Email is now so embedded into our daily lives that we think nothing of it. We need to, however, because the Internet’s original “killer app” is starting to kill employee productivity and focus. Consider these findings:
- The average business executive spends two hours a day on e-mail
- 70% of employees react to emails within 6 seconds of them arriving
- The number of e-mail messages sent is rising dramatically — by some estimates, by more than 20% a year
- Almost one in five emails was copied unnecessarily to staff members other than the main recipient
- The use – and, particularly, the misuse – of email costs businesses up to $16,000 per employee per year
This webinar is aimed at arming attendees with the insight and ideas to help them get a lot smarter about using email, for themselves and their organizations. Don’t miss this rare chance to learn the latest thinking and best practices from two of the foremost global experts on this topic.
What you will learn:
- The state of workplace email today, and why communication professionals need to get activated in the battle
- Why this problem is so hard to solve, and what you must do to overcome the hurdles
- How to develop a centralized strategy to minimize internal communication emails
- How to launch an effective email etiquette program that will make everyone in your organization happier about their inbox.
- Tools, tips and tricks to outsmart your inbox
“I learned that the biggest levers we can pull to change our email situation are behavior based, not technology based.”
“I didn’t realize how much research exists on this topic.”
Who should attend
Anyone who would like to learn how to better conquer their daily email war, and help their organization feel less pain and angst from their inbox. This webinar is especially suitable for professionals in the areas of internal communications, marketing and public relations.
Presented by:
David Grossman, ABC, APR, Fellow PRSA, is both a teacher and student of effective communication. He is one of America’s foremost authorities on communication and leadership inside organizations. A much sought-after consultant and speaker, David is often quoted in media, providing expert commentary and analysis on employee and leadership issues. Most recently, he was featured on “NBC Nightly News” about e-mail overload, and in the Chicago Tribune. David is Founder and CEO of The Grossman Group, an award-winning Chicago-based communications consultancy focused on organizational consulting, strategic leadership development and internal communications. His most recent books are You Can’t NOT Communicate: Proven Solutions That Power the Fortune 100, (now in its second edition), and its follow up You Can’t NOT Communicate 2: More Proven Solutions That Power the Fortune 100.
Nathan Zeldes is an independent organizational consultant, a role he has adopted in 2009 after a 26 year career at Intel corporation. A physicist morphed into an organizational change agent, Nathan is recognized as a global thought leader in the search for improved knowledge worker productivity. Having enjoyed a long career as a manager and principal IT engineer at Intel, he now helps organizations to solve core problems at the intersection of technology and human behavior. His experience includes initiating and leading optimal corporate technology adoptions in the domains of Information Technology, Internet applications, Innovation Management, Remote and Distributed work, and Knowledge Management. A key component in Nathan’s work is mitigating the problem of email and information overload which is harming the productivity and quality of life of Knowledge Workers everywhere. He had identified the problem 17 years ago, and since then he’s developed and deployed original solutions at Intel and other companies, and has founded the Information Overload Research Group to further its study. He is also active at present in the areas of Social Media adoption, Technical Leadership development, and the multi-generational workplace of the future. Nathan’s blog is Challenge Information Overload.
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.
When the exec or the client is stuck on newsletters, cool new technologies, or sending e-mails and memos, get them refocused on strategy. Quit being an order taker, and start doling out more value to your execs and clients by using questions and a little psychology to drive strategic thinking. Now more than ever communicators must be courageous and add value. Tight Q&A, skilled facilitation approaches and more enable the communicator.
What You Will Learn:
- Use questions effectively to drive strategic thinking
- Enable client or exec “discovery” of the right approach
- Use planning and flexible facilitation to create planning meeting that achieve goals and bring ‘em back for more impact
Questions that will be answered
- How do I tell my exec their idea is a bad one?
- How do I get my client refocused on the right stuff?
- What do I do when my exec high-jacks my planning meeting?
- What do I do when we stray off agenda at a strategic planning session?
Presented by:
Stacy Wilson, ABC, is president of Eloquor Consulting, Inc., in Lakewood, Colorado. Stacy has more than 22 years of experience and has been completely focused on internal communication and organizational development since the mid 90’s. Her firm helps organizations communicate more effectively with employees, using internal communication as a lever to positively impact the bottom line.
