Upcoming Posts in April 2010

Last night I was asked the question, “Can you make money by blogging?” In Part 1 of this article I gave the answer, but I probably should elaborate.

Paul Kiser

Disclaimer: I am not now, nor have I ever been a card-carrying professional blogger.

I have never made a dime (penny, nickel, quarter, etc.) from blogging. As such, I can’t speak to those who are raking it in by blogging….but I suspect that there are not many profiting from blogging. Why?

Make Money By Blogging? NOT Likely!

First, the market for blogging is a supply and demand thing. The Internet gives access to anyone who has an connection, a device to connect, the capability to use the device, and the ability to read and write. That’s how many potential bloggers are out there who want to talk about something. The number of consumers of blogs is relatively small because there are not a lot of people who care about the thoughts of someone else, unless they are saying something really interesting or teaching something that the reader wants to learn. Simply put, the supply of bloggers and blogs exceeds the demand for their work and therefore there is no market.

To put it in financial terms, even if you could get a reader to pay you $0.10 (ten cents) to read one of your blogs one time you would need 2000 readers a week, or 286 readers per day to make $200/week at blogging. I’m probably not a great example, but I work pretty hard at producing blogs and on a good day I have 20 readers.

Second, blogging is like acting or teaching. Your value as a blogger is determined by your ability to entertain or teach, or both. Few can blog so well that they can gather the audience to read their work, and even fewer could gather an audience willing to pay for the privilege.

Blogging is about Branding. It tells the world who you are and what you think. Blogs may help others understand the value (skills, knowledge, and experience) of the blogger, which may lead to new job opportunities, or if you’re really good, a blogger might get paid for speaking or consulting. There are ways for groups of bloggers to combine efforts in a mega-blog site that uses advertising to pay the bloggers, but that is for people who have established themselves as great bloggers.

For me, blogging is about enjoying the process of writing and expressing my thoughts….but if anyone wants to pay me…….

Other Blogs about Social Media and Public Relations

Social Media 2020: Public Relations 2001 vs Social Media Relations 2010

Social Media 2020: Who Moved My Public Relations?

Publishing Industry to End 2012

Who uses Facebook, Twitter, MySpace & LinkedIn?

Fear of Public Relations

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn…Oh My!

Does Anybody Really Understand PR?

Social Media 2020: Can You Make Money by Blogging

15 Thursday Apr 2010

Posted by Paul Kiser in Branding, Information Technology, Lessons of Life, Public Relations, Random, Re-Imagine!, Rotary, Social Interactive Media (SIM), Social Media Relations

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Bloggers, Blogging, Blogs, New Business World, Public Image, Publicity, Social Media, Social Networking

No.

Social Media 2020: Public Relations 2001 vs Social Media Relations 2010

13 Tuesday Apr 2010

Posted by Paul Kiser in Human Resources, Information Technology, Management Practices, Passionate People, Public Relations, Re-Imagine!, Rotary, Social Interactive Media (SIM), Social Media Relations, Tom Peters

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Book, Facebook, HR, LinkedIn, Management Practices, New Business World, Public Image, Publicity, Social Media, Social Networking, Tom Peters, Twitter

A lot has changed in the last nine years in regard to the world of Public Relations. In Part One I compare the fable presented in the Late 1990’s book, Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson to the reaction towards today’s new world of Social Media. In Part Two of this series I compare how we looked at Public Relations in 2001 versus how we look at it today.

Paul Kiser

(Read Part One of this series – Social Media 2020: Who Moved My Public Relations?)

Public Relations 2001: The Power of Third-Party Media

In 2001, Public Relations was more distinct. A person could easily identify the roles and responsibilities. Publicity was defined as earning the attention of third-party media of an organization through free media channels. Promotion described the use of paid third-party media advertising (newspaper, radio, TV, phone book, mail, etc.) to gain public attention. It was easier to define Public Relations in 2001 because it consisted of three distinct roles: 1) The organization seeking publicity/promotion, 2) the third-party media, and 3) the target audience.

Of the three roles, the third-party media was considered a deity. The goal of PR professionals (and non-professionals) was to gain favorable attention of those key people in the third-party media so that they would talk about you to their audience. You could buy your way into the hearts and minds of the media, but the goal was to seduce the media and gain their favor. Journalists, newspaper editors, television news directors, and other media professionals had the power to make or break the public image of company and/or influence customers purchasing habits. The people in the media were the gatekeepers to the public.

