Preparing Students to Work in Communications

A recent post focused on big ideas to save journalism. What about changing the university curriculum so that students are prepared to work in this ever-changing environment?

That was what Ron Bennett spoke about during the Media Network Idaho’s workshop on “Communicating in a Changing World.” During Ron’s tenure as Communication Department chair at Brigham Young University — Idaho, the department went through a major curriculum revision.

While the University of Colorado discontinued its School of Journalism and Mass Communications and is moving toward a curriculum focused on information and communication technology, Ron said Bringham Young University thought a different approach would work.

So a group was convened that interviewed CEOs around the country in major cities. The major criteria that all asked for was to teach students to write. Ron said too often today’s students “only write with their two thumbs” referring to texting.

The CEOs also wanted graduates who had interpersonal skills. “They want to know that the people they hire can get along with others,” Ron said. Other desired skills include speaking and presentation skills, lack of entitlement and a good work ethic.

The CEOs “valued breadth, not depth,” Ron said.

The result of the research was a new academic plan for the communication department. It features 31-credit core, 15-credit emphasis and a 9-credit module. “There is an emphasis in new media in all instructions yet it teaches core skills and values,” Ron said.

The program offers strict requirements along with flexibility and integrates well with minors from other departments.

Reviewing the course offerings made me want to return to school.  I’m learning on the job now, but to be able to take a module in video or new ventures would be beneficial. I would have enjoyed the core classes and selected an emphasis in either news/journalism or public relations. That would have still left me the opportunity to select a module in the opposite so that I had a well-rounded approach to communications.

As someone who often hires, it’s encouraging to see a curriculum that truly prepares students for the reality of life outside academia.

Leadership Fable Focuses on Teams

What do you do when your team doesn’t debate an issue or when they don’t have any input? It’s something I have wrestled with, and thanks to reading “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” by Patrick Lencioni have a better understanding of it.

In the book, which is told as a fable, a lack of trust is often at the core of a lack of debate during staff meetings or other interactions. One of the first suggestions to overcome this lack of trust was the notion of getting to know each other’s personal histories. This does not involve answering intrusive issues, but rather background questions that allow staff members to get to know something about each other and to begin to establish a level of trust.

The book also focused on setting goals for the team and developing a scorecard, or dashboard. This resonated with me because while my division has a dashboard, which I review with my vice president, I’ve not been consistent with discussing it with the team. The dashboard was created with team input, but for it to have real meaning, we need to review and analyze the results at least monthly.

According to “The Five Dysfunctions” my team will then be able to “make collective decisions on a daily basis.” This may result in some conflict as we determine the best way to get results. It’s critical for team members to be able to speak freely and openly with the intention of cycling through conflict and focusing on the team’s collective goals. It also means holding each other accountable “for what we sign up to do (and) for high standards of performance and behavior.”

Going back to the issues of trust, “trust is knowing that when a team member does push you, they’re doing it because they care about the team.” As a result of this book, I’m trusting my team to hold me accountable so that I can help the team avoid or overcome the dysfunctions.

Crisis Communications, Planning for the Unexpected

“If you don’t feed the dogs quickly, they’ll start to rummage through the garbage,” said Brandy King, senior communications manager for Southwest Airlines.

That was her advice to the PRSA Richmond chapter during a recent meeting about “Planning for the Unexpected.”

“It’s not what we say but how, where and how quickly,” she noted. “If you’re dark, you’re just not part of the conversation.”

She talked about the importance of a crisis communications plan. At Southwest the plan is “built around the biggest crisis we could have – an airplane crash.” The plan includes identifying a media briefing room and providing a phone bank.

During a crisis, a member of the Southwest Airlines communications team is part of the company’s Emergency Command Center. This allows the person to understand all aspects of the crisis and is critical to the company’s effective handling of the situation, Brandy said.

If a crisis is of the magnitude that the existing communications staff is unable to keep up with call volume, other staff members are called in to assist. These staff members were trained in advance to take messages from reporters and the public. “We don’t want the media getting voice mail,” she said.

She also discussed the influence of social media on a crisis. “Customer situations that might have been a blip are now turning into a crisis on social media,” she observed. When it comes to communications, they key principles to remember are 

  • Speed
  • Substance
  • Distribution
  • Credibility
  • Public sentiment

Brandy’s best piece of advice – “We know we are never going to be fully prepared but that doesn’t stop us from trying to be fully prepared.”

