Black Belt Dojo

Dan Heath seminar

I recently blogged about a book I enjoyed called Made to Stick

Thought you might be interested to know that Dan Heath, one of the authors is hosting a free Webinar called Made To Stick: Get Your Message Heard on Thursday 5th February at 1pm, US Eastern time.

You can register here: http://www2.eventsvc.com/adobe/register/0ab7957b-1727-4a10-994f-f91cf7c060cb

Sally

Black Belt on the move

So, last week Sally and I ran the first 'new-style' Black Belt. We've given the programme a total re-vamp for 2009, with new content and totally new materials ... and even a new room layout!  It felt quite strange, after having run Black Belt for so long, to find myself with butterflies in my tummy about running the new one. Fortunately all went very well, so I'm breathing easily again until Module 2.

More exciting developments this week, too, as I went out to Scandinavia to start work on the European (well, European not including the UK, that is) Black Belt, AND as Melcrum lauched Black Belt in the United States.

I've got to say the two trainers for the US Black Belt - Julie Baron and Geri Rhodes - sound really impressive and have such interesting backgrounds both in the world of communications and outside it. You can listen to Julie for yourself here on a podcast giving her answers to that question I hear people ask so often: 'How can internal communicators be more strategic?'

If you've got colleagues in the US that you think might want to find out more about the new Black Belt, the woman in the know at Melcrum is Claire Leheny.

In the meantime, keep your fingers crossed for us here in the UK for our 'new look' module two. It involves much more 'sharing, showing and telling', so we're waiting with interest to hear what people will be bringing with them. I'll let you know how it goes ...

Sue

Real people talking to real people

Lucy Kellaway, the FT’s management columnist, renowned for her satirical view of management fads and jargon, was recently growing concerned that her supply of jargon was wearing thin. I was therefore both relieved and despairing to read that she still has enough material for her business “twaddle” awards. Relieved because she and they always make me laugh, despairing because I still can’t believe how organisations can get it so wrong.

 

I was reminded of a question a colleague recently asked – why is it we can happily tell stories and talk normally to our friends and family, down the pub or over a meal and then we walk into the office on a Monday morning and turn into jargon-speaking, twaddle-creating awkward people? Why do we talk a completely different language when we get into the office?

 

I don’t know the answer, and I’ve certainly been guilty of it myself, but it got me thinking that our skills as craftspeople need to come to the fore even more. A recent report, produced by Melcrum and The Company Agency highlights that CEOs are looking for help in “ensuring that their messages are credible and personally relevant to their audience”.  Rona Fairhead from the Financial Times Group described it thus: “It’s about real people talking to other real people.”

 

I am currently reading Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath - a brilliant book that discusses what makes ideas or stories stick in our minds. It says that “language is often abstract, but life is not abstract.”

Their formula is a simple one and comprises six key ideas:

Simple - finding out what is the real issue and focusing on what you want your audience to know

Unexpected - a message that forces people to stop, think and remember.

Concrete – using real-world analogies to help people understand complex ideas

Credible – giving specific details and quoting experts where possible

Emotional – people care about people, not numbers. What’s in it for them?

Stories – stories help to make messages more meaningful. Remember Joe the Plumber who featured in Barack Obama’s campaign?

 

Many of these principles were brought to life for me recently. I was lucky enough to go to a wedding in a castle in Scotland. just before Christmas. The ceremony was held in a very romantic and utterly beautiful keep. While I am a bit of a romantic I have to confess to occasionally “zoning out” at the formal elements of ceremonies such as the vows (probably in the same way employees can zone out when listening to management-speak). So there I was gearing up for the usual set of words, when the groom declared “I will watch The X factor, Strictly Come Dancing and Midsommer Murders with you without complaining, even if they are all shown on the same evening. I will never tire of listening to you typing text messages to your friends on your iphone. And I will happily finish all those little tasks you have begun in the day, but not quite seen through to the end".  

To which she replied “I will aim to get the kids in bed by 7.30 at the latest on football League nights and I will make the effort to watch and enjoy your favourite TV programme with you as long as I can sample a glass of wine during it.”

 

Simple, definitely unexpected, emotional (we were all crying and laughing) and full of stories about the couple.

 

Their vows will certainly stay with me for many years to come (and I’ll be holding the couple in question to them if they dare try to renege!).

 

I think every now and again it’s good to remind ourselves that we’re real people talking to real people and that we should do our utmost not to end up as recipients of one of Lucy Kellaway’s awards!

 

PS - For more information on Made to Stick there’s a great website and you can sign up for some useful resources

PPS – if you would like to receive a Lucy Kellaway award, how about using a business buzzword generator, as mentioned in Made to Stick

Sally

Happy (I'll repeat that) HAPPY new year

I love New Year.  I find it a fantastic time for reflecting on what I'v'e learned and gained over the last year and setting out what I'm hoping for from the year ahead. I dig out some of my coaching tools to do it, so I've got collages up on my noticeboard and I've subjected friends to the Wheel of life and had them sitting and standing in various places around my living room to try out my favourite 'perspectives' exercises. 

So, after an absolutely lovely New Year's Eve and Day, I woke up on January 2nd, switched on the laptop, and the first headline that confronted me was 'UK faces its worse recession for 30 years.'  Followed rapidly by a pageful of similarly uplififting titles.

'Happy new year'. I thought to myself. 'That's going to give lots of people enough confidence to go and spend a bit of money in the sales.' So I switched it off and headed to the shops. First to well-known-high-street-seller-of-very-nice-food. Where I, along with most other potential customers, emerged with nothing in our baskets (despite going back there 3 times) because their delivery was late. Second to well-known-high-street-furnishings-shop to order a blind. A very plain, simple, uncomplicated roman blind. Which took 90 very frustrating minutes between tills going down, IT systems on the blink and a saleswoman who was very nice but plainly totally flustered, had no idea what she was doing and was getting absolutely no help from her colleagues.

I headed home, late for imminently-arriving friends, wondering how much of the communication to staff in those two companies had already been about 'it's going to be another tough year', 'have to do more with less', 'cost efficiency' etc. whilst the basic processes in both had obviously fallen over. 'It's going to be an even tougher year', I thought to myself 'if you don't sell anything because your customer service is down the pan and your processes won't work'.

Now, I'm no head-in-the-clouds Pollyanna type and I know newspapers have to report what is, but I also know a number of people who are so similarly fed up with the non-stop diet of doom and gloom that they, like me, have just switched off. We don't watch or read it anymore. I wonder how many employees are so fed up with a similar diet internally that they, too, have switched off.

So three cheers for McDonalds, and to their stance that 'in these challenging times, it's more important than ever to invest in your staff as they announced this week that they'll become the UK's biggest provider of apprenticeships. And three cheers for Mark Robinson at RSA's MORE THAN, who I found so friendly and helpful on a basic sales call today that I'll be taking the time to find out who his team leader is to make sure he gets recognised.

What would most help you want to go to work, put your best foot forward and do your bit for company performance? A non-stop diet of doom and gloom? Or a company that recognises the situation but still, visibly, keeps a focus on its staff? Or one that keeps a focus on the basics that keeps customers coming back and staff getting recognised for doing a great job?

Yes, it's a tough old time out there at the minute. But life goes on. Let's keep a balance (my neighbour said New Year's Eve was the first and only time in ages that she watched the news, because there was actually some positive stuff in there alongside the drama) and keep people switched on to what we're saying, with some pride in their jobs and an interest in turning things around for the better. If not, we're in danger having workplaces full of people looking like the three wise monkeys ...

Sue