In 2001, the Internet was not new, but it was still primarily a place of email and websites. PR professionals were promoting websites as another tool in their arsenal to reach the public, but many organizations still had their doubts about the importance of how a website could increase their business. A few could see beyond the existing uses of the Internet. Some of those gifted few might have imagined a world where junk mail and the yellow pages would become obsolete, but the idea of masses of people in continuous connection to each other was hard to fathom by almost everyone, especially PR professionals.

The New Cheese: The Individual

Tom Peters - author of Re-Imagine! New Business Excellence in a Disruptive World

One person who saw something brewing in the early part of the new millennium was Tom Peters. In his 2003 book, Re-Imagine! Business Excellence in a Disruptive Age, he devoted a chapter to Individual Branding. He suggested a future where the skills and experience of the individual would be key to ‘New Business’. A world where a person isn’t swallowed up as a commodity in the belly of a corporation, but rather as an independent professional that companies would compete to have on their team.

(Go to Tom Peters Re-Imagine! website)

In 2003, it seemed hard to imagine how an individual could become relevant in a business world that often captured employees and then made them sign non-disclosure, non-compete, we-own-you agreements. The ability for someone to market themselves was severely restricted, if not, banned outright by the corporation that made no promises of job security, but demanded total loyalty.

Perhaps Peters could see that the blogging sites of 2001-03 were signaling a new age of individualism; perhaps there were trends in place that Peters could project in the future; or perhaps (and this is my theory) that Peters has the ability to travel in time; but with the development and massive growth of Social Interactive Media in the last five years, Peters accurately predicted a new world of branding of the individual that is now a reality.

The Individual Trumps False Corporate and Media Gods

The rapid growth of Facebook and Twitter are two of the significant factors that changed the world of Public Relations. Facebook made Social Media acceptable to millions. Social Media allowed an individual to connect with hundreds of other people without the approval or denial of a third-party media deity. Ideas, opinions, and knowledge were now being shared and it all bypassed the traditional gatekeepers. It is hard to say what was the critical mass flash point that pushed Social Media into the mainstream, but once Facebook exceeded 100 million users there was no doubt that the Age of the Individual had dawned.

Twitter’s contribution to the age of the individual was two-fold. The 140 character limitation for Twitter messages created a need to link to blogs, articles, and websites to fully convey new information and ideas; therefore, the practice of embedding links into a Tweet became commonplace. That spurred a new connectivity of an individual’s ideas and opinions to the rest of the world. Prior to Twitter, a blog was primarily found via a Google search, but a Tweet brought more attention to the general public without relying on a deliberate search, AND, the Tweet put new information out to an audience that was already interested in the topic.

The second impact of Twitter was a continuous flow of connectivity. As a Social Media tool it put people in touch with each other 24/7/365. While other Social Media tools could make a similar claim, Twitter encouraged users to stay connected and placed a priority on real-time interaction. This was a pace of communication that corporations, with layers of control and approval, were not equipped to handle. The corporate practice of running every statement or concept by a Public Relations professional before it goes public was not possible in the world of real-time information. Twitter was designed for communication of individuals, not corporations, which is exactly the way users wanted it.

A Different Flavor of Cheese

Nobody will deny that Public Relations is still not a viable function in today’s world, but the old concept of the worship of third-party media like newspapers has been lost. Discussing the Internet and Social Media when a newspaper professional is in the room is like discussing a new girlfriend in front of someone who used to date her and got dumped. Public Relations is no longer an effort to make the best possible impression with the public as it is about being genuine. Users of Social Media can spot a fake PR effort and anything that smacks of a corporate sell job is rejected…permanently.

To survive in a world of ‘Social Media Relations,’ corporations no longer can hide behind the perfect façade of Public Relations. A business will be judged by the sum of its individuals and that means less control and manipulation of its employees. The successful company will unshackle its people to dazzle its customers with their expertise of the business, and their competitors will tremble in fear. It’s a new world, but not for those who don’t adapt and adopt.

Tom Peters world of New Business is here and Public Relations can no longer hide behind the curtain in New Oz.

Other Blogs on Social Media and Public Relations

Publishing Industry to End 2012

Who uses Facebook, Twitter, MySpace & LinkedIn?

Fear of Public Relations

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn…Oh My!

Does Anybody Really Understand PR?

Social Media 2020: Who Moved My Public Relations?

