Hakka – All Blacks Communication!!

 

Watching the opening “performance” of the England V New Zealand “All Blacks” yesterday, I became aware of the communication which was taking place between the players.

The “All Blacks” performed their Hakka. The haka is a war dance. The words are chanted loudly (shouted) in a menacing way accompanied by arm actions and foot stamping. A haka was traditionally performed before charging into battle. Watching and listening to the menace being shouted I could feel intimidated and I was only watching TV!  The England players retaliated with staring down the opposition and the England supporters rallied their team with a rousing chorus of “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” which is synonymous with the glory days when England won the World Cup.

A war cry or battle cry is used to cause intimidatation and give a competitive edge. There have been numerous instances of these being used throughout history.

 The Biblical account of the Battle of Jericho has the battle-cry of the Israelites, amplified by horn-calls, collapse the fortifications of the city under siege the Biblical account of the Battle of Jericho has the battle-cry of the Israelites, amplified by horn-calls, collapse the fortifications of the city under siege.

The Ottomon Turkish cried Allah Allah.

 “Dieu est mon droit” “God is my right” The kings of England are reputedly to have used going into battle.

The rebel yell used by the Confederacy as they went into battle – used to rouse the troops.

Although the opposition may not able to understand the words the way they were communicated supported by the body language and the unblinking stare leaves the receiver in no doubt as to what is meant!!!

A story in The Mail described a 15 year old boy Kadeem Blackwood and the two faces that he presented to the world “smiling school boy” and “scowling gangster” as he became the latest victim of gun culture.  Looking at those two faces one would hardly recognise the same person.

 Communication has many forms and the way some are used brings fear not only into the street but into the office.  We use body language, tone of voice, words and facial expression on a daily basis to communicate a variety of emotions good and bad. The sarcastic comment, the sneer on a face, the shouting and belittling of the bully to a weaker colleague – show intimidation strategies are still alive and worse successful.

Mumbai

Waking up to the dreadful news of the viscious attacks on civilians in Mumbai.  Targetting British and American passport holders and upscale targets such as the two 5 star hotels, Taj Majal and Oberoi 

 I listened to the Today 4 programme travelling into work about the situation and there was an interview with a man who had barricaded himself into his room in the Taj Majal hotel where he believed terrorists were still hiding out.  The tv and radio channels had closed down, no telephones working and he was only able to contact the outside world using his Blackberry  – this caused me to think about communication in times of crisis.

The Oberoi has a statement on its website:

 ”Despite all efforts we are unable to make contact with the persons inside the hotel. Therefore at present, we do not have more information than what is being relayed by the media. We will update you as soon as we have confirmed information on further developments.

For those families of people trapped there, they must be feeling so isolated not being able to communicate with their loved ones.  Mumbai bloggers and twitters are offering help to relatives to get them in touch.  Mumbai Blog offered on line help as people realised that the phone lines were clogged and not working even though there natural instinct was to ring or SMS.

John Ribeiro of IDG News – “A trapped hotel guest used his mobile phone to send an MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) video clip of police action to a local TV channel, IBN Live. The channel has been encouraging witnesses to send MMS as part of their citizen journalism program.”

It would appear that communication in its many forms rises to the occasion in the face of adversity.

 

Mamma Mia!

Whilst out at the weekend with colleagues we ended up discussing recent films.  I had to put my hand up to seeing Mamma Mia  3 times!  I was not the only one in our group who grudgingly admitted it too.  A film that has a weak story line, actors who can’t sing (some may say cannot act)  The Guardian this week it was voted DVD of the week.  Mamma Mia

So, what is it about the feel good factor that this film generates, the familiar music, somehow ingrained into our subconsious because we all know the words. I don’t know many people who have come out of the film feeling worse than when they went in.

Alexander Hughes of Internal Communications Blog  states” One thing for sure, the next 6 to 12 months will see many changes and those who take the positive approach will be most likely to stay afloat through it all”.  Surely then there is something to be gained by spreading the feel good factor and staying positive?

Ways to stay positive could involve EFT helping to release negative feelings through energy therapy.  However for most of us involved in Employee communications, we stick to the tried and tested. How do we capture that “feel good” factor and pass this onto our colleagues who are feeling the credit crunch and weighed down with all the bad news?  How does employee communications capture a little oasis of good news amongst all the bad?  Ideas discussed surrounded the company newsletter whereby colleagues had ownership and felt that they could publish good news, the intranet opening screen, the friendly email.  Your thoughts welcome – much needed for many companies around the country at the moment as we see the demise of MFI and Woolworths.

