Organizational Social Media

During a board of directors retreat I was facilitating on using Social Media technology we got into some great conversation. This group was embarking on how to best incorporate social media into their current marketing efforts.  You and your organization might be debating this same question,

“What if something better than (insert whatever tool you might be thinking of using) comes along?”


The questions need to be more about strategy than tools.

  1. Decide whether or not to play in the Social Media sandbox.
  2. Determine your purpose for answering Yes or No.
  3. Then let’s look at tools to use.

    Too often times the conversation shifts to using Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn without any clear purpose.  And then it’s tainted by our personal filters for how we engage – or not – using these tools.

    The exercise I did with the board two-fold.  The first part was to have them take a flip chart paper and divide it into 2 columns.  On the left hand side:  How are we communicating to our clients today? The second column:  How do they want to be hearing from us? These simple questions led to a productive conversational shift in how to best get the message to your audience.

    The second part of the exercise is here.  Download the  Social Media PDF Exercise
    to use with your group.

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    Icebreaker or Exercise? It’s just a word…

    It’s one word that can doom any successful training effort.  I was reading through some blogs today and came across an entry on Icebreakers.  It sent chills down my spine and I just froze.  ice_cubes_xs2Not really the the feel I go for when starting a workshop or retreat.  It reminded me of a Train-the-Trainers workshop I facilitated last week.  The trainers were talking about Icebreakers.  I asked them “How does your staff respond to when you engage them in an icebreaker?”

    They admitted, that more times than not it was a struggle and often heard a gasp as the eyes rolled around in their group members. I through out this ideas – “what might be different if you called this an exercise?”  Hmmmm…What’s the diff?

    To start:

    • Your group is going to go into autopilot and check out when they hear the dreaded “icebreaker”
    • The EXERCISE is going to be related to the content of the training.  This is where I think icebreaking goes awry.
    • I’m not going to ask you, as a participant, to do anything I hate doing as a workshop participant.  That’s a pretty good gut check for me to gauge the feasibility of any opening exercise.

    One of my favorite exercises to do in the beginning of the workshop is around the learning objectives themselves.  Download the PDF Exercise for  a simple step-by-step approach to starting your next training off with a SPARK, not a deep freeze.

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    How do you shift perspective?

    Spend a winter in Minnesota.

    winter-sunIt was in the elevator at work today that I heard a colleague say “Isn’t it a great day out today?”  I’ve spent the last number of years in MN so I eagerly nodded and said, “Yes, it’s amazing what the bright sun and crisp glare of fresh snow can have on a day.”  That, and we both loved that it was 35 degrees today.  Yes, 35 degrees (F)!

    Why is it, if you are reading this in sunny SoCal, you must think we have lost our minds.

    Or, if this was June, and all things being the same:   35 degrees, sunny with fresh dusting of snow – I’d sound like a loon.

    It’s all a matter of perspective – we simply got too comfortable in the deep freeze. And it wasn’t until we could thaw out that we could shift our perspective and see something from a different point of view.

    Want to add some new ideas, new way of looking at things – shift your perspective.

     

    Ask yourself these questions to glimpse into a new perspective:

    • What would someone from Minnesota say about that?
    • How might Olympic Gold Medalist Lindsey Vohn approach it? (also from MN)
    • What might the courageous you say to this?
    • How might (insert anyone other than yourself) do in this situation?

    and let their perspective shape yours.  Who’s perspective would you like to learn from?

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    Attitude- You Get to Be Right

    I was recently facilitating a FISH! for Schools session for 100 staff and educators and one person said, “this is great, but it just won’t work because we don’t have the support.” Legitimate concern from someone experiencing a change.  An obstacle. A roadblock.  You might even say resistance.

    My response was, “You know what, you get to be right.”

    That’s the funny thing with attitude.  We DO get to be right – each and every time.  If you believe it “won’t work” and “we don’t have support” you will undoubtedly find 59 ways between now and tomorrow to reinforce your point of view. And then, yep, you get to be right.

    The same thing works if you said, “This is really easy, I can see how this fits.”  And yep, you too get to be right.  You will also find 59 ways to reinforce your belief.  That’s the crazy thing about our beliefs we will work really hard to prove ourselves right.

    I’m not asking you to be pollyanna.  Just be USEFUL.  Is what you have chosen useful?  If yes – keep it.  If no, choose again.

    Whichever attitude we choose to wear, there is going to be great comfort in that.  It’s like your favorite sweatshirt, it feels so good. The best thing about attitudes, is we can change it – just like that sweatshirt.

    Try it out.  Today, choose to believe your day is going to really hard, rough and tough.  Just for the next couple hours, see how many times that can be reinforced.  Then just before your breaking point, CHOOSE to believe that the rest of your day is going to an absolute piece of cake, everything is going your way, and it’s really effortless.  And then, just be aware.  (a good clue is going to be watching all the traffic lights greet you with the bright glow of green!).

    What will you choose?

    ps…you’ll get to be right!

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