So you’re tracking the hits on your blogsite or intranet, and you’re seeing some trends. Perhaps you’ve noted that articles with team photographs or illustrations do well. Maybe you’ve found that esoteric or abstract titles work best, or perhaps your audience prefers direct, meaningful titles.

But even with the best titles, the most relevant images and the most recent breaking news, you can’t make people emotionally care about you or your message.

But some people will care, and these people are your champions - treat them well!

Within your company, if you’re publishing and distributing material (intranet, company magazine et cetera) you should take note of the people who send you feedback. You should learn the names of the people who point out errors, or ask for further information, or ask for clarification. These people care about what you’ve produced, and they’re the ones who will be talking about your stuff to their colleagues, team members and managers.

Whatever people have to say about your work or your messages, be sure to respond in a positive and respectful manner. I see too many professionals responding to brief query emails with even briefer answers. Answering the query is not enough - this is a real opportunity to engage directly with the audience, the workforce, and have a personal impact. Answering the query is not enough; you must:

1. demonstrate that you’ve have heard and understood the query / concern - this means reflecting back their very own sentiments to the querent without judgment. Consider it ‘active listening’;
2. explain that you can understand why they’ve brought this matter up with you;
3. thank them for bringing the matter to you (as opposed to just grumbling about it to everyone in their department);
4. address the matter directly, explaining enough of your background thought processes to justify your answer - there’s no need to be aggressive or defensive, just be conversational;
5. demonstrate your willingness to be flexible; let them know that you might well consider this issue again in the future or perhaps you’ll discuss it with your team / manager at your next team meeting;
6. thank them again for their email / phone call and let them know you’re open and available for anything more.

Does that sound do-able? Is it close to what you do already?

When I get shoddy service, even inside the company I work for, I shut down and cut the responsible person out of my work-life. They become dead to me, and I only interact with them ‘politely’ from then on.

Don’t piss me off, or you’ll never make it to the top of my priority list (and remember, you need me to promote your department, whereas I don’t need your department much at all).

When I get fantastic service, advice, content, guidance, ideas - I get all excited, and want to share and promote the person who has thoughtfully inspired me. This is part of my ‘Three Goal Words’ - RSS - Respond, Smile & Share.

But it also blushingly pleases me (my erogenous zones are all mostly online) when someone says I’m giving decent service, and they go on to promote me and my work. So many thanks to @C Brogan who twittered about me last year, and now thanks to @shonali for tweeting about me. When people recommend other people, those who listen to them take notice. Word of mouth and personal recommendations are gold, don’t you agree? So, hopefully, I’ve got a few more readers, and I know I’ve got scores of new ‘followers’ on Twitter, so plenty of opportunity to make new connections with people - lovely.

Personal recommendations exist inside your company / corporation too. Don’t you take notice when your colleague says “I’m not sure, email Josh; he knows all about this” - so when you go to Josh, you’re really polite and you’re really grateful for his help You respect his knowledge / experience and in turn you recommend him to other people in your company, even though Josh isn’t in your departmental silo.

I must keep reminding myself about my three word goals / approaches - RSS - Respond, Smile & Share. Sharing other people’s expertise is good for them, and it’s good for you, because people will see you as a ‘connector’ and in this ‘people network’ day and age, connecting people is a valuable skill. So who can you talk about this week? Who can you recommend?

Apologies if I’ve flitted from subject to subject today, but I’m recognising that you can’t demand attention, but you can create valuable content that is meaningful enough to people that some of them talk about it and share it. These people are your champions, treat them as heroes!

[Wedge]

P.S. I updated the footer of my blogsite, check out the bottom of this page :) You like?

Not that anyone will notice, as the office appears to be dead; I’m betting sites across the region and the country are similarly desolate.

