partum intelligendo

Five Tribes, not Two

A fleeting visit to Geneva yesterday - it's always nice to arrive at the destination at 9am, in sync with everyone else's working day, but leaving the house at 5am really doesn't work for me, particularly when there's a school governor's meeting at the other end of the day. But all that travelling means clearing some email and finally catching up on some of the recent TED talks on the iPod.

The one that struck me most was David Logan's on tribal leadership . Nice to see the focus being on groups of people rather than on the individuals - although I'm not sure about the categorisation of five basic types of tribe (with apologies to Frankie Goes To Hollywood for the poor blog title above). One thing useful that I'm going to think further on is David's comment about the need to communicate with levels above and below where we are - making the conscious choice to talk only to one level is fine, but often isn't it just an assumption that we're all on the same level. Or, more perniciously, the only people worth talking to are.

I was also intrigued by his comments on the Worldwide poll as being such a startling thing from a market research company. Shouldn't that be an obvious one, just difficult to implement?

It also plays into my concerns about how research and surveys are done - while they're great in some places, I've spoken a lot in recent years to communicators and influencers about the lack of meaning in survey results and hence the confusion about what actions to take next. I think surveys and market research are an industry and a model with a powerful sway and a need for continued investment that distorts there actual usefulness.

[In the interests of disclosure, I've spent much of this past year working on pilots for an altogether different way of looking at cultures around the world, involving stories naturally. There'll be more at appropriate moments on this blog.]

Written by Tony Quinlan, Chief Storyteller, Narrate

Random stories or last.fm?

There's an increasing trend I've noticed recently among people looking at stories - to take a brief look at stories to find the ones that "typify" the organisation.  And, because of the perception of storywork being highly resource-intensive, it's generally a very small number of stories that are used.

Somewhat akin to the periodic iPod randomizer memes that crop up (the latest being here) - fun to see what comes up, but from such a small sample it's impossible to tell what's actually the dominant taste.

For example, my five random songs this morning were:

Beachcomber Voodoo by Julee Cruise (The Art of Being a Girl)
Haunted House by Leon Redbone (On the Track)
Better Be Home Soon by Crowded House (Farewell to the World)
Somebody Told Me by The Killers (Hot Fuss)
Losing My Religion by REM (Precious Rarities)

And it would be very easy to see patterns and make assumptions about my musical taste from that.  Even more so if, by chance, an artist were repeated.

Yet a better way of seeing the bigger picture is to look at Last.fm (my profile is here) which builds up a cumulative picture from thousands of pieces.

Similarly, it's more accurate to look at larger volumes of stories and pick out patterns than it is from taking a small sample of stories from within the organisation.  And, despite the assumptions, it doesn't have to be either difficult or expensive - it's relatively straightforward to build systems that gather and collect story material in volume and to be able to see the patterns that emerge. Software like SenseMaker^TM make it very simple to look at thousands of story fragments quickly.

From those patterns, it might be possible to see specific stories that dominate a culture, but they'll be far fewer and not necessarily the ones that come out of a simple sample of a few hundred stories...

Newton vs free will

From Scarlett Thomas' The End of Mr Y:

"Newtonian cause and effect suggested that someone wound the original clock and set it ticking, and that every single action in the universe could be predicted - if you had something powerful enough to do the prediction.  There's no free will in that world: a world where everything can potentially be known.  In that world, I'll get up in the morning and do what I have been programmed to do: as though all my actions are just computer-game dominoes, triggered by other computer-game dominoes.  It's what happens when you try to combine God and science.  It's narrative, pure and simple.  There's a beginning, a middle and an end. And the middle is only there because the beginning is; the end is only there because the middle is.  And in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.

Take away that cause-and-effect narrative and you have the quantum world, disturbing enough in its own way, with all the possibilities of multiple universes and infinite probability.  But if you don't take it too seriously, and if you factor in evolution and economics, and everything else that's taken for granted in our world, then you have at least the illusion of free will."

The dangers of facilitation

An interesting experience last week in one of my other identities as a school governor.  There's a debate going on regarding whether or not a Trust is formed in Mid-Beds under Samuel Whitbread Upper School and whether we join it or not.  So, mindful of wanting to understand different perspectives before I decide, I went along to an invited session to look at the realities of building a Trust.