12 Monday Apr 2010

Posted by Paul Kiser in Information Technology, Management Practices, Public Relations, Random, Rotary, Social Interactive Media (SIM), Social Media Relations

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Blackberry, Newspapers, Promotion, Publicity, Spencer Johnson, The Publicity Handbook, Who Moved My Cheese

Paul Kiser - CEO of Enterprise Technologies, inc.

Twelve years ago the book, Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson was published. It gave us fable about mice and men and how each handles change. In the book Johnson’s mice discover the cheese is all gone and immediately begin to search for a new supply of cheese; however, the when the humans discover the cheese is gone they assume someone has moved it and become angry because they saw themselves as victims of change.

I think we can apply this lesson to the field of Public Relations. Some are handling the massive changes in the field with acceptance and are adapting to the new paradigm, but some are taking a more human approach and seeing themselves as victims.

The new social media like Facebook, Twitter, and blogging are seen by some as evil, corrupt, and useless. Some business people feel it is unfair that people are making purchasing decisions from information they glean off the free social media sites when they are paying for advertisements to influence them. Some in the traditional media (newspapers, commercial TV, radio, etc.) may feel it is unfair that their sources of revenue are abandoning them for inexpensive promotional tools on the Internet. It’s all soooo unfair.

Someone moved Public Relations and it’s just not right!

I mention this because a few weeks ago a friend let me borrow a book called The Publicity Handbook by David R. Yale and Andrew J. Carothers. It was published by McGraw-Hill in May of 2001. In the nine years since it was published the field of Public Relations was moved. What we knew and understood about communication and media in 2001 has little to do with the world of communications and media of 2010, and the speed of change seems to be accelerating. Consider just a few of the changes since 2001:

Newspaper Circulation: Down 21% from 2001 (55.6 M) to 2009 (44.0 M) and newspapers lost over 10% in 2009 alone.
Newspapers Closed: 105…in the first seven months of 2009.
Social Media Sites: MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc. all started after 2001.
Blackberry Smart Phones: 2002

So what can a book on publicity have to say that has any value in today’s environment?

Quite a bit. The Publicity Handbook is a good foundation for anyone who is trying to learn the basics of the field of publicity and I it is a book I would recommend; however, for me, it gives a measure of how much has changed in the past nine years.

Next — Social Media 2020: Public Relations 2001 vs Social Media Relations 2010

Other Blogs on Social Media

Publishing Industry to End 2012

Who uses Facebook, Twitter, MySpace & LinkedIn?

Fear of Public Relations

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn…Oh My!

Does Anybody Really Understand PR?

Rotary@105: What Kind of Animal is RI?

12 Monday Apr 2010

Posted by Paul Kiser in Management Practices, Membership Retention, Public Relations, Re-Imagine!, Rotary, Rotary@105

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

2010 Council on Legislation, Code of Policies, Council on Legislation, Manual of Procedure, Ray Klinginsmith, RI Constitution, Rotary Council on Legislation

Paul Kiser - Rotary District 5190 Public Relations Chair - RC of Reno Sunrise, NV

by Paul Kiser

When considering the care and feeding of any beast one must first decide what kind of beast you have, and that is not an easy task when examining the beast known as Rotary International (RI). I’ve been thinking about this because in two weeks RI will hold the 2010 session of the Council on Legislation (CoL). This meeting is charged with approving new policies and policy changes that will determine what RI will be, or not be, for the next three years.

If you don’t understand what I’m talking about…you are not alone and some background might be helpful.

Rotary International is a separate and distinct organization. We, as Rotarians, do not belong to Rotary International. The individual Rotary Club is a member of Rotary International, but the club members are not. It’s a fine line, but a very important one. Our clubs have a voice in RI, but individual members do not.

RI is governed by the Manual of Procedure (MoP), the Rotary Code of Policies, and the RI Constitution. The Council on Legislation decides changes, deletions, and additions to the governing documents. This happens once every three years…yes, I said once every three years. After the Council on Legislation meets during the last week of this month (April 2010) it will not reconvene until 2013.

The Rotary Theme Logo for 2009-10

Individual members cannot propose changes to the Council on Legislation (because they are not members of RI), so for a Rotarian to propose a change to RI policies and procedures she or he must get his or her Club to do it. Once a Club has decided to propose a change to the Council on Legislation they must:

Propose the change almost two years prior to the Council of Legislation (2008 deadline for 2010 CoL)
Have that proposal approved by the majority of clubs in the District
Gain the approval of the Council Services (Administrative Staff at RI) that the proposed legislation is legitimate

The Council on Legislation only sees the proposed legislation that survives all of these hurdles and many proposed changes die in RI’s Council Services review process.

