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Big Brother is Watching but Are You?

By , June 10 2010, 4:51 pm Be the first to comment

 It invades headlines, dominates office conversation and divides the nation but the final series of Big Brother is here whether you love it or loathe it. What began as a psychological social experiment that gripped all ages has now led to a very different kettle of fish that bores most of us to tears.   

 

Year on year the house has become infiltrated with the fame-hungry and eccentric, deliberately chosen to drive each other crazy. Although this results in high drama, it doesn’t result in high viewing figures- last night’s show had the lowest number of people watching in the past nine years.   

 

So where did it all go wrong? It’s not the fault of the contestants, they are who they are and they make no excuses. And the concept is still intriguing, with many avenues still left to explore. The problem is that, over the years, the show has become more predictable. All elements of spontaneity and excitement have been drastically reduced because contestants no longer represent a variety of ages, backgrounds and professions. The producers have forgotten the show’s original widespread and diverse audience.  

 

So what can we learn from this? Well, we know that whatever a message, understanding the audience is key. Without engagement and enjoyment, there is no audience and without an audience, there is no communication. Whether your audience is 50 to 5000 delegates or the Friday night couch potatoes, you have to know how to draw them in   

 

You need to find out what makes your audience tick and tailor your message. By finding tangible ways to connect with them and get them engaged you can demonstrate the benefits of active involvement. This will lead to deeper understanding and a sense of being both an individual and part of a collective.   

 

Avoid being too complex. Leaving messages unexplained and using difficult terminology can create confusion, misunderstanding and ultimately apathy. Humour and imagination can help to counteract boredom and stop your audience voting with their attention span.  

 

However, you still need a story or a message worth telling and an engaging way to unearth it. If it’s over-simplified all you create is something shallow, without substance and ultimately unsellable.   

 

If you want to inspire an audience, you can’t push your message too hard. No one likes to be told what to do, you must find ways to pull your audience to you.  Take them on a journey, tell them a story and make sure it has a beginning, a middle and an end. Otherwise, you might find that this is your last series too.

Packing a Punch

By , May 17 2010, 11:54 am 1 Comment

The results of the recession have shown us that clients now want a more value packed service, which basically means they want more for less. The days of haggling are long gone so the first offer must be the best. But this isn’t bad news, it means the time for closer working relationships and more effective collaboration across the industry is finally here.



Agencies with lots to offer can move forward into the preferred role of thought leader and trusted advisor. By becoming an integrated part of the clients’ business it’s easier to deliver added extras; honest advice, an assorted range of services and a longer term sustainable strategy.



Most integrated agencies pride themselves on having communications experts in a number of specialist areas, offering a holistic and comprehensive service to their clients. Working in this way allows consideration to be given to the broader picture collaboratively and a continual view to what the future steps will be.



We all know that communication can be much more effective when we use the right number of channels in the right way to create engaging internal and external dialogue. But this is especially true when all those channels are aligned to explain the message correctly, consistently and innovatively across the client’s entire business.



This is a method that lends itself to sustainable ways of working too. Time and money can be saved by both parties having a unique insight into how the other works and a strong trusting relationship. Value packing will drive innovation and will mean processes can be broken down to cut out the middle man, eliminating added work load for everyone. Why have six different meetings when you can have them all rolled into one?

A Blog History in Time

By , March 18 2010, 1:14 pm Be the first to comment

Parkinson’s Law says “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”. This theory as suggested by Cyril Northcote Parkinson in 1955 can be interpreted in two ways. One understanding implies procrastination, these days we call it Student Syndrome,  that makes us put off doing work until we’re right up to the deadline, and the other refers to the bureaucratic nature of offices where we all make more work for each other than we need to.


 


This got me thinking about how we use our time and whether we’re all just stuck in bad habits.  Why do all meetings last an hour when they could be shorter? We’ve all sat in a meeting, given our contribution and then remained for another unnecessary 45 minutes while decisions are made that don’t concern us. Obviously we break our schedule into hours because it portions out our day and makes it more manageable but if there are 8 hours in a working day and you have 4 meetings, that’s half of your day gone already!