I won't go into the details of much of the afternoon that I witnessed, but after presentations, the afternoon's facilitated invited us to break out into groups and carry out some exercises.  I've no doubt that they were thoughtfully designed but intentionally or not, they made it appear that what had been billed as a listening/sharing thoughts event was in fact pure sales.

The exercises were:

1.  On the red sheet, think about all the problems inherent in the current status quo for us, our schools and the pupils.  (The focus on the pupils was high in all the preceding presentations - something that worked heavily counter to the speakers' intentions.  Keep reminding us of our responsibilities to 5,400 children and we'll keep wondering whether we should entrust them to a new, unverified venture...)

2.  On the green sheet, think about all the opportunities and possibilities available if we join this potential Trust.

A classic sales process - ramp up the discomfort factor in people's present state, then sing the praises of the future state under your chosen result.  And even better, get them to do it for themselves, so that they own it.

If it wasn't intentional it was spectacularly naive and, once exposed (I had little option - there are moments when these things need to be said to facilitate a more honest, open discussion), served only to increase the distrust already in the room.

The facilitator, I accept, may have simply designed what he may have thought was a helpful tool to engage people in the Trust.  But coming from a public sector background and, presumably, not having a sales background meant he fell into the trap of confusing engagement with persuasion.

Upcoming business breakfast on communications

Melcrum business breakfast

Date: February 21st, 2008
Venue: Brewery, Chiswell Street, London EC1Y 4SD
Time: 8.15am-11.15am
Cost: FREE attendance (exclusive only to Hub members)

Presentations from:

Mike Love

Communications Director, Major Programmes Executive, BT
speaking on ‘Helping leaders be more authentic’

Melcrum’s research shows that contrary to popular belief among many practitioners, CEOs care passionately about internal communication and are quite clear about the benefits of being persuasive and effective communicators – that’s usually how they got to the top!

But they’re also aware that with trust in traditional authority figures dwindling, and widespread scepticism for anything that smacks of “spin”, now more than ever internal messages need to be delivered with authenticity and sincerity. How can communicators apply their coaching, drafting and crafting skills to help deliver messages that deliver on this growing internal demand for authenticity?

---

 

Bill Quirke

Resident Hub expert,
Managing Director, Synopsis Communication Consulting Ltd.
speaking on ‘How can communicators mobilize management?’

The CEO is frequently viewed as the clear and recognizable figurehead of major multinationals. It’s hardly surprising then that professional communicators make use of the CEO whenever possible. However what many CEOs say they want is for their senior management to play their part, and to step up to their own communication responsibilities.   

Communicators have to engage their senior managers in the job of communicating, and coach and equip them to do it well.   

Drawing on Synopsis’ recent work with global leadership teams in AstraZeneca R&D, Bill Quirke will discuss how communicators can engage leaders in their roles, help them understand their impact, and coach them to be more effective.

---

 

Tony Quinlan

Chief Storyteller, Narrate
speaking on ‘How to use narrative and stories to create effective engagement, feedback and change tools’

As narrative and stories become more effective tools in all forms of communication, Tony Quinlan, founder and Chief Storyteller of Narrate, demonstrates how they can be used to create effective engagement, feedback and change tools. With a dash of theory, some interactive exercises and plenty of practical examples, this will be a session to challenge your preconceptions about communication.

 

More information from coralie.thomson@melcrum.com

Internal communications conference references

As promised, here are the various references from yesterday's presentation at the internal communications conference:

1. The Neuroscience of Leadership from Strategy+Business magazine - a good start on how to change behaviours 
2. Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions by Gary Klein - an excellent book that should be required reading for anyone trying to understand or influence people's decisions and actions 
3. Larry Brilliant's excellent videocast from TED is here

My slides are also here

Mark Barratt made reference to Bill Quirke's Making the Connections: Using Internal Communication to Turn Strategy into Action.

We talked about blogs and where to start.  My best recommendation is to Google for a personal interest and "blog" and go from there.  For work, do the same with the area the organisation is working in.