It is noteworthy that all things RI are handled by two groups of people. District Governors (past and present) consist of one group. They serve in various capacities in governing RI, including serving as District Representative to the Council on Legislation.

The second group is almost invisible to the rank and file of Rotary. That group is the administrative staff at RI. The RI staff is governed by the MoP, Code of Policies, and the RI Constitution; however, they also serve as the gatekeeper, and in the case of the Council on Legislation, the Council Services division has significant power to allow or deny legislation to be presented to the CoL.

Change in RI is controlled by who is allowed to make the decisions and by the drawn-out approval process. Part of the challenges we face in making Rotary relevant for 2010 and beyond is the fact that our organization is not structured to allow changes to be done quickly, or in some cases, at all. Our RI beast is governed by policies and procedures that, for the most part:

can only be changed once every three years
proposed changes must be submitted in two years in advance
proposed changes must be filtered through the District Governors who may not support the change

Whether intentional or not, this process is designed to be resistant to change. When it comes to adapting to a new environment the RI beast is a dinosaur in a world that changes in the time it takes to post a Tweet. As we attempt to make Rotary relevant to the professionals in today’s world we must find a more representative and responsive method for making meaningful changes.

Rotary International’s President Elect, Ray Klinginsmith, tells us it is time we found some new traditions and this year’s RI Theme is “The Future of Rotary is in Your Hands.” The sentiments seems to reflect that it is time for Rotarians to step up and Re-Imagine our organization…but we now need to clear out those roadblocks that seek to keep Rotary from becoming all it can be.

Other Rotary Related Blogs

Rotary: The Man in the Yellow Hat as the Ideal Club President?

07 Wednesday Apr 2010

Posted by Paul Kiser in Crisis Management, Human Resources, Lessons of Life, Management Practices, Membership Retention, Public Relations, Random, Rotary

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Curious George, Management Techniques, Membership Retention, Rotarians, Rotary Club

Paul Kiser - Public Relations Chair - Rotary District 5190 (Northeast CA/Northern NV

The Man in the Yellow Hat seems to be overwhelmed by the adventurousness of his pet monkey, better known to the world as Curious George, but at closer inspection George’s owner has a style about him that allows the little monkey to have the freedom to be creative, while not stifling his enthusiasm. It is a model that could help every Rotary Club President understand that individual members need the freedom to fail if a club is to be successful.

If you are blessed with a four year-old you probably have some screen time with the Public Broadcast Service (PBS) young children’s programming known as PBS Kids. Among the many children’s programs offered by PBS Kids is the Curious George series that began in 2006 and based on the Curious George books.

Most people over 50 may remember Curious George from the seven children’s books written from 1941 to 1966 by Margaret and H.A. Rey. In both the book series and the PBS Kids program the owner of Curious George is the Man in the Yellow Hat (let’s abbreviate that to MITYH) who is never identified by a name. (A 2006 animated movie did name him, but I’m not going to acknowledge that feeble attempt to put a name on a character that the original authors intentionally left unnamed.)

What I find fascinating is the relationship between Curious George and the MITYH. For those who have not watched the PBS Kids program, The MITYH and Curious George live in a flat (presumably in New York) and George is the MITYH’s pet monkey. As an animal owner he would likely be arrested for not controlling his animal. George is often left alone for vast stretches at a time and he always get into mischief when the MITYH is absent. Fortunately for the MITYH, it seems that the cartoon world has no Humane Society or ASPCA to interfere with the relationship between a man and his monkey.

(Link to PBS Kids)

Curious George - Monkey making mischief

If you watch the show you will see a pattern of disaster that is always preceded by the MITYH leaving the flat and saying, “Be a good little monkey.” George then proceeds to solve a problem, understand how something works, or tries to be helpful, which always results in a mess. What is surprising is the tolerance level of the MITYH and his neighbors and friends. They always seem to understand that George will be George and all is forgiven. At the end of each episode George has a new understanding of how the world works and all problems are fixed and everyone ends up happy.

So what does this have to do with a Rotary Club? First, let me be clear, I’m not trying to infer that Rotarians are a bunch of monkeys…although I have been involved in some meetings where it seemed that the behavior of the members could be best described as Simian in nature. Rotarians are all human and typically a creative group of people. But because we all come from a business-related background our first thought as a Club President is to ‘manage’ the members. I would suggest that it is not the best strategy.