It’s the day after New Year’s Day, and it’s a Friday. Many people arrange holiday days for themselves to bookend the festive season, and there’s a lot of flu-like illnesses around right now, so many people are rightly at home in bed. It’s a bank holiday in Scotland too. Some people will be taking sickies - claiming to be ill when really they just can’t see the point of going in to work when there’s ‘nothing to do’ and it’s the weekend really anyway isn’t it? They’re taking a ‘duvet day‘.

• ‘Stay-at-home Friday’ from the Telegraph (and Telegraph Mobile)

Me? I’m ill; I’ve been coughing and wheezing, tired and aching since the 27th of last month, and my skin looks pretty bad I’m sorry to say (despite my moisturising regime!).

But I got up at six and got the train into Birmingham. The train felt quiet, and then Birmingham New Street Station felt more like 7am than 8am - really quiet. The bus was quieter too, and the fare had gone up 20p.

Our team of seven is down to two today, mostly because of holidays and illness. The office is as quiet as a graveyard and if only I had my wits about me, I could get a lot of work done. But alas I’m poorly and my brain won’t shift gears. I need sleep.

So I thought I’d write to you about goals instead!

Your Goals and Values for the year ahead

What do you resolve to do this year? Well, heck, I don’t need a fresh year to sort my priorities out; but it is nice to review one’s habits and ways of working. I can’t read Chris Brogan’s blog while at work behind the over-zealous firewall, but thanks to Google’s cache I can just about read his content! I know he’s talking about ‘Three Word Goals‘ and I like the simplicity of stating one’s goals, rather than ‘promising’ to be a better person or to give up chocolate.

My goals are many and varied; I have lots of projects on the go, and as I discussed yesterday, some have to be reduced in priority for the sake of my health, and some have to be re-prioritised for the sake of my wealth. But when it comes to how I approach my projects (and people) I like Chris’ three word system. Here’s mine - RSS (no, not ‘Really Simple Syndication’ as per blogs) which stands for Respond, Smile & Share.

Chris Brogan has already been ‘sharing’ for a long time, but he’s ahead of me in many respects; he’s in Social Media whereas I’m just a humble communicator. He gets to shift paradigms and break conventions while I get to write organisation announcements and publish staff vacancies…

But anyway, for my own enjoyment, here’s what I mean.

Respond

I mean to react and respond to the people who enter my life, however superficial or fleeting. I can’t judge who’s going to shake my world, so I will treat everyone as a teacher, even those people who ask me for help, and I will be quick to respond and I will react with a keen interest. This will help me make connections with more people - something that blogs and Twitter have helped me understand.

Smile

I often look tired, and when people approach me, I tend to look warily at them, as I know they’re coming at me to give me more work and to mess up the technology that they don’t understand. I therefore have a haunted and hunted look upon my face, and a tremor in my voice when I answer the phone. Enough of this defensiveness! I will smile and welcome people in my life, even if I don’t feel like doing so. Fake it ‘til you make it. I will show the world a happy demeanour.

Share

I will link out more, I will twitter more, I will converse more and I will share what I know more. I’ll say ‘yes’ to more people and I’ll let go more. I will be better for others.

Anyway, that’s me; it’s Friday the 2nd of January - just twenty days from my birthday - and you should head over to Chris Brogan’s blog to leave your three word goals - but do please share them here with us too, I’ll be bound to respond :)

[Wedge]

But while I don’t mean to become nostalgic about 2008, I would like to look back in order to help you and me look forward. (Did any of you think I should have said “to help you and I”? Because it’s definitely “me” in this grammatical case, OK :)

In 2008 I demolished several of my personal / professional websites and brought kilobox communiqué into being. By providing fresh ideas and interacting with people on a personal basis, I’ve reached many more people that I could have with a 30 page static website. Twitter has helped a great deal in building relationships, far more than Facebook has.

