Black Belt Dojo

blogs, blogs everywhere

The latest report from blog tracking firm Technorati shows the blogosphere (as we hip people in the know like to call it) is still growing scarily fast.

Apparently every day 100,000 new blogs are created and 1.3 million posts are made. Technorati is now tracking 57 MILLION blogs.

There's an interesting quote from the founder of Technorati saying that some well-organised blogs are now behaving "increasingly like our friends in the mainstream media". In other words, they are becoming a comms channel just like any other.

Strikes me that it's important not to get it into our heads that blogging is just about having another comms channel in our toolkit.  I heard the Head of IC at Yahoo say at a conference that social media is not about channels. It's about the whole idea that now everyone has the opportunity to have a voice and create content, not just those of us with 'communication' in our job title.

Sue

Just for laughs

OK, don't say we never do anything for you. Whilst we're on the subject of jargon, here are a couple of things to give you some light relief.

First, thanks to Fiona Gibson for telling us about the v.funny Alex cartoon website, and here's their verdict on jargon.

Second, see here for your very own Corporate B.S. indicator, courtesy of Tommy Butler at Atrixnet.  Apologies for the bit of naughty language, but it IS very funny ...

Enjoy ...

Sue

Jargon busting

Do read this 'have your say' piece from BBC on line about workplace jargon. It's hilarious, in a kind of sobering, cringeworthy, 'oh dear I recognise that one' type of way.

Last week I was reading a blog post, which I now can't find, by Carol Kinsey-Goman, who was ranting about the overuse of the word 'drive' in corporate communications. ('driving for results' etc. etc.).  Your votes please for the most over-used/cringeworthy/drives-you-mad corporate word. Let's draw up a top ten and mount a campaign to get them banned!

Oh, and all proven tips for getting managers/internal comms teams (!) to give up this nasty jargon habit are also welcome...

Sue

PS I forgot to say what my pet favourite is!  There are so many, but I particularly don't like 'leverage', 'grow' (as in 'how do we grow revenues' ) and socialise (as in 'let's just socialise this around the management team'.

Survey closing soon!

Don't forget to respond to the survey - we're closing it on Thursday night so there's still time to drag a few of your chums into it!

It's online at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=525292665872 ...

Liam

juggling priorities

1. "Where do we add the most value?" is a question we ask throughout the first Black Belt module. Where should we ideally invest the biggest proportions of our time to make the most difference to our organisations?  And how ARE we spending our time today?

The answer we often find is that we're spending much of our time 'doing the doing' - writing, organising, sending out, fire-fighting ... when we'd actually like to spend more of our time supporting and coaching leaders and acting as consultants - understanding where the business is trying to get to, and working out what role communication can plan in trying to help it get there.

But if you do resolve to spend more of your time strategising, who's going to do the doing?  Particularly if you're in a standalone role or part of a small team that's already under pressure, it's hard to know where on earth to start. 

What's your experience?

Practical examples please, from anyone who has managed to start shifting the balance without doubling the size of your team or budget.  Here are some quick thoughts to get things started

1. Get simple processes in place, to save having to re-invent the wheel every time.  For example, make sure you have a basic suite of channels, with clearly defined purposes, so there's a natural route to communicate things such as changes to processes, business results, senior leadership messages etc.  Put together a simple template that you'll use to put together project comms plans. 
2. Train other people. What activities are you carrying out that other people could do for you?  If you invest in training, templates, toolkits and hand-holding up front, you'll reap the benefits down the line.
3. Imagine your resource has been halved and you have no choice but to stop doing some things or find other ways around them. What will you do?  I once had no choice but to reduce a team from 60 people to 6, in the space of 2 weeks. It's amazing how it focused our minds. Where previously we'd have said 'but we can't ...' now, we had to - and we did. Once you've decided how you'll cope, fill up your new-found time with something else.
4. Get yourself a network of communications champions, if you haven't got one already. Where there's no formal resource in place, a network of people who give a couple of hours a week to communication can take some of the load away from you. You'll need the support of senior leaders to identify one or two people from each business area.
5. Pull out all the stops to deliver an example of what you'd like to do more of. Make a success of it, so that people want more of it, and then give them the choice.  'I'd love to do something like that for you, but all my time is being taken up booking rooms for the project roadshow. If your PA could take over booking the rooms, that will give me time to look at this for you instead."
6. Make the choice. Sometimes, people tell me they've made a shift simply because they resolved to, and they started acting differently.  We once saw somebody come back on the second module looking like a new woman just because she'd done exactly that. Sometimes the only thing holding us back is our own perspective on how things have to be.

Over to you ...

Sue

So how do I search blogs????

So...Who is going to explain to me how I search the 'Blogosphere???'

Liam

Live from Henley

So here we are at Henley again with a group of Black Belters who, as usual are asking lots of challenging questions.  This group seems to be particularly keen on networking and personal problem sharing.

So here are some pictures of them doing a messaging exercise this morning... and

thanks to Steve from the last black belt for the idea about a game to play over dinner...finding out what IC people get up to when they're not communicating is always interesting...