Does your perspective shape your company’s comms?

Today I’ve discovered two things that have made me think. So I’m going to share them with you, and would love to know what you make of them.

Virpi_One is an article by the fabulous Virpi Oinonen @Voinonen, (pictured) who I’ve featured numerous times on my blog over the years.

She’s written: Why communications people shouldn’t manage enterprise social networks.

It looks at the role of comms professionals and community managers in creating ESNs. I think it succinctly captures a lot of the problems I see IC pros facing with their internal social networks.

Here’s an extract from today’s article:

“Here lies the big difference between traditional communications and community management (or network communications).

“In traditional comms you push your message through a channel and hope for the best. In network communication your role is that of a facilitator – you help people make connections, you detect what the big issues are and facilitate communication around them.

“You curate other people’s content and ideas (although you might add your own analysis if you are subject matter expert).”

It’s an interactive dance between you and the community. (Tweet this)

Virpi

Virpi is an enterprise social consultant and excellent thinker and doer in this field. I love her illustrations and use them Rachel Millerregularly when working with clients and speaking about enterprise social networks.

She’s even kindly created one of me, which you can see on this page.

I recommend checking out her Business Goes Social website to read her thoughts on community management, effective ESNs and much more.

You can read the whole article via Virpi’s website.

What lens are you using?

The second thing I’m going to share with you is a video. In light of reading Virpi’s article this morning, it made me think about how we as communicators potentially shape what is distributed and known within organisations.

The video was created by Canon in Australia and features six photographers: Chris Meredith, Jin Lim, Lyndal Irons, Kate Disher-Quill, Franky Tsang & Tristan Stefan Edouard.

Canon state: “A photograph is shaped more by the person behind the camera than by what’s in front of it. To prove this we invited six photographers to a portrait session with a twist. ‘Decoy’ is one of six experiments from The Lab, designed to shift creative thinking behind the lens.”

The photographers were all given the same man to photograph. They were each told a story about his background, which had a direct result in the way they managed their individual shoots and the resulting image.

You can see it online and below:

Do our own perspectives and assumptions impact the end result of communication in our organisations?

I know my answer. I’d love to know yours.

Feel free to comment below or Tweet me @AllthingsIC.

Rachel

Post author: Rachel Miller

First published on All Things IC 12 November 2015.

Comments

  1. Gerard says:

    Do our own perspectives and assumptions impact the end result of communication in our organisations?

    I would say a resounding and emphatic YES!

    I think the expression ‘getting in your own way’ is applicable here. We often ‘get in our own way’ when it comes to communicating in our businesses, resorting to thinking ‘well thats how things are done around here’ rather than challenging our own self limiting thoughts and trying new stuff 🙂

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