Four Reasons Why Your CEO Should Blog
By Richard Nantel | October 2, 2008
http://flickr.com/photos/peterkaminski/860512054/
Last Thursday, I participated in a panel discussion about corporate blogging with my colleagues Janet Clarey, Tom Werner, and Gary Woodill. One of the questions I was asked was “should CEOs blog?” My short answer during this discussion was yes. Here’s my long answer.
For many, the title of CEO has become synonymous with privilege, moral depravity, and fat paychecks and bonuses rewarded regardless of whether the company is flourishing or going bankrupt. (To you few CEOs who have contributed to this reputation, I’m reminded of something Oscar Wilde once wrote: “Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.”)
REASON #1 FOR WHY YOUR CEO SHOULD BLOG: Tell the world that CEO’s can be ethical leaders. Help eliminate the prejudice that surrounds this position. Attach a human face to the title.
If an outsider were to observe the staff of an organization without being told who’s who, chances are they would not be able to identify the CEO. She could be the person on the phone handling a customer complaint, or the man restocking the shelves of the office supply cabinet.
On the last evening of the Innovations in Learning conference last week, I had a great conversation with the CEO of a successful software company. I mentioned that a current challenge I’m facing as CEO is that my responsibilities have increased yet I’m still doing most of the tasks I’ve inherited over my eight years at Brandon Hall Research.
I asked this CEO if he’s managed to shed some of the tasks for which he’s been responsible over the years. He mentioned that until fairly recently, he was the person who cleaned the company bathroom.
This immediately made me feel much better about setting up e-mail accounts, formatting reports, fixing software bugs, and sending team members reminders to complete their time sheets and status reports. (I also immediately went out and bought a pair of rubber gloves to keep in my desk drawer just in case bathrooms appeared on my list of responsibilities.)
REASON #2 FOR WHY YOUR CEO SHOULD BLOG: If the person who cleans the company toilet can blog, so should your CEO. (This may in fact be the same person.)
If a person has acquired the top rank of an organization by climbing its corporate ladder, chances are that that individual knows a heck of a lot about the organization. Consequently, the CEO is in a great position to write blog posts that provide deep insights into the company. Having such a CEO remain silent is a lost opportunity.
REASON #3 FOR WHY YOUR CEO SHOULD BLOG: Your CEO may not know where the size two coffee filters are but he or she knows the industry and company very well and should be in a position to provide a big picture analysis. (I take that back. Your CEO likely knows where the size two coffee filters are.)
Lastly, the question, “should CEOs blog” seems strange to me. No one would dare ever ask “should sales reps/customer service personnel/software designers/[INSERT FUNCTION] blog?”
REASON #4 FOR WHY YOUR CEO SHOULD BLOG: Everyone should be encouraged to blog. Multiple viewpoints provide a better perspective. Sharing opinions and insights improves collective knowledge.
Topics: Blogs, Leadership, Learning, Talent Management | 2 Comments »
PowerPoint Slides for “Creating Better Podcasts”
By Richard Nantel | September 30, 2008
Thanks to everyone who attended the session Dan Medakovic and I presented at last week’s Innovations in Learning Conference titled “Creating Better Podcasts.” The slides are available here.
Hope to see you at next year’s conference!
Topics: Learning | 1 Comment »
Audio Invitation: Creating Better Podcasts
By Richard Nantel | September 26, 2008
Hope to see you at my podcasting session.
Topics: Learning | 2 Comments »
Video Excerpt: Peter Orton Keynote, Innovations in Learning Conference
By Richard Nantel | September 24, 2008
From this morning’s keynote by IBM’s Peter Orton:
Topics: Innovations in Learning Conference, Learning | 1 Comment »
Are We Morally Obligated To Carry Cell Phones?
By Richard Nantel | September 23, 2008
A chill recently descended on my home. The cause was cell phones, or more specifically, the fact that I don’t own one. Here’s what happened.
My favorite therapy to address potential social isolation from a week of telework is to drive downtown on Friday evenings, hang out in music stores trying out all the guitars until they turn off the lights and kick me out, and top it off with a beer at a pub with friends (whether I’ve ever met them before or not.)
Three weeks ago, I returned home from such an evening feeling happy and relaxed. I quietly opened the front door so as not to wake anyone. My family was standing in the entrance hallway. My nine-year old had her arms crossed in a Marge Simpson sort of way and said “you SOOOO need to get a cell phone.”
It turns out my 80 year-old mother-in-law had heart palpitations and thought she might need to get to the hospital. My wife was unable to take her because I was downtown with our only car chatting to strangers about guitars, physics, psychology, bicycles, technology, marketing, and hops.
Over the next few days, the argument for and against carrying a cell phone went something like this:
ME: “What makes my Friday nights wonderfully relaxing is that they are totally off the grid.
- No voicemails
- No emails
- No IMs”
FAMILY: “We’re just asking that you be reachable in case of emergencies.”
