. Here's a critical question under item C:
Who's thinking do I need to engage to
initiate my transition?
In a moment, I'm going to tell you about one
group that you'll need to meet head-on to
initiate your transition. But there are several common groups: your boss, his/her boss, individuals among your internal clients,
etc.
Remember the "smiley face" on the monster diagram from before? We can't get there until
we sit down and figure out where we are, where
we want to be, and what we will need to do to
move forward. Try it. It'll work.
"Beyond this place there be
dragons!"
Hundreds of years ago, when
Christopher Columbus was loading his Masarati
onto to the Santa Maria for his Caribbean
cruise, his mapmakers gave him their very best
stuff.
On the edge of every AAA map that the
mapmakers stuffed into the glove compartment of
Chris' sporty driving machine was scribbled the
phrase, "Beyond this place there be
dragons!" because the mapmakers didn't know
what existed beyond the known world's
horizons.
We've talked this morning about burping your
monster. About getting into the organizational
value-adding game and not being just a pair of
hands that produce media.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, trust me. beyond
this place--back on your jobs--in each of your
places of work--there be dragons! And since
pistols at 20 paces won't slay your office
dragons, let me tell you who to be on the
lookout for.
A murder of anti-champions
When we
talk about barnyard animals we may refer to... a
herd of buffalo, or a litter of puppies or a
gaggle of geese!
But there's another naturally roaming animal.
These are clever, scheming, plunderers of the
orderly curbsides of our lives. They make up a
feathered nemesis known as "a murder."
I refer, ladies and gentlemen to "crows." Did
you know that crows are not a flock? When you
see several crows together--doing what crows
do--fouling your neatly tended lawn on trash
collection day, ladies and gentlemen, you're
looking at a murder of crows.
There's a false folk tale that says crows
form tribunals to judge and punish the
non-conforming behavior of members of their
group. The tale says that if the verdict goes
against a defendant, the crows kill (murder) the
convicted bird.
Among the things that I do in the course of a
year is lead a seminar with organizational
communicators on how to be seen and used by
organizational operating managers as an internal
communication consultant.
Years ago, in a session of that particular
seminar, a participant piped up and said:
"Roland, the most difficult challenge of going
back home and using the skills learned in this
internal communication consulting seminar is
overcoming the bias of operating managers who
know us as a producer of media--a pair of
hands--an editor or writer.
"To succeed," he expanded, "we need a
champion--somebody in our organization who will
back us and reinforce with the key managers in
our organizations that we can add value with
strategic communication management.
"But what we're left to deal with, on our own," he said, "are managers who don't
want us to change what we do. They don't want us
to provide strategic communication counsel and
advice. What we have to deal with," he
concluded, "are these anti-champions!"
I knew what he meant. I always think of
organizational anti-champions as being very much
like crows. I see them as "a murder of
anti-champions." They sit on your organizational
fence, ready to foul whatever new or different
ideas come into the organization.
When you go home and begin to implement some
of the ideas that we've talked about this
morning and ideas that you've heard in your
other sessions this week, you may not conform to
what others in your organization are accustomed
to from you. You may not conform to your old
behaviors on the job.
Beware of your organization's murder of
anti-champions. Among your own
'murder' will be people in your organization who
fit the roles of Mr. Big, Rosemarie and the
rest. If you want to see the full description of
the typical 'murder of anti-champions' go to:
Contracting Murder.
Here's a valuable tip: Don't go home and
announce that you have the cure. Your cure will
die aborning. The organizational immune system
will kick in and kill off your new ideas before
you can launch them.
Instead, go home and do what needs to be
done. Make the changes that you have the power
to make. Figure out who can help you make the
changes that you don't have the power to make.
Get it done!
Let's Summarize our little chat this morning:
. The job is communication counsel and
advice. (What are you doing if not
that?)
. Your three-legged monster goes everywhere
with you. (If you've boxed yourself. Get out of
the box!)
. Your organization's success depends on
quality thoughts!
. Walk-the-Talk:
know priorities;
(Be
savvy about your organization's, client's &
challenges.)
link operations to communication;
(Preach
that nothing happens as planned until somebody
tells somebody how they're needed to behave to
achieve operating goals.)
help clients define desired
behaviors;
(Know why you're being asked to do
something. Don't just take orders. Offer
advice.)
be the resident expert;
(Let nobody
pretend to know better than you about
communication management process.)
use "can't do that, but can do this;"
(Smile when you say 'No'.)
. Burp your monster!'
(Get out of the
box!)
. Initiate your own transition
(Think and act, don't
react!)
. Get passionate about your job!
. Remember:
"Beyond this place there be
dragons."
Final words:
He well could have been talking about communicators in 1854 when Henry David Thoreau wrote to his friend:
"The monster is
never just there where we think he is. What is
truly monstrous is our cowardice and
sloth." Was Thoreau saying that each of
us is our own 'monster'?
Let us not go home and resume our lives as "a
pair-of-hands" that is too chicken and too lazy
to do what we know that we ought to do; too
chicken and too lazy to communicate the way that
our organizations need.
Go in peace. - RLD
Copyright
©1998-2009
Gavin-Hodges
Associates
(215)839-8373
Fax (215)247-5403
Contact:
Ms. S.N. Jones, Marketing Associate
snjones@gavinhodges.com
Foxcroft Square
Post Office Box 704
Jenkintown, Pennsylvania 19046-7104