euan semple

Talking In One Direction Is Not A Conversation

October 7, 2013 By graham stewart

(That’s ‘in’ One Direction, not ‘about’ One Direction.)

A conversation is the best way to discover how to help someone.

In Organizations Don’t Tweet, People Do (see my review of the book), Euan Semple gives over a whole chapter to the notion of conversations only being possible between equals – an insight he attributes to David Weinberger.

If you currently work in a traditional hierarchical workplace, this notion might strike you as patently wrong. However, that would reflect a misunderstanding of what is meant by ‘conversation’, especially in the era of the social web. Conversation is not a simple exchange of words. For instance, the following are not conversations:

Asking your bank manager for a loan
Responding to the inquiries of a police officer
Telling your doctor where the pain is
Explaining to your boss how you sent the customer the wrong order

You may have conversations at some time with each of those people but it won’t be when they are assuming their ‘superior’ position and you your nominally ‘inferior’ one.

Much business writing – and marketing material and the content found in customer support channels, especially – defaults to a position of superiority. The business takes on an almost paternalistic role of talking down. We know our products and we know best how to use them and what they can do to make your life better. You can see how that approach would lead to messaging that is distant, pompous, and aloof. There’s little chance of any information flowing back up that channel of talking down.

Like one of those letters you get from your credit card company, for instance.

Empathy is a good place to start. And add a dose of humility. Carry those into your writing and your engagement with colleagues, customers, and your social networks and there’s a good chance you’ll find yourself getting more than you give. For open thing, empathy and humility tend to help you listen more. Then you learn more and find better ways to help others, whether that’s with advice, a product, or a service. And when you listen and help, you’re heard and helped in turn.

It sounds like magic. But you know it’s not.

When I used to read stories to my children at bed time, the stories always worked best when I read them as if I were as excited and interested and surprised by what happened as my son or daughters. If I read the stories as an ‘adult’, as someone who felt the stories slightly beneath my intellectual or emotional intelligence, the children grew bored. As bored as I was.

This withdrawal from genuine connection is what happens with a lot of business writing; huge swathes of company Facebook pages are a great example of this, where ‘conversation’ is limited to pressing the Like button and the marketing department think they’ve truly engaged with their customer base because they had extra ‘likes’ on that last passionless and redundant post.

It’s often fear, I believe, that prevents us from engaging people with our real voices. Fear and the habits ingrained in us. Too often, we feel we need permission to be genuine. That might be the permission of our boss, of the legal department, of the marketing department. As soon as those considerations tiptoe into the edges of our consciousness, we’re doomed to look for a one-sided interchange: to glean information or to dispense it. It’s a one-shot interaction and no conversation is possible.

This fear often stems from the very fact that true business conversations are rare. That’s one of the habits we internalise. We expect to adopt the superior or inferior position, depending on whether we’re buying or selling or advising or seeking help. Social tools are starting to break this habit. Powerfully and, I’m pleased to say, quite quickly. This is one of the reasons that large companies have been slow to adopt their widespread use, especially across the boundaries of the organisation.

If you’re in such an organisation, preempt the adoption of the tools and reach out yourself. Find like minds within the company and set up conversations with your peers. (Check out the ideas that Anne Marie McEwan of The Smart Work Company is developing for the workplace.)

And if it’s a conversation, that’s because everyone involved is your peer.

Working In The Illiterate Organization

March 14, 2013 By graham stewart

Last September I wrote a review of Euan Semple’s wonderful “Organizations Don’t Tweet”. Six months on, I’m still referring to the book and finding insights that continue to delight and inspire.

Euan and I both worked for organizations that might be considered a by-word for literacy. The BBC and Reuters (now Thomson Reuters) are, after all, in the communications business. And yet, for all the front end communication goodness – in the shape of news bulletins or reports from the battlefield or even the latest stock prices from the trading room floor – in my experience at least, the back end (how apt) of the business encouraged illiteracy across great swathes of the organization.