Eloquor serves a broad array of industries with a full complement of internal communication services. Stacy and her team primarily focus on: Intranet, portal and social technology governance and usability; Change communication; Strategic internal and HR communication; Internal brand integration; Leader communication training and other OD assignments.
The firm’s sweet spots are technology-related assignments, such as portal governance and usability, and change communication, such as major systems changes. Clients include ConocoPhillips, MTS Systems, Tyco Electronics, IHS, the IRS, a Fortune 35 healthcare company, a Fortune 150 defense contractor and a Fortune 50 financial services company. Stacy is a past IABC international board member and recently chaired the 2008 IABC Southern Region Conference. She is also a member of the Council of Communication Management and the Society of HR Management.
Organizations have been trying to crack the code on employee engagement for at least 30 years, with pretty dismal results. Gallup’s October 2011 Employee Engagement Index reported only 29 percent of employees are actively engaged in their jobs, 52 percent are not engaged and 19 percent are actively disengaged.
Could these results be because we’ve been so focused on the how-to of employee engagement (tools and best practices) that we’ve glossed over the whys of basic human motivation and performance in the workplace?
This webinar is based on the principles and practices from the recently published business fable, Getting to the Heart of Employee Engagement, by author Les Landes. The book starts with the somewhat provocative premise that employee engagement is powered mainly by the uniquely human qualities of imagination and free will – and how the two are inseparably connected.
According to Landes, when you combine imagination and free will with other key ingredients – security, self-esteem, responsibility and accountability – you create a virtual “human rocket” that propels and guides employees to extraordinary performance.
Building on that theoretical framework, Landes will offer a number of practical ideas you can use in your organization for policies, systems and processes to create the kind of culture where employees love to work and customers love doing business.
Bonus feature: The Q&A conversation at the end will be started by two internal employee engagement experts: Jim Shaffer, Jim Shaffer Group, consultant, author and speaker; and Roger D’Aprix, RPO Communications, consultant, lecturer and author.
Already a member? View Replay
What You Will Learn:
- The power of trust … What it takes and how to get it.
- Play, work and hell … Why you should STOP trying to motivate “your people.”
- Double-talk, distortions, and disconnects … How to keep employees tuned in and turned on using the principles of “Real-Life, Real-Time Communication.”
- The problem with employee suggestion programs … Why most of them get such dismal participation, and how to create a system that produces dramatic results.
- Getting to the heart of company culture … Why it’s critical to know where your culture is now before you start beating a path to where you want to be in the future.
- Faking sincerity … Why transparency and truth are increasingly critical in today’s workplace.
- The program trap … Why many corporate initiatives seem so phony to employees, and what it takes to make them “real.”
Presented by:
Les Landes is President of Landes & Associates, a management consulting firm that provides services in team/organizational planning, marketing and public/media relations, organizational communication, employee engagement, performance improvement systems and, executive coaching, and meeting facilitation. The firm serves clients in various industries, as well as government and non-profit organizations.
He is the author of numerous published articles on topics related to communication and organizational performance. His articles and interviews have appeared in several publications, including Communication World, The Public Relations Strategist, Executive Speeches, Training, Total Quality Newsletter, Quality Progress, Strategy and Leadership, Journal for Quality and Participation and more. He also writes a regular e-column called Inside Out that focuses on aligning employee engagement with marketing communication.
His new book, Getting to the Heart of Employee Engagement, opens the door to a fresh understanding and appreciation for human nature in the workplace, and it sets the stage for a breakthrough in optimizing employee performance. This unique business fable shows how tapping into the power and purpose of imagination and free can create the type of organization where employees love to work and customers love doing business.
Who Should Attend
This webinar is primarily aimed at professionals involved in helping their organizations improve employee engagement, including:
- Internal communications
- Public relations
- Human resources
- Executive communications
- Public affairs
- Investor relations
- Senior management
“I liked the advice to avoid ‘flavour of the day’ by not naming a campaign or program and instead making it part of our everyday way of doing things.”
