If you are like most communicators, you know that text alone is just not enough—today’s employees not only want to see their leaders on video, but want to be seen themselves. YouTube, Vimeo and FaceTime are teaching your employees how powerful video is, and learning about video in their non-work life makes them want to do more with it at work.
Creating meaningful business communications is not the same as recording cute dog tricks. Your employees need to know what works, and what doesn’t. And more importantly, you and your company need to be ready for: increased demand on your IT networks; the need to put policies and procedures in place and the importance of providing training to help them get it right.
In this series you will hear top practitioners talk about how they’ve put a new generation of digital video tools to work in their organization to inspire, lead and train employees; to cultivate employee engagement by putting the right tools in the hands of employees themselves; and to integrate external and internal communications for the kind of results one can only get with truly aligned communications. We’ve found practioners from leading companies to share specifics on what works across categories including internal communications, marketing, PR, social media and human resources.
What You Will Learn:
- How leading companies use employee created video: when, where, and how
- What the IT and regulatory issues are that you need to be most concerned about
- How leaders train and manage employees who are contributing video
- How video can be better integrated with intranets and social media
- The three most important things to AVOID with employee generated content.
- AND most importantly, what kinds of good results happen when you get it right.
Presented by:
Ronna Lichtenberg is co-founder and CEO, Videotrope. Prior to her entrepreneurial career, Ronna had a long-tenured career contributing to strategic planning and marketing initiatives at Prudential and Prudential Securities. During her tenure, she was the first woman named to Prudential Securities Operating Council. As a superior communicator and strategic consultant, Ronna’s experience incorporates wide-ranging personal experience as a communicator, including former contributing editor of “O”, the Oprah magazine and regular appearances as a workplace expert on national TV. She has published three books in ten languages (to rave reviews) and has a decade of experience as a keynote speaker with Fortune 500 companies and helping small to large businesses successfully execute business development imperatives and strategic initiatives.
Dave Williams has been working at ESPN since 2000. Prior to joining the corporate communication team he worked with ESPN’s production operations team on all of ESPN’s studio shows including SportsCenter, Sunday NFL Countdown, and Baseball Tonight. As a senior internal communication specialist, Williams brings his vast videography, digital editing, writing, and production experience to the internal communication team. He ensures that the multi-media aspects of the organization’s internal communication strategy are of the same high-quality production techniques that ESPN employees are accustomed to seeing on their external programming.
Deirdré Straughan is a Technical Content specialist for Solaris Product Management at Oracle. In this position she produces and/or manages production of technical content (video, white papers, web pages) about key Solaris technologies including storage, networking, and installation. Examples of my video work can be seen here (look for the items with my name in the description). In this position she produces and/or manages production of technical content (video, white papers, web pages) about key Solaris technologies including storage, networking, and installation. Examples of my video work can be seen here (look for the items with my name in the description). Deirdré has been communicating online since 1982. Her experience managing and communicating with online communities dates back to 1993, when she began interacting with Incat/Adaptec/Roxio customers via CompuServe, the Usenet, and listserv. She also wrote, edited and managed a stable of newsletters with 140,000 subscribers, and managed websites and online strategy for Adaptec/Roxio.
- Do your communication efforts tend to be “one-offs” that consume a lot of time and effort but don’t always generate the results you had hoped for?
- Do senior leaders’ eyes glaze over when you explain your latest “big idea”?
- Do you wish you had more time to spend learning about new things and less putting out fires?
While strategic planning is probably at the top of the list of things that most communicatorsdon’t want to do, the reality is that when done well, strategic planning can not only help to save time, and money, but can increase the odds of achieving desired communication outcomes. And, the good news is, effective planning doesn’t have to take weeks or months or result in dozens of meetings. In fact, the process can actually be quite simple and straightforward.
This webinar will offer easy-to-follow steps and provide practical tips and advice that can be used for any planning effort—from developing an internal communications plan to developing a marketing campaign—or even focusing on a single initiative.
What You Will Learn:
- How to position the plan for success by starting with the end in mind
- Why your mission statement is your friend
- How and why to align your efforts with your organization’s strategic plan
- A step-by-step process for developing a strategic plan
- Developing a process for plan updates – how to keep the plan alive
- How to build measurement into the plan
- How to make sure things get done!
Who Should Attend
- Communicators, PR and marketing professionals at all levels.
Presented by:
Linda Pophal is CEO of Strategic Communications, and a marketing and communication strategist with 20+ years experience in healthcare, education and not-for-profit marketing and communications. She has managed all aspects of corporate and marketing communication including employee communication, public relations, advertising, social media, market research, brand management and strategic planning. Pophal has developed and implemented strategic business, marketing and communication plans for healthcare and educational organizations and consultants, generating measurable results based on client goals. She has developed and delivered training programs for national and local audiences on all aspects of communication management and employee relations. She is author of The Essentials of Corporate Communications and PR and Complete Idiot’s Guide to Strategic Planning.
Are you tired of struggling to get—and keep—people’s attention and convince them to take action?
You can improve your ability to connect with and influence others by learning how our brain works and applying some simple techniques based in neuroscience.
Forget about right brain/left brain, an archaic concept. Instead, the “social brain” drives our thinking and our actions.
This session will briefly cover basic neuroscience principles geared toward non-scientists. We’ll then focus on how you can apply those principles to help yourself and others think better and perform at higher levels. By taking these actions, you can improve your influencing skills and actions.
Learn how to:
- Increase your self-awareness to improve your ability to influence
- Design the best environment for influencing
- Speak and write with intent to make better connections with others
- Make your messages more compelling and memorable
- Listen more effectively
- Slow down and quiet the brain to tap into the unconscious and speed up gaining insights and influencing
- Ask powerful thinking questions that increase focus and gain greater clarity
Your webinar leader, Liz Guthridge is an award-winning consultant, leadership coach and trainer who’s studied with Dr. David Rock of The NeuroLeadership Institute, Dr. BJ Fogg, founder of the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab and other luminaries in the fields of employee communication and organizational change. Liz has extensive experience supporting leaders improve their communication, develop new habits and adapt their organizations.
Liz Guthridge is an award-winning leadership coach, consultant and trainer with extensive change, employee communication and organization development experience.
