Become a Strategic Communicator
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Presented at the 2016 Summit of the Society for Technical Communication in Anaheim, CA. Presented on January 18, 2017 to the STC Philadelphia Metro Chapter via webinar.
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Become a Strategic Communicator
- 1. Become a Strategic Communicator David L. Caruso, MAPW
- 2. Intro and overview •Why are we here? •Strategic thinking – what is it and why should you care. •“Hoot…hoot” #STC16 @DCCD
- 3. #STC16 @DCCD Can you see the big picture? leaders engineers http://www.4castplus.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/buried-by-content.jpg http://www.peaktechnical.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/careers-foto-peak.png
- 4. Your story •How do you feel at work? •How do your coworkers view your role? •“I feel underappreciated.” •“If I could only find a project where I could shine…” #STC16 @DCCD
- 5. Your goal internal monologue should be… “I solve problems” “I add value” “I improve quality” “I make my role critical” #STC16 @DCCD
- 7. VPN Value Worth, useful, helpful, advantage Priority Primary, most important (may not be most urgent) Nexus Connection, convergence #STC16 @DCCD
- 8. #STC16 @DCCD Spark The Role of Strategic Thinking in Business Planning https://is.gd/DCCD_StratThink http://www.campinc.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Bright-Idea-Bulb-343x223.jpg
- 10. What is Strategic Thinking? Strategic Thinking is a planning process that applies innovation, strategic planning and operational planning to develop business strategies that have a greater chance for success. #STC16 @DCCD
- 11. What is Strategic Thinking? a process innovation, strategic planning and operational planning success. #STC16 @DCCD
- 13. #STC16 @DCCD Why is Strategic Thinking Important? •Organizational need •Location, location, location •It fits squarely within the communicator’s zone https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/15/15/6a/15156a7d4d70632df504ef7962f2db4f.jpg
- 14. #STC16 @DCCD First step…Research Who/what are your current research inputs? •Internal = employees •External = customers and the competition •How do you get the information you need?
- 15. Benchmarking
- 16. C B inputs – how do your customers tell you what they need? B C outputs – how do you tell your customers what you are offering them? C C ? – You do know your customers could be talking to each other about you, right?
- 17. E B inputs – how do your employees tell you what they need? B E outputs – how does your org tell their employees what they need to know? E E ? – You do know employees gossip about the company, right?
- 18. Benchmarking Who are the market leaders in your sector? What is your source for industry best practices? Who do you compare your outputs to/with?
- 20. #STC16 @DCCD Innovation • Change happens • What is the change management plan? • What will the new normal look like? • How can you help?
- 22. Mission •Mission Statement – highest level of this process, should happen for organization and for “mission critical” sub-units (branches, teams, centers etc.) •May be a good first step but revisit at the end to make sure it is still relevant #STC16 @DCCD
- 23. #STC16 @DCCD Vision = “We believe…” A vision statement should answer the question “What do we believe?”
- 24. #STC16 @DCCD Vision Statement Example - Apple Apple’s current (2015) vision statement was introduced by CEO Tim Cook, who stated: “We believe that we are on the face of the earth to make great products and that’s not changing…We believe in the simple not the complex. We believe in saying no to thousands of projects, so that we can really focus on the few that are truly important and meaningful to us… http://panmore.com/apple-mission-statement- vision-statement
- 25. #STC16 @DCCD Wait, what did he say? = VPN “We believe in saying no to thousands of projects, so that we can really focus on the few that are truly important and meaningful to us…”
- 26. #STC16 @DCCD Goals • SMART in construction • Should fit within the context of higher levels and written in the same style (mission and vision) http://www.caneprevost.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Haley-SMART.jpg
- 28. #STC16 @DCCD Gaps • Funding and Staffing are the usual suspects • Try to dig deeper…what is in the way of making the goals happen? • Are there admin or engineering approaches to closing these gaps? NOT THIS…
- 30. •Action plans – how are you going to do the things you said you wanted to do in your goals? •Measure/Evaluate • How will you know when you’ve achieved your goals? If so…[what]? If not…[what]? Operationalization* #STC16 @DCCD *This may top my list for most hated business jargon!
