Category Archives: Uncategorized

Uncategorized

Twas The Night Before Christmas, I Was Thinking About My Blog

42 Comments

Commstorm

Hello everyone,

I’ll ask you all to pardon me for the absence of elegance in this post, but I’m afraid I couldn’t resist this idea once it had slipped into my head.

I wish you all the very best of the season and thank you for making this last year such a special one for me.

Twas the night before Christmas, I was thinking about my blog

Not a sentence was forming, my head was a fog.

The sentences were slow, they simply had no flare,

I searched the internet hoping inspiration would be there.

I thought of my fellow authors who had put their blogs to bed,

While visions of blanks pages with no titles danced in my head.

I started to nod off but I gave myself a slap

I needed to get a post up, this was no time for a nap.

When out of nowhere the fog began to scatter,

I sprang to my laptop and the keys began to clatter.

Ideas flowed onto the screen with a skip and a splash,

Words flowed from me without pause, in bit of a flash.

The mood, days prior had been somber and slow

Gave way to thoughts and ideas that made me glow

I would have my new post, I need not fear

I could give a nod to the season and celebrate with good cheer

Despite my slow server, so old and sick

I knew despite it, this post would be quick.

More rapid than twitter the couplets they came,

And I whistled while I worked, I’d never be the same!

Now dashes, now spaces, now pronouns and adjectives

Inflection, interjection, inversions and split infinitives

From the top of the page till the last word did fall

I wrote away! wrote away! til I’d written it all!

Dear readers forgive me for abandoning my work

But talking about comms before Christmas would make me a jerk

So pardon my lack of effective prose

It was to the mood of the season that I rose

Now comes the end of this little epistle

I wish you the best, may your new year’s sizzle

It’s been a pleasure to know you, though you’ve been out of sight

“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!”

Share
Uncategorized

Leading with Heart

24 Comments

Perhaps in a time when online personas and personal branding are the norms, it’s not surprising that we would also see the emergence of a concept that is essentially grounded in being true to ourselves. Over the last few years, the idea of authentic leadership has taken hold of our corporate imaginations. We are encouraged to be true to our values and told to seek authenticity in our bosses. It’s meant to indicate everything from honesty in the workplace to corporate morality.

All the chatter makes me wonder if we weren’t supporters of authentic leadership before, what were we supporting?  Surely no one was championing that our leaders be inauthentic? I doubt that shareholders, employees or members ever thought, hey, hope that guy is a little hard to talk to, a -tad fake or – mildly dishonest.

The idea of authentic leadership first emerged in the 1960’s and originally focused on the activities of the organization rather than individual leaders. However, over time, it is an idea that has become grounded in what it means to be a powerful or effective leader.

Harvard offers courses in discovering your inner authentic leader. Forbes, Inc. and even Psychology Today offer up their opinions on what authentic leadership entails. Bill George, the contemporary Harvard guru of authentic leadership, described it this way in a 2015 Huffington Post article:

  • Authentic leaders:
  • Understand their purpose
  • Practice solid values
  • Lead with heart
  • Establish connected relationships
  • Demonstrate self-discipline

I’m can certainly relate to the idea of leading with heart and establishing connected relationships.  It means that it doesn’t have to be lonely at the top, a concept that has been pervasive in management circles for years. Being an isolated decision maker is an idea that would make most reasonable people shy away from leadership roles and leave the door open to narcissists and egomaniacs…hmmm that explains so much.

It isn’t all that long ago that heart and connectedness would have been seen as weaknesses. It speaks volumes about the shift we have seen in business thinking over the past decade. I’m not sure if it’s the success of new entrepreneurs, who motivated their people with carrots instead of sticks. Or, whether it’s the fact that we see slightly more women at the helm of big successful organizations or if it’s just that common sense stepped in and said, organizations are run by people, not androids. Whatever the cause, it’s a move in the right direction.

Related Reading:

Image courtesy of pakorn at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Share
Uncategorized

Subtle Garbage

Leave a comment

Subtle Garbage - CommStorm

I’ve driven past this scene hundreds, possibly thousands of times and yet I only noticed it last week.  It’s a scene not far from a highway exit I regularly take.  How do you not notice a junk yard? I was making fun of the city’s attempt to hide the unsightliness with greenery, but clearly they were successful. What does this subtle garbage bring to mind for you?