As the founder of the boutique firm Connect Consulting, Liz works with leaders at all levels to help them move from blue-sky thinking to greener pastures actions. With her support, Liz’s clients enhance the clarity of their ideas, plans and actions. Her clients also improve the quality of their conversations, their ability to influence and their skill in building habits.
Liz contributed the chapter “Change Through Smart-Mob Organizing: Using Peer-by-Peer Practices to Transform Organizations” to the book The Change Champion’s Field Guide (Wiley 2013).
Besides being a certified coach in brain-based coaching, she is serving as a teaching assistant for the Executive Masters in NeuroLeadership program through the NeuroLeadership Institute co-founded by Dr. David Rock. Liz also is a graduate of Dr. BJ Fogg’s Persuasion Boot Camp and is one of his Tiny Habits™ coaches.
Copyright @ 2014 Communitelligence Inc.
Tell me and I may hear. Tell me and let me add my 2-cents and now it’s our decision; I’m all in. Yes, one of the most powerful and proven catalysts to engagement is simply involving employees in generating ideas that address an organization’s most pressing challenges. By opening up these important conversations to employees, individuals feel like they’re part of the business, and not watching from the sidelines.
Attend this webinar to see how a diverse range of companies are using co-creation — also called crowd-sourcing and open innovation — to achieve significant improvements in both employee engagement and business outcomes.
Borrowing from his experience working with leading companies, Preston Lewis, co-founder and director of San Francisco’s Bonfire, will explain how to use communication co-creation and audience-centricity to effectively drive creativity, innovation and employee engagement within your company.
You will learn how to:
- Position communication as a catalyst for co-creation
- Build a holistic engagement strategy, supported by multidisciplinary communications
- Use emerging crowd-sourcing technologies to drive employee engagement efforts
- Increase participation (both employee and customer) in key brand initiatives
About the Speaker:
Preston Lewis is an expert in branding, employee engagement and internal communications. A sought-after speaker, Preston is an energetic and creative leader who helps companies understand how to solve complex problems through communication and design.
Preston and his team have designed and implemented communication campaigns for some the world’s largest and most successful companies, including Starbucks, Genentech, Nortel Networks, NASDAQ, and HP.
The profession of corporate communications is steeped with tradition. Though there are many new channels, we tend to use them to say the same old things. Employees have a multitude of ways to express themselves after hours, but at work, they tend to have much less voice. This imbalance leaves the unstated impression that all the important communications is done by the professionals.
Heather Rim, vice president of global corporate communications at Avery Dennison, and her team continually look for ways to expand employee voice and make communications fresh and fun. Blending simple ideas with the power of communication networks, her team is shaking up old ideas about what traditional communications looks like, includes and accomplishes. In this special webinar, she will show some of the unique Avery Dennison communication programs that are winning high marks from employees and leadership – and would be worth considering for your organization.
What you will learn:
- Starting with the philosophy – corporate communications should never be boring
- Behind “The Beat,” a global employee sounding board that just keeps growing
- Just launched: an intranet built on Google
- How a CEO video blog is sparking unexpected impact
- Blending formal and informal communications – Letting employees tell their own stories
- Less is more when it comes to social media policy
Presented by:
Heather Rim is vice president of Global Corporate Communications for Avery Dennison Corporation. She was named to her current position in January 2011. Heather joined Avery Dennison in 2010 as senior director, Internal Communications.
Heather is responsible for the strategic direction and management of all aspects of corporate communications for Avery Dennison including employee communications, corporate brand management, crisis communications, social media and digital communications, corporate media relations, and corporate philanthropy.
Before joining Avery Dennison, Heather held the position of vice president, Communications for the Disney ABC Television Group, where she designed and implemented global communications strategies to inform and engage employees across Disney’s entertainment and news television properties. Previously, she progressed through Corporate Communications, Marketing and Investor Relations roles at companies including WellPoint, Countrywide and KPMG.
Heather received a master’s degree in communications management from the University of Southern California and a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Azusa Pacific University. She serves on the boards of the United Way of Greater Los Angeles and the Pasadena Symphony, and is a member of the Arthur Page Society.
Kristin Wong serves as the lead for all corporate internal communications programs and channels. She drives efforts to ensure the company’s employer brand is activated throughout key employee touch points including the enterprise portal, global employee ambassador team, values and ethics programs, and corporate town halls.
Prior to joining the company, Kristin worked for The Walt Disney Company where she assisted in the development of internal communications programs for Disney’s ABC television business. She received a master’s degree in communication management from the University of Southern California and also holds a bachelor’s degree in media studies from Pomona College of the Claremont Colleges. Outside of work, Kristin is a blogger and pop culture junkie who’s passionate about the technology trends that will shape our digital future.
Study after study confirms the link between good manager communication and engaged employees. Listen to this webinar and learn what managers can do to become better communicators – and stronger leaders. You’ll learn how managers can change employee attitudes and behaviors, the type of information employees demand, and which communication resources leading organizations provide managers. You’ll leave the session with practical tips, tools and frameworks that managers can apply immediately and insights into what separates outstanding managers from the rest.
What You Will Learn:
- Communication competencies every manager needs
- How to keep managers and employees informed and engaged
- Winning managers’ support for communication
- The best way to alienate managers
- How to convey information, field challenges and brainstorm solutions – in under 15 minutes
Questions that are answered:
- What are leading organizations doing to enhance manager communication?
- What feedback should communicators solicit from managers?
- What do employees want most from their managers?
- What can communicators do to help managers succeed?
Who Should Attend:
- Communications professionals who want to enhance their partnership and value to the business
- First line supervisors and managers who want to take their staff communications to the next level
Instructor:
Andy Szpekman provides human resource management and communication research, strategies and tools to improve business performance. His clients include Bank of America, BC Hydro, Cardinal Health, McKinsey & Co., Microsoft, News Corporation, Scholastic and Wachovia.
Earlier in his career, he led HR communication at Bank of America, served as communications manager for a global division of Warner-Lambert, and was a senior HR and communications consultant with Brecker & Merryman, Inc.
Andy is active in the Council of Communication Management and a former Officer of the Metropolitan New York Association of Applied Psychology. His work has been featured in national news and business publications and leading trade journals. He holds a B.A. in psychology from William Paterson University and an M.A. in organizational psychology from Columbia University.
