March 9, 2010“Crowd-sourcing” request for input on the SpeakStrong Website

Are you familiar with the term “crowd-sourcing”? It refers to putting out an open call for input to non-employees. The New Dynamics of Communication are inclusive and synocratic, and crowd-sourcing is one feature of that.

Months ago I put out an open call to ask what readers see as my unique contribution. I received many wonderful posts. Last week that thread was picked up again. The comments touched my heart.

Now I’m in the process of reorganizing my web sites and invite your input. When you visit my site, what is your experience like? What is your favorite feature? Do you find what you’re looking for? Are there sources of frustration for you? Is there something you’re looking for that you can’t find?

Are there services you’d like me to offer that aren’t there?

If you’ve ordered or started to place an order on the site, is there anything about the shopping cart you recommend we change?

In summary, my question is: how can I serve you better?

Send your input via the blog, or email me here.

March 2, 2010HBR post nails the need to consider image in choosing words and Speaking Strong

What kind of person are you?

Are you the kind of person who works cheap? Are you the kind of person who helps those in need?

Peter Bregman highlights the importance of asking for things in ways that enhance self image in an article about motivation in Harvard Business Review. Bregman reported that when AARP asked some lawyers if they would reduce their fee to $30 an hour to help needy retirees, the lawyers declined. Then they asked the lawyers if they would do it for free. The lawyers agreed.

Bregman explains that when we consider whether to do something, we subconsciously ask ourselves: “Am I the kind of person who . . ?”  When the lawyers were offered $30 an hour their question was “Am I the kind of person who works for $30 an hour?” Their answer was no. When they were asked to do it as a favor, they asked themselves, “Am I the kind of person who helps people in need?” Their answer to that question was yes.

Fascinating! Think of the implications. And then, think of what kind of person the people in your life think they are – and how your words might challenge or enhance those images.

Non-profit meeting planners sometimes ask me if I will speak for an honorarium instead of asking if I would speak for a reduced fee.

Writing partners will ask if their buddies would welcome input instead of if they need help.

Good managers say they will ask their staff to do things instead of saying they will tell them to do things.

People who speak for honorariums, receive input and are asked to do things feel different from those who reduce their fees, need help and are told what to do.

When you pick your words, stay aware of what kind of person you are signaling the other person to be. Choose words that dynamize their self-images and create momentum.

February 23, 2010Last week to register for SpeakStrong Conflict Management Training in Denver

Register now for my CTAT SpeakStrong in conflict management training in Denver. I’m excited to announce that Dr. Howard Nornes, a professor of Developmental Neuroscience, will talk about how brain structure affects how we manage conflict. I’ll present my brainlet communication dream team, and Dr. Nornes will go into the science behind my communication techniques. It will be a fun, factual and fruitful day.

You can read more about it here and here

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February 23, 2010SpeakStrong Insights from CBS’ “The Undercover Boss”

If you ever think upper management doesn’t know what you do, or you suspect you might not know what goes on with the people you manage, you’ll find The Undercover Boss to be an interesting show. CEO’s of organizations work in entry positions of their own companies to see what it’s really like out there. Whatever its flaws, The Undercover Boss shows how illuminating it can be for leaders and managers to shadow their employees.

The main value isn’t that they uncover problem behaviors , although that certainly does happen. (The Hooters episode exposes a doozy.)  The experience allows for management to see how their policies affect their front-line employees… and for management to see how great many of their employees really are. Unlike most reality shows that strive to catch people at their worst, this show catches many people in their goodness.

Women, Gen Y, social media and globalization are creating a growing trend toward synocratic interaction in the workplace. This show illustrates how useful that can be.
Check it out. And consider shadowing people who work for you… although in your case you probably won’t be undercover.  (I provide phrases to announce your intentions to shadow in Perfect Phrases for Managers and Supervisors.)

February 12, 2010Find the Lost Generation, and the opportunities in the argument?

A palindrome reads the same backwards as forward.  The Lost Generation video reads the exact opposite backwards as forward.  Not only does it read the opposite, the meaning is the exact opposite. This is only a 1 minute, 44 second video and it is brilliant.  Make sure you read as well as listen forward and backward.

The words are below. The revesal comes from starting at the last line and reading the next to last etc.

The perfection of this heartens me, because I so often find in communication and in life that the problem contains the solution, the objection the reason to by, and the limitation can lead to the liberation… if we can see the opportunity right in front of our faces.

Lost Generation by Jonathan Reed

I am part of a lost generation
and I refuse to believe that
I can change the world
I realize this may be a shock but
“Happiness comes from within.”
is a lie, and
“Money will make me happy.”
So in 30 years I will tell my children
they are not the most important thing in my life
My employer will know that
I have my priorities straight because
work
is more important than
family
I tell you this
Once upon a time
Families stayed together
but this will not be true in my era
This is a quick fix society
Experts tell me
30 years from now, I will be celebrating the 10th anniversary of my divorce
I do not concede that
I will live in a country of my own making
In the future
Environmental destruction will be the norm
No longer can it be said that
My peers and I care about this earth
It will be evident that
My generation is apathetic and lethargic
It is foolish to presume that
There is hope.

