Busiest Year Ever.

What a year!

In the past 12 months, I ...

- relocated with my family from Dallas to Washington, D.C.
- started a new job at an amazing school for girls in Bethesda, Maryland
- taught at a week-long advancement academy in Colorado
- graduated from Seton Hall University with a master's in strategic communications and leadership
- began a post-grad marketing certification program at Georgetown
- and perfected a recipe for coconut-crusted tilapia that my children adore.

All in all...life is busy, but blessed!

And as I acclimate to a life without grad school homework, I thought what better use of all this extra time than to dust off the ol' blogger app and get to writing. So here I am... back in the blogging saddle, on the east coast, on the second day of spring, with a windchill factor below freezing, and reflecting on how far I've come and how much further I get to go.

First order of business...start reading the pile of professional resource books on my nightstand and report back to you all with helpful tips. The lucky numero uno is Natalie Goldberg's "Writing Down the Bones" - an oldie but goodie on finding your voice and telling authentic stories.

Sounds good to me...let's get to it!

What's in a name? (Hint: rhymes with grand.)

Do you ever use nouns as adjectives? 

For example...as teenagers in the 90's my friends and I used to say, "That is the bomb!" if we really liked something or we would say, "That is so not the bomb!" if we didn't.  Of course, every adult within earshot would look at "us crazy kids" and ask for an interpretation.

Sidenote: Now "the bomb," although humorously nostalgic for me, has taken on the same "mom, please don't say that in front of my friends" quality for my children that "groovy" had for my generation.

But seriously...think about it.  If the name of your school was as an adjective...what would it mean?  At my school, "That is so Parish" would mean genuine, unpretentious, welcoming and innovative.

Once you can determine the emotions your school's name evokes, then you have the beginnings of your brand messaging.

Don't like your brand?  That is way beyond what any blog can do for you…it may be time to call in the consultants.

What can we learn from Super Bowl Ads?

It's my favorite time of the year (besides Christmas, Thanksgiving, summer vacation and Talk like a Pirate Day) and I can't wait to see the Super Bowl ads tonight!  It's a ridiculous amount of money... $3.5 million for a 30 second ad in 2012, and that doesn't include production costs. The value, however, goes on much longer than 30 seconds.

For weeks to come... at work, at home, on television, radio and most notably on YouTube...these commercials will be viewed and talked about over and over again. Why? Not simply because they were played during the Super Bowl, but because the advertisers brought their "A" game to the right people at the right time.

What can independent school communication professionals learn from these ads?

Let's peel it back...

   "A" game - the commercial is GOOD! (quality production, evokes emotion)

   The right people - the commercial is relevant (appropriate message for the intended audience)

   The right time - most people are watching and celebrating together (create memorable experience)

Watch the new Honda Ad that will be featured this evening...

Next time you are creating a communication piece use these three standards as a guide. Is it a quality piece, with relevant information that will engage my audience?  Of course, you won't need to spend millions, but hopefully it will help you raise millions.

Happy Super Bowl Sunday!

Brand v. Logo

"A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person.

You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well."   - Jeff Bezos

The words brand and logo are often used interchangeably at schools, but make sure you clarify these terms before you embark on any new endeavor in your communications office. It would be quite frustrating if the Board of Trustees asked you to create a new brand for the school only to find out that all they really wanted was a new logo. (aka- corporate identity)

What's the difference? You can easily identify a company's logo, but brand is sometimes more difficult to articulate. Just remember: {brand = emotion} and  {logo = art}. 

Let's use Starbuck's as an example. Of course they made headlines when they changed their logo to commemorate their 40th Anniversary last year, but the brand remains the same...it is all about creating an experience of personal service, inviting atmosphere, quality product, and consistency. That's the brand...the feeling you get when you think about it.  Good, bad or otherwise.

As schools we should embrace our individual brands and strive to articulate it in everything we communicate.

And if it really is a rebranding your trustees want, then hold on to your hat and call in reinforcements.  (I highly recommend Ian Symmonds and Associates...they have helped us beyond measure with Parish's 2011 Strategic Vision.)  Of course, after you create a new strategic vision you will need to create a communication plan to go with it, but let's save that for another day. It's late and I need a grande soy latte, extra hot with cinnamon on top.

P.S. - About the quote...I dig Jeff Bezos and he knows a thing or two about brand. In 2010, Amazon.com was named the most trusted brand in America.

Communicating a Shared Vision

In Module 2 of my MASCL program we are studying organizational culture and John Kotter is my new transformational hero. Here is a post I wrote earlier today that could be helpful if you are attempting a major transition:

In order to effectively communicate a shared vision, Kotter explains that communication must be "face-to-face whenever possible" (Deetz et all, 2000, p. 45). There are two important actions leaders need to take in order to ensure that the vision meets Kotter's vision criteria of imaginable, desirable, feasible, focused, flexible and communicable – engage in dialogue and demonstrate through actions.

Engage in Dialogue
“Presentation is not communication” (p. 45). Leaders must engage the constituents in dialogue rather than continuously bombard them with monologue and taglines. “Communication takes two – one to have meaning and send a message and another to hear it and decide what it means” (p. 45). Constituents are more willing to commit to the shared vision if they took part in creating it. Hence, the word shared. Ultimately, everyone wants to know, “What’s in it for me?” (p.45).

Demonstrate through Actions
Leaders need to do more than “preach the values,” they need to “get directly involved in the change effort” (Deetz et al, p.45). Nothing can derail a major transformation faster than hypocrisy. When leaders’ actions do not align with the shared vision, they destabilize the possibility of a successful transformation. The shared vision serves as the framework for the transformation and once established, it should be communicated with leaders and the internal constituency in order to help them articulate what Edgar Schein (2010) calls “espoused values” (p. 43).

NOTE: At Parish, we created a message framing document as a reference to help our brand evangelists articulate our shared vision. We also converted the doc to an iBook for easy access on smart phones. We encourage our constituents to let us know if what we are espousing is not congruent with what they are experiencing. Transparency is key when managing change.


References:

Deetz, S. A., Tracy, S. J., & Simpson, J. L. (2000). Leading organizations through transition: Communication and culture change. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc

Schein, E. H.(2010). Organizational culture and leadership, 4th edition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Prezi

Prezi has been my "go to" presentation tool since some of the high school kids told me all about it in May 2010. It's as simple or as sophisticated as you want to make it.  And best yet...it's free for teachers, staff and students with school e-mail addresses.

I used it today to present on one of my favorite leaders of all time - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  Check it out...all you have to do is click [more] then [full screen] then forward the slides by clicking the arrow at the bottom of the screen. Of course, you won't have my witty banter to go along with the slides...but hopefully you will enjoy the presentation just the same.

Launching a Strategic Vision

In the past, organizations were limited on how they could communicate a message to their targeted audience. And when it came to spreading the word about our 2011 Strategic Vision we decided to think outside of the text heavy printed "box" and create a "buzz" with an amazingly simplistic printed piece.

We then followed up with professional, but authentic, videos about our shared vision of the future.  It was a 6-month roll out beginning with branding the campaign as "Remarkable Realities" and launching with this large 12x12 printed brochure. Since as an organization we have cut-back tremendously on our printing, this size of printed piece arriving in the mailbox of every constituent successfully grabbed their attention.

Again, we worked with our BFF's at DL&a to create a piece that would knock it out of the park...and it did!