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.
Ebay: Engaging Employees in Innovative Social Responsibility Projects
Amy Skoczlas Cole, Director, eBay Green Team
Amy Skoczlas Cole has worked at the nexus of business and sustainability for 15 years. As a thought leader in embedding authentic and strategic corporate responsibility programs into business operations, Amy has advised dozens of Fortune 500 companies. Her expertise covers a myriad of CSR issues, including greening operations and supply chains, creatively engaging customers and employees in environmental efforts, and partnering effectively with stakeholder communities.
Today, as the Director of the eBay Green Team at eBay Inc., Amy leads eBay’s efforts to engage their 88 million active users in making more sustainable buying choices that both can save consumers money as well as help protect the planet. Building off a grassroots efforts started by eBay’s own employees, the eBay Green Team is a community of over 100,000 people who have pledged to be smarter, greener buyers and sellers. Launched in March of 2008, the eBay Green Team has focused on raising awareness of the environmental benefits of using products that already exist today, and demonstrated how small actions can collectively add up to a big difference. Within eBay, the employee Green Team, which numbers over 2,000 employees in 23 countries, has spearheaded a number of projects to make eBay a greener company, from developing alternative commute programs to planting the first ever Fortune 500 company sponsored community garden. In her role, Amy also serves as on the company’s Sustainability Steering Committee, the executive body empowered by eBay CEO John Donahoe to set and implement eBay’s own operational commitments, including installing the city of San Jose, Calif.’s largest solar installation, building eBay’s newest building to LEED Gold standards, and most recently, announcing a commitment to reducing eBay’s greenhouse gas emissions by an ambitious 15% by 2012 over 2008.
Prior to joining eBay in early 2008, Amy was a co-founder and Vice President of Conservation International’s Center for Environmental Leadership in Business. For well over a decade, she engaged business leaders across a wide range of industries in creating strategic sustainability programs that benefited the global environment and the bottom line. In that role, she led multinational companies through the process of understanding, measuring, mitigating, and offsetting their environmental footprint and that of their supply chain – and in doing so, creating leadership brand enhancement and marketing opportunities. Amy applied this expertise during three years in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where she helped to found a Brazilian sustainability organization focused on engaging Brazilian companies in environmental efforts. A seasoned expert in crafting partnerships between the business and non-profit communities, Amy launched relationships with companies as diverse as Starbucks, Wal-Mart, McDonald’s, Vale do Rio Doce, Intel, Petrobras, Office Depot, Aracruz Celulose, Fiji Water and Bank of America.
Amy holds an MBA in marketing and finance from George Washington University, and a BA in Environmental Policy from Vanderbilt University. She is the author of various articles on business and sustainability issues, and a frequent speaker at national and international events, conferences and business schools. She is the associate editor of Footprints in the Jungle, a book about natural resource companies and the environment. Amy serves on the advisory boards of the Brazilian sustainability organization Instituto BioAtlantica, and Climate Earth, an enterprise carbon accounting start up. She lives in the San Francisco Bay area with her husband and son.
We are living in an era where social media not only impacts the way human beings interact with one another, but is influencing business decisions and customers’ perceptions of brands. By making employees confident in the fact that they can reach out to customers and by providing them with the necessary resources, you grow your external reach exponentially.
The Social Media Ninjas team at Sprint has done just that with their award winning employee advocacy program. Through the implementation of a training program that gives a fly-by of the corporation’s social media policy along with placing strong employee-facing support resources in a variety of channels, Sprint has created a program that drives employee engagement while protecting and enhancing its brand reputation.
Find out how internal communications is your best fuel for active advocacy and why a too formal social media policy can actually deter employees from joining your force. You’ll see how Sprint empowers its employees with real-time, company-approved, social media updates.