My first Tweet:
I’m drunk in charge of Dreamweaver; never web design while under the influence!
2:22am 26th Oct 2006

I’m pleased to say that I’ve inspired three dear friends to start blogging, and you can now see more of @Julesxv at blog.originalerasers.co.uk where she talks about the obsessive world of eraser collecting, and the business details of being the biggest eraser emporium in the world. @kingnat has been ‘playing’ with WordPress for years but has been finally finding his voice over at notreallylistening.com and from today, you can meet my other half at chris.kilobox.net/blog/ where you’ll learn more about GigaPan photography and civil engineering (lots of holes and earth works).

Along the way I’ve had the privilege of making the online acquaintance of @kinchie, @onezenmom, @David_N_Wilson, @LitManLive, @abisignorelli, @FirstSigns, @michsineath, @jonbuscall, @annetteschwindt and several other talented web workers. Those people who spend a little time looking for nuggets of gold within my blogsite and sharing their knowledge and perspectives with us have really had an impact on me. (Forgive me if I’ve missed you, I’m writing this from memory while suffering from some kind of flu.)

Many thanks to those of you who have written guest articles on writing / communication for kilobox communiqué - your names (and your posts) are proudly displayed on the right-hand side for readers to see, in case they become tired of my voice.

In 2008 I spent plenty of time with myself, and I found that I had grown more equanimous, but less enthusiastic, about some things. It’s not that I’m less passionate about the important things in my life, it’s just that I have now re-prioritised certain projects above others. My values have shifted slightly. People are always saying ‘you should do more for other people’ but the fact is I always have. Even when I was desperately poor, I have always invested time and money into other people’s lives.

In 2008 I realised that my focus on other people’s well-being was dragging my health and happiness to dangerously low levels. I’m ill, every day, and I don’t spend any time on looking after myself (apart from moisturising of course! Have you seen how young my skin is looking!) so although the motto is “first, look after everyone else” I’m afraid I’ve been doing that since I got online in the early ’90s. Now, I need a while to myself. I still want to engage with and help / be helped by people, and I hope by being committed to my readers and writing frequently through the week I can do that.

But there’s one thing I’m taking a serious step back from, and that’s my charitable work. While increasing the amount I donate and invest in good causes / community businesses, I’m reducing the number of hours I work on the voluntary organisation I founded in 2002 (e.g. in 2006 I clocked up over 1000 hours of voluntary work) . Thanks to Jules, I can take a step back and allow Jules to manage and direct the organisation as she feels fit. For several months now, Jules has been taking responsibility for the operational side of FirstSigns / LifeSIGNS and I’m very proud of her commitment and quality of work - I know the organisation is safe in her hands. Me? I’ll just be taking a step back for a time; by providing Jules with support on set days throughout the year, I can better relax and look after my mental and physical health (I’ve not been well for, well, longer than I can put a date on.)

So, as I was saying, I’ve had an awesome time while using Twitter and my blog, here at kilobox communiqué; I’ve ‘met’ such interesting, warm and knowledgeable people. I’ve been inspired by @ChrisBrogan and supported by my real life friends like never before. In no way do I mean to be ‘quieter’ in 2009, so don’t worry about me, I’m just ensuring that I work on the things that are moist valuable to me as a human being.

Thank you to the people who know my name; thank you to the people who comment and tweet, thank you to the people who think of others, and those who think of me occasionally.

Best wishes to you and your loved ones through 2009.

[Wedge]

Jules is a friend and colleague; she volunteers her time and energy to run FirstSigns with me, and it’s great to have her perspectives on writing and communication here at kilobox communiqué.

Like most of you, I would imagine, I spend the majority of my days (and nights!) typing away on a keyboard of some kind. If I’m not on my computer then I’m bashing away at my Eee PC or my latest gadget - my iPod touch. I take breaks of course, during which I click away at my phone sending texts, the length of which could often give a short novel a run for its money. I love writing, and whether its emails, twitters, articles, replies, blog posts or random texts, that’s what I spend most of my days doing.