In today’s dynamic marketplace, businesses simply cannot afford to leave strategy execution to chance. Organizations that succeed will be the ones that can effectively mobilize and engage their employees in implementing new business strategies to produce immediate value for customers. Making a solid case for the new business realities to employees is critical for any organization to survive and thrive. Employees who have seen change initiatives fail in the past are likely to avoid risks associated with change. They become roadblocks when communicating the new business realities to employees. Employees must buy into any business’ priorities to succeed.
What You Will Learn:
- The three biggest mistake companies make when communicating bad news
- Establishing and communicating performance expectations and accountability.
- Building trust with employee involvement.
- Establishing team norms for how work gets done.
- Modeling effective virtual behavior across boundaries with all stakeholders.
Who Should Attend
Individuals responsible for corporate communications, public relations, corporate affairs, human resources, employee communications, media relations, and issues management.
Presented by:
Dr. TJ Larkin and his business partner, Sandar, began Larkin Communication Consulting in 1985. The Larkins help large companies communicate major change to employees. Clients include: ABB, AT&T, Bank of America, Bankers Trust, Bell Labs, BHP Billiton, Boeing, BP, Caltex, DaimlerChrysler, ExxonMobil, GM, ICI, NASA, National Australia Bank, and PricewaterhouseCoopers. TJ and Sandar wrote the book, Communicating Change, now a McGraw-Hill Bookstore bestseller. Their paper, “Reaching and Changing Frontline Employees,” published in the Harvard Business Review has sold more than 40,000 reprints. The most recent papers by the Larkins can be downloaded, at no charge, from their Web site (Publications Page). TJ has a Ph.D. in communication from Michigan State University, and a B.Phil. in sociology from the University of Oxford.
Mary Lou Dlugolenski, with nearly 20 years of experience, has established herself as a solid communications professional in roles spanning employee communication, public relations, marketing communication, change communication, and crisis management. She has worked in a number of industries including healthcare, manufacturing, engineering, advertising and financial services. Mary Lou has been with MassMutual for 18 months and serves as the company’s vice president of strategic enterprise communication. Recognizing employee communication as a critical business driver, Mary Lou and her team lead a strategy of employee engagement and culture change that creates dialogue between executives and employees
through well-orchestrated communication tactics. Prior to joining MassMutual, Mary Lou managed internal and external communication at various public companies, domestic and international, including Philips, GE, ADVO and
Alstom. Mary Lou lives in North Granby, Conn., with her husband and two children.
So often communicators surrender to time and budget challenges jumping into tactics or solutions without ever conducting a complete communications assessment. But without a baseline, it is nearly impossible to measure the success of ones efforts. It is also more challenging to demonstrate ones strategic abilities. Thus, communicators cannot afford to not conduct a complete communications assessment.
What You Will Learn:
- Why it is crucial for communicators to take time out to conduct a communications assessment and understand business needs.
- What formal and informal communications assessment tools/tactics will support your time and budget.
- How much time and budget is required to support formal and informal communications assessment tools/tactics.
- How to effectively communicate your assessment findings.
- How to leverage your findings to create a solid communication strategy and plan.
- What lessons can be learned from real world communications assessments conducted for NEC, Adidas-Solomon, UOP, ServiceMaster and other leading organizations.
Who Should Attend
This session is perfect for any level of experience, from those who are just starting in the field or those who have never conducted an assessment, to seasoned communication veterans.The seminar is designed for communication professionals who want to take their programs to the next level or arm themselves to move from tactician to strategic planner. Size of organization does not matter. It is especially suitable for individuals in:
- Internal and Corporate Communications
- Public relations
- Media Relations
- Public Affairs
- Marketing
- Small and mid-sized business leaders
- Corporate executives who are new to communication and measurement
Presented by:
Julie Baron is Principal of COMMUNICATION WORKS. She has over 18 years of communications experience. Julie is a resourceful communications strategist with demonstrated ability to work internally within the organization, as well as externally within the community. Her functional expertise includes executive/employee communications, speech writing, cultural awareness and marketing communications.With a proven track record of positively impacting financial and operating results through communication, Julie’s client list includes Abbott, adidas-Salomon, HUB International, National Association of Realtors, Revell, and Pepsi Americas. Prior to opening the doors of COMMUNICATION WORKS, Julie held senior level communications positions for NEC Technologies, Inc. and Motorola, Inc. She also has agency experience.Julie has published several communication and training articles and has lectured on communications topics including CEO communication, culture development, global communication and internal marketing. She’s been recognized for her leadership abilities, team focus, creative strategy, execution and effective working relationships.An active member of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), Julie has held many volunteer leadership positions including president of the IABC/Chicago chapter, the association’s second largest chapter worldwide. Julie graduated from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, with a master’s degree in communications. She holds a bachelor’s degree in broadcasting from SUNY Buffalo.
Sean Williams is the owner of Communication AMMO, Inc. He helps leaders improve their communication skills, build strategic communication plans, strengthen internal communication capabilities and effectively measure the results. His clients include the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland and KeyBank. Follow him on Twitter at @CommAMMO.
Most recently, Williams was vice president of Corporate Communications for a financial institution, leading the internal communication, and internal and external public relations measurement and evaluation functions during the height of the financial crisis.
Previously, he was manager of Editorial Services for The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, responsible for internal communication and video production, photography and event production management. While at Goodyear, Williams lead the team rebuilding the corporate intranet, using editorial content from around the world. He also served as the primary internal communication consultant to the company’s senior leadership and produced videos and still photography for a variety of external and internal constituencies.
Susan D’Alexander, ABC, is Senior Communications Consultant at Motorola Global Communications. Susan has a 25-year career with Motorola with more than 18 years experience in communication management, including corporate, HR, marketing and corporate social responsibility communications. Susan is a member of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) earning an accredited business communicator (ABC) certification in 2008. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Western Illinois University and a MBA from Roosevelt University, Chicago, Illinois.
Alex Vass has been a communicator, telling stories and creating messages, all of his working life. He is presently a communications advisor with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police responsible for internal and external communications for the Codiac Regional RCMP detachment based in Moncton, New Brunswick. He along with his fellow RCMP communications colleagues in New Brunswick recognized the need for a
communications audit to demonstrate to senior management the value communications has within the organization and how communications must become part of the organization’s core business. The RCMP in New Brunswick is now on a path towards doing just that. Prior to joining the RCMP in 2005, Alex spent over 25 years as a journalist in Atlantic Canada, 16 years of which was as a reporter with the CTV television
network.