What You Will Learn:
- How to align internal communications and social media goals
- How to create a winning cross-functional team
- How to communicate a policy that works for advocates and Legal
- What motivates employees to participate voluntarily
- What resources you can put in place to optimize success
- Various channel to stay connected with your employee advocates
- The effect that extra reach can have on your organization
Presented by:
Jennifer Sniderman, Group Manager – Employee Communications leads news, editorial and social media for enterprise-wide employee communications at Sprint. She specializes in interactive multimedia engagement programs which have garnered numerous awards. Jennifer is the co-creator of Sprint’s Social Media Ninja program leveraging employee advocacy to bolster the customer experience and improve Sprint’s corporate reputation. She provides counsel to Sprint’s Human Resources team to deliver leader-focused communications programs. Prior to joining Sprint, she was Assistant Vice President, Corporate Communications at Zurich Scudder Investments in Chicago, IL. Outside of work, she serves on the board of Chameleon Arts & Youth Development, a non-profit organization providing arts education for homeless and under-served children.
Sara Folkerts, Internal Social Media Manager is passionate about sharing, communicating, transparency and being open-minded. This has led her to her current job as a community manager and social media evangelist at Sprint. In addition to her role as community manager, Sara co-leads the Ninjas program at Sprint. Sara has presented on internal social media strategies at several conferences and at other companies. Where can you find her? On Twitter, of course! @saramiller.
Nic Lazowski, Communication Specialist is driven to engage employees and deliver information that will result in action. His role is centered around employee involvement and advocacy. As a Communication Specialist for Sprint, Nic is responsible for helping to drive employee education and advocacy through social media with other members of the Social Media Ninjas lead team.
Who Should Attend
- This webinar will cater to individuals who recognize the growing need for immediate and far-reaching contact with customers and potential customers. The information provided will allow you to start making your organization more nimble and approachable while improving reputation among customers.
Webinar attendee: “I appreciated all the information on how to put together a social media program for employees; the tools to use, the benefits of involving employees, how to set up the training program, etc.”
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.
When it comes to humanizing your brand in social media, nobody can do it better than your employees. The 2010 Edelman Trust Barometer found “conversations with employees” remain one of the most credible sources of information about a company – ahead of news coverage, online search, or ads.
Pepsico is one company that has done the social media math. On Facebook alone, average users have 130 friends. Multiply that times Pepsico’s 300,000 employees and you have potentially millions of trusted conversations.
With that vision, Sharon McIntosh, senior director of global internal communications at PepsiCo, set out last year on a methodical process to empower employees to share their pride in the company on their social networks. In the process, the PepsiCo intranet has become a key platform for delivering and tagging the content that gets shared outside.
In this unique webinar, Sharon will share her journey to empower employees to be social media brand ambassadors. It has taken a balanced combination of tools, trust. Every company needs to figure this out – get a head start by attending this important webinar with your team.
What You Will Learn:
- Where you should start; who needs to be onboard
- How do you sell a social ambassador program to management, and employees
- How do you create a voluntary, online training program to educate employees on engaging in conversations that are authentic, responsible and interesting.
- How do you decide on the right content for employees to share – and a seamless process to make sharing easy
- How to make sure your social media policy doesn’t scare employees away
- What about incentives?
Presented by:
Sharon McIntosh is senior director of Global Internal Communications for PepsiCo, overseeing the internal strategy and channels for the company’s nearly 300,000 associates. She previously worked in internal communications, corporate communications, marketing and media relations at a range of companies, including Sears, Waste Management and the Illinois Hospital Association. Connect with Sharon on Twitter: @mcintoshs.
Who Should Attend
- Social media is a team sport. Business professionals from all of these departments have a key role to play and should attend this webinar, preferably as a group: internal communications, HR ,marketing, corporate communications, public relations, customer service, legal and media relations.
“Excellent information … Great job Sharon!!”
Because they have access to the tools that personally connect them to their friends, family and peers, employees are jeopardizing their organization’s brand stature, reputation and competitive edge, often without realizing it. Without thinking, employees are sharing candid and damaging thoughts and updates — intentionally and unintentionally – that possess an uncanny ability to surface when least expected and be discovered by people who were never supposed to see them in the first place. And, perhaps accidentally, employees are sharing company secrets and information that should never see the light of day, and are doing so simply because they aren’t aware of the reach and power they have on the social web. This CD is aimed at helping corporate communication, marketing and PR professionals understand and lead their organization’s into the new world of online engagement, where the most operative rule may be simply: Don’t be stupid.