Illiterate Business Writing — One more report like that, and Max would smoke the gas lamp

I don’t mean we were discouraged from reading. There was, indeed, probably way too much information available for reading on a daily basis. On the whole, though, much of this excess information was of little relevance. And, if it was relevant, it tended to be written in a style and format that stood between the reader and the key information.

(A disclaimer, of sorts: I last worked at Reuters some years ago. It is a company I held in high regard, despite the issues of its internal writing standards. In its latest incarnation it may very well be a paragon of the literate organization.)

But reading is only one half of literacy. Writing was always seen as best left for the experts. This appears to be the norm for organizations – especially large organizations. As Euan says in the book at the foot of page 40,

We have professionalized communication and taken it away from the ordinary manager or member of staff.

If anything had to be written for work, there were templates and document titles to use. God forbid that you might create something new. Or useful. And watch the language. In addition, the templates tended to be specific to individual departments, so any chance of breaking down internal silos and sharing knowledge more widely was slim.

In the chapters ‘Literacy Re-discovered’ and ‘Mass Illiteracy’, Euan describes the potential inherent in social media to change that norm. However, when he asserts that writing on the web has the potential to persist and that what “you said last week and last year will still be visible online and you will have to take this into account”, I feel he describes a problem rather than a solution.

This fear of committing to a digital permanence is every bit as scary as the traditional fear of the page. Couple this with the passionless and downright deadly dull business writing that most staff are forced to read on a daily basis and it is no surprise that most employees run screaming from the thought of writing more of the same. When your model is so poor, it is hard to see how to overcome it or head off in new directions.

I agree with Euan that the new social tools can make writing more immediately effective and will go some way to making redundant the old metaphor of the document but I think there is a stage prior to this that businesses need to make happen. It is perhaps a bit of a chicken and egg situation: employees are wary of writing because of the perceptions surrounding writing in the business but can only discover the true benefits of writing by doing it.

Any business that wishes to embrace fully the benefits of better communication – better business, in other words – can either wait for a new generation comfortable with widespread use of the social tools to come into the workplace or it needs to dismantle the obstacles that it places in the way of its employees writing.

Which option will your company choose?

Content Is Not Copy

October 16, 2012 By graham stewart

Some copy about content

The purpose of content has changed. Not so long ago, content was a fancy word for copy and was something to be used in marketing collateral and sales pitches. On the web this was translated most usually as the company web site and a sales page. Internal communications or manuals or training guides were not considered content (if they were considered at all) and certainly not considered as part of an strategy for increasing customer retention.

The word ‘content’ now tends to be used in conjunction with the terms ‘marketing’ or ‘strategy’. Which may or may not make things clearer.

When content was regarded as copy, it was usually left to a copywriter (or the ubiquitous CEO’s nephew) to write it.

Things have changed

Sites that rely on copy these days are sad affairs.

Sites that rely on copy are simply asking you to buy.

Sites that rely on copy only are not really interested in you.

Sites that rely on content are making an effort to establish a relationship.

It’s the difference between customer acquisition and selling. And then between selling once and customer retention.

So, what is content?

Don’t let the word content put you off. Admittedly, it’s a pretty shabby word. Both threatening and bland at the same time. We need a new term. Until that happens, think of it this way:
Content is your passion on the page.

It’s your experience and knowledge and beliefs and ideas. On the page. There for people to read.

Scary, yes?

Yes, but…..

… to rehearse the hoary old chestnut, people buy from people.

People buy from people they trust. People who have shared their:

Passion
Experience
Knowledge
Beliefs
Ideas

Content, then, is you. Your business.

Content is (very) important

The Cluetrain Manifesto was published in 2000. It is a book rich in vital messages for business in the age of the internet (and the intranet, an aspect of information sharing often overlooked in books and articles about business communications). Here is a message from early in the book – from the book’s ‘elevator rap’:

You have two choices. You can continue to lock yourself behind facile corporate words and happytalk brochures…. Or you can join the conversation.

People buy from people they can engage with in conversation. Over time.