How Big Ideas Can Save Journalism

Since you are reading this blog, you already know that people have changed how they consume information.

Unfortunately, many companies have not kept up with those changes – newspapers included. This was the observation of Ethan Huffman, communications specialist for the Idaho National Laboratory and one of the speakers during Media Network Idaho’s workshop on “Communicating in a Changing World.”

Ethan used examples from several companies as part of his talk on “Inspired Thinking: How Big Ideas Can Save Journalism.”

He believes that journalism for a new era requires four things:

  1. Identifying opportunities
  2. Gathering journalists/publishers who have the best ideas
  3. Creating a sustainable profit model
  4. Building a robust network for access

But before that can happen, Ethan said we must understand the cultural limitations of newspapers. That cultural limitation is discussed by Malcom Gladwell in his books.

In the first half of the 1800s, journalism saw the birth and growth of the New York Post, Herald, Times and Tribune. He noted that they’ve exposed corruption and injustice and served as a checks and balance on government. But today digital content dominates.

Newspapers have existed for so long with a printed newspaper concept, Ethan said, “it’s a cultural barrier; it’s their legacy.”

In reviewing quality versus quantity, Ethan says it makes sense to move to all digital. “Printed isn’t cost effective,” he notes. For example the Detroit Free Press went completely digital and discovered it saved 30,000 miles per day on its fleet that delivered newspapers. Multiply those miles times the cost of gas and there is a considerable cost savings, especially given that by the time the newspapers were delivered, the news was old.

He suggests that newspapers ignore the arenas in which they can’t compete, namely breaking news, national sports and classifieds. Instead, Ethan says, they should focus on features, investigative journalism and science writing.

Newspapers also need to make their material mobile. He noted that only 20 newspapers are available on Kindle or the Nook and yet there are more than 500,000 books and hundreds of magazines available. “Newspapers aren’t keeping up,” he says.

A final observation Ethan made was for newspapers to establish an alliance.

  1. Turn competitors into allies
  2. Map a network of supporters
  3. Make the newspaper an experience
  4. Build fans, not customers

And while the audience that Ethan spoke to reads newspapers, the majority did so online. His seminar provided a thought-provoking conversation on keeping journalism alive.

Time to Regain Control

I’m just back from giving two presentations to Media Network of Idaho. The good thing is that they were presentations I had previously given to organizations in Virginia so with a bit of tweaking I was ready to go. It still required travel and time away from the office, as well as giving up a weekend at home (the bonus, though, was a visit to Yellowstone in the fall, which was a good trade).
 

By Nina Matthews Photography

The presentations came on the heals of the NFPW Conference in Chicago, launching the website and representing my organization at a Rotary meeting. I also have launched a Writer Wednesday series at my local library.

 
I’ve had a lot on my plate both at work and at home. I recognize that these are activities I’m choosing to be involved with, and I really enjoy being involved. But, I was starting to feel overwhelmed.
 
One good thing is that the crisp temperatures of autumn are upon us and that always adds a spring to my step. My work, however, was still piling up. In fact, there were days I just couldn’t seem to get anything done. I was easily distracted.
One evening at home, I put a CD on and allowed myself to clean and organize my desk for as long as the CD was playing. When it was finished, I had to work for 47 minutes (I needed a random number to make it feel less like work) so I set the microwave timer and sat down at my desk. I finished one blog and made some updates to the NFPW website. Then I tackled the biggest item, which was finalizing the contest rules.
 
So now I’m doing the same thing at my office. One afternoon, I simply had enough. And for one hour, I allowed myself the luxury of cleaning out emails (I set a goal of reducing my inbox by 25), shredding papers and organizing files. At the end of that hour I felt much more relaxed.
 
Next I made a list of the big projects and deliverables that were waying me down. I prioritized them and set aside an appropriate amount of time for each one. Suddenly there were enough hours in the week to finish each of the assignments.
 
I don’t have a clean desk yet and my inbox is still not at the manageable point, but the “To Do” list is shorter, and at least now I feel as if I have a handle on it.
How do you regain control?