Black Belt Dojo

Let's get together...

I've been quiet for the last few weeks for a variety of reasons, one of which is that I've been rather busy.

And one of the things that kept me occupied for a short time was the facilitation of a group of internal communicators from England's East Midlands.

Black Belter Clare Venn from Alstom Power decided some months ago that she'd like to know what her peers from around the Derby area were up to - so she invited a dozen or so to a morning show and tell session at her offices.  She attracted some really good people from a range of organisations including Rolls-Royce, Peugeot cars and Barclays.  And she was careful to find a group of in-house people who all had something to share with each other.

She roped me in to talk about change, but mainly to hold the ring so that people could debate their issues and experiences.  She's been thanking me quite profusely (so I'm not admitting how much I enjoyed myself in case she thinks of charging me next time).

I think the session worked because Claire created an environment where people were willing to share real problems and discuss solutions that worked for them. 

The local branch of Communicators in Business also chipped in with a bit of sponsorship which was very good of them (and enterprising of Claire to get hold of).

I know Claire has been thinking of this for some time and that she and one or two other people had to invest some time in bringing the group together.  However, it seems an excellent idea.

Rather than waiting for one of the professional associations to arrange an event outside London or Birmingham or look at a topic that interests you, why not put on your own workshop?  Invite the people that interest you and, hey presto, you're up and running!

Looking at where Black Belt alumni come from...I think I'll start working on the people in Basel as there are dozens of them there and they should certainly be ganging together!

Liam

Remembering who we're talking to

I opened up last week's session on messaging by asking people to imagine they were in a clothes shop. They'd spotted a jacket and weren't quite sure if they liked it or could afford it.  What would they say to persuade themselves they should buy it?  How might their friends persuade them?

Someone said "I'd imagine all the outfits I could wear it with". Someone else said "My friends would tell me how fantastic I'd look in it, or maybe that the colour really suited me" One person suggested "I'd justify the price by thinking how many times I'd wear it - that way it might actually seem like really good value". Someone said "I'd imagine how great I'd feel wearing it". "My friend might say 'come on, you deserve a treat - you've worked really hard this month'."

Then I asked people to imagine the sales assistant had joined in to persuade them to hand over the credit card.  Here's what the sales assistant says: "We're operating in a very competitive environment right now and our revenues are under pressure, so we really need you to buy the jacket to help us increase sales."  Not convinced yet?  How about "We need to improve our cashflow, and we have to show quarter on quarter improvements to the markets. If you buy this jacket, you'll really help us improve our profits."

Ever heard a sales assistant try and persuade you to buy that way? Me neither. They go for the things they know you'll care about.  But quite often inside organisations, we try to persuade people to buy in by talking about what's in it for the company - not what's in it for them.  It's easy to throw together key messages. But if you really think about the people you're trying to connect with and try and look for an angle they'll actually care about, it gets a lot more tricky.

I was reminded of this when I flicked through the airline magazine on my way home. There was a message from their CEO telling me about their new strategy.  Here's an exceprt from it: "Increased customer focus and the courage to change will permeate our business much more than before. We will work intensively to further increase customer confidence by being perceptive and flexible in all areas of operation. This customer focus will form the basis for a work culture that will generate success - we call it "cultural turnaround."   

Now I'm sure their strategy is excellent, and it has 'customer' written all the way through it. But I couldn't figure what any of it meant for me and put it firmly in the 'high level corporate wibble' category.  The language looked depressingly like the kind of stuff that gets churned out to employees though ...

Sue

PS On a personal note, someone went on a spending spree with my credit card details last week. If anyone from the Nationwide Building Society is reading this, your special investigations team was absolutely superb.  From now on I'll be shredding all my receipts and statements, not just tearing them up as I did before - I never realised easy it was for this kind of thing to happen.   

Are communicators getting too precious?

