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I attended Minnesota Blogger Mini-Conference 2011 yesterday over the noon hour at CoCo.
Some of themes I tried to address in my comments can be traced back to these blog posts in the past year:
Leaders cannot help but notice the demands for more organizational transparency, authenticity, responsiveness, and engagement from employees, customers, constituents, members, citizens, and the media–all of whom are increasingly adept at using social media technologies. If you’ve been reluctant to use social media technologies yourself in your role as a leader, you’re not alone.
Fast forward to January, 2009 when social media consultant Steve Borsch authored a blog post titled Why Executives Don’t “Get” Social Media. When he asked one executive, the response was, “Because I’m getting sh*t done and I can’t invest my attention or energy there.”
Colony and others have some theories about why so few executives use social media technologies such as blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube in their roles as leaders. In Part 2 of his series titled CEOs Aren’t Social For Good Reasons, Colony listed these factors:
In August, 2010, the principals of corporate social media consulting firm DemingHill published a paper titled Why Executives HATE Social Media citing that executives:
In my work as a leadership blogging coach the past five years, I’ve heard all these reasons and a few others. In this blog post, I address them and suggest some alternative ways to think about them. Continue reading Fear and Loathing in the Executive Suite: Why Leaders Avoid Blogging and Other Social Media
I launched my WordPress for Noobs online course this week. Over 30 participants have registered and paid thus far, with a few more expected by week’s end. All’s working well with the integration of two big WordPress plugins to make the course happen:
I’m using GoToWebinar to host a live Q&A webinar for the class each week, and Camtasia Studio to produce two screencasts (how-to videos) each week, hosted at Screencast.com. All of this is a result of my taking the Teaching Sells course a year ago, with ongoing support from Third Tribe Marketing. I’ve got more online courses (AKA Integrated Learning Environments) in the works. Next up: Blogging for Leaders.
Last week he published a blog post titled Managing snow and it caught my eye because it’s a good example of What to Blog for a local government leader: Use your blog to teach about a service, program, or department.
He then goes into great detail about the city’s snow-related policies, since there were some significant changes in the past year. Most important, he uses an informal conversational tone in his writing that makes it a much more interesting read for a local citizen.
I love that line: "break a truck off the primaries to punch a hole…" You just know that wasn’t written by a communications staffer. A voice of authenticity indeed. Here’s my little treatise on why using a blog in this way is important for a local government leader: Continue reading City Manager Dave Ruller of Kent, Ohio: using a blog to teach
I’ll be joined by Lynsey Struthers, Interactive Strategist with The Lawlor Group, and Michael Wells, Digital Communications Manager at St. Catherine University. In late October, I hosted (with a little help from my friends, Tracy Davis and Sean Hayford O’Leary,) two WordPress Q&A webinars for Northfield area WordPress users. A few days later, I attended my first Minneapolis-St. Paul WordPress User Group meeting. And two weekends ago, I presented two sessions at WordCamp MSP in Richfield. All of which served to convince me that A) the popularity of WordPress continues to grow; and B) the demand for help in using it continues to grow. So I decided to create an online course called WordPress for Noobs, and have it be the first course delivered by my new interactive learning platform:
I’ve been coaching adults on the use of internet-related technology tools and services since 2002. Many adults feel intimidated by these technologies at times, and it bugs them when instructors talk over their heads. But just as often, it bugs them when instructors talk down to them, as if they’re little children. Over time, I’ve learned that an approach which combines plain English with a little irreverent humor works well when teaching adults. Looking a frustrated adult in the eye and saying with faux exasperation, “Come on, get it through your thick skull!” invariably brings a smile and a sigh of relief. (For those who might not be familiar with the English language, to ‘get something through someone’s thick skull’ is an idiom which means ‘to manage to get someone, including oneself, to understand something.’) The name Your Thick Skull is similar to the Complete Idiot’s and For Dummies reference guides in that it is not meant to be insulting and the instruction is designed to be non-intimidating. Unlike those reference guides, however, Your Thick Skull will not offer books. Rather, I’ll use it to offer online courses that are best described as interactive learning environments or communities of learning. Big diff! My initial online courses will be technology-related (WordPress for Noobs starting January 10; Blogging for Leaders in early 2011). In the near future, I’ll be branching out to offer a wide variety of online courses, partnering with others who have an expertise (teachers, authors, consultants, coaches, etc.) but who need help in sharing that expertise in an interactive learning environment. (Contact me if you’re interested in exploring that type of partnership.) ‘Nuff said for now. I’m pleased to announce: begins January 10. Get it through Your Thick Skull.
I left Northfield at 7:30 am yesterday as the snow storm was just cranking up, thinking that an extra hour would be sufficient for 35 mile trip to Best Buy HQ in Richfield for the 2010 WordCamp MSP. I was scheduled to present during the first round of sessions at 9:30. At about 8:30, I tweeted: "Traffic on I35 one mile south of Lakeville is at dead stop. #wordcampmsp hosed" After sitting there for 20 minutes, I began preparing to send out another tweet to tell the WordCamp organizers that I wasn’t going to make it in time. But suddenly, traffic began to move so I held off and arrived at 9:15. When I found chief WordCamp organizer Lauren Freeland, she told me that they’d seen my tweet and bumped my session up to 10:30. I thought, "Jeesh, these people have their shit together."