Share
Management, Uncategorized

Decisions

Leave a comment

Decisions

 

Decisions don’t always work the way you intend them to.  That’s a good thing, it keeps life interesting and it keeps our imaginations flowing. For instance,  the image above comes from a corner of my garden. A huge thorn had started to grow without my noticing. By the time it came to my attention it was covered in buds. I’d like to see the blooms  on that, I thought, I’ll dig it up later. Yes I’m like that, weeds are only plants you don’t want.

Well later came and having satisfied my need to see the bloom I headed toward the thorn, shovel in hand. I found a bee on it. No I’m not afraid of bees, quite the contrary. I like bees and they’ve been having a hard time of it lately so it seemed a shame to disrupt this one. So, instead of digging up a thorn I replaced my shovel with a camera and captured this shot. I thought it was rather appropriate for this post.

You see I had a completely different post on decision making planned for this week. It’s a good post and you’ll see it in September. Between now and then I’m going to take a bit of a pause. I have a number of projects underway that are all important to me. This blog is one of them.  In an effort to manage all of my projects I wrote several blog posts in advance, but as my fellow bloggers know, there’s more to blogging than writing. The thing is, I simply don’t have time for everything at the moment, so I thought,

  1. I could put the blog on hold for six weeks
  2. I could find someone else to manage it
  3. I could hire a virtual assistant
  4. I could just keep posting and work late at night to keep up.

I don’t want to do any of those things.

Decisions are interesting things. You don’t always know where they will lead you. Digging up a thorn or taking a photo. Here’s my decision. I’m going to take a photo every week.  I can’t promise you beauty, invention or drama.  I’m an amateur, amateur photographer but, I will make an effort to share something that caught my eye, attention or imagination. Then I’ll ask you to share what you see, where your imagination lead you in the comments. I won’t always be able to respond here, but I will always read your comments and I very much appreciate them.

See you soon.

Share
Uncategorized

Today we celebrate

Leave a comment

DSC_0041

Today we celebrate Canada’s birthday. Happy 147th Canada! I could discuss the wisdom that comes with age, the importance of celebrating milestones or indeed, Canada’s history, but one of the things I’ve always liked about Canada is our appreciation of a good discussion, we like to think.

Canadian Politics

Although Canada became a country in 1867, we did not gain our full political freedom from the British cabinet until 1982 when the Constitution Act patriated the Canadian constitution. Some might have gone to war.  In fact, our American neighbours made no bones about their bid for independence. Freedom was worth bearing arms for and they certainly were not going to wait around for a distant British Empire to give them permission to lead their own lives.

Here in Canada we used pens and patience to achieve our freedom. It’s not that we’re not up for a fight.  We have certainly been in enough conflicts to put that idea to bed.  It’s more that as a nation we’d rather have a debate. Quebec has been contemplating the possibility of separation for years now.  Periodically a referendum comes forward to determine if enough Quebecers are ready for separation, a vote is taken and if the outcome is no (and it has been so far) we go back to business as usual. Think about it, a peaceful referendum. No guns, bombs or violence needed.

To tell the truth, we tried violence for about seven years in the 1960’s as a way of resolving separation issues. Eight deaths and many bombings later we determined that political action would be more appropriate and the Parti Québécois (a separatist party) was cemented into our political landscape and has been a political player in Quebec ever since.

Canadian Writers

We are not a homogenous group. We are not always friendly or even always polite, but we do like to think.  I am proud to say that some of the world’s literary giants are Canadian, folks like Margaret Atwood, Anne Hébert, Alice Munro, Michael Ondaatje, Robertson Davies and Carol Shields to name a few. Did you notice that many of our great writers are also women? It’s something else that makes me proud to be Canadian, not to mention give me some hope.

Canadian Industry

We are not renown for our cooking. Poutine, bacon, beaver tails, Nanaimo bars and maple syrup are chief among our offerings and while popular they are noted far more often for being bad for our health than their culinary delight.

We are known for our natural resources, oil and logging are two of our biggest industries and that may explain why you think of lumberjacks when you think of Canada.  However, despite our history and the importance of the primary sector in Canada, our biggest industrial sector is service. In short, we use our brains because we like to think.

