.” This is the way toward working together to lower healthcare costs.
  3. Communication Objectives. Look at three phases: Awareness, Understanding and Action. Match the Audience Concerns with the Sponsor Concerns/Business Outcomes. Explain to the audiences how these are aligned. What are our SMART communication objectives? Specific, Measurable, Achievable/Actionable, Realistic, Time-Based.
  4. Story/Key Messages: How can we create a conversation that moves people? Create a “North Star” or mantra, with key messages that support. Communicators are the most equipped group of people to guide the cultural conversation. How can we create a shared vision? How do we share a common view of current reality? What is our STORY from this journey and what actions will make the difference? What mantra will shift behavior?
  5. Design Criteria: How can we design communications for impact? How do our audiences take in information? How do they learn, share knowledge and collaborate? What design elements will appeal to them the most? If there is an existing brand framework, what is the relationship to the new design criteria?
  6. Communication Solutions: At this point in time, what are the right messages and solutions for these audiences? What are all of the possibilities that we should explore? What tools share knowledge, build skills and support change over time? What are our selection criteria? How do we create a rhythm and pulse while sustaining our efforts?

Changing the way people orient to information can shift their view of the world and influence lasting behavioral change.

Note: Photos from today’s session will be uploaded to the SMUG Student Union site on Facebook.

The Change Curve

Vivien and Marady started by discussion organizational change management, and understanding the stages people go through in moving from a current state to future state. It can be like jumping a chasm:

  • Denial
  • Anger
  • Blame
  • Fear
  • Acceptance
  • Shifts
  • Excitement
  • Creativity
  • New Forms

It can be represented graphically like this:

maradychangecurve.jpg

(That’s  Marady as spokesmodel. Click the thumbnail to enlarge.)

A better model, they suggest, is Peter Senge’s creative tension method of a learning organization, as visualized below:

creativetension.jpg

We’ll get into that after the break.