June 2007 - Posts

• Constant Partial Attention... Hunh?

  Pregny, Suisse -- I am in a friend's basement on the outskirts of Geneva. I have just woken up and will be flying home shortly. It's been a busy couple of days. I've met some brilliant people. But I have also done some remarkably silly things, like talking Read More... Posted 29 June 2007 17:25 by David Ferrabee | (Comments Off) Filed under: Internal communications, involvement, Engagement, social media, Technology, motivation, etc., morale

• Lingua Franca -- The problem English presents in business

  COLOGNE -- I am eating sausages at Cologne / Bonn International Airport. Konrad Adenauer International Airport. 10 points to those of you below aged 65 who know who Konrad Adenauer was... No, Germans can't answer. Well the Lufthansa lounge here is not Read More... Posted 27 June 2007 10:49 by David Ferrabee | 8 Comments Filed under: Culture, People management, Europe

• Social Media Workshop: my scrambled brain

  ON THE KINGS ROAD -- My taxi driver is bragging about his property portfolio in Montenegro. And it's the end of a long, hard two-day workshop on social media. Thanks to those 20 people who came and contributed and paid attention. I have three controversial Read More... Posted 23 June 2007 09:41 by David Ferrabee | 1 Comments Filed under: Culture, People management, Internal communications, Change Management, involvement, Engagement, social media, Technology, motivation, etc., morale

• Live from our Social Media Workshop in London

  PORTMAN SQUARE – Here we are live at the Social Media Workshop in London’s West End. There are 21 of us here. It is our second day and several people have reported sore heads from our day-long session yesterday. Some over-night thoughts include: How to Read More... Posted 21 June 2007 11:09 by David Ferrabee | (Comments Off) Filed under: Internal communications, Conferences, social media, Technology, etc.

• A meeting of professionals

  LONDON -- Tuesday we set aside the whole day and invited in about 15 professional communicators for a conversation. We had people from Microsoft, O2, BAE, HSBC, Nokia and more. Mike Love from BT (and ex-Microsoft & McDonald's) talked to us about employees Read More... Posted 21 June 2007 06:34 by David Ferrabee | 5 Comments Filed under: Consulting, Conferences, New business, involvement, Engagement, marketing, motivation, selling, morale

• NPfIT: We could have fixed it...

  KNIGHTSBRIDGE -- And maybe we can still! It feels like I have been hovering around the edges of this one for more than 5 years. I am sure I first heard about the £12.4B UK IT programme from the newspapers. But I also had a few mates pitching on the IT Read More... Posted 19 June 2007 08:06 by David Ferrabee | (Comments Off) Filed under: Internal communications, Change Management, involvement, Engagement, social media, Technology, motivation, etc., morale

• Set to try micro-blogging tomorrow...

  LONDON -- When I first heard about Twitter , I thought the person who told me was mad. "It's either the next biggest thing on the Internet, or it is a TOTAL waste of time." I think that question is still unanswered. I have yet to get addicted to it, but Read More... Posted 16 June 2007 19:22 by David Ferrabee | (Comments Off)

• The end of the employee satisfaction survey? You can help

  MILAN -- There's a great article in the FT today about employee satisfaction and 'engagement'. If you read it now and come back to this post it'll all make more sense. (Whoops, it's subscription only. Get your clippings people to find it.) It says that Read More... Posted 13 June 2007 12:05 by David Ferrabee | 4 Comments Filed under: People management, Internal communications, involvement, Engagement, Technology, motivation, morale

• Hallucinations of negative outcomes

  HYDE PARK CORNER - I've just come from a free training session called Happy Hour. It was not the happy hour you'd expect a guy from a PR company to be at. It was a session run by my new friend Nigel about... wait for it... how to be happy! You may remember Read More... Posted 11 June 2007 20:11 by David Ferrabee | (Comments Off) Filed under: Leadership, Culture, People management, involvement, Engagement, motivation, morale

• Social Media for communication professionals

  A LOFT IN S.W. LONDON -- I am quite amazed at how much there is to say about Social Media and communications. Not just internal communications either... PR, advertising, branding, music, film, radio... the lot. I ran a high-speed rehearsal of our Social Read More... Posted 08 June 2007 07:04 by David Ferrabee | (Comments Off) Filed under: Internal communications, involvement, Engagement, social media, Technology, motivation, etc., morale

• Leadership Communications Trianing

  ON THE DISTRICT LINE -- I wonder if we're getting through? Not just us, of course, but lots of like-minded communicators. Yesterday I was interviewing senior execs at a great new international client. And they were all talking to me about the need for Read More... Posted 05 June 2007 07:14 by David Ferrabee | (Comments Off)

• Change management: Questions you can't plan for

  ROEHAMPTON -- "Do I get relief from a dead bird?" asked the man on the next fairway. Hid bright green golf ball sat in the middle of a swirl of feathers. Directly behind the carcass of said, dead winged animal. There probably is a rule for that . But Read More... Posted 03 June 2007 07:17 by David Ferrabee | 1 Comments

• Breach of trust: don't buy the trainers

  On the 14 BUS -- A few days ago I watched the film I Robot for the first time. Great film... Major disappointment. The product placement is not so much placed as thrust at you. Will Smith lovingly opens a box of Converse trainers early on and say "I love Read More... Posted 01 June 2007 07:21 by David Ferrabee | (Comments Off)