And all of this will come true unless we choose to reverse it .

February 9, 2010@Wendy_Mack: hilarious employee made video about handwashing

Leadership expert Wendy Mack posted a composite video that hospital employees created about handwashing. What a great example of “crowdsourcing” and employee engagement! This is tapping into talent where we find it.

I bet that hand washing campaign was particularly effective! Mack writes,

Actively Engage Employees with Video Contests

Corporate communicators have been using video to share messages for decades.  But in just the past year or two, more and more companies are recognizing that employees are more actively engaged when they create the video themselves.  Here is a great example of this approach.

Hospital Video Contest: Washing Hands

Rather than creating a corporate Wash Your Hands campaign, one hospital asked employees to create and submit their own videos.  Here’s a compilation of results:

Check it out here,

February 9, 2010Slogans, catch phrases and by-lines have sunny and dark sides

Kathleen is one of my favorite commenters on my blog. Her recent post about Teacheable Moments gave me the opportunity to communicate what I see as the beauty and the bane of phrases and catch-phrases.

I invite you to read her comment and my entire response. Here’s an excerpt.

I think catch-phrases expand us when they express new ideas that are bigger than how we were thinking. We grow into them. But then we outgrow them. So if we keep using them, they hold us back.

February 9, 2010There’s tyranny in the teacher/leader labels

When you teach communication like I do, sometimes people get self-conscious about what they say. Yesterday a meeting planner apologized for suggesting changes in my session description. Once she realized my openness to her ideas, she turned into a goldmine. You’ll be reading some of the PowerPhrases she shared with me in the weeks to come.

While writing this post, I received a communication question from a reader who had the following quote in his signature code.

The task of Leadership is not to put greatness into people, but to elicit it, for the greatness is there already – John Buchan

It made me think of myself as a PowerPhrase leader more than teacher. But even that seems odd, because we tend to think of leadership as hierarchical. If I read the above quote and try to elicit your greatness, I’ve made myself higher than you and turned you into an object of my leadership.

But if I elicit your greatness because it delights me, we empower each other, and our conversations become dynamized. I sincerely believed this meeting planner would have ideas that would synergize with mine, and the result would be so much more than either of us could come up with on our own. And I was right.

What does that make me? Am I a facilitator? An alchemist? A synergist? Whatever I call myself, I’m having a great time of it. And amazing things are continually born in the process.

February 4, 2010Social media savvy and New Dymamics

My social media coach and Technology Cheerleader, Phyllis, is a sincere and savvy social networker. She helped me get my foundations, and had no problem when I put our process on hold to focus on other things. In the meantime, she sends me links to articles that tie into what I’m focused on and posts on my blog from time to time. Her helpfulness off the clock keeps her in mind for what I’m ready to go back on the clock.

Sharon is similar. She does a little research and writing for me, particularly in the area of disability, since that’s her focus. And she regularly sends me links to leads and articles she thinks I can use. I remembered her when I decided I could use some help in my disabilities in the revision of my Perfect Phrases for Managers and Supervisors book.

Both like what I do, so it isn’t some kind of contrived formulaic strategy. It’s a sincere engagement that enhances continued engagement, and makes me want to do things like post about how great they are.

I could write about my new assistant too, but I better not get started on that. I’ll just say that the New Dynamics of Communication are relational, and people who engage naturally have a distinct advantage. And more fun, of course. I’m having lots of fun these days with my amazing formal and informal teams.

February 4, 2010Dewey the Library Cat has emotional clout

My husband and I have been reading Dewey the Library Cat before bed for two months, and as we neared the final chapters, we knew what was coming. Still, tears streamed down my cheeks as we read about how Dewey died. When my husband closed the book, he said, “We read the entire Little House series. Ma and Pa died and Mary went blind. Why are we crying over Dewey?”

Because Dewey the Library Cat is written from a very intimate and personal perspective. The author shares her heart and hardships with a sweetness that never gives way to bitterness. Instead of becoming bitter, she loves Dewey and her town and all the tragically flawed people in her life.And she lets us in on her inner experience as well as the outer details of her life.

Read the Amazon reviews here. Dewey: The Small Town Cat Who Touched the World. A few one star reviews point out genuine flaws in the book, but most of the reviewers overlook those flaws because Dewey the Library Cat carries emotional clout. People are far more forgiving when they sense authenticity.

Dewey was a somewhat remarkable cat. and Vicki, his owner, is a simple human like the rest of us. Both help us see how remarkable the “ordinary” really is.  They show how much emotional clout there can be in simple lives simply lived. Our own lives have emotional clout too, if we let them.

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