As it turned out, I was able to do my WordPress Basics for Noobs session at 9:30; I also did a session at the end of the day: Blog-Based Conversations: Tools and strategies for managing comments and the people who make them. Both were well-attended, I got lots of great questions, and was pleased with the informal feedback I got from people afterwards. WordCamp MSP was a well-run conference, starting with the venue, the food, and the range of sessions offered. As a speaker, I was impressed with the whole process, including their terrific blog site and all the helpful email communications with Lauren Freeland and Brian Goeppner leading up to the event. A special tip-of-the-blogger hat goes out to the tech support volunteers who rescued me at my first session when hook-up to the screen projector failed. Twice I overheard people talking about how helpful the WordPress troubleshooters were at The Tech Shop onsite. What a great idea that was. WordCamp MSP 2011? I hope so. In the meantime, I’ll be a regular at the MSP WordPress User Group. 2:30 PM Update: A WordCamp album of 43 photos by Lauren Melcher posted to the TECHDotMN’s Flickr account, including one of me not paying attention.
I signed up as an attendee ($30 for all day, including lunch). But since it’s an Unconference, I volunteered to be a WordCamp MSP speaker. I’m now presenting early in the morning and late in the day on:
The past two weeks he’s used his blog to chronicle a trip to Asia in a series of blog posts he called Chasing the Sun (Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV). I like this series of posts because he tells little stories that convey his values, rather than the typical “I went here, we went there” travelogue I see so often. I’m always hammering away with my belief that leadership blogging is the art of strategic, near real-time, short storytelling. Dunn’s travelogue blog posts are all near real-time (eg, “I left for this year’s trip on Sunday morning”), they’re all strategic, and each includes a short little story. To wit: Blog post: Chasing the Sun, Part I Short story:
Strategic value conveyed directly:
Blog post: Chasing the Sun, Part II Short story:
Strategic value conveyed directly:
Blog post: Chasing the Sun, Part III Short story:
Strategic value conveyed directly:
Blog post: Chasing the Sun, Part IV Short story:
Strategic value conveyed directly:
I thought it interesting that Gerald Wilkie, General Manager of the Best Buy store in Burlington, NC, attached this comment to Dunn’s Part III blog post:
I’ve been working with Dan Carlson on the blog site for his venture, Public Safety Ministries: Promoting Spiritual Fitness in the Public Safety Professions, since he departed as Eden Prairie Police Chief back in January of 2007.
Dan’s work involves collaboration with the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association, the Minnesota Law Enforcement Memorial Association, Minnesota National Guard “Beyond the Yellow Ribbon”, the Minnesota Emergency Services Chaplain Association, and the Hennepin County Chiefs of Police Association, among others.
I attended a Minneapolis-St. Paul WordPress User Group meeting this week (their 9th meeting) and came away impressed. Co-founder Toby Cryns (@mightymo) greeted me warmly, the food (pizza, fruit, beverages) was ample, the facilities (offices of The Nerdery / Sierra Bravo) were perfect for instruction, and the teaching sessions I attended were well done. Nov. 2 update:
With my civic and business hat on, I’m hosting a free webinar on social media use by local government on Monday, Nov. 1, at 8 PM CDT. It will feature:
The panelists (all bloggers), all have some Northfield connections:
Some photos of Betsey, Steve and Scott in Northfield from 2004-05 with their blogger hats on: Please register for the free webinar on social media use by local government for Monday, Nov. 1, at 8 PM CDT. If you’re unable to attend, the webinar will be recorded and archived on the web. Got questions or comments? Attach a comment here or contact me. Nov. 2 update:
A month ago, Eden Prairie MN City Manager Scott Neal announced on his blog that he’d accepted a new job as City Manager for the City of Edina, MN. See this recent feature in the Star Tribune newspaper profiling his career: Edina’s new city manager has lifelong interest in governance.
Scott and I had breakfast last week at Turtle Bread in south Minneapolis near his home. I got to know Scott when he became Northfield’s city administrator in 1996. Only 100 days on the job, he became our first guest in an online web forum that I moderated titled State of the City (transcript). When he departed Northfield for the city manager job Eden Prairie in late 2002, he became my second leadership blogging client (see this blog post of mine dated March 31, 2003).
(Center and right photos): Scott gave ceremonial keys to the city to the Royal Borough of Kingston Upon Thames when we visited the city, and Kingston Councilor Mary Reid (recently retired) did likewise when she and others from the UK visited MN for the International Symposium on Local E-Democracy and spent a day in Northfield (see my blog post with photos here) to discuss leadership blogging at the local government level. (See Mary Reid’s blog post on our visit here.) Scott’s blogging taught me more about the power of a leadership blog than I taught him. I remember the most startling revelation for me was the extent to which he used his blog to communicate indirectly to the employees of the City of Eden Prairie. ‘Indirectly’ because the audience for his blog was primarily local citizens but his staff followed his blog closely. Affirming people is one of the key ways to use a leadership blog and Scott consistently did this in his 7+ years of blogging as Eden Prairie City Manager. See this recent blog post where he singles out three employees for detailed recognition. Will Scott be blogging in his new job? Stay tuned.
A week ago, I tweeted how he and Ventura Mayor Bill Fulton had each blogged (Cole here, Fulton here) about the City’s new downtown parking management program. Since it’s a controversial change, both leaders were making substantive efforts in their blog posts to explain in-depth the rationale to their citizen readers. Cole ended his post with another reframing:
Last Friday, Cole published a new post titled Public pay disconnect and the magic of dialogue in which he painstakingly explains the how the new economic realities look from different points of view: citizens, business owners, and public employees. He’s attempting to diffuse the tensions and wonders what could be done to increase mutual understanding:
His latest post is a textbook example of how a leader’s values can be embodied in a blog post, in this case, the importance of empathy and dialogue, especially in polarized conflicts. I wrote to Cole last week to let him know that I was following his blog and planned to cite some of his posts in my leadership blog coaching and teaching. He replied:
He then pointed me to an article he’d written for the ICMA (International City/County Management Association) October 2009 issue of Public Management titled Social media: What does it mean for public managers?
Now if I could only get my hometown city hall to embrace that belief. |
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