Was reading Trevor Cook’s blog and saw his reference to this post by PR blogger Tom Murphy about the basics of communication. He talks about being a trusted communication advisor in these complicated days of multiple channels and social media. He says we need to be realistic, understand that the principles of good communication remain the same regardless of the channel and, interestingly, not be too precious about the whole thing: “The more we all take a deep breath and think about what we’re doing, the more we’ll enjoy the moment, be successful and build for the future.” Food for thought.

Hello everyone

Hi everyone,

Thanks Sue and Liam for handing over the reigns of the Black Belt Dojo for September. My very own blog site for a month – what will I get up to? *she laughs evilly*.

Hopefully I can find some interesting things to share with you. These days I spend a whole lotta time on this thing they call the ‘interweb’, but I’m still naive enough to get excited, shocked and just plain confused almost every day. With that kind of entertainment power, who wouldn’t get hooked? No wonder my TV has started sending me cards with mournful cartoon teddy bears saying, ‘We don’t talk anymore…’

The past couple of weeks I have discovered Facebook and I’m loving it. Come visit me (you'll need to have your own profile first) – I need more friends and more fish for my aquarium. (And if you visit my profile on Facebook or the Melcrum Communicators’ Network, it saves me the bother of writing any intro information about myself here).

There’s been quite a bit of debate in the media in Australia and in the Melcrum blog about workplaces banning access to Facebook. On one of my client sites where I use their IT system there seems to be a strange and, I think, unfair policy that allows access for senior folks but no access for the vast majority of staff. Do we trust senior people more? Do they get more value from it? Are they less like to ‘waste’ time?

I haven’t really developed a personal philosophy on the benefits or otherwise of Facebook. It’s great fun, but then, I tend to think lots of things like this are great fun for a short while until I get bored or captivated by something new. (Witness my cupboard full of half-completed craft projects, my dead herb garden, and no less than three ‘you can do yoga at home’-type DVDs.)

Recently I spent at least an hour and a half updating the ‘Cities I've Visited' Facebook application that provides a count and pin-board representation of all the cities in the world you’ve visited. It’s really quite pointless except to position you as a complete show-off in the international travel stakes. And yet still absolutely engrossing.

Was that a productive use of time? If I’d been on someone’s clock other than my own, I think I’d have found it very difficult to justify any kind of work-related benefit. Yes, my Facebook profile has links with colleagues, other people I work with and friends. But I’ve never yet had anyone say, “Because we are friends on Facebook I think we should collaborate on this new project and I’m sure our communication will be improved as a result.”

Or better yet: “I see you like Belle and Sebastian and cool-climate pinot noir. Because you have such great taste in music and wine, please come and do this $100,000 consulting job for me.”

But I’m not giving up hope – yet.

G'day!

I thought I'd better post a photo in case you'd forgotten who I am - it seems like absolutely ages since I've posted on here!

After three weeks away in Oz (that's the Daintree rainforest behind me) and another ten days away in the UK, I'm feeling very happy with life, the universe and everything. Despite sitting here surrounded by a mountain of post, with a scary inbox to match.

So, am I still full of such workaholic tendencies that I had to switch my laptop on and get straight on the dojo before even unpacking my bags?  Well, the thing is, I need to introduce our next guest blogger before I then start packing my NEXT case to get straight off to Stockholm for a Black Belt early tomorrow morning, and I know she's raring to go with her first post.

There's an exciting story behind this one. Aside from being at the Melcrum summit in Sydney, the other reason I was in Oz to start with was to meet with Adrian Cropley and Melissa Dark. Both very well-known, experienced and well-respected communicators, and about to lead - drum roll please - the very first Black Belt in Australia! 

Yep, Black Belt is going down under, and Adrian and Melissa will be leading the programme there, set to kick off in November. And very good hosts they are too. We did the going-through-all-the-black-belt-materials piece in Sydney, and then met up a week later in Melbourne for a night out which finished in a fantastic place absolutely full of sticky cakes and pastries. Hurrah!

So, to tell us all about the preparations for the Australian Black Belt and no doubt lots more besides, Melissa will be our guest blogger for September. Looking forward to it!

Sue