February is awards season–Grammys, Oscars, BAFTAs, oh my! Awards season means one thing—inside access. Will Lady Gaga be wearing another meat dress? Where is Usher hosting the after party? Why are Tom and Katie still together? Don’t worry–TMZ, E!, and Perez Hilton have their legions of citizen-paparazzi on it!
While I can’t offer you an exclusive look at Oscar-host Jake Gyllenhaal’s dressing room, I can provide you with a sneak peek into one of the most exciting events in CEC’s history—CEC’s US-Based Guru Meeting hosted by Ray Jordan, Corporate Vice President, Public Affairs and Corporate Communications at Johnson & Johnson. We decided to host an event in the US after a highly successful European edition graciously hosted by Andre Manning, Head of Corporate Communications, at Royal Philips Electronics in my new favorite city, Amsterdam.
The Guest List at Our Upcoming Meeting- Senior communications executives from:
- Johnson & Johnson, Wal-Mart, Southwest Airlines,
- ConAgra, MasterCard, TD Bank, Intuit,
- Chevron, Bombardier, Cargill, Bayer, and Colgate-Palmolive
Who will wear the best pin? Who will bring the best swag to share with the group? Who will devise the “best practice” of 2011?
The Location- Johnson & Johnson Headquarters, New Brunswick, NJ.
It may not be sunny SoCal, but J&J has set us up in a brand-new state-of-the-art conference room (just wrapped up construction last week). We’ll also be guided on a tour of their on-site museum. Fun!
The Program- Research Laboratory and Networking Opportunity
The purpose of this meeting is unlike any other we’ve hosted before and hopefully unlike any that this group has ever attended. We’re halfway through our major annual research project on The Adaptive Organization. While we conduct hundreds of interviews with CEC communicators and industry experts, we rarely get the chance to test our ideas live in a group setting. We’re hoping to accomplish (at least) three things: 1. test our assumptions; 2. understand what Communications could impact; 3. surface best practices from some of your cutting-edge peers.
We’ll be throwing out ideas and questions for these smart communicators to debate. One of the key conversations we’ll be facilitating is around the roadblocks to an adaptive organization–that is, what keeps an organization from being good at sensing, sharing, and empowering. (You can familiarize yourself with what we mean by the “adaptive organization” in past CEC Insider posts).
Here’s what we think are the roadblocks to an adaptive organization:
|
Roadblocks to: |
||
| Sensing | Sharing | Empowering |
| Too much information to keep track of | Multiple IT systems don’t “talk” to each other | Leaders fear losing control |
| Don’t see risks/opportunities as stuck in ways | Don’t know what is important to others | Leaders don’t trust employees to make decisions |
| Don’t know what is important | Don’t think ideas are important/valid | Employees like “the way things have always been done” |
| It is “someone else’s job” | Scared of reporting problems | Employees fear overstepping boundaries |
What’s Your Opinion?
- Which roadblocks would be the hardest to overcome within your company?
- Are there roadblocks we are overlooking?
- What could Communications do to remove these roadblocks? Better yet, is your Communications team doing anything to solve these challenges?
In my next post, I’ll share this guru group’s answers to these questions. Of course, if you’d like to talk more about this topic, email me to set up some time.
CEC Related Resources
CEC Related Blog Posts
- Change: To Be Appreciated, Not Just Accepted
- New Year’s Resolutions for the Savvy Communicator
- Cure for the Continuous Crisis: Adaptive Leadership
- How Adaptive is YOUR Organization?
- Harness the Power of EmPOWERment
on 14 February 2011
Respond
Hi Kayleigh, I’m looking forward to the answers! I think the roadblocks you mention are very much on target.
In regards to removing the roadblock “Don’t know what is important/Too much information”: My advice to clients generally is start with the things that challenge your thinking. You can learn more from one negative post than from ten “You are so great!”s. It’s not always an easy way to go (you can’t get emotional about criticsm & because of your roadblock “Scared of reporting problems”), but it really cuts down on the information you need to process. Robin
on 23 February 2011
Respond
Robin, apologies for the late response! Love your point about actively looking for facts, opinions, and ideas that run counter to one’s own. Although we technically have access via the internet/tech to so many divergent viewpoints and ideas, it’s easier, more comforting, and more likely that we seek information that confirms our viewpoint vs. challenges it.
on 1 June 2011
Respond
[...] Practice: Another piece of advice offered during a past CEC guru meeting was to get yourself or your team involved in rotations in other parts of the organization to broaden [...]