But, and it’s a big but for me, what I really love is a nice pen and a lovely notepad (the paper variety)! Now that I’ve even converted my to-do lists into online interactive masterpieces, I’m missing the good old pen and paper more than ever. I used to love writing and receiving letters, but I’m ashamed to say that when I received a lovely handwritten letter from a friend a couple of months ago, I replied via Facebook :( Never again - I have vowed to ‘write’ more - all proper like with a real pen!

The reality of course is that my handwriting’s atrocious and my spelling’s not a lot better, so a typed and printed letter from me would probably be preferred by most people. So that’s what I did with the poor girl who was on the end of my Facebook reply - I’ve printed a personal letter, signed my own name and an additional short message in pen, and sent it with her Xmas card in a handwritten envelope. I know it will make her smile, and that makes me happy too.

I’ve also made an effort this year with my Xmas cards. Last year I printed all the addresses and postage online and stuck the huge stickers on each envelope. This year I wrote them all by hand and used real stamps - you know, the kind you can tear off and ’save’ for when Blue Peter starts collecting them again. I thoroughly enjoyed using my smooth black pen, and sticking a little festive stamp on each envelope. It was with a sense of pride that I posted them.

I love this time of year because the post is so exciting. Out with the bills and in with a variety of little envelopes with an exciting festive treat inside. Admittedly, the majority of cards we receive in my house are from distant relatives of my husband, most of whom I’ve never met, but it doesn’t really matter - it makes me feel ‘popular’ to have a few cards, even if most of them aren’t really for me.

When it comes to personal writing, online blogging has replaced journals and diaries for many people, and in some ways that’s something I miss too. I still have the diaries I wrote as a child and teenager, and it’s amazing looking back at them now - seeing how my writing changed depending on how I was feeling, and all the little notes squeezed along the edges of each page, and doodles in the corners. Those kind of journals are the sort to end up in museums in a hundred years time - but no-one’s going to bother about my rants over at Blogger!

Anyway, my point is that it takes a lot of effort to write something by hand - and when someone makes that special effort, whether it’s for themselves or someone else, it makes the communication so much more meaningful. I meet children these days who type better than they can write, who know how to send a text but have never heard of a fountain pen - and I can’t help feeling there’s something wrong with that.

[Jules]

About the author

Jules runs the largest eraser emporium in the world (AFAIK) and you can find out more at originalerasers.co.uk - follow @Julesxv or @OriginalErasers on Twitter.

Jules also runs FirstSigns with me, and is a keen writer with an eye for detail like an electron microscope.

Let me give you an example. As an editor, I was recently handed some copy that I knew had been crafted with care and attention. Without doubt (as was proved later on in the review process) the authors were content experts and educated people. I don’t mind admitting that when it comes to English grammar, as she be taught in school, their education will certainly have been more thorough than mine.

So it was with some trepidation that I read through the article, knowing that any changes I made would need to be justified because these authors have a belief in their own ability and do not trust me or my role. It does not feel good to be mistrusted, I can tell you, but the only way to gain trust is to act in a trustworthy manner and earn it; so it’s no use pouting about it, I just have to behave professionally and do a damn good job.

I read through the article and it’s almost perfectly written. But from a comms point of view it is too wordy and too complicated. My eyes tire and I grow bored - I think about how our readers will feel and I surmise that they will not make the effort to follow the convoluted sentences. But I can’t simply say to the pedantic authors ‘it’s too complex‘ - I need to be specific in my critique, as otherwise one ends up being judgmental, rather than merely professionally critical. Oh, as an aside, I use the word ‘pedantic’ as a descriptor, not as a judgment word OK? Pedantry can refer to a hawk-like eye for detail and should not be used as a term of abuse; not all the time anyway!

My concern focuses on two main points; the use of commas to break up sentences into dependent or independent clauses, and the use of the word ‘effect‘.

The authors come back to me very strongly (that’s a euphemism for ‘arrogantly’ - see, I can be judgmental!) explaining that ‘effect’, rather than ‘affect’ is the correct word because the sentence requires a (second) noun. They are of course quite correct in their assessment.