As volunteers, Rotarians represent a vast resource of knowledge, skills, and creativity that is unique in the world. Few organizations can put together the quality of people that Rotary attracts without offering significant compensation and benefit packages. Rotary’s only asset is its members, but it is an asset that is more valuable than gold regardless of the current market price.

But our members are an asset, not a commodity. Each day as a Club President is a gift. The Club President represents a group of people who belong to the Rotary Club simply because they want to be, and not because of any quid pro quo. It is a mistake to belief they belong because they want to be managed.

That is the magic of the MITYH’s style can be applied to the Rotary Club. He doesn’t try to ‘manage’ his monkey. Indeed, the MITYH acts as if it his pleasure to be able to simply be associated with George. Sometimes it almost seems that he intentionally finds reasons to leave George alone to explore his world and create mischief with the understanding that all will work out in the end.

Often the MITYH is embarrassed by George’s actions, but his embarrassment is short-lived, and never does the MITYH decide that he needs to control George more to save face. Nor does the MITYH decide that George must become more involved and assign George to a committee. The MITYH offers opportunities and then walks away. Never does he judge or attempt to manipulate…but he is always there to help clean up.

The Man in the Yellow Hat has a style that is unique in a world that values and teaches ‘managing’ other people in order to achieve his or her goals , but I think we could all learn a lot about working with talented volunteers from the example of empowering without fear of failure. Our members deserve no less.

Other Paul Kiser Rotary Blogs

Rotary@105: Our 1st Rotary Club Dropout

Rotary Public Relations and Membership: Eight Steps to a Team Win

Rotary: All Public Relations is Local

Best Practices: Become a Target!

Fear of Public Relations

Who Uses Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, & LinkedIn?

01 Thursday Apr 2010

Posted by Paul Kiser in Information Technology, Management Practices, Public Relations, Rotary, Social Interactive Media (SIM)

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Age Differences, Facebook, Gender Differences, LinkedIn, MySpace, Social Media, Twitter

Paul Kiser - CEO of Enterprise Technologies, inc.

by Paul Kiser [Twitter: ] [Facebook] [LinkedIn] [Skype:kiserrotary or 775.624.5679]

People are surprised to learn that the fastest growing group on Facebook is women over 55; however, that demographic is still a small group compared to the younger age groups. Only 16% of Facebook users (women and men combined) are over 55, so while women over 55 may be the fasted growing group, it fails to tell the whole story.

Yesterday I used Google Ad Services to look at the current statistics for Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and LinkedIn. It is important to understand that the Social Media arena is a constantly changing, but there are trends that have developed and are shaping our understanding of who is using the media. When considering this information please remember this does not tell us who is NOT using the Social Media tools. Anecdotally we can surmise that the older a person is, the more likely that they are limited or non-users of Social Media, but I have no facts to support that conclusion.

Facebook Visitors 1Q 2010

In terms of users, Facebook still reigns supreme in the world of social media. Worldwide there are 490 million users. Twitter and MySpace each currently have 80 million and LinkedIn has 41 million. There is no doubt that many people belong to and/or use more than one Social Media platform; however, to my knowledge there are no statistics that can precisely measure duplicate users.

MySpace Visitors 1Q 2010

MySpace was a pioneer of the Social Media and it established the standard for most of the other web-based membership groups; however, it has undergone a series of scandals of misuse by some members and it has a reputation of being used primarily by young (underage users) which have driven people away. MySpace is the only one of the four researched Social Media platforms that is losing users. In the past year MySpace has dropped from slightly over 20 million visitors per day to about 13 million. Not the direction that they would like to go.

Another Discussion about Facebook & Twitter

Women tend to use the Social Media more with LinkedIn having a tie of Male and Female users. On Facebook and Twitter women account for 60% of the users, and on MySpace they account for 66% of the users. The fact that women tend to use the Social Media more than men may tell us a lot about gender differences in behavior and attitudes towards the use of Social Media.

MySpace Age Groupings

Age differences among the four Social Media platforms have specific patterns that indicate some of the most interesting demographics. In general terms, MySpace dominates the under 17 crowd with 34% of all users in that age group. It would seem that a rite of adulthood is to end your MySpace account, which may be why 18-24 year olds have distanced themselves from the service.