Canadian Communicators

This would not be complete as a post on a communications blog without a nod to some of the pioneering Canadians whose thinking helped to shape communications for all of us. People like  Harold Innis who saw the influence oral and written communications had on culture and warned us of the perils of embracing media that only focussed on the present. He feared the communications monopolies that were a reflection of the increasingly narrow ownership of newspapers, radio and television. I have to wonder what he would make of the internet, Google and the explosive popularity of social media like Facebook and LinkedIn.

Then we have that great Canadian communications thinker, Marshall McLuhan. McLuhan allowed us to to step back from our means of communicating long enough to understand it’s influence over what were communicating. If the medium is the message, then would we write longer if we weren’t writing blog posts? Would we write differently if we were writing for print? Do we tell stories differently for YouTube? He also predicted the invention of the internet a full thirty years before it came into being.

The next medium, whatever it is—it may be the extension of consciousness—will include television as its content, not as its environment, and will transform television into an art form. A computer as a research and communication instrument could enhance retrieval, obsolesce mass library organization, retrieve the individual’s encyclopedic function and flip into a private line to speedily tailored data of a saleable kind. (1962)

 

Yes, we like to think. So on this Canada Day I wish all Canadians around the world happy birthday and hope that all of our friends join us in celebrating our big day. Indulge in something good but bad for you, take a walk in nature and of course, give yourself some time to think.

What comes to mind when you think of Canada and Canadians? 

Share
Uncategorized

Running to the future

Leave a comment

English: A chicken running Français : Un poule...I was running. Running to work, running at work, running home, running out to pick something up, running to the car, running to the phone and feeling the whole time like I was running out of time. Now I will be the first to admit I was running to a tune of my own creation. Work was busy, but then I like busy, I choose jobs that pose a challenge. I hate pointless busy, but if there is a clear objective, then I feel engaged. The busyness of my “free” time was equally of my making. I like to blog, I like to garden, I like to read, I like to paint and I like visiting with friends and family. There is never enough time for it all, but trying to do it is fun too. Although I was the architect of my time crunch, I was still feeling overwhelmed. It was admittedly a first world problem.

In keeping with that, I thought there must be some first world solutions that would help me to get my work done faster and more effectively. Was there a gadget or gadgets that might ease my way, make things clearer, easier to access, to see, to engage to respond? If I was willing to invest, I was sure there was a technological solution to help me meet my time woes. Here’s what I found.

Simband: To manage the impact stress has on my physical health, I could start with a Simband. It can check my blood pressure, let me know if my heart rate and respiration are normal and if I’ve been drinking too much coffee and not enough water it can let me know where my hydration levels are. It could even keep me safe by noting the amount of carbon dioxide in my blood.

Laptop Beverage Holder: This handy gadget would allow me to keep my coffee close by when I’m tucked away in a corner playing catch up with my blogging activities. It attaches to the side of my laptop so no table necessary. The same applies to any worries that I’ll accidentally kick over my coffee because I’ve placed it on the floor. Of course I shudder to think what would happen if I tilted my laptop the wrong way while it had a cup of coffee attached to it…

Google Glass: As anyone who mentions them in my hearing learns, I love the idea of Google Glasses, the idea, because I still don’t own a pair, but they should be coming to Canada soon. They might afford me any number of time saving features. I could look things up while walking and not risk walking into someone because I’m looking down at my phone. Though to tell the truth, I’ve always been good at navigating with my head down. I’m a veteran reader and when I get into a book, something as mundane as a walk won’t stop me from reading. Still, I can appear less anti-social if I can keep my head up, that is unless people are uncomfortable with my headgear in which case my fear is that I might become known as a glasshole.

Livescribe: This little beauty gives those of us who would rather write than type a time saving break. With Livescribe, your hand written notes automatically become text without you having to take the time to type. The device also records so that the notes you take synch up with what was being said at the time you took them. Think about how easy that would make your life. The only thing better would be voice activation technology; notes could then move seamlessly from sound to your desktop before you leave the boardroom.