Sentences are made up of a subject (often a noun phrase) and a predicate (often a verb phrase). You can look-up predicate online to see how many grammatical structures can be part of the predicate.

As the authors pointed out, the clause in the contentious sentence worked well with ‘an effect’ as a noun. I couldn’t argue. But I know that the synonym for ‘effect’ is ‘result‘ and I was adamant that the meaning they were wishing to convey was ‘influence‘. A synonym for ‘influence’ is ‘affect’, but ‘affect’ is only rarely a noun, so the authors were certain that I was wrong.

This is what I mean by the difference between good writing and good communications. Sympathising with the reader, I wanted to simplify the multi-clausal sentences the authors had written, and ensure the vocabulary was easy to understand. Sentences that are skipped over by the brain (because they’re lacking in information or are perceived to be too complex to bother with) perform no useful service. Sentences that have to be read twice, or hold the attention of the eyes and brain because they don’t make immediate sense, damage the efficacy of the communication. (Much like when I use the word ‘efficacy‘ instead of ‘effectiveness‘ - breaking my own rules about simplicity and directness.)

The authors believed that I didn’t know the difference between ‘effect’ and ‘affect’, even though we all agreed that we were looking for a synonym of ‘influence‘ (hence my desire to use the word ‘affect’) and I doubt that I’ve convinced the authors of my expertise and understanding, and I will have some way further to gain their trust.

I guess I didn’t enjoy the review process, and neither did they.

In the end we (I) re-wrote the multi-clausal sentence just a little to remove the need for a second noun (’effect’) so as to be able to use the word ‘affect’ correctly. The sentence ended up being a little shorter and easier to read, which as a communicator was my sole intention.

Through the email and phone exchanges I learnt to appreciate people’s pride in their education and knowledge, and I was reminded how important it is to us humans (I include myself here) to be ‘right’ when the ultimate goal should be to consider the reader, and the impact our communications have on the audience.

If you want perfect, Lawyer School English then you’ll need to brush up on your grammar, but if you want excellent communications that move your audiences then you’ll want to re-write those troubling sentences - you’ll want to focus on how the article will be read and understood.

Good writing or good comms? Good communications encompasses good writing, but good (perfectly grammatical) writing is not always good communication.

[Wedge]

Nathanael is a designer within the corporate world, an artist in the real world, and a sometime writer in other worlds. It’s great to have him join us here at kilobox communiqué.

Picture if you will; a pulsing light, from a source that you cannot determine, suddenly transforms before your very eyes into the indicator lamp on a passing car in your rear-view mirror. The car eases into the passing lane revealing the driver to be a slender and sophisticated woman in her thirties driving a luxury saloon whose exotic styling matches her own. She smiles at you showing she has a wicked and mischievous side capable of wild and sensual acts for those she chooses to spend her time with.

Before you can truly drink it all in, the car has passed you by, and sped off into the distance, leaving nothing but the empty, winding Italian country road for company.

Moments later you arrive at your destination; a luxurious house sculpted from concrete, glass, and steel. The light is on in the bedroom and you enter. You smile as the mysterious woman puts her arms around you, and you kiss.

Now that I have your attention, I’d like to broach the subject of engagement. Not the type that involves rings, although that can be just as difficult to successfully achieve. I’m talking about engaging with your audience.

For the purposes of this, I’m going to assume that you have something to sell. I’ll have to trust that your technical information is accurate and available (not to mention accessible in all senses of the word) for those who want it, although it’s certainly not always a requirement; perfume adverts (be they for the male or female demographic and / or variety) and M&S adverts rely purely on the sexed-up imagery without any need to back them up with facts.

What I’m going to suggest is slightly controversial to people with no real exposure to the marketing and advertising worlds; make things ‘sexy‘.