 


I’ve heard of companies that schedule meetings at obscure times, known as the Swiss Railway approach, starting at 10.47am and finishing at 11.28am for example, the idea being that you can break the meeting down into even smaller chunks of a few minutes and allocate the exact time you need to discuss each point. Yet, that type of stringent planning makes me worry about stifling creativity and spontaneity. 

 


I think that all it requires is a bit of common sense and forward planning, by implementing a broader range of meeting times, ranging from 5 minutes to 5 hours we could all recoup some of those important hours lost in long agenda-less meetings. Sometimes there’s no need to invite everyone for the full duration of the meeting either but it might be important that they’re there for 10 minutes.


 


I still believe that a real life meeting is a vital form of communication, especially in this digital age where we can communicate in so many other ways that avoid having to look a person in the eye because everyone knows that some things will just never get done otherwise. Right, I best dash, don’t want to be late for my 7 minute meeting starting at 9.04am!

Nature vs. Nurture

By , March 4 2010, 5:57 pm Be the first to comment

It was recently announced that the South Korean Ministry for Health was going to start turning off the lights in its offices once a month to encourage staff to go home and make babies! The ministry said the switches will be flicked at 7.30 p.m. every third Wednesday in the month to “help staff get dedicated to childbirth and upbringing”.


 


The South Korean government knows that there’s no direct link between going home early and having babies, yet with its nation working the fourth longest hours in the world and its birth rate at an all time low, can you blame it for trying? However, the problem it found was that people were still trying to sneak back into their office or were working from home. Talk about a one track mind!


 


This got me thinking about the stark differences between the Eastern and Western worlds, and also different company cultures and office cultures, and even our own home cultures; do we make them or do they make us? Were the South Koreans desperate to get back to work because they’re diligent and hard working people, or has the idea simply been drilled into them?


 


For a more close to home example take your typical Premiership footballer and WAG marriage -  is it the nature of a successful athletic and competitive sportsman to have a high sex drive and short attention span, or is it the nurturing his ego receives from the public and press that makes him believe he stands above moral and social codes of acceptability?


 


It’s difficult to get an objective view on a business internally when you’ve been there for a while. You become accustomed to the ways of working and internal processes and you even get used to your office colleague’s daily attitudes and behaviours. And what we all forget to ask ourselves is “Would I normally act this way or am I just responding to the atmosphere around me?”


 


So, when there’s office gossip abound or the rumour mill is working overtime and negativity shrouds the air, try to take a step back and think whether you would act like this towards a friend or family member. Affording the respect to your colleagues that you  give to most people in everyday life will pay dividends in building relationships and helping you to work more efficiently as one team.


 


We should also let our personalities shine through at work and not allow ourselves to  be forced into cliques or become homogenised into the office stereotypes of introverted IT geek, stressed-out account manager, faceless director etc. I think this is the only way to ensure that your business can have an ever-changing culture rather than become a staid and stagnated one.


 


Whether we’re at work or at home we are always the same person and a dull work persona shouldn’t be necessary. After all, people and personality make a business but people with personality make an even better one


 

Against the Clock

By , February 16 2010, 10:50 am Be the first to comment

Jack is back! The paragon of masculinity from hit US show 24 has returned and I have to say I am really enjoying the new series!  However, my one gripe with the programme is that I want to know what human is actually capable of surviving life, love, torture, and saving the world 24 times in 24 hours without even a sandwich for lunch?  

 

In today’s modern times there is a lot of pressure on all of us to put the work life balance in a precarious position. If you take away the terrorist plots and trips on Air Force One then the situations the writers throw Jack Bauer in have comparative, albeit less life-threatening, qualities to the types of pressures we’re all subjected to on a daily basis. Last minute changes, making pivotal decisions, client negotiation, not to mention getting in early, staying late and skipping lunch, all make an 8 hour day feel never-ending.  

 

However, what’s important to remember is that none of us are lone operatives looking to solve world peace by ourselves. One thing that Jack excels at is using the resources around him. I know we don’t all have the CIA, FBI and the Pentagon at our disposal but what you’ll actually find is that utilising a team or asking a colleague is always going to garner better results because collaborative working works.   