Amongst my (too-long) list of blogs that I watch, I particularly recommend:

• The Obvious - Euan Semple's ongoing exploration of using social media in organisations
• Black Belt Dojo - a blog focused on internal comms from Liam Fitzpatrick and Sue Dewhurst
• Cognitive Edge - Dave Snowden's always challenging and useful look at knowledge, leadership and the realities of working with people
• Neville Hobson - leading edge thoughts on using social media and web 2.0 tools in PR
• People, Passion and Principles - David Maister's advice and experience on developing professional services (relevant to anyone supporting people supporting other people)
• WorldChanging - posts on ideas to change the world
• nfp 2.0 - great blog aimed squarely at the not-for-profit world and how social media can support it

We also talked about the importance of leadership.  I wrote recently about leadership specifically - the ebook is here - and other useful blogs include The Practice of Leadership and Leading Questions.

Don't forget the commitments of myself, Mark and Olivia yesterday - we're all more than happy to talk/mentor/console in future.  And use Media Trust's Matching service!

Technorati Tags: internal communications , media trust , conference references

Cognitive Edge events

The calendar of Cognitive Edge events in the next 12 months is up at http://www.cognitive-edge.com/newsite/calendar-accreditation.php

Highly recommended - thought-provoking, practical and the future of working with and within organisations.

Technorati tags: Cognitive Edge, accreditation, knowledge management, training

The jump from idea to danger

I've just got John Brockman's What Is Your Dangerous Idea?: Today's Leading Thinkers on the Unthinkable from amazon.co.uk and I'm dipping into it.  One particular thought that's struck me arises from Stephen Pinker's introduction.  [I'm as yet undecided about Pinker, as what little of his I've read seems to imply that he interprets the brain as an information processing machine, but that may be either my misunderstanding of him or my paucity of reading his actual material.]

From his introduction:

What makes an idea 'dangerous'?  One factor is an imaginable train of events in which acceptance of the idea would lead to an outcome that only recently has been recognized as harmful.

It echoes one of the points I picked up from Gary Klein's Sources of Power.  Imagination is a critical element in many intellectual activities, although it's usually thought of as a childish, negative or unrealistic factor.

It's also a key factor in understanding people's reluctance to engage with change programmes or any new imperative.

We have an amazing ability to construct narratives out from a single point to some future end-point.  Whether it's from a single 'dangerous' idea out to the collapse of western civilisation (with apologies to both Copernicus and Darwin) or from 're-engineering the organisation' out to mass-redundancies and automisation of my job.

The overall story may be justified or not, it may be built from a fallacy or a truth, but the fact remains that it's rarely the initial idea that repels, it's usually the perception of how the story ends.

 

Technorati tags: ideas, narrative, Gary Klein, Edge.org

Workshop references

References for the session this week with Engineers for the 21st Century run by Forum for the Future:

Style guides:

The Guardian's style guide is downloadable from this page.  The download link is here .

The Economist's is online here.

The BBC's is here.  The download link is here.

I also mentioned Beyond Bullet Points: Using Microsoft Office Powerpoint 2007 to Create Presentations That Inform, Motivate, and Inspire (Bpg - Other) as a resource for anyone doing presentations and Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life for general writing advice.

For people looking for some exercises to warm up writing muscles, I've just come across this useful website: one word - a sort of Writing Down the Bones on speed.

 

 

Technorati tags: writing exercises, Forum for the Future

There is more light here...

I can't remember when I first picked up Idries Shah's The Exploits of the Incomparable Mulla Nasrudin.  It's still a wonderful book - full of useful pieces that help reflect on the wisdom/foolishness of everyday actions.  One of my favourites - particularly in the light of what we do at work - is this one.

 

Someone saw Nasrudin searching for something on the ground.

'What have you lost, Mulla?' he asked.  'My key,' said the Mulla.  So they both went down on their knees and looked for it.

After a time the other man asked: 'Where exactly did you drop it?'

'In my own house.'

'Then why are you looking here?'

'There is more light here than inside my own house.'

 

Technorati tags: Mulla Nasrudin, teaching stories, Idries Shah, archetypes