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I’m having a great time right now, doing a brand-new seminar with Jim Ylisela.
It’s “Advanced Employee Communiations,” and it has a little bit of everything. Basically, we walk folks through a four-step system for improving your internal communications.
1. Research (the boring, but necessary part: focus groups, surveys, executive interviews, vehicle assessment).
2. Planning (the even more boring, but even more necessary part, where we build a communication plan from the ground up.)
3. Execution (the fun part, where we talk about vehicles and social media and intranets and all the stuff I love).
4. Measurement (back to the boring but necessary stuff: making sure that what you are doing is working).
I thought the execution/vehicles/social media part of the seminar would be the most popular, but I'm shocked at how starving people are for the research/planning/measurement information.
We’ve had great crowds in D.C., San Francisco, and Atlanta so far, and we’re still going to Seattle, Toronto, New York, and Chicago. There's still room in some of those cities, so sign up!
And, as usual with my seminars, I'm learning as much as I am teaching. For example, last week in San Francisco, I met a couple of people from Intel. Now, Intel has always been ahead of the game, when it comes to technology and online publications and social media.
And they still are.
In fact, they have a policy where any employee can blog . . . and many of them are. They use them to share information, swap ideas, get the word out about something . . . all sorts of reasons.
But when I was chatting with the Intel communicators, they told me something I had never heard of before.
“Our executives—some of them, anyway—are starting to ‘pop in’ to employee blogs, and join the discussion,” one of them told me. “You know how you used to have Management By Walking Around? This is Management By Blogging Around.”
MBBA!! What a concept. If you believe executives, they have no time anymore to walk the corporate halls and chat with people . . . even though that’s a very effective management technique (and one that used to be very popular in the 80s).
But they do have 15 minutes a day to stop into some blogs, leave a comment, add to the discussion, read the comments, and see what people are saying.
Management By Blogging Around. What a wonderful concept. Now, maybe this isn't all that new. Maybe Shel Holtz will come out here and tell me that MBBA has been around for years. But it's the first I heard of it.
Of course, it will only work if employees are allowed to blog in the first place . . . so it probably won’t catch on anytime soon.
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Feels like Total Recall. Er, Philip K Dick?
Actually, with Steve's example it's a bit scary --- standing at the urinal...
Comments (11)
Steve,
I work for an organization that is slow to "get" a lot of things, social media certainly among them. However, you will be amused to know that on the one hand we are using social media to recruit younger folks into the work force, while concurrently blocking employee access to that same social media.
I'd like to hear what you have to say about that when I attend the New York version of Advanced Internal Communication (I had to switch from the Chicago one due to a scheduling conflict after YOU guys changed the dates on me).
But, like so many others, I am very interested in the other areas, particularly measurement.
See you in New York!
Will
Posted by Will Daniel | April 7, 2008 7:04 AM
Posted on April 7, 2008 07:04
Hey, Will!!
That's great news! It'll be a fun two days. So glad you're going to make it.
Steve C.
Posted by Steve C. | April 7, 2008 11:05 AM
Posted on April 7, 2008 11:05
If any of you reading this are on the fence about whether or not to attend Steve and Jim's workshop, don't think about it any longer...just go!
I attended with a colleague in San Francisco and we both learned a lot. From how to earn buy-in from senior management to hysterical stories about internal communications gone bad (execution-at-dawn photos anyone?), this was a terrific 2 days.
Okay, I'm done with my plug now. Steve, you can buy me a drink next time I'm in Chicago...
Posted by Cory Lowe | April 7, 2008 6:35 PM
Posted on April 7, 2008 18:35
You are missing the most important question about this phenomenon: Who will teach the executives how to turn on their computers?
IT? Nah, they don't talk to anyone.
Communications? That's a good one.
Sound like an HR job.