Sexy doesn’t always mean overtly sexual; human beings are all about pleasure centres: use attractive imagery, make your audience feel good, make them feel smart, make them think “Yeah, I’d do them / I’d love to be like them!” or (in some rare cases), sleep with them.

Flatter them, but don’t speak down to them.

People adore being adored. They love to be loved. They want to be wanted.

Use it.

You’ll likely have twenty seconds before the parts of the brain that deal with logic cotton on and decide that the sleek curves of the car that ostensibly suggest a feline grace (but which actually suggest in the mind of the viewer that the car is sleek and graceful like a woman) aren’t actually that attractive, and that they don’t really care that much about the style or desirability of that Yaris because women won’t really be throwing themselves at them just because they think you drive one.

Use it well, and use it quickly.

Engage.

[Nathanael]

About the author

Nathanael is a professional artist, working in a visual communications field. Amongst his many jobs are interface design and marketing materials where he has to evaluate who the end user is, and who the target audience is.

Don’t put the weather on the intranet home page

I must remember to see what else they have to say about intranets.

[Wedge]

Intranets seem to be the biggest thing to happen to companies / Internal Communication in the last ten years, but that’s old news. The WWW has moved forward and intranets should too, that’s obvious.

The rise of Social Media (’Web 2.0′) has given us an indication that people expect to be part of the conversation, and want to engage in two-way conversations. It’s no longer acceptable to treat people as the voiceless recipients, the passive receivers of our broadcasts.

So, am I supposed to be impressed with intranets that allow (moderated) comments and direct input from the audience? Is internal blogging the revolution I seek?

Yes and no. Yes, making use of blogging platforms will enable people to better connect with the corporate body, and with the CEOs and Directors who should no longer be hidden behind the curtain. Yes, bottom-up communication and direct feedback is to be enjoyed and respected, and yes, perhaps even User Generated Content can be part of our intranet communications.

But no, this isn’t revolutionary, it’s just evolutionary. Even before the World Wide Web was born in ‘92 / ‘93 it was conceived to be a two-way street. Blogging and Wikis may have come late to the party, but they were always envisaged. And anyway, many people were online long before the WWW was invented, and two-way conversations were the norm among the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) rooms and Bulletin Boards. Oh yes, the interactive web may have been a ’90s invention, but the Internet has been around for a lot longer (but you knew that, right?).

So what am I looking for?

I’m not sure; this is just an exploratory article to raise the question. I know what I’m not looking for, and maybe that will help define what I am hoping for.

I’m not looking for:

• Videos of CEOs doing the Queen’s speech - we all sit in open-plan offices and we don’t have headphones;
• Podcasts as part of our internal training resources - while these should already be available, let’s face it, it’s just an audio recording. Without an internal version of iTunes to keep us subscribed, it’s not easy or revolutionary.
• More PDFs and PowerPoint slide-shows on the intranet - it’s fricking awful when incompetent technophobes dump a load of cut n paste data into a PowerPoint file and get it published. They should use the tools as appropriate for the content and the reader; a well crafted visually appealing web page would do everyone a favour.

Does that narrow it down? What am I looking for within Internal Communications 3.0? I’m not sure, but I think it might have something to do with attitude.

I’m so sick of comms being so top-down. I’m so sick of comms having the confidence of a pubescent nerd at the school dance. Internal Communications, while governed by the need to be accurate and considerate, is also governed by fear.

We fear upsetting some imaginary individual so much that we hold off, we wait, we double-check, we re-review and we re-write - until we’ve squeezed all the interest, life and actual ‘news’ out of our communications. We end up telling people stuff they’ve already heard from the water cooler.

Blogging has built its momentum up from the acronym BEBO (and yes, this used to refer to the youthful social network in the UK of the same name) - Blog Early Blog Often.

“Write Early Write Often - Inform People Immediately, Keep Them Updated; Publish and be Damned.”