“I have attended a few “freebie” classes from other services, but found yours to be much more informative on the action side. Giving real life, no kidding ideas on how to do things.”
“Very informative and worthwhile. The speaker was articulate and knowledgeable and made me think.”
What You Will Learn:
- What are the absolute rules of engagement that all your employees should know
- Social media horror stories and some policies to avoid them
- Building marketing and service teams around social media programs
- Top 10 guidelines for social media participation
- Teaching employees to talk: it’s not only what you say, it’s how you say it
- Who answers what … the best processes to manage brand conversations
- New roles and responsibilities in the era of emerging media
- How to guide the rise and evolution of social media in your organization
Presented by:
Brian Solis is globally recognized as one of most prominent thought leaders and published authors in new media. A digital analyst, sociologist, and futurist, Solis has influenced the effects of emerging media on the convergence of marketing, communications, and publishing. He is principal of FutureWorks, an award-winning New Media agency in Silicon Valley, and has led interactive and social programs for Fortune 500 companies, notable celebrities, and Web 2.0 startups. BrianSolis.com is ranked among the top of world’s leading business and marketing online resources.
Brian’s newest book is Engage! The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, cultivate and Measure Success in the New Web.
Solis along with co-author Deirdre Breakenridge released Putting the Public back in Public Relations in 2009. Published by Financial Times Press, the book has become a best seller and is highly regarded a must read by anyone in marketing, communications, and also journalism.
In concert with Geoff Livingston, Solis released Now is Gone in 2007, an early, award-winning book that helps businesses learn how to engage in Social Media. He has also written several ebooks on the subjects of Social Media, New PR, Customer Service, and Blogger Relations.
Social media poses some important new challenges for the internal communicator. On the one hand, the influx of new communications platforms has the potential of transforming how organizations work and communicate. On the other hand, as conversation channels expand and are available to everyone in an organization, how do you keep key messages from being diluted, and the corporate culture intact? Bottom line, what should the role of internal communications be in the age of social media? This panel continues the opening keynote discussion started at the Communitelligence Employee Engagement, HR & Social Media 2010 Conference in Chicago. Join this critical conversation and make sure you and your program stay relevant in this new age of internal communications.
Learning Topics:
- Key steps to ensure you and your department remain relevant and have the right impact.
- The role you should be playing: what is new and what remains the same
- Why clarity of message has become more critical with the decentralization of communication.
- What key skills communicators have that are the best antidote to obsolescence
- What are the best antidotes to obsolescence?
- “Excellent session! Worth the time investment!”
- Excellent high-level view”
- “I learned how important it is to know your intenal audience.”
- “The Avoiding Extinction piece by Cathi Killian was great.”
- “The greatest single benefit was learning about specific tools that were being using by other companies such as Yammer for “employee jams” and thinking like an intern by hiring a teenager.”
Presented by:
Gary F. Grates is President/Global Managing Director of Edelman Change and Employee Engagement, the organizational communications counseling practice of Edelman, the world’s largest independent public relations/communications counseling firm and the third largest overall. He has more than 25 years of corporate, marketing/brand, labor, and strategic communications experience with a particular expertise in change management/employee (internal) communications. Grates has counseled more than one hundred organizations including PepsiCo, Starbucks, Guardian, General Motors, Volvo, Nissan, Caterpillar, Shell, Visa International, Coca-Cola, Wal-Mart, British Airways, ITT, GE Healthcare, eBay, and Dell, to name a few. Prior to joining Edelman, he served as Vice President-Corporate Communications/North America at the General Motors Corporation. In this role, Grates was responsible for brand, product, media, internal, financial and public policy communications for GM’s North America Region, the largest in the company. He was also the global process leader for internal communications reporting to Chairman/CEO, G. Richard Wagoner, and a member of General Motors’ North American Strategy Board, the senior most governing body in North America. In addition, he was on the teaching staff at General Motors University (GMU) and selected to join the company’s exclusive Senior Executive Program – a leadership development program.