Facebook Age Groupings

Twitter Age Groupings

Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn all have an older following than MySpace with Twitter users peaking in the 35 to 44-year-old range and 46% of the Facebook users in the 35 to 54-year-old range. While the difference is not dramatic, Facebook users are slightly older than Twitter users, but both have over 70% of their users in the 25 to 64-year-old range.

LinkedIn Age Groupings

LinkedIn is unique in the distribution of the age groups with an almost perfect ‘Bell Curve’. Considered to be the Social Media platform for business, it reflects a majority (56%) of 35 to 54 year olds as members, with another (33%) evenly spread on either side of the majority group. The next age groups on either side of that are also evenly divided at 4% each.

Social Media Stats 1st Q 2010

Social Media is still in a transformational phase. With each passing month the users are redefining the significance of the new communication forms. With new applications and new uses for the multiple platforms being invented on a daily basis, the people who traditionally have been resources of Public Relations and Marketing are racing to understand what is relevant and what is not. In addition to business concerns like Public Relations and Marketing, experts in fields like Social Psychology, Human Communication, and even Information Technology are scrambling to grasp what all this means.

What we know about Social Media is that it is not going away, nor is it a fad. We also know that Social Media is becoming a force in informing and influencing people with speed that has never been experienced before. It is macro-communication that occurs with micro-interactions. Much as the collective neurons in the human brain can influence our mood, the collective individuals in social networks are influencing the attitudes and awareness of a mass of people who often act or react based upon the knowledge gained through their Social Media group.

Those that engage in the tools of Social Media and learn the appropriate use of the tools will have a marketing advantage over those who shun it out of ignorance. Tools like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are even changing the way people manage and can be managed in an organization as they bypass all controls used by the Chain of Command leaving authority figures irrelevant unless they take part in the dialogue with those that have been empowered with a new voice.

More Articles

What Social Media tool do you use?

(polls)

Rotary@105: Our 1st Rotary Dropout

26 Friday Mar 2010

Posted by Paul Kiser in Lessons of Life, Passionate People, Public Relations, Rotary, Rotary@105

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Dissatisfiers, Hiram Shorey, History of Rotary, Membership, Membership Retention, Paul Harris, Rotary International

Few Rotarians know that we marked a 105th anniversary milestone last week. On March 23, one month after the historic first meeting, Rotary marked the 105th anniversary of its name. It was not until the third meeting in 1905 that the original club members decided that the name would be ‘Rotary’ because the meetings were going to be ‘rotated’ among the member’s offices. There were 15 people at that meeting including the original four.

The Original Four of Rotary

Those original four were Silvester Schiele (age 34), Paul Harris (age 36), Gustavus Loehr (age 40), and Hiram Shorey (age 42). Of the four, the oldest, Hiram Shorey would attend only two more meetings . He did come back for a few meetings in 1906, but after the fifth meeting Hiram became the first Rotary Dropout.

Hiram Shorey: Rotary's first dropout

Why did Hiram dropout? To me it is an interesting question. According to an account of the first meeting all of the men were enthusiastic about the new club and he continued to attend for the next four meetings, so what changed between the first meeting and the fifth?

I don’t buy the reasons given when a Rotarian drops out. According to Paul Harris, Hiram left Rotary, “due to circumstances beyond his control.” Almost always the reason given is a ‘politically correct’ reason that ignores the fact that people do not normally make changes in their life based on one or two factors, but rather have multiple experiences or dissatisfiers that lead up to the change of mind.

(See my blog on Dissatisfiers: Why John Quit)

There could have been many issues that dissatisfied Hiram. The first meeting was held at Gus Loehr’s office. The second at Paul Harris’s office, and the third at Silvester Schiele’s office. According to the idea of ‘rotating’ the meetings it would have seemed likely that the fourth meeting would have been held at Hiram’s shop. Rotary history seems to skip over the fourth meeting. What we do know is that the fifth meeting (Hiram’s last) was held at a hotel and dinner was served. Is it possible that the issue of the location of the meeting caused Hiram to rethink his enthusiasm about the club? Did something happen at the fourth meeting that caused him to become disillusioned with Rotary? By the third meeting the club had grown to 15 members. Did that cause Hiram to feel like Rotary wasn’t going to be small group of friends?