ME: “People always get cell phones for emergencies only. Next thing you know, you’re getting calls to pick up milk on the way home or from someone who wants to know if you’re having a nice evening. The definition of emergency changes.”
FAMILY: “Our parents are getting older. Something could happen”
ME: “If they’re feeling sick, it might be best to call an ambulance instead of waiting for me to drive back from downtown to pick them up.”
FAMILY: “Everyone has a cell phone but you.”
ME: “Humanity has existed for 10,000 years without cell phones. Before cell phones, people relied on friends and neighbors in time of emergencies.”
In the end, I gave in. The chill at home was more than I could stand (and I started doubting my own arguments). I purchased a cell phone but opted for the pay-as-you-go option instead of a monthly plan; assuming that the thought that every phone call would cost something might restrict the number of calls I’d make or receive. So far so good. I have yet to receive a call.
My colleague, Gary Woodill, says mobile learning is gaining wide adoption because everyone has a cell phone. Statistics back up his claim. By the end of next year, it’s estimated that 2.6 billion phones will be in use. That works out to 40 percent of the global population carrying mobile phones by the end of 2009.
What does it feel like to have a cell phone after all these years? After three weeks of carrying it around, I haven’t placed or received a call yet. So far, I like the technology.
Topics: Learning, Mobile, Mobile learning | No Comments »
An Effective Tool to Help You Memorize Text
By Richard Nantel | August 28, 2008
My eighty year-old mother-in-law, Alice, can recite the lyrics to Gilbert and Sullivan light operas. She can also recite a large number of famous poems, including Shakespearean soliloquies. She likely has these skills because the memorization of long textual passages was a big part of her elementary schooling.
When I was in elementary school in the 1960s, some type of reform had occurred and students were no longer asked to memorize long texts. The focus instead was on having students understand the meaning of a text rather than remembering the actual text.
Perhaps this educational reform is why my mother-in-law has a great verbal memory and I find it difficult to memorize the lyrics of songs. When I hear a tune on the radio I’ve heard many times, anyone within earshot hears me sing the first word or two of each verse and then a long trail of la la la la la las.
Dr. Norman Doidge, author of a fabulous book I read a while back titled The Brain that Changes Itself, wrote that he too had poor verbal memory. To address this weakness, he decided to memorize poems. At first, it was very difficult and he found himself glancing at a printout of the poem constantly. But as his brain adapted to the task, each subsequent poem became easier to memorize.
As I wrote yesterday, to improve my brain’s verbal memory skills and to relieve my family from my humming and singing of la la las di di dis, I plan to memorize the lyrics to one song per week. In looking for tips on memorization, I discovered an effective yet simple memorization tool on the Web last night.
Simply paste the text you want to memorize into a field at the bottom of the page linked to above, press the convert button, and the script will strip out all but the first letter of each word of the text you want to memorize. Read a few lines of the original text a couple of times then recite these lines by looking at the converted text containing only the first letter of each word.
You’ll be amazed at how easy it is to recite the text by reading the first letter of each word. Do this a few times, close your eyes, and voila. Your text is memorized. In no time, I had the lyrics to Sarah McLachlan’s “Angel” memorized. The lyrics are still with me this morning. (Next stop, some Leonard Cohen.)
Technology is freeing us from the need to memorize. Things we used to memorize can now be saved to a drive and forgotten. My mother-in-law believes, however, that the verbal memory skills she and her siblings had to develop as children have been instrumental in keeping Alzheimer’s disease from touching anyone in her family. If she’s correct, we should think twice about outsourcing our brain’s natural ability to digital storage technology.
Topics: Academic, Aging, Brain plasticity, Learning | 6 Comments »
Do Your Learners Roll Their Eyes When You State the Obvious?
By Richard Nantel | August 27, 2008
When it comes to music, the world appears to be divided into two types of people:
- People who hear the lyrics to a song
- Those that don’t hear the lyrics and instead hear only the melody, harmony, and arrangement
I’m definitely the latter type. After a first listen, I can usually pick up my guitar and play the song. But, I can listen to a song a dozen times without having a clue what it’s about. This leads to smirks around the dinner table when I say something like “did you ever notice there’s religious symbolism in Coldplay’s Viva la Vida?”
My daughters, on the other hand, have all the lyrics memorized after hearing a song a couple of times. I’m envious of their young nimble brains.
Being a strong believer in brain plasticity, the ability of our brains to adapt to new demands, I’ve decided to memorize the lyrics to one song per week. In preparation for this task, I Googled “How to memorize the lyrics to a song” to see if there were any tips to make this easier. A WikiHow article appeared as the first hit.
The article began by proposing the following:
“1. Pick the song you want to memorize. Obviously, it cannot be an instrumental song, because it has to have lyrics. It helps if it is a song you like and listen to all the time.”
