Robert Paterson's Weblog

The Goddess Speaks - Public media

If I want to conjur up an image of the Goddess - a woman in her full power - I now tend to see Sue Schardt. Her full power resides in her ability to "see" and her track record that gives her trust in her own insight.

Here is her take on where we are now.

Lost socks

Robin returns from Florida tomorrow. I think for most men who have been married for more than 30 years that I am remarkably competent around the house. I have only eaten out once and have cooked and cleaned up after proper meals. Debby was impressed as she did the real cleaning today that the place is not a tip.  The garbage has been put out. The dogs walked. The plants watered. Dinner is planned for her return. BUT

Where do the socks go?

I less than a week I have lost 3.

Dave and Public radio

Dave had a great time as he got to know people in Public radio and TV last weeek. I can think of no one who has so much to offer than Dave. A marriage made in heaven?

Change for Public Media - Feet to the Fire

Mark sent out to the CEO group a great selection of reading. Best of all was we each got a copy of Kotter's book on Change "Our Iceberg is Melting" a fable about change. It clearly shows the issues that public media has been having in getting traction on how to cope with its own melting Iceberg. As I read the book, I could even name the names.

On the Wednesday, the key leaders of the system acknowledged that they had to act differently

So here is the challenge - let's look at Kotter's process for change and see where we are and what we have to do. Remember he tells us that ALL THE STEPS HAVE TO BE COMPLETED AND IN ORDER.

If we choose not to do this - then what have we chosen?

Set the stage -

1. Create a sense of urgency - Help other see the need for change and the importance of acting immediately. I think that New Realities did this and that IMA 2007 has added to this awakening. Enough people know what is happening and enough people have thought about the solutions - the system can snap too provided that the other parts of the process are thoroughly acted upon

2. Pull together the guiding team - Make sure that there is a powerful group guiding the change - one with leadership skills, credibility, communications ability, authority, analytical skills and a sense of urgency. This was the main recommendation that I made after New Realities. This was the agreement in the room last Wednesday. This is the key missing step. Why has this been so hard to do? Maybe Alan Deutschman can help us on that point. 

Decide what to do -

3. Develop the Change Vision and Strategy. Clarify how the future will be different from the past and how you can make that future a reality.  New Realities provided all the ideas needed to do this work. It just has to be formally done now. I doubt that this is hard to do. I know of many people who have a very clear idea of what this is and so do you.

Make it Happen -

4. Communicate for understanding and Buy In. Make sure that as many others as possibe understand and accept the vision and strategy. New Realities has prepared the ground. We have to set up the same kind of participative process that we expect to use with our listeners. Here is a massive cultural challenge for us - we who talk of shifting from one to many with our listeners fear losing control over the message. Again Alan can help here.

5. Empower others to act - Remove as many barriers as possible so that those who want to make the vision a reality can do so. I think that one of the reasons that DDC and the Music project are having such trouble is that they did not have the support of the prior parts of this process - they set out before the ground work had been done. I think that these can be fixed but the prior steps are the priority

6. Produce short term wins - Create some visible, unambigous successes as soon as possible. Can't be done if the prior steps are not in place. Unlikely that any expeditions will succeed if the foundation is not in place. Too much friction and not enough clarity.

7. Don't let up - Press harder and faster after the first successes. Be relentless with intiating change after change until the vision is a reality. Can't be done until the prior steps are complete.

Make it Stick -

8. Create a new culture. - Hold on to the new ways of behaving and make sure that they succeed until they become strong enough to replace old traditions. I would add beware of the sucking sound of the traditional

 

Public Media - An Agenda for Progress

For me the highlight of the IMA 2007 conference was Scott Anthony's brilliant talk. Here Todd Mundt offers his Coles Notes. I quote in full. Answering Todd's Questions at the end of his post is surely at the heart of the work to be done.

"Scott Anthony, President, Innosight, was one of the speaker at the CEO Seminar on Tuesday. Innosight was founded by Clayton Christensen, who is perhaps best known for his book, “The Innovator’s Dilemma.”

What follows are my somewhat fleshed out notes from Scott’s presentation:

He warned us that many of the advantages we feel we have in our industry can work against us in a time of innovation. I won’t go too deeply into the theory of Disruptive Innovation because Clayton Christensen has written a lot about it and so have others. But there are a few key elements: (and please excuse my paraphrasing)

1) Companies that fail are often the very companies that were leaders in their field just before the disruptive innovation.

2) When innovators appeared in their industries, companies ignored them because their products weren’t highly developed or they offered limited feature sets.

3) Through an iterative process, those innovators managed to create a compelling product that captured a segment of the market the leader had chosen not to serve. Also through that iterative process, the innovator’s product improved.

4) This is probably the most compelling observation: when you look back at the failed companies, they appear to have done everything right: they paid attention to their core customers and focused on serving them better. And yet they no longer exist or they’re a shell of their former selves.