 

In Jack’s world there’s no room for compromise when it comes to getting the job done, he never deviates from his mission. When the odds are against you, can you get your head down and run a mission or respond quickly to delegation when your task is tough and you’re against the clock?  

 

I think working together effectively means that everyone gets to use their strengths to maintain the standard of work, no one takes a lion’s share, no one shirks responsibility and everyone can take pride in the final result. That way everyone can take a little bit of the credit for their own rather than working themselves into the ground and all that hard work feeling futile at the end of it.   

 

Now I know everyone still wants to be a demigod like Jack Bauer, myself included, but just imagine if you were, when your alarm goes off at 6:00am the next time you’ll be seeing your bed again will be 6:00am the next day! Oh wait… silly me, I forgot this is the events industry!

 

We Need To Talk

By , February 11 2010, 11:28 am Be the first to comment

Engaging for Success: enhancing performance through employee engagement, also known as, The Macleod Report, doesn’t sound like the most exciting read does it?  

 

Well although you might think it’s another Big Mac report from another McGovernent. what David Macleod actually says is insightful, sensible and there’s lots of healthy advice to sink your teeth into.  

 

One of the points the report stresses that I’m going to highlight today because it really hits the mark is that Britain’s workplaces are beginning to reflect changing attitudes, norms and expectations in wider society.  

 

Today’s offices are a mixture of Generation X and Y and just like Gen X in the eighties, their noughties counterparts have high expectations about what work will offer them in terms of self-fulfillment. 

 

Younger employees want more out of a job than a wage packet at the end of the month and the best employers don’t see this as asking too much.  

 

That’s why employee engagement isn’t just about giving your workforce direction and leadership, although that’s very important it’s for another time, but it’s also about investing in the hearts and minds of your people. 

 

Engagement and communications should be personal and bespoke for your company and its values but there was one strong common thread between the report’s successful case studies – they all created an interactive environment that encouraged two-way dialogue.  

 

Companies that allow their employees a choice and a voice are always going to experience better levels of engagement because their audience is active and not passive. The ethos at Google is, give the proper tools to a group of people who like to make a difference, and they will. 

 

That’s not hard is it?  

 

There are so many easy ways in which to talk to your people, getting them to talk back is the hard bit.  

 

To read the Macleod Report and find out how the government is mobilising employee engagement visit http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file52215.pdf.

 

Inspired by India

By , January 21 2010, 2:56 pm Be the first to comment

 


Whilst experiencing a recent dose of man flu (with symptoms including fear of imminent death and Shakespearean dramatics) I was subjected to a couple of days on the sofa with only daytime television for company. Luckily however, I found salvation in this month’s Channel 4 ‘Indian Winter’ season, which was both inspiring and captivating.


 


The ‘Indian Winter’ season included an assortment of programmes exploring India’s rich culture, discovering the culinary traditions and hearing real human stories of the people that shape one of the world’s most diverse countries. But it did also show a brutal reality of life on the streets and in the slums and tackled issues such as poverty, substance abuse, hardship and heartache.


 


Yet, through this adversity India’s economy is amongst one of the fastest growing in the world and it’s been predicted that by 2020 the country’s GDP could quadruple if it continues to develop at this rate.


 


Just considering the antithesis of challenges and opportunities India battles in equal measure made me realise that through hard times the occasion for working hard and taking risks has the best pay off.


 


In our industry we’re often put in difficult positions and tested by clients to come up with the best solution to their problem, especially during the recent recession. By using our creativity and efficiency to tackle these issues we have inspired and innovated new ways of working that are now common practice.


 


So instead of saying “No, unfortunately we can’t provide that service”, 2010 should be the year of saying Yes! Make it the year of overcoming your previous obstacles and instilling your clients’ trust that you can still do an excellent job in undesirable conditions. 


 


By embracing these challenges instead of shying away from them standards will rise and that’s how you’ll stand out against competitors


 


Now if that isn’t a silver lining on a rainy day, I don’t know what is!