The problem is how to get your organization’s top executives out in front of as many employees as possible and provide a genuine communication exchange. The solution, for the past 100 years or so, is what we now call the “town hall” meeting, even though companies are not towns, and hardly ever do they occur in halls.
For employees and top executives, town hall meetings can be the best of times, or the worst of times, depending on how they’re handled. This webinar will surface some tried and true ways to create a mass employee meeting that allows a genuine exchange of ideas, issues, concerns and opportunities. You’ll also get a good list of what you absolutely should not do when you plan and produce your next town hall meeting.
What You Will Learn:
- Checklist on planning an effective series of town hall meetings
- Best practices on prepping your executives
- Techniques to break the ice and make the meetings fun and anything but boring
- Planning for tough questions and awkward moments
- Crucial tasks after the event
- Tips and techniques on using the newest technology to simultaneous global town-hall meetings
Presented by:
Les Landes is President of Landes & Associates. His firm provides services in the areas of planning, marketing, public relations, organizational communications, team development, and quality improvement systems. Prior to starting his own firm, Les worked with Pet Incorporated where he served for 10 years as the company’s Director of Communications with responsibilities for corporate advertising, employee communication, public and media relations, consumer affairs, and creative services. He also played a major role in developing and implementing Pet’s quality management system.
Veronica Apostolico is Director, Internal Communication, Global Operations, for Smith & Nephew. Veronica has 18-plus years in the communications field and has worked across all communications disciplines, internal and external, but has focused mainly on internal (change management, leadership coaching, crisis comms, employee comms). She has held communications positions with Warner-Lambert (now Pfizer), Ciba-Geigy (now Novartis – part of the team that led communications during the merger), Knoll Pharma (now Abbott) and RTI International. Veronica has also had her own communications consultancy for 5 years with clients including Aventis, Merck and J&J.
There’s too much silliness, noise, and crap coming at you, and you want a shut-off valve. You want to make more of a difference, working on only what truly matters. Right?
There’s too much information to manage and too many key messages for people to focus on, right?
Then you don’t want to miss this teleseminar! Best-selling author Bill Jensen will share tips, tools, and practices from two of his most recent books, The Simplicity Survival Handbook: 32 Ways to Do Less and Accomplish More and What Is Your Life’s Work? And he’ll tailor all those tips for communicators trying to break through the clutter and get their messages heard and acted upon.
What You Will Learn:
- Practical tips for doing less because you’re working smarter.
- Tips for educating your teammates and senior executive clients.
- Feeling jazzed that you have a lot more control over morebetterfaster than you thought you did!
Real World Questions That Will be Answered:
- Do your 3×5 rules apply to letters sent by mail?
- On the Communitelligence Communication Leadership blog, you and Bill Boyd have been really banging heads over the issue of whose the culprit in the information overload problem. You are really charging a big part of the problem to communicators. What are the biggest mistakes you think communicators are making?
- How long should an e-newsletter be, and any advice on format?
- OK Bill, it’s easy to say do less of what doesn’t really matter, but how do I actually decide what are those things?
- How do you feel about email where the message is entirely in the subject line?
Practical Advice For:
- Dealing with bosses and who just don’t get it.
- Deleting 75% of your emails.
- Composing emails, messages and deliverables that won’t get deleted!
- Getting more out of fewer meetings.
- Doing less to get the budgets you need and much more.
Testimonial:
- “Relevant topic; simple presentation of concepts; actionable tips and tools; down-to-earth presentation style (“one of us”)”
- “I already sent an e-mail this afternoon with the improved subject line format! Makes great sense. Excellent seminar all around — Look forward to more in the future.”
Instructor:
Harvard Business Review , CNBC and Fast Company have called Bill Jensen today’s foremost expert on work complexity and cutting through clutter to what really matters. The Conference Board designed an entire conference around his work.He has spent the past decade studying business’s ability to design work. (Much of what he has found horrifies him.)
He is an internationally-acclaimed author and speaker who is known for provocative ideas, extremely useful content, and his passion for making it easier for managers and employees to work smarter and accomplish extraordinary feats.
The common thread in every Jensen presentation is that your biggest competition is not “out there” — in today’s cluttered and morebetterfaster business environments, you are competing for everyone’s time and attention!
His first book, Simplicity, has been hailed as a “breakthrough in the design of communication and understanding,” and was the Number 5 Leadership/Management book on Amazon in 2000. His next best-sellers were Work 2.0, and Simplicity Survival Handbook: 32 Ways to Do Less and Accomplish More.
His latest book, What is Your Life’s Work?, captures the intimate exchanges between mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, and caring teammates, all talking about what matters at work, and in life.
Bill has over 25 years of experience in communication and change consulting. He holds degrees in Communication Design and Organizational Development. He’s CEO of The Jensen Group, whose mission is: To make it easier to get stuff done. Among the Jensen Group’s clients are Bank of America, Merck, Pfizer, Duracell, NASA, The Royal Bank, The World Bank, Walt Disney World, American Express, the US Navy SEALS, the government of Ontario, Singapore Institute of Management, Guangzhou China Development District, and the Swedish Post Office.
Bill’s personal life fantasy is to bicycle around the globe via breweries.
How and why FedEx Employee Communications moved from focusing on creating more news to creating better business outcomes.
This webinar features Terry Simpson, head of employee communications for FedEx Express. After conducting a global communication assessment, Terry and her colleagues decided that the communication function needed to focus more on creating business outcomes rather than distributing more news. Working with FedEx Express leadership she identified and conducted a project in Los Angeles to improve US export volume through better managed communication. The result: 15% increase in volume and 23% increase in revenues with an overall 1,400 ROI.
What You Will Learn:
- How to work with senior leadership and a lot of data to identify opportunities to improve performance through better managed communication
- How to search for opportunities within the white spaces—the areas between functions and disciplines
- How to bring disparate groups together to improve performance through enhanced communication
- How to recognize root causes of performance problems
- The powerful role rewards play in communicating what’s important
- How to take a success and create an even bigger one with five more locations.