Jill Feldon LaNouette is vice president of Internal Communications in the Public Affairs Department at Cardinal Health. In this capacity, she counsels senior executives in effective communication strategies and leads her team in developing and implementing communication plans and programs to support the company’s objectives. She also is responsible for crisis communications and issues management. Ms. LaNouette joined Cardinal Health in 2003 as director of Organizational Communication where she provided communication support on several major change initiatives and brand-building projects. In her 30 years of helping organizations effectively communicate with different constituencies, Ms. LaNouette has received numerous awards for marketing and communications from various organizations including the Gold Quill from the International Association of Business Communications and the Silver Anvil from the Public Relations Society of America. She has worked with companies from healthcare to Hollywood, including Victoria’s Secret, The Procter & Gamble Company, Kaiser Permanente, Lucasfilm Ltd., and public radio. Also Jill is a free-lance writer and consultant, has been published in several publications, and worked as a sports reporter for the Cincinnati Enquirer.
Cathi Killian is Vice President, Internal Communications at Walt Disney Company. In her role leading internal communications and corporate responsibility, Cathi is responsible for enhancing the reputation of the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts through strategies driven by excellence in internal communications, stakeholder engagement and community outreach. She develops the strategic plan for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts internal communications, which leverages communication to reinforce our values and brand and foster the visibility of executive leadership. She works with the internal communications teams at each business unit in taking an integrated approach to delivering relevant information to inform, motivate and engage Cast Members, Crew Members and Imagineers. Additionally, she leads our efforts focused on issues management and stakeholder engagement to identify issues, track trends and understand the impacts to our business, while developing allies that support our goals.
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Whether explicit or not, all corporate communication has an underlying goal of persuading an audience to do something, i.e., like you, trust you, embrace a scary change, buy your product or service, etc.
Even if you buy this logic, you probably aren’t yet persuaded that you need to purchase this webinar on moving an audience to action. Why? Because facts and data alone do not convince audiences; they have to desire to act. That’s where rhetoric, the study of understanding, discovering and developing arguments for particular situations, comes in. It behooves all of us in business, especially those in corporate communications, to know and use the essential time-tested secrets for changing an audience’s mood, mind and willingness to act.
Don’t miss this chance to learn from rhetoric expert and author of Thank You For Arguing, Jay Heinrichs, who has been described as a cross between Cicero and David Letterman. During this pithy and entertaining webinar, Jay will teach us the most practical tips and tools to master the art of persuasion, whether when speaking or writing, using sources as diverse as Aristotle, Lincoln and Homer Simpson. Whether you work in marketing, sales, public relations, internal communications or executive leadership, this webinar is for you. Are you persuaded yet?
“The Pivot concept was the best idea. Thanks for putting these together – you offer a valuable product at affordable prices.”
What You Will Learn:
- First, the 3-step strategy for getting the audience the mood and moving it toward action
- Ethos, pathos or logos … which persuades best, when?
- What’s the best medium for your message?
- A simple strategy to get an argument unstuck
- Aristotle’s three traits of credible leadership
- A “tool kit” of rhetorical tactics, from the Pivot to the Reluctant Conclusion
Who Should Attend
This webinar is designed for everyone who would like to win audiences and move them to action by understanding the power of rhetoric. It is especially suitable for:
- Corporate communicators, marketers, adverting execs, HR, sales, writers and editors, teachers, students and politicians.
Presented by:
Jay Heinrichs “brings the art of persuasion to the masters of manipulation,” according to Bloomberg Businessweek. After 25 years as a journalist and publishing executive, Jay dedicated himself to studying persuasion full-time, researching ancient and modern rhetoric and linguistics, interviewing rhetoricians around the country, and studying modern neuroscience. Combining rhetoric with marketing techniques, he teaches some of the most powerful tools of persuasion, ranging from “Ethos C4” to the “Eddie Haskell Ploy.” Jay’s book, Thank You for Arguing, is published in six languages and bought in bulk by corporations, high school AP English programs, and college rhetoric departments. Jay is also the author of Word Hero, a fun guide to becoming a better writer and speaker. You can learn more atjayheinrichs.com.
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.