Posted by The Other Kevin | April 7, 2008 7:12 PM
Posted on April 7, 2008 19:12
Problem is,I suspect most management does not truly care what their employees are thinking, hence, the 15 minutes needed to check the blogs would seem about 14:59 seconds too long for the average exec.
Posted by Lambira | April 9, 2008 8:29 PM
Posted on April 9, 2008 20:29
I love the MBBA idea but tend to agree with Lambira above. This is another concept that may only work with the "good" managers. But hell, you can say that about every approach that comes down the pike, right?
What interests me more is this starvation for research/planning/measurement information you mention. No doubt you detected a hearty appetite for that last week when you and Jim worked with us here at a certain dreaded bureau of the Dept. of Treasury. (I assume you guys made it home okay???)
What do you think is happening out there in the trenches? Are we avoiding these not-so-fun activities for so long that we forget how to research/plan/measure? Or perhaps a new batch of uninitiated communicators is hitting our ranks and never learned how in the first place? I tend to think it's a bit of both but the path of least resistance will continue to plague the less disciplined among us. If we can get by with less planning and forethought, most of us can and will continue to churn out marginally effective campaigns by the seat of our pants.
So I'm somewhat relieved to hear it's not just MY agency to have foolishly stepped away from good strategic communication habits to focus on execution and nifty new vehicles. At least we're smart enough to recognize this symptom and bring you in for expert help. Still, I can't help but wonder what caused us, in recent years, to revert to this backwards and ultimately less effective approach. Maybe as you and Jim continue your world tour you'll find out and let the rest of us know.
Thanks again for everything!
Posted by Aidan | April 14, 2008 12:32 PM
Posted on April 14, 2008 12:32
The workshop is fantastic for anyone who can still get to one. Steve and Jim offer reams of useful advice, examples and insight. If you can't get to the workshop, though, do yourself a favour and catch up with one or both of these guys at another event or even online.
On that note, though, Steve and Jim, you talked about how a newsletter has to offer real value; how it should stay away from fluffy niceties and lifestyle issues (i.e. Dr. Phil). What then is your take on Ragan's FirstDraft resource for busy editors?
Is being busy an excuse for copping out and producing a supposedly bad (or non-advanced) newsletter or is it better to have no news?
I'm not questioning your advice (I've already shared your workshop manual and various bits of advice with my coworkers and peers); I'm just wondering whether you accept that there is a place for both "advanced" communications and "lesser" communications in a company's media mix. I wouldn't use FirstDraft, personally, but we get other pre-written stuff from our own departments and executives and it would be nice to know if we can justify using it if we're busy as long as we try and balance it with some real content (i.e. the stuff that we're busy working on).
Posted by Brett Tremblay | May 9, 2008 10:09 AM
Posted on May 9, 2008 10:09
Hey there, stumbled onto your blog, trying to avoid work, looking for something I can't remember now. I love your great insights on the communications world (particularly the cussing one). It's refreshing to hear from people who don't take things so seriously, but are still good at what they do (or I assume you are as you're able to talk so candidly about the world you swim in). In any case, keep writing.
Cheers, James
Posted by James | May 21, 2008 5:27 PM
Posted on May 21, 2008 17:27
Steve, have you stopped blogging for Ragan too? First David Murray, now you?
If you haven't stopped blogging for Ragan ... well, I miss the days when you used to blog weekly (or even several times a week). I've always enjoyed reading Corporate Hallucinations.
Posted by Andrea S-R | May 27, 2008 7:10 AM
Posted on May 27, 2008 07:10
Still AWOL? Hope you are OK.
This is why I don't think my CEO and president should try blogging. Nothing worse than alienating an established blog audience.
Posted by Caroline | June 4, 2008 8:32 AM
Posted on June 4, 2008 08:32
Still AWOL? Hope you are OK.
This is why I don't think my CEO and president should try blogging. Nothing worse than alienating an established blog audience.
Posted by Caroline | June 4, 2008 8:32 AM
Posted on June 4, 2008 08:32