Just Seven Things

Exploring why and how we do what we do, and how we can do it better

Archive for the category “Communication”

02 Sep 2008

Why do We Network?

Returning late from a First Tuesday networking event on Online Recruitment. Briefly, I’m struck by the following:

1. How relatively inefficient ‘open cast’ networking is (i.e. going to an event under a subject matter banner with minimal time to research and plot the attendees in terms of targeting, and then being expected to network efficiently)

2. How relatively efficient targeted networking is (i.e. using social/ personal networks for introductions)

3. How objective driven you have to be to be successful in/ get any return from networking

The event just about held itself together as a hybrid seminar/ round table/ networking/ investment and investor matching event… but only just…

Mike Southon gave 5 great tips/ questions in an FT article in his Entrepreneur column. Entitled ‘Five Questions for Networkers’ he suggests that networking is a well-understood process that can be refined into a small number of easy steps:

Starting off: (To a group of strangers) “May I join you?”

1. Open with “Where are you from”

2. Then ask them what their company does and their specific role

3. Next ask them “How?” (do they do their jobs/ their companies undertake their activities..)

4. Pause, think, consider disengagement if not going anywhere and the ask the crucial “Why?” question

5. Offer some information (website/ article/ book) and then go for the big ‘Who?’ question

Make a quick note on their business card to arrange a follow-up

Posted in Communication and tagged First Tuesday, Networking, Online Recruitment | Leave a comment

29 Aug 2008

1 Comment

How do Vision and Mission Improve Communications and Group Interaction?

Tug O' War by Kevin Luu

I was struck today by how powerful the outcomes of setting a good, clear vision and mission are: particularly in how they impact communications and group interaction.

They impact various types of communications, including personal, interpersonal and corporate (internal and external):

1. Communicating clearly to yourself to focus and prioritise the activity that will maximise your ability to achieve your mission and vision

2. Amongst a group sharing the same vision/ mission (i.e. a corporate, not-for-profit, social group etc.), there are a number of benefits:

– The creation of a common set of values: they naturally align to support delivery of a commonly held set of outcomes

– The creation of common underlying goals and activities: clear actions enabling all members to pull in the same direction

– The creation of common understanding: even if people are communicating at apparent cross-purposes (in non-mission/vision groups), in those with mission and vision, common understanding shines through whatever fuzzy interaction takes place

– The acceptance of difference is enhanced when all parties are known to share the same vision/ mission

– The allowance for divergent personality traits: less drive for normalising behaviour if it doesn’t matter in the short-term relative to long-term goal achievement

– The allowance for ‘journey’ differences: the route to a goal matters less if the achievement of that goal is shared

3. A group seems more aligned to external observers when the purpose is common

4. Shared vision and mission (more obviously) makes the outwards communication of shared purpose easier

Posted in Communication, Successful Outcomes, Vision and Goal Setting and tagged Communications, Mission, Vision

27 Aug 2008

2 Comments

Personal Knowledge Management vs. Personal Filtering and Management

Glass Menagerie by Spencer Ritenour

24hrs percolation and further research on the subject matter I posted on yesterday has led me to the following conclusions:

1. My hijacking of organisational knowledge management definitions and relabelling ‘personal’ knowledge management is incorrect. Personal knowledge management appears to be wider defined to include conversations/ relationships and the distribution/ sharing of that information

2. Personal Filtering and Management (of knowledge) is a better description of what has been most taxing me. Devabhaktuni Srikrishna nails the whole area in a post on Monday

3. There are fathoms of exploration to be done on the impact of (and to) social media from both of these areas (personal knowledge management and Personal Filtering and Management

I think that at the heart of the ‘challenge’ or my reference to this area ‘taxing’ me is best explained when I look at Google’s mission: ‘Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful’.

That’s all fine, but now that I can access and use the world’s information I need to organise my own microcosm of information and make that accessible and useful to my ‘conscious search engine’

Or am I just a control freak?