But instead, managers will remind us that it’s ‘not the right time‘ to go public. Internal Communications professionals, like myself, will nod sagely and agree that we need to be ‘timely’ with the news of plant closures. Yet every day we wait is another day that the BBC of Financial Times might gazump us. Never ever let your staff discover bad news from the media!

OK, let me slow down; I do agree that timeliness is important, and that it’s often dangerous to spread news like wildfire before the facts and ramifications are known. But my point is, I see managers and communicators holding-back on a daily basis, rather than seeking the right time to communicate. Holding back because we know there will be a back-lash, or some heavy feedback.

I say celebrate the feedback! Instead of creating (or rather, as well as) a list of ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ before any such questions have been asked, create a real FAQ after the fact, and show people that you are dealing with feedback. Too often managers tell me that they are indeed dealing with feedback, and responding to individual emails - yet they don’t tell the audience this, they just hide behind their email programs and face only those people who dare send an email. If only we would publish the dialogue so that everyone could gain insight, and everyone could see the company cared enough to really tackle the issues.

What do I want from Comms 3.0 then?

It’s something to do with being courageous in our communications. Knowing we can’t please everyone, we should ‘publish and be damned’ - we certainly get paid enough to manage that damnation, and our people and our companies deserve more than just stoic announcements (and pronouncements) from on-high HR and late non-news.

What do you expect from your company communications? What do you give to your communications? What are you frustrated by? This could turn into a manifesto for honest comms with impact - what say you?

[Wedge]

Forgive my spelling mistakes; I’ve tided this piece up now. I was writing on the train and then I had meetings all day - no excuse I know, but I really wanted to get this article published and so I got it online before it was ready.

Find your current balance

Consider the channels you and your company use to communicate:

• email
• intranet
• team talk and management cascade
• town hall
• video briefing
• blogs and comments
• message board / forum

Now consider the usage of your channels - do you see which ones tend to get used by ‘the company’ and the directors? Would you say that there’s a preponderance of mass email communication, perhaps with a lot of intranet news stories?

How do you balance these broadcasting channels with the need to hear from your people on the ground? Where are the feedback channels?

Don’t rely on email for feedback

“But anyone can email me with their observations, ideas or concerns” your CEO says. Yeah, sure. But how many of your staff know that? And what do they really think will happen when they send a frank email to the boss? Nothing? Or something worse…?

If you want people to feel listened to, you can’t just expect people to take the initiative and blast of emails to the board of directors. Why would people feel comfortable doing that?

Email feedback channels have to be promoted, and the use of them needs to be publicised. Imagine that Geoff sends an email to the CEO observing that contractors at the sites have no car park spaces allocated to them, even if they’ve been ‘with’ the company for over a year. Not only should the CEO reflect and respond to Geoff, but the Internal Communications team should work with the CEO to get something on the intranet to show the CEO’s response. It doesn’t have to be front page news, but a regularly updated section of the intranet with CEO conversational pieces can help the staff see what happens when they use a feedback channel.

“You can always email me” I say - and you can, and I’ll make sure I demonstrate I’ve listened.

So, what channels have I missed, and how do you solicit feedback from the workforce?

[Wedge]

New home

We’ve moved from a provincial hamlet to a provincial city. I’m still near the centre of the country, and I still take an eon to get to work in the morning, but our house, while being a standard box, is lovely and more spacious. Our new city is bijou and incredibly unbelievably friendly. People say ‘good morning‘ to you in the street; it’s quite a shock.

We’re still unboxing things, and I’m finally getting hundreds of books I haven’t seen in months on to nice shelves our spacious home office. But we end up doing most of our work in our cosy lounge; we really have moved on to laptops these days.