Employee Communications – is a Blog a useful tool?

CEO’s are creating their own blog to communicate with their employees and its a growing trend.  However, how useful a communication tool is it?  Does the CEO create the blog?  Does the CEO write the content? Does the CEO direct the PR section to write the content in their name?  Will the employees engage with the blog?

Marcia Xenitelis writes in the British Association of Communicators in Business that blogging is one of the top five ways that a CEO can communicate with their employees.

 

Lis Strauss back in 2006 stated that

“Blogs are carrying on conversations between management and employees that allow them to get to know each other as people. ” My thoughts are that it could be avaluable tool for communicating but it has to be written and driven from the top,

Are you listening?

Are you listening?  Having just completed a role play whereby two people had to sit opposite each other, knees 6″ apart, where one had to try and engage the other with their funny story whilst the other partner had to physically disengage with the conversation. The frustration of engaging the ”non listener” led to voice modulation, raising the voice and eventually stony silence.   I found myself reflecting on the art of listening.  How come there are people who do listen and those who do not?  How many times have you found yourself talking to someone who you know is just not paying attention? They appear to be waiting for a gap so that they can tell you something and you can physically see them itching to get their turn.  How many of these are people reading your blogs or your key messages or your advertisements?

How when we blog do we know other people are listening to what we have to say or just picking up the key words so that they can add them to what they want to say?   http://scobleizer.com/2008/10/13/blogging-in-crisis-job-1/ agrees with my commentary – “having noticed a trend that very few people who read blogs listen to what is being said”.

 In the world of marketing, http://www.adverblog.com/archives/002068.htm state that Marketers need to listen.  this is suggesting that no longer is their take on what is required the right one and that they need to listen to findout what is needed.  The average internet surfer is quite savvy enough to listen to what they want to and click elsewhere if they find the message they are hearing is not what they want to hear.

Social Media?

Having read around Social Media ( Richard Bailey  – PR and New Media -http://prstudies.typepad.com/) as part of my Masters course I came across the following quote from an e-book.

 ”Social Computing is not a fad

Nor is is something that will pass you or your company by

Gradually Social computing will impact almost every role, at every kind of company,

in all parts of the world”.  http://www.icrossing.co.uk/fileadmin/uploads/eBooks/What_is_Social_Media_iCrossing_ebook.pdf

Being somewhat of a Digital Immigrant, (http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf)  social media has passed me by and having got along fine before or so i thought why would I wish to embrace this technology.

However, looking into what social media is about: Participation, Openness, Conversation, Community, Connectedness I realise that this is what I do all the time in face to face situations.  As a senior lecturer I encourage all of the above through electronic means as distance and time prevent the best method of communication – face to face.  Email, Moodle, Pebblepad all play their part and have done for some years.  Mistakenly I was assuming Facebook, MySpace, BeBo social networks - were the realms of the young things rather than yet another tool to connect.

I have always encouraged my Computing students to complete a weekly blog as they are averse to putting pen to paper and an electronic means of recording their reflections appealed and proved successful.  However,  I find myself now looking at new ways of capturing their interest and hence my interest in social media.

So why is social media impacting so widely on every role, on every company around the world. The means to communicate around the world is at our fingertips.  The medium of the internet encourages people to behave in a way they might not face to face.  They can appear as a new persona, express their opinions, support & challenge in a way that they would not normally.  Being “remote” from their audience they can appear confident which dealing with in my case, students on a daily basis this is one area they are not.  This extends to all walks of life.  We as people like to communicate and having the means to do this worldwide appeals. 

So how do companies come into this?  What relevance do social networks have here?  Again its the need to network, reach out wider and connect instantly to like minded people.

 

Quote

“The world of social media enables ALL your consumers, employees and parties with a vested interest to communicate to thousands within seconds, garner opinion and amplify the “noise” both positively and negatively. ” “There are no secrets. The networked market knows more than companies do about their own products. And whether the news is good or bad, they tell everyone.”

Cluetrain Manifesto

Social media is here to stay but the various formats are likely to change with the speed of development and the driving force of millions of people wishing to communicate globally.