Anthony laid out a series of keys to disruptive success

1) Enable Nonconsumption - focus on reaching people who aren’t consuming your product, and ask this important question about them: what constrains consumption? Why aren’t they using your product? It might be skills, wealth, access, time.

2) Nail down the job to be done - finding the problem that isn’t adequately solved. We can use our demographics because it gives us information but we should also have an understanding of the circumstances in which our customers use us.

3) When we begin to roll out new services, delight but don’t overshoot. The disruptive solution you’re creating need not be perfect. “Good enough” is not a dirty word.

4) Master emergent strategy - that strategy says, invest a little, learn a lot. Start simple, limit your fixed cost investment, seek early wins. Don’t be too certain that any solution you create is right; the losers generally believe they’re right in the beginning.

5) Break the sucking sound at the core - the core business of the company is a center of gravity that will pull resources away from new, disruptive products. There needs to be a commitment from senior management to the project, there must be resource allocation to match that commitment (the way resources are allocated determines strategy), and there should be specialized approaches, recognizing the special position that the disruptive innovation has in the organization.

Anthony stressed a change of thinking in our companies/industry:

A shift from a monolithic product - to a portfolio of products.
A shift in how we understand our users: they’re no longer just readers - they’re consumers/audiences/contributors.
A shift in focus from advertisers - to customers.

In summary:

What is our plan to reach the nonconsumer?
What’s our plan to reach the nonconsuming business partner?
What’s the plan to master new business models?
How will we make innovation systematic?

Anthony also offered this thought, which is intriguing: if we spend all of our time trying to collaborate with each other, the effort to force or enforce collaboration can be stifling. It would be better to encourage broad innovation with the understanding that the doors to conversation and information sharing will remain open."

Crisis Management - Why your organization needs to Blog

Let's look at two stories about crisis and how a company handled it. Then ask your self - what will be your approach?

You are the KFC brand manager at YUM. This video showing rats running around one of your New York restaurants breaks and is being shown around the nation. You have a static website devoted to promotion. So all you can do - long after the video is everywhere - is to issue a press release stating that thjis is an isolated incident.

You are David Neelman of JetBlue. The story of your passengers ordeal is everywhere. You go onto YouTube and all the key programs with an  acceptance of the problem, an apology and a plan.

Every business is exposed to public risk today. You can guarantee that your story will be all over the web in hours. If you do not live in the web, the story will overwhelm you. So what is your plan to deal with this new reality?

Social Media and Politics - Dialogue

Here is a You Tube Video introduced by King Abdullah talking about a movement called One Voice. One Voice is a platform for people in the Middle East who seek a dialogue.

Their issue is that the extremists on both sides have captured the agenda.

Is this not the flaw in western politics as well? The mass media panders to bad behavior and to over simplification. Politics in Canada is reaching a new extreme as personal attacks become the norm. Most civility has been wrung out of US politics as well.

Here on PEI we get ready for an election - all I hear are attacks on the other party.

The issues that face communities and nations are too complex for the mass media to cover. They have made the situation worse by showing only extremism or spin.

I wonder if One Voice speaks to many of us who are tired of this and who seek what is best for our country or our place?

Our meetings in Boston and in Washington over the last 2 weeks suggest that Public Media could play a important role in giving back the voter their voice and in pushing the extremists to the sidelines where they belong.

IMA and Beyond Broadcast Feb 2007 - Todd's Review

Todd Mundt has a very comprehensive coverage of both the IMA conference and Beyond Broadcast on his personal blog

War in Iran

Blackadder tells us how the war in Iran will begin

Sleeping alone or not

I slept as usual badly in my 5 nights in Boston. The bed was comfortable. I did not eat or drink too much. I went to bed early. I felt tired most of the time and had a poor sleep. I find that this is always the case when I travel.

Robin is away and she never reads my blog so I trust that you will keep my secret. Last night I had a four way! Jay slept by my head. Mildred slept in the middle and Pussee slept by my feet. There was a lot of tossing and turning, snoring, licking, tail wagging - the odd passing of gas - a couple of bathroom breaks and yet today I feel so refreshed. Why?

I think it was Pussee, the cat, that finally gave me the answer. She is tolerated by the dogs. She tolerates them at best. But even she chose to join us last night. She overcame all her fear and disdane of the dogs to join us all.

I wonder if the phrase "sleeping with someone" which we use as code for sex hides a simple truth. Sleeping with another - the actual sharing of space when we are helpless - is an act of trust that builds both intimacy and connection. Sleeping with another aware animal - human or not - is more than a functional activity. It is a deeply satisfying social act. In some ways it may trump sex in maintaining intimacy.

So I don't think that bringing my pillow on trips will help much. But then Air Canada makes taking a dog on a trip so hard. Oh well, I wont go down that road.