What to do about it

Whatever the size of your business, this doesn’t need to be a huge content marketing exercise. For instance…..here’s what my wife experienced:

She tried blogging. It didn’t take. That’s ok: it’s not for everyone and if it’s not a fit, don’t force it. The passion won’t come through if what you write is a chore and you’re doing it because your content guy tells you you should. What suited my wife better was a LinkedIn group for those in her industry sector. Hers was the first group in the sector and soon she had gathered representatives of clients, potential customers, industry bodies, and even competitors. It is a lively forum and, whereas the blog could feel like she was speaking to herself and she had to dream up subjects to write about, the group sparks conversations and topics primarily through its range of expertise and interests. The engagement is almost instantaneous.

The result: The LinkedIn group has established her as an expert in her field. She is now invited to speak at meetings of potential clients and associated industries.

Buy a copy of Euan Semple’s book Organizations Don’t Tweet, People Do (that’s an affiliate link). You can read my review of the book here.

While you read that book, think how best to use what Chris Brogan calls outposts. I’ll be writing posts over the coming weeks about making the best use of your passion and expertise across the social web.

Now write some content. Put down what you know about your business. Write as if you were explaining to someone you love what it is you love about your job or your company. (And if you want to really test yourself, now try writing the same thing as a sales letter and watch how your passion declines and you end up wondering why you go to work each day!)

And if you haven’t done so already, sign up for my newsletter (use the box in the sidebar) to get regular updates about content and writing for your business.

Organizations Don’t Tweet By Euan Semple – A Review (Of Sorts)

September 14, 2012 By graham stewart

I started out to write a simple review of Euan Semple’s wonderful “Organizations Don’t Tweet, People Do: A Manager’s Guide To The Social Web”. However, I found that I was inspired by so many different aspects of the book that I was in danger of writing a dissertation in response. What follows, therefore, is probably more in the way of a condensed impression of the book rather than a traditional formal review.

If you’ve neither the time nor inclination to read further, here is the abbreviated conclusion: if any part of your working day involves sharing information – or would greatly benefit by sharing information – with colleagues, managers, or customers, then buy this book.

A Wee Disclosure

I’ve met Euan on a couple of occasions and swapped an email with him from time to time. I like him and I like reading what he has to say on his blog. This was the main reason that I bought the book in the first place. I almost felt obliged to buy the book and, as you know, that sort of obligation is never a great basis for getting down to reading something. That the obligation quickly turned to gratitude is quite simply why I am writing this.

Getting Physical

Although I’m a big fan of ebooks, sometimes only the physical book in your hand will do. This is especially true for books that you want to refer to over and over and where you are continually flicking back to reread pages in the light of new information. This book is definitely one where the physical object adds to the reading experience.

For a start, the book looks good. It also handles well (like a sports car built for mountain roads) and, by god, it smells really good. You can’t overestimate the importance of a good smell when it comes to a new book. Crack open Euan’s book and inhale deeply. Talk about trust: that’s an aroma that tells you from the first that what you are about to read in those pages will more than adequately reward the time you invest.

So it is hardly surprising that it also reads so well. Not only is it stylistically excellent – making for a smooth ride through complex arguments – but each carefully crafted chapter is a perfect nugget of focused wisdom.

The Politics Of Social

At its core this is a guide to improving the way your business works. What might appear to be a manual for getting to grips with the social web and how it can be used within a business soon assumes the mantle of a manifesto for productive change. Euan is describing a revolution and businesses who don’t participate may very well be the first to go to the wall.

There’s no pussy-footing around at the start of the book: Euan takes you immediately to the heart of the matter when he asserts that the technological changes we’re seeing around the social web are not the cause of any current revolution but are simply the lubricant that is making the social revolution happen faster and more effectively.

(That he follows this by accepting a description of himself as “an organizational anarchist” might make any corporate chiefs determined to keep the book out of the hands of their staff. This is exactly the kind of blinkered view of the new reality that Euan is railing against, of course. It must be said, though, that Euan’s style of railing is as far from rant and thunder as genuine anarchy is from the customary thuggish portrayal we see in the media.)

Structure And Method

The wide array of ideas and themes covered in the book are not dealt with in isolation or from the point of view of someone looking in from the outside. This is not an academic textbook: Euan has experienced the things he describes, firstly in his time introducing tools for the social web into the BBC and, subsequently, working with many large organizations (who, obviously, don’t tweet).