Questions that are answered:
- What’s the difference in managing communication to create output—a distribution business—and managing it to create outcomes—a solutions business?
- Is there a role for traditional communication practitioners in this process?
- What additional skills and knowledge do I need to move to this new level?
- How do I get started?
- How do I pick the right project that practically assures success?
- What’s in it for me if I make the shift? More money? More career opportunities? More fame?
- What’s the best way as a communication manager to move from output to focusing on solutions?
- What did FedEx stop doing when it embarked on this project? This goes to the question of staffing – were additions made to the department?
- Did you use any formal media channels to bolster your face-to-face solutions processes?
- Where do you go to get training to lead your department in this direction? What disciplines should you study?
- What pushback do you hear from communicators when you present this message? What’s the best way as a communication manager to move from output to focusing on solutions?
Who Should Purchase:
- Communications professionals who want to enhance their partnership and value to the business.
Instructor:
Jim Shaffer is one of the world’s leading thought leaders, consultants and authors, helping businesses engage their people to achieve ultra-high levels of organizational performance. His book, The Leadership Solution (McGraw-Hill), has been hailed by leading CEOs as “invaluable for someone wanting to lead an organization into the future” and a “practical common-sense look at how leaders use communication to solve business problems.”
Jim’s focus is on improving people performance: helping business leaders execute better by creating engaged people, who think and act like business owners. He blends his unique background in general management, product line management, organizational change and communication management and helps clients get at the root cause of people performance problems. His track record includes significant, quantifiable improvements in quality, service, costs, productivity and speed through a more engaged workforce.
Terry Simpson has worked in the Communications field for over 30 years in every area including broadcast, video, print, web sites, event management, strategy and content development. Terry is leading the change at FedEx Express and using communication solutions to solve business problems.
If you think performance counts now, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet! Jim Shaffer, who pioneered the results-driven approach to managing communication, will explain what others have done to become indispensable to their leaders, because they are over and over again putting money in their leaders pockets. Literally! Jim’s lively and provocative CD will reveal what companies are doing to surgically shift their priorities and focus on those parts of the organization that can drive performance results most. Using real case studies, Jim will show how companies can generate two- and three-thousand-percent returns on their internal communication investments. He’ll explore the Three Stages of Organizational Communication Maturity and explain how a department can attain increasingly higher levels of operating and financial performance.
Learn How:
- FedEx, Owens Corning and others have created significant performance improvements with returns on their investments exceeding 1,400 percent
- Honeywell cut its billing cycle by 10 days and eliminated 1.4 million process steps while improving quality
- Sara Lee reduced waste by 18 percent in five weeks at one its bakeries
Learn Why:
- Dave Brown’s CEO said: “We are absolutely convinced that there’s a competitive advantage to be gained by engaging our people through better managed communication. We’ve seen it pay off already in measurable improvements in costs and productivity.”
- Owens Corning’s senior vice president of manufacturing said, “We’ll take as many 700-percent returns as we can get.”
Discussion Topics:
- Why the communication function in every business must measurably increase the value it adds—or die
- What other companies are doing about it and how they’ve moved from an output to an outcome-generating organization
- What you can do next to take your department to the next level on the maturity curve
- What questions to ask to identify what matters most to your business
- How to set up an outcome-based project that generates huge financial returns
- How to measure your impact and your return
- How to shift your work from low value-adding to high value-adding
- How to get junk off your plate, because it doesn’t contribute to the bottom line
Who Should Purchase:
- Corporate communications
- Non-profit communications
- Media relations
- Public affairs
- Public relations
Instructor:
Jim Shaffer is one of the world’s leading thought leaders, consultants and authors, helping businesses engage their people to achieve ultra-high levels of organizational performance. His book, The Leadership Solution (McGraw-Hill), has been hailed by leading CEOs as “invaluable for someone wanting to lead an organization into the future” and a “practical common-sense look at how leaders use communication to solve business problems.”
Jim’s focus is on improving people performance: helping business leaders execute better by creating engaged people, who think and act like business owners. He blends his unique background in general management, product line management, organizational change and communication management and helps clients get at the root cause of people performance problems. His track record includes significant, quantifiable improvements in quality, service, costs, productivity and speed through a more engaged workforce.
Jim leads the Jim Shaffer Group, a consultancy devoted to creating compelling places to work—where people are actively engaged in building and sustaining winning organizations. Previously, he was a principal, senior consultant and leader of a Towers Perrin center of excellence. He was one of the architects and leading practitioners of the firm’s global change management consulting practice. Prior to that, he served as press secretary to Kansas Governor Robert B. Docking, headed public relations and advertising in two Chicago-based businesses, and served as a marketing product line manager.
Jim is a recipient of the International Association of Business Communicators’ prestigious Fellow award, and he was named “Communicator of the Year” by IABC’s Washington, D.C. chapter. Jim is a regular contributor to many business publications and a frequent speaker at leadership groups and professional associations. He has taught in the graduate schools at George Washington University and The University of St. Thomas. His clients have included IBM, The Mayo Clinic, Verizon, Toyota, FedEx and many more.
Is your communication planning approach connected to the goals of your business? Can you measure the value of your communication planning efforts once the plan has been executed? So often as communication professionals we are asked to create plans that focus on communication tactics, without assessing the real strategic impact of what the plan will accomplish. This Webinar provides a step-by-step approach to developing a communication plan that is truly strategic and connected to your business.
What You Will Learn:
- Creating a vision of the desired future state, based on the current situation
- Identifying what is important to focus on, based on the vision
- Developing clear objectives based on your priorities
- Aligning messaging, strategy and tactics to your objectives
- Gaining buy in for your plan, based on the impact it will have on the business
Questions that will be answered:
- What does is mean to be strategic?
- How do you develop a meaningful vision?
- How do you determine which elements of the vision are most important?
- What are the strategies and tactics that will have the most impact?
- How do you gain support for your plan?
- What are effective ways to measure impact?
Who Should Purchase?
- Communications professionals who want to enhance their partnership and value to the business.