Christmas came early

Graciously, I’ve been allowed to open my present early, because it’s a ‘netbook’ (a mini laptop) and I need it for my various personal projects (like now, blogging while on the train to work). I’ve got the Eee PC 901, from Asus. I think it’s fair to say that Asus started the netbook revolution with their 701, and they set the standard of small form-factor and solid state drive (instead of a moving hard drive). Oh, and Linux. Yes, that’s right, I’m not using Windows half as much as I used to. My evenings are spent working on my Mac and now on my new Xandros GNU/Linux netbook. I love how fast it is to boot.

Man dates

Being in a new city means that we can either cloak ourselves in anonymity, or get out there and meet people and see what happens. While December is crazy-busy for us, we hope to find time to meet interesting people for the odd drink, and see if we can make friends and get involved with local affairs and what-not. I hope I can meet some adult roleplayers (White Wolf, Mage, etc.) but also we’re just looking for cool people to drag us out at the weekend for a good session in the pub / club.

The office

I must have been in my new job for over four months now. I guess I’m settling in. I had hoped to make more contacts and perhaps friends, but I’ve found that if I want to leave on time (which I need to, as I have a two hour commute) I have to work pretty solidly, and chat and distractions just make me overheat; there’s so much to do when you’re in Internal Communications for a big regional company. And I have to ‘fix’ the intranet coz it sucks a lot.

We went out for an office meal on Friday, and this (charming) 19 year old asked me if this “was my first job since leaving uni?” - how utterly awesome of him to think me so young! I can barely remember university!

The real meaning of Christmas

I don’t celebrate Christmas, I celebrate friends and family at Yule (so yes, I’m happy to put a tree up). The winter solstice marks the darkest time of the year and it’s the right time to reflect on the year past and plan for the year ahead. I don’t have much family to speak of, and I hope that my friends will remember me this Yuletide.

This Yule I shall be meeting up with @Julesxv to discuss marketing and diversification of her originalerasers.co.uk (@OriginalErasers) business, and we’ll be cogitating on the future development of www.FirstSigns.org.uk (@FirstSigns) - our established and respected voluntary organisation. I smell charity registration (again) and expansion, don’t you?

Then, there’s a plan to meet my partner’s family over Christmas dinner. Nervous? Yes. Then, the very next day we’ll be driving through the snow that won’t have fallen all the way up north to spend Boxing Day drinking around the gambling tables with my school friends from yore. I hope to see my brother too.

Party

Come the new year, and I shall celebrate my birthday proper (albeit a month late) with a house-warming bash. Food and drinks for everyone! That should inject some life into my new sleepy neighbourhood. If I haven’t invited you yet, please drop me a hint!

Reading

I’m just finishing Naomi Klein’s ‘No Logo‘ - even though it’s old now, it’s so well researched and so well written that it’s a joy to read, and has opened a window on the global economy of sweatshops to me. I have changed my mind about global brands and out-sourced production, and I want to know the working conditions in India, China and Indonesia now. I need to know if they’ve improved (unlikely if what I see on BBC 2 is anything to go by). How can I buy clothes that are ethically and fairly produced when the factory workers are divested from the branded company? Who’s safe to buy from?

I’m about to start reading Frater U.D.’s “High Magick II” - which could be an expansion of the previous edition, or an actual sequel; I don’t know. I’m disappointed to find that U.D. seems to have written an introduction to historical shamanism and magick traditions from around the world. I have read such details time and time before; I grow weary of ‘introductions’ to past traditions; I have such works on my shelf already. What I need is practical (not spiritual) ideas and aspirational workings for everyday life. I want to learn how other magickians live their lives, and what they do with themselves - what do they count as success, and how do they account for failures?

Me? well, I did loads and loads of magick when I was a little younger, and over the years it’s paid off. I now have almost everything my heart desires, and no, it hasn’t been easy, because I enjoy work and the achievements it brings. But I am ’successful’ as I self-define. I live by magick, but I don’t demand much from it. Will you be having a magickal 2009?

Should you wish to know more about my magickal workings, you can check out my Chaos Magick Sigils and follow me on Twitter on @ChaosMagick - cheers! So Mote It Be!

[Wedge]