If employees weren’t getting fired for what they are saying and doing on social media channels, your organization might simply pass on writing a social media policy, and this webinar. But they are, and a sound social media policy is a company’s first line of defense against risk in social media marketing. Which means you must embark on the delicate balancing act that is required to write or evolve your organization’s social media policy. If you policy is too complex or restrictive, you will scare employees and diminsh the significant business value that social media offers. And if you’re policy is too lax, or nonexistent, some of your employees may wind up as another social media horror story, fired for doing something they shouldn’t have. In this important webinar, our expert panel will share their experiences and advice on writing and enforcing a social media policy that does more good than harm. Attend and put your process ahead of policy.
“Gave me a lot to think about and actionable items for my organization.”
Learning Topics:
- Why your organization needs a social media policy
- What’s the best process to assure your policy is positive?
- What are the must-have elements of a social media policy?
- Do you need one policy, or many?
- What departments should be involved in policy creation and enforcement?
- What are some excellent policy writing resources you should review?
Presented by:
Chris Boudreaux is SVP of Management Consulting for Converseon. He created SocialMediaGovernance.com to provide tools and resources for leaders and managers who want to get the most from their social media and social application investments. Chris leads teams of business and technology professionals to improve their Marketing, Sales and Customer Service capabilities, from strategy through execution. In the past, he led product development and business transformation initiatives at Fortune 100 companies and online start-ups, and I am a former Naval Officer.
Jennifer Cisney, Chief Blogger and Social Media Manager, has been with Eastman Kodak for eleven years, resulting a broad knowledge of the various businesses and in depth experience with the corporate website, kodak.com. Her contributions to Kodak’s online experience have been inspirational photography, design expertise and creative content. She helped create and now manages the corporate blogs. After launching Kodak’s social media initiatives, she oversees Kodak’s presence on social media sites Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Flickr.
Laurie Buczek is Platform Vision Team Manager & Social Media Strategistwithin Intel Corporation’s Digital Marketing organization. Prior to joining Digital Marketing, Laurie spent over two years as the Social Computing Program Manager where she was responsible for the major enterprise wide strategy & implementation of social computing for employees to connect & collaborate internally. Laurie began her social media journey three years ago while blazing a new trail for online marketing efforts by helping to launch & manage the first external social media community for Intel. Laurie’s work has been published and showcased across the industry. She is also a member of the 2.0 Adoption Council and Social Media Business Council. In addition to the experience within the social media space, Laurie has almost 18 years in high technology working in marketing, consulting and sales. In her life before Intel, Laurie worked for Forrester Research and Gateway, Inc.
Twitter, Facebook, blogs, wikis. A lot has changed on the web in recent years. So isn’t it time you revisited your organizations’ web site content strategy? An obsolete strategy can confound your audience and keep them away in droves. A successful content strategy, however, can be the spark that ignites your web site and helps you plan for and create compelling web content that rings true with your brand, aligns with your marketing plan, and keeps your target audience coming back for more. No small trick in a 140-character world.
What You Will Learn:
- Reasons why you need a web site content strategy
- Benefits of having a web content strategy that integrates with your marketing plan
- Key questions to ask to develop a successful web content strategy
- How to write web copy that is customer-centric, not sender-centric
- Top ten tips for writing concise and easy-to-scan web copy
- Tips for organizing content on a web page
Other Questions:
- What is a web content strategy and why do you need one?
- What process should you use to develop a web content strategy?
- How can you get customers and prospects to read your web copy?
- How can you determine if web content is good or bad?
- If your web content sucks, what’s the best way to fix it?
- How should you organize content on a web page?
Presented by:
Barbara K. Mednick is an experienced and award-winning marketing communications and PR strategist, copywriter and trainer with more than 25 years of broad communications expertise. As president of BKM Consulting, Inc. in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., she provides strategic marketing communications/PR consulting and planning, copywriting and training to a variety of clients including businesses, universities and nonprofit organizations. Prior to launching BKM Consulting in 1999, she held senior account management positions at several top Twin Cities PR and advertising agencies. During her career, she has garnered a number of industry awards for successful PR and marketing campaigns conducted for clients. She is a member of Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association (MIMA) and an active member of the Minnesota Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) – serving on the board of directors three times. She also serves on the board of directors for Minnesota Computers for Schools and the Ramsey County Workforce Investment Board. Barbara publishes a monthly e-newsletter for clients and colleagues along with a blog (www.bkminsights.blogspot.com), which focus on the intersection of marketing communications, public relations and social media marketing. Read Barbara’s complete bio.
