Archive for Communicating Across Generations
Blogs vs. Term Papers and Essays – A Growing Trend?
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They will write blogs, not term papers
The words “term paper” strike fear into the hearts of students, followed closely by “essay.” I remember those dark days of burning the candle to finish a term paper in college. It usually wasn’t fun if you had been assigned a specific topic.
I was lucky that my English professor, Dr. Edward Chalfant, didn’t require term papers, but simply asked us to write what we felt about an American novel or a Shakespearean play.
He was ahead of his time and foretold the coming of the blog, an informal style of writing that can enable a more personal connection between students and professors and between companies and customers in the business world.
Blogging for Grades
The New York Times weighed in on this topic recently, quoting educators who advocate trashing the old-fashioned term paper and those who still preach that students need the discipline of the format: make a point, defend it, repeat it. Read More→
Building Online Communities Around the Wired Water Cooler
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With so many employees working virtually and scattered around the globe, is the water cooler extinct as a place to exchange ideas? Well, maybe in person, but the wired water cooler is emerging as a force in employee engagement.
Companies are creating online communities where employees can pull in the information they need when they want it and engage in conversations with other employees.
How empowering – employees expecting their companies to serve up information that is interesting, entertaining, useful and, most of all, authentic. If it doesn’t smell right, they will know and vent online with each other. Welcome to the new world of the wired water cooler!
Pfizer, American Express and Tiffany Are Doing it Right
At a recent panel discussion, Pfizer communications executive Robert Libbey said his company’s communication funnel is “almost too successful and it’s not always easy to control the fire hose of information” inundating employees. That is the challenge faced by many companies in a wired world.
Sponsored by the New York Chapter, International Association of Business Communicators (NYIABC), the panel also included Audrey Gray, vice president, executive communications for American Express Company, and Bill Carr, director, internal communications, Tiffany & Co., who discussed how their companies are using their intranets to connect and interact with employees.
Pfizer’s Transformation
Robert Libbey
When Mr. Libbey, who is senior director, global colleague communications for Pfizer, took a comprehensive look at the company’s various internal outlets in 2008, he found 400-plus news and information intranet sites that weren’t connected and almost impossible to manage.
Fast forward to 2011. Pfizer scrapped the old system (in 2009) and now manages a corporate news channel, with underlying SharePoint 2007 technology that is easy to manipulate. “We went from bricks to play dough,” he said, explaining the malleability of the new technology.
The corporate news bureau pushes out nine to 10 stories a week. He said there is no “spin” on stories – with the company informing employees about the good and the bad and encouraging comments. The content sometimes is repurposed and posted on Pfizer’s external company website. “We assume that anything we send to employees is likely to be seen by outsiders.”
In 2010, with more than 30 editions tailored for business units, functions, markets and locations, the new Pfizer site had 162,000 unique users, 5.2 million article views and nearly 60 million page views, with savings in the millions in development and maintenance costs.
Community Building
In response to the fire hose of information Pfizer colleagues face each day with all that they can access externally and internally, Mr. Libbey said that part of his company’s solution is to let employees create their own intranet home page and choose the information they want to receive.
To this end, Pfizer has embraced internal social media – paralleling the company’s active participation in external social media – and created its own Facebook-like community called “MyWorld.” Any employee can join – all have a profile – and use the 250-character micro blog feature to connect with others and follow the micro blogging of others.
Employees can also start conversations on the company message board about almost any topic. The comments are not vetted first. “People are going to have these conversations anyway,” said Mr. Libbey, and rarely does a post have to be removed because it didn’t conform to guidelines.
The World of Tiffany
Bill Carr
With 9,000 employees around the world, Tiffany is using its intranet and other interactive communications to help connect employees and share best practices. Bill Carr, director of internal communications, said Tiffany recently consolidated its corporate headquarters in a new location with the latest high-tech equipment.
The company just launched “BlueTube,” a digital signage tool that will provide a rich, interactive experience for employees to connect with the company and each other.
With stores in far-flung locations, it isn’t possible for employees to gather around the water cooler to exchange ideas. He said that a very popular Tiffany tradition is the annual holiday video. Employees look forward to it every year with great anticipation.