- 31. Benchmarking
- 34. #STC16 @DCCD Is this role right for you? •Investment •Deep Commitment •Institutional Knowledge •Support •Supervisory •Mentor
- 35. Pathways •On the job training •Mentor/Mentee •Back to school •Network #STC16 @DCCD
- 36. QUESTIONS
- 37. #STC16 @DCCD Resources • Initial spark article • Covey’s Time Management Quadrants • Randy Pausch’s Time Management Lecture to UVA • Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? By Seth Godin • Developing Your Organizational Power and Influence – Andrea Ames LavaCon Keynote 2015
Notas do Editor
- Good afternoon
- I’m building a 20th century career in the 21st century I’ve always been fascinated by those who are seemingly “in the right place at the right time” and what the story is behind those moments
- When people hear strategy and strategic thinking/planning there is a certain amount of fear/misunderstanding Some people say they just don’t have time or interest in strategy and so I ask a simple question – can you see the big picture? If so what do you see? Depending on the structure of your organization, some leaders can’t escape what Steven Covey calls the “whirlwind” of seemingly urgent things which may or not be important – they are consumed by email and meetings so their ability to do important things which are not urgent is vastly diminished If your organization depends on engineers, they will tell you that strategy is not in their DNA – they are minutia focused with purpose – the details, the problem solving is what you want them doing but the degree to which they contribute to the organization’s outputs mean that they need to be involved in the process. You work with them, you know them so you can relate.
- And now for the Audience Participation portion of the show What is your story and where do you tell it? Do people understand what you do? Do you take every opportunity to practice what you preach – Controlled vocabulary, clear message, repetition, SEO – findability. Example – LinkedIn “Headline”
- What you say matters if you want to retain your position and eventually advance
- Put yourself in the right place at the right time. Align your strengths with the needs of your organization
- I have spoken previously about the spark that ignites an idea which eventually turns into a concept – presentation This is the article and reference that started me thinking about the ideas covered in this talk, I really liked the model they presented because it looked at more than just the planning and talked about the thinking process. Another good one is “Design Thinking” but we will save that for a future conference presentation.
- This is the model presented in the article and Horray! There’s a visual. Research first – you must do your homework. Good news, you are (or should be) doing this
- If we distill that statement we get this which of course I would like to visualize it (and also make it understandable for engineers) so you get this:
- This simplification also shows you that this investment of work will result in a WIN! There has to be some cake (reward) at the end
- Can you go back and forth between your left and right brain? Where do you sit in your org structure? Are the silos still there? Are there still permissions required to share/play outside your organizational box – think sandbox and sharing from kindergarden
- So like I said, there’s homework. You aren’t going to do this tomorrow unless you are checking off some serious boxes as we move thru this material. So if you are in professional communication or documentation or content strategy, you are inside of the organization and possibly further within a group/team and that organization doesn’t exist in a vacuum so let’s look at it like this…
- I see myself (and possibly you) at the center of the inner circle – that represents you within your team/unit structure – within the company/organization – that’s the triangle.
- Now that you’ve done your homework, you can make that change – innovate STORY TIME Our office needed to update our website – front and back end. This represented a serious investment of time, money effort. Planning to do this moved the content authoring from a programmer/coder to the SME using our faux CMS. That was going to involve some serious changes to the SME’s responsibilities. This content would require review and oversight along with some structure. We approached it advocating for the user/reader/customer – what do they need and how can we best deliver it?
- So for the purpose of this presentation I am equating innovation with change – this is deliberate because you most likely are not engineering the innovation, you are going to have to deal with the change that the innovation will bring to your company. Without thinking about the change and its effect on the company, there will be trouble. Don’t have a change management plan, this seems like a good place to start in growing your ability to think strategically and add value to your organization.
- Every organization/team/unit needs to plan. These five are what I consider the bare-bones, least you can do to get the benefits strategic planning