The book is divided into 45 short chapters. This might lead you to believe that the book contains 45 topics. You would be wrong to believe that. Each chapter is actually a mini essay in which an idea is described, tested, expanded, and shown to connect with a host of other themes and ideas. (Hence my comment about the need for a physical version that allows easy flicking backwards and forwards.) Where there is repetition of sorts – because themes and ideas overlap and spark new themes and ideas – it always feels less like duplicate material than reinforcing a message or approaching a valuable point from a different angle.

Just take a look at some of the chapter titles for a taste of the thematic goodness on offer:

We All Need To Grow Up
Evolution On Steroids
Volume Control On Mob Rule
Conversations Can Only Take Place Between Equals
The Price Of Pomposity
The Revolution Is Within

I could go on listing chapter titles. Another 39 times, in fact. (As an aside, I think the chapter titles serve to underline how ill served the book is by its title, which is definitely the weakest part of the whole package. But that’s another discussion.)

And each chapter is suffixed by a box of bullets – ammunition for thinking – that covers the key points to remember from the chapter. You may think that this is overkill when the chapters are, for the most part, only three or four pages long. But as I’ve tried to convey by calling the chapters ‘essays’, the content is not frothy and it is never a mere skim across the surface of an idea. These bullets are welcome – and to be used in anger.

This is a book that makes you want to engage with its ideas on every page. I wanted to leave comments at the end of each chapter as if it were a blog post. Most of all, this is not a book to read once, nod, and replace on your shelf. If you work in or with businesses of almost any size, this book could very well be the difference between transforming your business or seeing it left behind.

Getting Specific

It’s also worth pointing out – emphasising, in fact – that this is not a dry tome examining strategies and tools for building internal policies of online best-practice for employees. This is a book of useful advice, war stories from the front line of social interactions, and bemused head-shaking at some of the dim-wittedness of corporations. It is also laced with humour.

I think one of the most powerful chapters in the book comes early – chapter six. The chapter is called “Writing Ourselves into Existence” and lies squarely at the heart of what I believe Euan sees as the most revolutionary aspect of social tools. Most commentators focus on the interactions afforded by these tools and how these can impact the ways individuals and businesses work. In Organizations Don’t Tweet, however, Euan is always careful to highlight the benefits to the individual when participating in the social web. Here is a quotation from the start of the chapter:

There is something about the process of blogging that makes you more self-aware. You become more thoughtful about yourself and your place in the world. In the reactions of others to your writing you get a different perspective, possibly for the first time, on how others see you. While this can be scary at first it can also be liberating. David Weinberger, one of the authors of The Cluetrain Manifesto – the classic book explaining the Internet and its impact in society – once described blogging as ‘writing ourselves into existence’. This is very much how it feels.

This point is also made in the last of the summary bullets for the previous chapter (Evolution on Steroids):

Even if no one else learns from what you write in social tools, you do – and this may be the greatest reward.

In writing this, I discovered that there was a lot more I wanted to say in response to the ideas raised by Euan. And I don’t think that a review is the place to say it. I said above that this was not a book to read and shelve. What I mean by that is that the ideas presented here are worthy of true engagement. When a book inspires so many reactions and agreements while reading, it would be churlish to ignore the stimulus to respond. And I fully intend to react to that stimulus in the coming weeks and months.

The best books don’t often purport to be the last word on a subject and a book confronting a topic as fluid and dynamic as the relationship between business and the social web runs an obvious risk of soon being outdated or even irrelevant. Euan manages to subvert this risk by simultaneously embracing the notion of a world in flux and by describing the responses needed by businesses and their people to both shape the future and to stay relevant.

The Other Conclusion

The best recommendation I can give the book is that it has encouraged me to think more deeply about the issues Euan addresses and to look to respond in the best way I know – by writing. In the coming weeks on this blog I will use many of Euan’s ideas as starting points for discussions on the things related to writing that can contribute to making business – and places of business – more inclusive, less exploitative, more successful and, dare I say it, a whole lot more fun to be around.