In the most recent video, Tiffany sales professionals share tips that have worked for them in building relationships with customers. One described how she sends personal, hand-written notes to her customers, inviting them to visit and see the new collections. These are greatly appreciated and help to build customer loyalty.
“We still have a long way to go,” said Mr. Carr, “but we’re excited about new opportunities to use interactive tools to inform, educate and inspire our employees, while building engaged communities that can interact and learn from each other.”
It Isn’t Boring at American Express
Audrey Gray
Audrey Gray, vice president, executive communications, began with a quote from Henry James: “The only rule is never be boring.” You’ve got to keep employees engaged with information that is informative, interesting and authentic. She stressed that authenticity in marketing is actually respect for one’s audience.
Amex’s intranet “The Square” hosts 10 different blogs, company news, tools for accessing company information, and a news story every day, delivered to 63,000 employees globally. She reiterated what the other speakers said – use “hot headlines,” short quotes, and liberal use of bullet points and subheads. “We’ve changed our writing style so that we don’t use any corporate speak. It needs to be real.”
The most popular feature on “The Square” thus far has been a “live blog” of the company’s annual senior management meeting. Her team was at the meeting and wrote posts all day long for two days, more than 100 in total. “Employees felt they were let in the door,” she said.
Junking the Old Water Cooler
If you read a blog I wrote a while back about the water cooler you know how important I feel it is to bump shoulders with your colleagues. Connections are critical to learning. But let’s face it, there isn’t time and employees are widely scattered, making the wired water cooler an attractive alternative. Besides, most people are glued to their computers all day – so if they can’t get to the water cooler, why not bring the water cooler to them?
How about it? Is your company turning your intranet into a wired water cooler where employees can hang out in chat rooms and form communities with like interests? Let us know.
Market Your Social Media Skills in Your Job Search
Posted by: | CommentsIn an economy gasping for breath, searching for a job can leave any individual feeling pretty winded. Finding a job has always been difficult, even more so now that so many are looking and so few are hiring. For college seniors who are graduating this month and still don’t have a job, the future can seem pretty bleak. But it doesn’t have to be.
Gen Y Graduates
Sell your social media skills
20-something college grads searching for jobs have different skills to offer the professional world compared to even ten years ago before Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn were born. We live in a society today that communicates in an entirely new form. Social media and social networking have redefined many aspects of our lives, especially the way we communicate with one another. While there are plenty of individuals out there ready to ridicule this phenomenon, most employers and business leaders recognize that social media is the future. Using social media knowledge as leverage in your job search could be the answer to landing the your first professional gig.
Market Your Social Media Skills
Job seekers should market their social media knowledge during their job search. Many young people just starting out shy away from discussing their social media experience because they’re afraid potential employers will think they spent more time on Facebook then on their textbooks. But that could be a mistake.
Heyman Associates, an executive recruiting firm, interviewed a panel of senior agency and corporate agency executives just this month for their views on social media. Jonathan Kopp, Global Director of Ketchum Digital, said at Ketchum having digital and social media fluency is an absolute requirement. When hiring, he said the agency looks at a candidate’s social graph – his or her level of exposure and reach across the social web. In the article, Kopp said he wants to bring people on board who are enthusiastic about the convergence of public relations and digital offerings.
So turn your social media smarts into a selling point. Express to potential employers that you are capable of social networking effectively, that you are comfortable communicating within the digital medium, and that you thrive in the fast pace of the online world. This is important even if you’re looking for a position outside of marketing and sales.
The New Personal Communication
Face-to-face communication continues to dwindle (sad to say). Digital communication is the new personal communication. We use email, Facebook, Twitter, and text messaging to communicate with one another. While this has drawbacks (becoming less adept at personal communication), digital communication is becoming the norm in business. Being able to express yourself, your needs, and your interests through online discourse is essential to professional success.
Social media is exploding as the new pipeline for companies to market to their customers and prospects. So why shouldn’t job seekers leverage their social media skills in marketing themselves to prospective employers? Use your social media knowledge to your advantage. Demonstrate that you are capable of thriving within this new environment. Finding a job is always going to be difficult. But during your search, be sure you are selling the skills that are marketable today.