Kensington Proximo Tag: This brilliant little device was developed for me. I’m the queen of the lost keys, cellphones and a host of other things. The Proximo allows you to track anything. The fob activates the alarm on your cell phone so you’ll always know where to look. The Proximo tag attaches to your key ring but allows your phone to track it’s location so you’ll never lose your keys again. You can in fact, use the tag for anything you don’t want to lose. Imagine how much time will be saved if I’m not wasting it trying to find lost items.

Do you know any cool little time savers? What time saving devices would you like to have? What about devices gone wrong?

Photo credit: Wikipedia

 

 

 

Share
Management, Uncategorized

Why Context Matters

Leave a comment

Why Context Matters - Comm Before The Storm

 

When I was in the ninth grade I was wandering the halls of my high school with three friends. Everyone else was in class, but we had been working on an assignment with a teacher that ran overtime. We should have been heading straight for our next class but instead we were taking a little detour and enjoying the freedom of roaming the halls while they were quiet. We must have been louder than we thought because the door to one of the classrooms suddenly opened and a teacher from one of the older grades stuck his head out.

Being quick thinkers, or maybe more attuned to trouble, David Matthews and I headed for the closest stairwell door. We were slipping through it just as the teacher started calling out to us to “come back here”.

We played deaf and while David and I were making our escape, our friends Diane and Michael were caught and brought into the classroom. The teacher, who was later to become one of my favorites, had a sense of humor and began to quiz Michael and Diane about their tour of the school. As their faces grew redder, the class snickered at their discomfort. Just at the point when they thought he might torture them for the rest of the period came the question they had been dreading. What are your names?

Diane and Michael looked at each other mortified. Had they been with me or with David it wouldn’t have been so bad, but the two of them alone, well let’s just say it was an awkward combination. At their continued silence, the teacher prompted them again to give their names. Reluctantly Diane told him her name was Diane, Diane Ross. There was a moment of silence before the giggles started. Being a blue-eyed blond, Diane wasn’t remotely trying to be funny. The teacher eyed her suspiciously and then turned to Michael. Can you guess what his last name was? Would you believe that, Michael Jackson and Diane Ross had been caught running in the hall?

Now Mr. Caldwell was a teacher with a sense of humor, but he really needed them to give him their names, their real names. Needless to say they were in the principle’s office before the disbelieving teacher, now looking a little sheepish, was finally convinced that the real names of the two blue-eyed children he’d caught were Michael Jackson and Diane Ross.

I laughed hysterically when they recounted the story to me, but what I think is really funny is that Diane kept saying, “It’s Diane Ross, not Diana” as if that should have made all the difference in the world.

On a good day their names were often cause for pause, in the context of getting caught together by a teacher, well that stretches the imagination. Which brings me to my point, context matters. Things that normally seem logical, acceptable or natural can become inconsiderate, stupid and even thoughtless when the context changes.

Taking a selfie doesn't seem so bad when no one is paying attention, but context still matters.
Taking a selfie doesn’t seem so bad when no one is paying attention, but context still matters.

Consider President Obama taking a “selfie” with British Prime Minister David Cameron and Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt. Normally that might seem cute. President Obama taking a selfie during a memorial service with British Prime Minister David Cameron and Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, well that’s just rude. The context makes the activity seem outrageous, unless you broaden your view and look at the activity happening around them, people chatting, talking on their cell phones, looking at their messages and suddenly you realize… there was epidemic of rude happening and that was just one aspect.

In the retail world, “Every day low prices” is a great idea. Everyday low prices that mean there will be no more sales in a store that has built it’s reputation on deep discount sales…well that’s just silly. Yet JC penny did just that in 2012. Their then, new CEO, Ron Johnson fresh from a successful tenure at Apple thought he could bring the same approach to the popular retailer that had worked so well at Apple. Rather than inspire customer loyalty the approach sent customers to other stores and share prices diving from $43 to $30 a share. Mr. Johnson is no longer with JC Penny.

On a final note on context, getting my blog out on time is important to me, so posting late two weeks in row is not in my plan. Posting late for two weeks in a row is perfectly acceptable if it means celebrating with my husband the launch of his new blog. If you’re curious, head over to paragraphic.ca. It’s a great read on communication design theory…really, it’s more engaging than that sounds.

Enhanced by Zemanta
Share