Instructor:
Barbara Fagan-Smith is the founder and CEO of ROI Communications, Inc., an award-winning internal communications consulting firm focused on helping large organizations adapt and succeed in times of change. Building on more than two decades of experience in corporate communications and journalism, she leads ROI’s work with Fortune 500 companies, helping them develop and manage effective internal communication projects that deliver clear business results.Since its launch in 2001, ROI Communications has worked with a broad array of major clients, including Hewlett- Packard, Sun Microsystems, Adobe Systems, Blue Shield of California, Cisco Systems, The Gap, Maxtor, Oak Technology and DreamWorks. ROI Communications was most recently recognized with multiple awards from the American Society of Professional Communicators and the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) for its standard-setting work in change communications.Prior to founding ROI Communications, Barbara was the director of employee and electronic communications at Quantum Corporation and director of interactive communications at Simply Interactive, Inc.
Before her career in corporate communications, Barbara worked as a London-based television producer for ABC News, where she covered the revolutions in Eastern Europe and the 1991 Gulf War. Earlier, she covered international business and produced national radio programs for ABC. She holds a B.A. in Journalism and Communications from Humboldt State University.
Learn how to gain control of your production processes, no matter how obstacle-ridden they might be.
The creative fun of communicating can be quickly overshadowed by the headaches of getting things through the process. Whether the source of your migraine is source reviews, management approvals or just keeping all the moving parts in sync, relief is on the way. You can gain control of your production processes, no matter how obstacle-ridden they might be, and this session teaches you how!
The six-person Editorial Services team at Philip Morris USA produces hundreds of stories, speeches and other writing projects per year. Add to this huge volume the challenges of working in a closely watched industry and the approval process becomes extremely complex. Hear how this team created tools — from a Job Request Form to an online Content Tracker — that keep stories moving at an amazing rate. Find out how they use client feedback, not only to improve their writing but also to improve their content management tools.
Learning topics:
- Why and how to create content management tools, and why you should keep tweaking them
- How to master the tactics of communication production, while staying focused on strategy
- How to minimize management and legal approval headaches — before they start
- How to manage internal clients’ expectations
- How to influence others in your company to follow your production processes
Robert and Denise answer real-world questions on:
- The decision to outsource writing and the tools that have helped make this work smoothly
- The response rate on post-work survey, and how to encourage clients to fill the forms
- Phillip Morris’ Content Tracker
- Additional tools in the works
- Integrating proofreading into the system and other quality control measures
- Typical turnaround time on review processes
- Getting information released
Who should purchase:
This practical, information-packed learning opportunity is ideal for managers and professionals in:
- Corporate Communications
- Internal Communications
- Public Affairs
- Web Management
- Speechwriting
- Publication Management
- Anyone who is responsible for producing content
- College/university libraries and bookstores
About the Instructors:
Robert J. Holland, ABC, is owner of Holland Communication Solutions LLC in Richmond, Va. After more than 12 years in corporate communications with AT&T, Lucent Technologies and Capital One, Robert formed his company in 2000 to help clients align communication programs with business goals. He has helped leading organizations such as the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Freddie Mac, Media General and Wells Fargo with services ranging from strategic communication planning to measurement. He is a frequent regional and national speaker, and he writes an award-winning column, “Communication at Work,” for Richmond.com. He is author of Prove Your Worth: The Complete Guide to Measuring the Business Value of Communication, published by Ragan Communications. Robert is also co-leader of the Communitelligence Internal Communications community.
Denise Koenig is manager of Editorial Services for Philip Morris USA in Richmond, Va. She has worked for the company since 1984, from coordinating and editing plant-level communications in Louisville, Ky., to managing communications for multiple manufacturing plants in Richmond. Beginning in 2003, she built the team of five editorial consultants she now manages, all of whom work in their individual offices. Denise manages the team’s production of content for executive communications, the pmusa.com Web site, the intranet, speeches and special publications. She is a graduate of Ball State University with a bachelor’s in journalism and political science.
For more than two decades, through his ongoing study, The Search for a Simpler Way, Bill Jensen has been researching how our managers and workforce communicate with each other.
In the past few years, something critical has happened: They have hacked our capabilities.
They can do what we do. Often, better than we can. How do we leverage that, instead
of fighting it? How can we learn from them?
Two-way communication means listening to what the workforce has to tell us. If you are
interested in learning from them, this is the most crucial webinar you will attend all year!
What You Will Learn:
- What benevolent hacking is, and how we are being hacked
- How companies waste massive amounts of time and energy…
and how we are complicit in this act - The top three things you should be doing to save your
organization from itself - Practical tips for getting started, and getting praise from above
Who Should Attend
This webinar ideal for communicators with:
- VPs, Directors and managers of internal communications, social media, marketing,
corporate communications, public relations, and branding - Anyone responsible for integrating external communications — marketing, sales, customer service, branding, etc. — with internal change efforts
Presented by:
Bill Jensen is today’s foremost expert on work complexity and cutting through clutter to what really matters. He has spent the past two decades studying how work gets done. (Much of what he’s found horrifies him.) Known as Mr. Simplicity for his first book, Bill has written five best-selling books based on his research. His latest, Hacking Work, was hailed as one of 2010’s Top Ten Breakthrough Ideas by Harvard Business Review. It reveals an underground army of benevolent hackers — breaking all sorts of rules so everyone can do great work. Bill is CEO of The Jensen Group: his list of clients includes the top companies in the world and he is constantly on the road, speaking in places from tech-shops in San Fran to sweatshops in Asia to palaces in Europe. Most importantly: Bill’s personal life fantasy is to bicycle around the globe via breweries.
The best way to communicate with people you are trying to lead is very often through a story.
More and more organizations are realizing that stability and predictability are no longer reasonable assumptions. In fact, the number one problem of today’s managers is the difficulty in getting their organizations to adapt to a competitive environment that is neither stable nor predictable. Yet while change is irresistible, the organization often seems immovable.
Drawing on his experience as program director of Knowledge Management at the World Bank from 1996-2000 and his work with many of the top organizations in the world, Steve Denning shows how to identify and craft a springboard story; i.e., a story that will spark action. Using a simple template, you will be equipped to get started on crafting your own springboard stories.