I had planned to memorize the lyrics to some Beethoven string quartets. I’m glad I read this WikiHow article first. Sheesh.
Instructions like this are like the messages legal departments place on products so that their companies don’t get sued: “Unwrap gum before chewing” or “do not place your hands on the grill of the BBQ when cooking.”
Procedural instructions such as those in this WikiHow article probably make the learner lose faith in the value of the content. I hadn’t made it to step two and already felt this page was likely a waste of time.
Have you come across cringe-inducing obvious procedures in your training materials? I’d love to read them.
Topics: Learning | 5 Comments »
The Four Personality Types: Initiators, Blockers, Supporters, and Observers
By Richard Nantel | August 25, 2008
I just finished reading Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior, which explores the psychological influences that can lead us to make bad decisions. One section of this book proposes that there are only four types of people in any group:
- Initiators who always have ideas, propose new projects, and are optimistic about the outcomes
- Blockers who are likely to question and block new initiatives
- Supporters who side with either the initiator or the blocker
- Observers who don’t take sides but prefer to just comment on the matter at hand
You would think you’d like to fill up your team with plenty of initiators and few blockers to help drive innovation. But, that would be risky. Initiators tend to be highly optimistic about any new idea. Without a sobering second thought by a blocker, energy can be wasted on bad ideas.
The risks are significantly higher in the airline industry. Research indicates that a large percentage of plane crashes have been caused by pilots who, as confident and optimistic initiators, attempted dangerous maneuvers. The other members of the cabin crew, too respectful of the captain’s authority and swayed by the captain’s optimism, remained silent. As the author describes it:
“A strong initiator can quell a blocker.”
To address this risk, airline cabin crews are being provided with Crew Resource Management training to learn to become potential blockers when faced with bad or overly optimistic decisions by those in authority. This training program was designed by NASA and is intended to catch bad decisions before they result in loss of life.
“When pilots spot a departure from safety procedures, they are trained to challenge the captain.”
Teams in any workplace should learn these skills. Those in charge need to learn to tolerate dissent. Blockers need to be provided with the freedom to voice concerns without reprisal and encouraged to provide feedback.
Topics: Learning, Psychology, Talent Management | 2 Comments »
A New Tool to Help Manage E-Mail Overload
By Richard Nantel | August 21, 2008
Dealing with e-mail can be like shoveling in a snow storm. Reply to 10 e-mails, press the Send and Retrieve icon, and 15 more arrive. Answer those and 20 more roll in. If you have an empty inbox, you’re likely unemployed.
To handle this flood of messages, many people keep their e-mail application open at all times; replying to messages as they come in. They become addicted to their e-mail. The result is that their workday never includes uninterrupted blocks of time to focus on tasks that require reflection and concentration.
This type of workday is unproductive and demoralizing. In addition, research indicates it’s bad for brain health. A better solution is to schedule replying to e-mail for specific times of the day, be disciplined about replying to urgent messages first, and leave blocks available to do actual focused work.
Because of the volume of messages we need to deal with, a fundamental skill all knowledge workers need is the ability to manage e-mail. New tools are beginning to appear to help workers acquire these skills. TechDirt writes about one such tool, HitMeLater. Just forward any e-mail to a special address and the service will send it back to you as a reminder on the date and time you determine.
What a great idea. Gone are the dozens of items I have flagged for follow up. I’m sold.
Topics: E-mail, GTD, Learning, Productivity | 4 Comments »
New Blog: Workplace Learning Today
By Richard Nantel | August 14, 2008
This week, Brandon Hall Research analysts Janet Clarey, Tom Werner, Gary Woodill, and I launched a new group blog: Workplace Learning Today. The purpose of this blog is to provide readers with a daily summary of news, events, commentary, and research on all aspects of workplace learning.
I’m pleased to be collaborating with such a smart group on this project. Each analyst has his or her individual areas of interest which I think will quickly come through in our postings:
- Janet Clarey has an extensive background working in training departments. She’s been in the training trenches and knows the challenges learning professionals face. She’s wonderfully entertaining and our most popular blogger. Her posts are read by hundreds daily.
- Tom Werner has been diving very deeply into Second Life and other virtual worlds for the last few months. Consequently, I pretty much expect to have his avatar show up at our Innovations in Learning Conference while the real Tom stays home and drinks wine. Expect quite a few posts about virtual worlds from Tom until he finds his next big thing.
- Gary Woodill is our resident futurist. Gary is only rarely present, preferring to spend most of his time walking his three poodles in the year 2020. Gary looks at a PowerPoint and can’t help thinking it would be better as a hologram. (Unfortunately, he refuses to disclose what the stock market will be at next year. Selfish!)
- As for me, my interests fall more in the areas of science, technology, talent management, and the nature of work. I’ll do my best to spice up posts on topics that might appear to be dull at first glance.
I hope you enjoy this new resource.
Topics: Learning | 3 Comments »