Lauren Bailey writes regularly about education and finding the right schools. Visit her website top online universities. She can be reached at blauren99 @gmail.com.
The New Leadership Paradigm: Rule by Community
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Hosni Mubarak
The riots in Cairo have reinforced the movement exemplified by the Tea Party in the U.S. – leadership by community. It is the new leadership paradigm — the spontaneous formation of new communities of leaders, made possible by the power of the Internet. The old paradigm of one leader at the top of the leadership pyramid is crumbling everywhere. We’ll talk later about what this new paradigm means for business. But, first, let’s learn from what’s happening in Cairo where it is chaos and bloodshed and events are unfolding by the minute.
The Power of Twitter and Facebook
The images from Cairo on TV are frightening and Twitter is again center stage with a continuous stream of updates, many with links to videos from the scene. Here’s how it all started:
Before the Egyptian government shut down popular networking sites, many thousands of disaffected young Egyptians joined the Facebook community entitled We are all Khaled Said, which called for the downfall of the current regime and where members post updates of events on the ground in real time.
According to Newsweek, “The anonymous Facebook page administrator who goes by the handle El Shaheed, meaning martyr, has played a crucial role in organizing the demonstrations, the largest Egypt has seen since the 1970s, that now threaten the country’s authoritarian regime.”
No One is in Charge – Everyone is in Charge
Yet, through the coverage of this historic uprising, you learn there is no one leader in charge. Instead, a spontaneous community of protestors has literally linked arms in the “march of millions.” They have coalesced around a unified theme – changing the regime. They want better lives for themselves. It’s as simple as that.
As one my favorite leadership gurus, John Kotter says, “leadership is about coping with change.” By his definition, Egypt’s long-time ruler Hosni Mubarak failed to recognize the terrain shifting under his feet. He lost his leadership role, not because he was overthrown by another leader or in a military coup, but because power had spontaneously transferred to rule by the community. Now he’s being forced out and it’s gotten ugly and brutal as he tries to hang on to power, at least for now.
In the U.S., the Tea Party movement is another community that emerged and coalesced around the common goal of bringing change to government they thought had become too big and intrusive. Luminaries like Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh at first appeared to assume the mantle for the Tea Party, but no one single leader has emerged. Yet, loosely affiliated local Tea Party groups are toppling existing office holders and pushing through changes in how cities, states and the federal government operate.
What This Means for Business Leaders
So what has this got to do with our business leaders as they “cope with change,” as Kotter puts it. Anybody who ever doubted that the old “command and control” model is dead just needs to examine the paradigm shift in Egypt and U.S. politics. My view is that the corporate CEO is now just another member of the broad community in his or her organization. Companies that openly invite employees to share their ideas for innovation to make the organization smarter, more competitive and more profitable will be the big-time winners.
The Journal Register Company is a great example of how a company unleashed employees to give it a new lease on life. The company owns 170 publications, including 18 daily newspapers in major markets including Philadelphia, Detroit and Cleveland. In a blog post to employees in December, CEO John Patton wrote:
“Folks, in 2010 you proved that a tired, old, broken down and bankrupt newspaper company like the Journal Register Company could be turned around. You proved that a company’s strength resided in its employees and not its infrastructure of buildings, trucks and I.T. The wonderful Ben Franklin Project proved that determined employees could find the strength and energy to innovate — and you published daily newspapers and websites using only free web-based tools. You proved that while many in the newspaper industry might be devoid of ideas you were not and the ideaLab was born.”
Google is another company that carves out time for employees to go off and think about new ideas. Look where they are.
The revolt in Egypt is a vivid and brutal example that leadership by fiat is dead. Anyone disagree that we’re experiencing a new leadership paradigm?
Addendum: My colleague Bea Fields added her perspective on this post in her blog Self Directed Leadership Defines a New Era for Egypt and the World, noting that many protesters are under 30, or part of the Gen Y generation. Visit her blog for her take on how Gen Y is going to respond to this historic event.