Lisa Graham-Peterson, MA, ABC, is marketing communications director at CHS Inc., a Fortune 100 company and the largest farmer-owned agricultural cooperative in the U.S. Lisa integrates offline and online strategic programs to support the CHS brand and mission as a diverse grains, energy and foods company. Lisa is an accredited business communicator and active with a number of professional and community organizations. She has been a guest lecturer on integrated communications topics at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota, as well as St. Catherine University and Metropolitan State University, both in the St. Paul/Minneapolis area.
Business professionals are called on frequently to write messages that attempt to get people to do things: to comply with a request, to accept ideas or to provide support. This often requires overcoming resistance, swaying the skeptics, winning over the “undecideds” or motivating the apathetic.
The ability to influence an audience is critical to business success, yet most people know little about the psychology of persuasion. It is not taught in high school, rarely in college, and almost never in an executive education program.
This session taps into the field of human behavior change and attitude modification. It looks at techniques you can use when you craft messages, for a written communication or for a speech, so that you influence the reader’s thought process and increase the likelihood that your reader or listener will agree. These techniques also will strengthen the writer/speaker’s credibility in the mind of the audience.
Aimed primarily at managers and executives, you’ll learn about gaining compliance and building your credibility through the use of principles of influence. The workshop focuses on crafting written and spoken messages in such a way as to alter the reader’s thought process.
Learning Topics:
- The importance of credibility
- What it really means to analyze your audience
- How to create a strong opening
- How to package your information for maximum impact
- Principles of attitude change: five ways to influence an audience
- Helping the audience remember: tips for making your ideas stand out
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.
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 such publications as the Harvard Management Communication Letter and the Employee Communication Management Journal.
There’s a new social media world order and its tentacles are reaching inside organizations.
Employees expect to connect and have conversations with coworkers as easily as they do with old high school chums on Facebook. Meanwhile, corporate communication, HR, IT and leadership are struggling with how to unleash social tools in a way that amps up communication, collaboration and employee engagement.
Dan Pontefract, head of Learning & Collaboration at TELUS, believes strongly that traditional management styles are obsolete and that organizations need to adopt a collaborative, open leadership approach, one that engages and empowers all employees. This inevitably means social software.
In this webinar, you will learn from someone who’s paving a trail through this new terrain. Pontefract, author of the new book, Flat Army, will give us a tour of the TELUS intranet and tell how he has driven a philosophical and cultural shift in the way TELUS communicates, collaborates and learns.
What You Will Learn:
- The importance of social tools to an organization’s culture, leadership programs and learning model
- How leaders can provide context, content and a vehicle for conversation through social tools
- Specific examples of social tools in leadership action
Who Should Attend
Social business is a team sport. Business leaders from many disciplines have a role to play and should attend this webinar, preferably as a group:
- internal communications, HR , learning, marketing, corporate communications, public relations, customer service, legal and media relations.
Presented by:
Dan Pontefract is a passionate leader in social business, Enterprise 2.0, learning, leadership and collaboration. He is author of Flat Army: Creating a Connected and Engaged Organization.
As head of Learning & Collaboration atTELUS, Dan championed the introduction of the TELUS Leadership Philosophy (TLP), an open and collaborative-based leadership framework for all 40,000+ TELUS team members. He further championed the use and deployment of collaborative technologies to complement both the learning and leadership frameworks. In 2010, Pontefract was acknowledged as a Vanguard Award winner and is a two-time winner of the Corporate University “Best in Class Awards” for the Leader of the Year. In 2012, SkillSoft awarded him the “Learning Leader of the Year” for his work at TELUS. Pontefract holds a Masters of Business Administration, a Bachelor’s of Education, and multiple industry certifications and accreditations. His first book, Flat Army: Creating a Connected and Engaged Organization publishes in March, 2013.
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.