What you will learn:
- The importance of storytelling
- Appropriate situations for telling stories
- Why storytelling can handle leadership challenges for which conventional command-and-control techniques are impotent
- The essential ingredients of a springboard story — i.e., a story to communicate a complex idea and galvanize action
- How and why storytelling can communicate complex ideas, and why stories are so persuasive
- How to find and craft springboard stories for your organization
- How to use storytelling to ignite your career by becoming an authentic leader
- A 10-point template for crafting your stories
- Eight types of stories that you can put to work for you
- How storytelling changed the way the World Bank shared knowledge
Who should purchase:
This exceptional learning opportunity is designed for managers and professionals in:
- Corporate Communications
- Marketing
- Advertising
- Internal Communications
- Public Affairs
- Public Relations
- Organizational Development
- Human Resources
- Corporate Strategy and Development
- Senior Management
- Anyone, anywhere in an organization
It’s also an important addition to the offerings of college/university libraries and bookstores.
Instructor:
Steve Denning is the former program director of Knowledge Management at the World Bank. He now works with organizations in the U.S., Europe, Asia and Australia on knowledge management and organizational storytelling.
Steve is the author of several books on organizational storytelling, including:
- The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the Art and Discipline of Business Narrative (Jossey-Bass in April 2005).
- Squirrel Inc: A Fable of Leadership Through Storytelling (Jossey-Bass, 2004), a fable that elaborates seven different kinds of organizational storytelling
- The Springboard: How Storytelling Ignites Action in Knowledge-Era Organizations (Butterworth Heinemann, 2000), which describes how storytelling was used as a powerful tool for organizational change and knowledge management at the World Bank
Steve was born and educated in Sydney, Australia. He studied law and psychology at Sydney University and worked as a lawyer in Sydney for several years. He did a postgraduate degree in law at Oxford University in the U.K. before joining the World Bank, where held a number of positions from 1996 to 2000.
In 2000, Steve was named as one of the world’s “10 Most Admired Knowledge Leaders” (Teleos). In 2003, he was ranked as one of the world’s Top Two Hundred Business Gurus: Davenport & Prusak, “What’s The Big Idea?” (Harvard, 2003). In 2005, his book, The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling, was selected by the Innovation Book Club as one of the 12 most important books on innovation in the last few years.
Steve is a Senior Fellow at the James MacGregor Burns Leadership Academy at the University of Maryland.
Practical techniques any manager can use to motivate new behaviors and deliver better business results
Why are managers employees’ preferred source of communication? Because employees crave information that affects their day-to-day lives – information that only their managers can provide. Andy Szpekman, president of AHS Communications, outlines what managers can do to meet employee expectations, become better communicators and be more successful managers.
You’ll learn the four competencies every manager needs, the type of communication employees demand, and proven ways to change people’s attitudes and behaviors. You’ll leave the session with a solid understanding of what separates outstanding managers from the rest, as well as useful tips and simple tools any manager can apply immediately on the job. Whether you manage others or advise those who do, this teleseminar will help you engage your organization’s employees to deliver their best work.
Learning Topics:
- Six things every manager needs to do well
- What to look for when gathering employee feedback
- How to deliver a tough message effectively
- Stupid ideas about communication
- How to convey information, field challenges and brainstorm solutions – in under 15 minutes
Andy answers real-world questions on:
- Companies that are doing a good job at training their managers to be better communicators
- How to effectively measure whether a manager is communicating well
- advice and techniques to help managers be more open and forthright in their communications, even when they may fear repercussions from their management
- Specific advice for how to handle situations in non-public organizations, where laws prevent communications to be less timely than we would like it to be
- How to focus on listening rather than figuring out what you’re going to say when the other person stops talking
- the “huddle technique” to brainstorm solutions right after the change or problem has been communicated to employees
- The 360-degree survey technique to assess the effectiveness of manager communications
- The wisdom of setting up regular employee communication time
Who should purchase:
-
Line managers
-
Functional managers
-
Internal communicators
-
Corporate communicators
-
HR managers
-
Change managers
-
Internal marketers
-
College/university libraries and bookstores
Instructor:
Andy Szpekman provides HR and communication research, strategies and tools to improve business performance. His clients include Bank of America, BC Hydro, Cardinal Health, McKinsey & Co., Microsoft, News Corporation, Scholastic and Wachovia.
Earlier in his career, he led HR communication at Bank of America, served as communications manager for a global division of Warner-Lambert, and was a senior HR and communication consultant with Brecker & Merryman, Inc.
Andy is active in the Council of Communication Management and a former officer of the Metropolitan New York Association of Applied Psychology. His work has been featured in national news and business publications and leading trade journals. He holds a B.A. in psychology from William Paterson University and an M.A. in organizational psychology from Columbia University.
How effective CEO presentations can help companies rebound during an economic downturn
When a company’s earnings and stock price are on the rise, it may not be critically important how well a CEO performs behind a lectern, in front of cameras and microphones, or at a hearing table. But as earnings and stock price head south, a CEO’s ability to inspire confidence through speeches and presentations can prove essential to a company’s ability to survive and recover. CEOs who communicate well can, at the very least, buy the time needed to put an effective turnaround strategy in place.
With the economy battered by the credit crisis, high fuel prices, and other maladies, growing numbers of corporate leaders face the challenge of finding ways to inspire key audiences who are both very worried and extremely important—employees, analysts, stockholders, regulators, and the press.
This webinar offers some very specific, hands-on advice how CEOs should communicate during tough times. The advice is based on the experience of key CEO’s who have been there and done that –Former CEOs Lee Iacocca of Chrysler and Champ Mitchell of Network Solutions, Jack Welch of GE, as well as current CEOs John Chambers of Cisco Systems and Brightpoint’s Robert Laikin. All used first-person communications effectively to turn companies around or dramatically boost their performance.
Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy once said, “Communication needs to be a core competency of any business. It starts with the CEO.”
You Will Learn How CEOs Can:
- Make communication a priority.
- Be proactive, not reactive
- Handle problems and mistakes.
- Develop and present a recovery plan.
- Match their presentations to their audience
- and much more
Presented by:
Dr. Jeff Porro, Ph.D. has written “first-person speeches” and provided communication strategies for the CEOs of Sodexo, Eastman Chemicals, the McGraw Hill Companies, Office Depot, the COO of General Mills, as well as for diplomats such as former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, and other government leaders, and presidents of some of the nation’s leading trade and professional associations. He helps corporate, government and nonprofit leaders take their visions to a new level, moving key audiences with speeches that engage minds, open eyes, touch hearts and awaken the spirit. In addition to offering his expertise to world and business leaders, he has extended his skills to the world of entertainment. Dr. Porro discovered and researched the true story of a Jim Crow-era African American college debate team, and helped turn it into the 2007 feature film The Great Debaters starring Denzel Washington.
