National Influence - what's that all about?

In my last blog (read it below the one) I touched on vision. In this blog I'm going to talk about national influence and the type of vision required achieving that. I’m not going to bore you with the complexities but rather briefly signpost the way forward.

To even begin to reach a position of national influence in communications for any organisation, it has to decide what that means to them:

• Is it a supporting role to bridge the gap between the core business and political lobbying in which it can top and tail the efforts of an executive board?
• Is it part of the overall strategy to grow a business and bring new business on board either directly or indirectly?
• Where a business has multiple brands, is it to help grow awareness of them and the work they do/ products they have?
• Should you turn your back on the brands and concentrate on the core business?

To do the latter would surely be to the detriment of both brands and core business. That said one can only do so much so we have to ask ourselves how best to spend our time.

A huge part of national influence can be achieved through talking and listening. A very difficult thing to qualify so it takes a brave and trusting organisation to charge someone with that role – to understand there is no mathematical or work evaluation that can identify where, or even if, it is having an impact. Nonetheless, for those brave enough to enter this arena the unseen rewards can be endless.

Profile = national influence. Don’t underestimate the importance of a simple tweet exchange between your communications professional and the media.

These days some of my most effective work is done via private DMs (Direct Messages) on Twitter and Facebook.

I’m presently working on a temporary contract at Bromford Group and it’s really refreshing to see the trust they put in all their colleagues. They take the view that they trust their people with the most vulnerable in society and to going into other people’s homes, so they have decided they should trust them online too. It takes a brave business to do that but a wise one nonetheless.

It is as much about talking to people face to face, by telephone, email or social media as it ever will be about your next press release.

So to the questions posed at the start:
• Yes it can top and tail to any lobbying and increase its effectiveness.
• Yes it should be part of your overall business strategy and can bring new business.
• Yes it should include growing awareness of brands.
• Of course it should play a key role in brand communications.

Allow your communications professional charged with national influence to cherry pick the projects they work on to the benefit of national influence – trust them like Bromford trust their people with social media – have vision.

The future’s bright – the future’s influence.

IDEAS - it's not a dirty word.

I started this blog and, after posting a couple of press releases I liked, stopped. The reason being, a blog is not really the place to copy and paste press releases no matter how excited you are about their content. After all I send them out to anyone I would want to/need to see them. Secondly, I wasn't sure what this blog should be about. I wanted to write one but is that reason enough? I decided the answer was no.

So instead, I will write about things I care about. I'm now 8 weeks into my career at Bromford and rather than the much touted 3 month window of opportunity to see where changes could be made, the ideas seem to be growing. Equally, I feel like I’ve been here years yet also like I’m on day one. In part that is because I can see how much enthusiasm being on the radio and television has brought to many colleagues.

This soft old, welsh fool is so heartened by when I see colleagues telling each other they are "stars" now that they have been in the media. It's great and inspires so many ideas and the reason to help push the company on in the great work we do for the people that need us. We talk to them about being empowered and what could be more empowering than seeing people inspired by something you have contributed to?

Some of the ideas I come up with I have to stop and check myself. I know they are just too grand or the timing is maybe not quite right. I encourage my colleagues and friends in the media to talk, to bounce ideas around, to support each other. Let’s have a million ideas. It doesn’t matter if we reject 999,999 of them if that one idea we carry forwards makes a difference. My apologies if that sounds a little airy-fairy but trust me it works.

Colleagues and media friends have been so nice about the No Postcodes video http://bit.ly/qi1s6F but there were so any people that were important to that. I wouldn’t have had the idea if others hadn’t started the process of talking and doing. I remember it being a small mention about an event we were going to be putting on, being told to list the event on the NHF website. The vision can be greater thought I.

I’ve heard people say we were “lucky with the timing.” We weren’t – we spotted an opportunity for the people we support – we showed vision of where we could take it, we added a bit of us - add a bit of you in what you do.

We need vision, we need to encourage people to have vision, we need to be prepared to fail – if there is vision and an understanding of what we can achieve then I would never criticise a colleague that stuck their neck out to that aim. A friend at work the other day spoke to me about a project he is working on and said: “I need my No Postcodes Lee. What can we do?” - so refreshing.

He has seen that there are opportunities beyond what we have done historically. One of our directors was really encouraging when he wrote a comment about getting on and doing. That's what it's all about for me - what it's always been about and now I'm somewhere that encourages that. "Uh oh," thinks I. There are 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week and there is much to be done but we can achieve it all together. We can work smart and achieve the world – never lose that view of the world. We get older, put on suits with pin-stripes and it can disappear, people can even begin to view it as childish naivety. Keep the belief inside you though and it will shine outside.

We need to understand the comment “So what?” Don’t feel rejected if someone says that but instead think good point. If you can’t answer the question with complete conviction then it’s back to the drawing board not to the corner of the room to hang your head. Always believe the next idea is a great one. Looking back at this text I can see I’m at risk of becoming evangelical – I try not to be. I don’t want to drag anyone with me, I want people pushing me up the hill. I want to be in awe of you and your ideas. The MD of Bromford Support was saying "So What?" about something we were discussing the other day. He was right. So what? Who cares? Who are we telling? What are we telling them? Where is the end goal?

I believe in strategy - some people feel the need to write that down, others need to read about it, others just get it and get on with it. Of course we need to produce strategies, and it is important to be able to convey what we are trying to achieve to colleagues involved, but what is more important is always the doing – the implementation.

It is natural that some people will be against change but that is no bad thing. Those people provide the opportunity to check yourself - consider the flaws in any idea. It's the easiest thing in the world to come up with amazing ideas - harder to think why they wouldn't work or shouldn't go ahead. Some people will naturally feel threatened by ideas. They really shouldn't. Embrace them, challenge them, go with the flow - contribute.

There are many ways you can benefit the organisation you work for. I have an idea for re-structuring the team I work in and how they work to the better benefit of not just the team but the entire organization and how to assist in achieving its key objectives. It’s not my job role to do that but I’m going to put them forward as the colleague engagement at Bromford encourages you do that - how good is that? Very good I'll tell you.

At Bromford I feel I can do that – that, on the whole, my big size 12s are nimble enough not to tread on too many toes just by sharing an idea and it will be welcomed in the creative and well intentioned way it is meant.

Ok so I’m starting to move from evangelical to advertorial but it’s true. Every organisation can learn from what how Bromford is operating and every organisation can learn from each other.

So to the end of my advertorial/evangelical blog today.

I’ll write another blog soon - I'm off to talk my wife into moving to Hampton Lucy not Shenstone - wish me luck.