As head of Porro Associates, LLC, Dr. Porro draws on his background as a research scholar and a Washington policy analyst to weave persuasive arguments. At the same time, his creative writing has given him the skill and empathy to capture a speaker’s voice and evoke the speaker’s passion. Dr. Porro holds a Ph.D. in political science from U.C.L.A..
Robert Laikin, founder of Brightpoint, has served as a member of Brightpoint’s board of directors since its inception in August 1989. Mr. Laikin has been Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of the Company since January 1994. Mr. Laikin was President of Brightpoint from June 1992 until September 1996 and Vice President and Treasurer of Brightpoint from August 1989 until May 1992. From July 1986 to December 1987, Mr. Laikin was Vice President, and from January 1988 to February 1993, President of Century Cellular Network, Inc., a company engaged in the retail sale of cellular telephones and accessories. His honors and awards include:
- Recipient of the William L. Haeberle Entrepreneurial Legacy Award for 2008
- Inducted into the Central Indiana Business Hall of Fame in 2008
- Received a Stevie Award for Best Turnaround Executive in 2007
- Recipient of the Distinguished Entrepreneur Award by the Kelley School of Business Alumni Association (1999)
- Recipient of the Indiana Entrepreneur of the Year Award (1995)
- Received an honorable mention in 1995 Inc. Magazine National Entrepreneur of the Year Award
Kelly R. Lang is Director of Strategic Communications in the Corporate Communications department of Cisco Systems. Ms. Lang joined Cisco in 2001 as Marketing Communications Manager and in 2003 joined the Office of the President as John Chambers’ Executive Communications Manager. Today, Ms. Lang is responsible for the Executive Communications and Operations functions including the Office of the Chairman and CEO (OCC), the Chief Financial Officer (CFO), and the Chief Globalisation Officer (CGO). Prior to joining Cisco, Ms. Lang was Program Manager for a Global Event Marketing Organization, Nth Degree, from 1998-2000. From 1996-1998, Ms Lang was Assistant Director of Administration with RCI Group, Inc. after graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Maryland, where she was recognized with outstanding student achievements including Maryland’s Talent and Tutor Search Program.
Ms. Lang is passionate about business and how communication helps drive business strategy to become a change agent for the organization. Her focus on process, operational excellence and hiring the right talent to support highly visible executives helps drive a more integrated, cross-functional communication effort that highlights the increasingly complex and important role of the communications professional.
Who Should Attend
This webinar is primarily aimed at communicators and executives trying to cope with a slowing economy, including external communications, internal communications, and shareholder communications.
This webinar will help supervisors get the most out of their writers by creating an environment where writers develop and gain confidence, and where the focus is on the writer as much as the writing.
Practical Advice for:
- Building a collaborative relationship with writers
- Creating an atmosphere where writers develop
- Reducing the amount of time rewriting copy
- Improving editing skills
What You Will Learn:
- How to reinforce the notion that writing is valued
- How to improve communication with writers
- How to get the most out of a one-on-one conversation about performance
- How to build confidence
- How to distinguish between coaching and crisis repair
- What to do when you don’t think the writer will ever “get it”
- What to do when it becomes easier to toss the draft and write it yourself
- How to know when to make changes and when not to
- What you can do if you’re not confident
Real world questions answered:
- What processes can help avoid writer disasters at deadline?
- What do you tell a writer who’s article totally misses the mark?
- How should writers and graphic designers interact, and how often?
Instructor:
Ken O’Quinn is a professional writing coach, who conducts workshops and one-on-one coaching in Fortune 500 companies and global public relations firms. He is the author of Perfect Phrases for Business Letters (McGraw-Hill, 2006).
He started Writing With Clarity in the mid-’90s, following a 21-year journalism career, most of it with the Associated Press. He now works with companies such as Chevron, Campbell Soup, Visa, Intel, Eli Lilly, Raytheon, Reebok, Motorola and Sprint, and with PR firms such as Fleishman Hillard, Burson-Marsteller, Porter Novelli and Edelman. He also is a writing instructor for the National Investor Relations Institute. He works with all levels of staff and managers. Ken has been a guest speaker at the PRSA and IABC international conferences and at the American Press Institute. His writing has appeared in major U.S. newspapers and in the Harvard Management Communication Letter and the Employee Communication Management Journal.
We’ve all heard the news: Forget flash (or even Flash). To attract and hold prospects to your website, you need content that meets the needs, values and expectations of your market. Great content draws visitors, attracts links, and builds your organization’s reputation for service and expertise. In short, content is king. But where will your content come from? How will you find it? How will you shape it? And how will you write it for maximum impact — and search engine visibility? Crafting Killer Web Content will show you how.
Learning Topics
In one convenient, 75-minute crash course, you will acquire the practical skills you need to:
- Uncover the hidden know-how within your organization
- Solicit cooperation from the crucial product and service people closest to your customers
- Create keyword-saturated Web glossaries in mere hours
- Select the best content options for your pages
- Craft effective, traffic-building blogs
- Incorporate keyword strategies into your writing
- Develop compelling case studies you can use on your website, collateral packages, press kits and more
Other value adds:
- Debunking the myth about writing long
- Why word-specificity is your friend
- Why testimonials and where they should go
- How to write skimmable sub-heads that tell the story
- Guarantees that guarantee believability
- What readers expect from marketing blog
Instructor:
Jonathan Kranz is the author of Writing Copy for Dummies and a marketing/PR writer serving consumer and B2B clients in high-tech, healthcare, banking, insurance, education, financial services and other industries. His clients include Boston Private Bank & Trust, Dell Computers, IBM, Liberty Mutual, Pitney Bowes and many others. He is a regular contributor to leading marketing publications such as MarketingProfs.com, RainToday.com, DIRECT magazine, DM News and the Harvard Management Communications Letter. Jonathan has taught writing courses at Harvard University Extension School, Emerson College and Northeastern University, and offers in-house marketing writing seminars to corporate clients.