We will never know what dissatisfiers led to Hiram becoming Rotary’s first dropout, but there is a lesson we can take from 105 years ago. Even people who have a strong vested interest in the club and it’s success can become disillusioned in a matter of a few meetings. It takes extraordinary sensitivity and awareness to address dissatisfiers that may cause a member to leave the club, but it is the only way to help close the back door that members use to slip away from the club.

Ironically, Hiram’s short involvement with the club would follow him through the rest of his life. His hometown of Litchfield, Maine has a plaque that notes he was “a Founder of Rotary.” That is the way we all will remember him.

Rotary related blogs by Paul Kiser

Rotary Public Relations and Membership: Eight Steps to a Team Win

Rotary: All Public Relations is Local

Best Practices: Become a Target!

Fear of Public Relations

Rotary: All Public Relations is Local

25 Thursday Mar 2010

Posted by Paul Kiser in Public Relations, Rotary

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

PR, Public Image, Public Relations, Publicity, Rotary, Rotary District 5190, Rotary International

by Paul Kiser

Paul Kiser - District Public Relations Chair - Rotary District 5190

Rotary is challenged in the role of Public Relations. For almost a century we didn’t see a need for Public Relations. There are good reasons why this was the case, but now we recognize the need for a Public Relations function.

Unfortunately, despite the efforts of many smart and skilled people we are still in the infancy of fully incorporating Public Relations into the hearts and minds of the organization. In the recommended Club Leadership Plan published by Rotary International, every other club function has a list of its sub-functions, except Public Relations which is blank. That should not be surprising considering how little time Public Relations has had to evolve in the organization. The idea to establish PR as a separate club function was a bold step, and it has taken years for the basic concept of Public Relations to take hold.

However, it is time we take another bold act and fully incorporate the function of Public Relations into the soul of the club. The reason to act is simple: the survival of the organization depends on it.

Rotary International - 105 Years of Service Above Self

Rotary and Public Relations: History
When Rotary was first formed in 1905, it was a small club of four members. The membership grew rapidly but it remained one club started by young professionals who sought to exchange business based on ethical practices. There was no need to be concerned about Public Relations because it was just a group of people ‘doing their own thing’. The change came in 1906, when a prospective member suggested that he saw no reason to join unless the club was doing something worthwhile for the community. The club members agreed and in 1907 Rotary completed the first community project by building public toilets in downtown Chicago. It was at that moment that Rotary began interacting with the community, thus Rotary Public Relations was born, but not recognized.

As the decades passed, individual Rotary clubs continued to interact with the local, regional, national, and international communities around them and yet the understanding that Rotary was involved in Public Relations with each interaction did not fully sink in with the clubs, nor the larger organization of Rotary International. Some clubs equated Public Relations to be ‘publicity’ and shunned the idea of bragging or boasting about the community project and programs, not understanding the publicity is only a part of Public Relations.

The Rotary Theme Logo for 2009-10

What Changed?
As Rotary approached its Centennial a realization came about the need for Public Relations; however, this need was still thought of as publicity. Many clubs were experiencing a slow loss of membership and it became apparent that the organization needed to make people more aware of Rotary in order to continue to attract new members. The idea of ‘getting the word out’ was the driving force behind adopting a Public Relations strategy, which is why the efforts have been focused on publicity. This is probably why the Public Relations function is somewhat of an orphan in the Club’s organization because the priority has been on external communication.

Public Relations: A Holistic Approach
Rotary Public Relations should involve the development of a relationship between the Club and the community. It does involve getting the message out (publicity) but to do that a Club must understand how that message will be perceived. This can only be done if a Club is already aware of their TRUE public image in the community. Public Relations is a two-way relationship that requires listening to the community’s perceptions before sending out a message. If the Club does not know what the community perceives about Rotary, the message could be misunderstood leading to a negative Public Relations outcome.

In order to listen to the community a Club must be accessible to the public. This can be a major problem as a Rotary Club only exists for 1 1/2 hours per week. Most clubs have no office, nor any physical presence outside of the Club’s weekly meeting. The only way for the public to access a Club is by creating a presence that can be accessed 24/7/365. Fortunately a Club website can provide that presence, but many clubs do not have an updated website and many more don’t have a website at all.

The other problem is that public image is formed primarily by what a person experiences on a personal level. An airline can say it loves its passengers in a national ad campaign, but the passenger will determine her or his image of the airline based upon the experience with the people met when purchasing tickets, boarding, and flying. Thus, people perceive Rotary based on the interactions with the members and their Club.

Rotary Public Relations: The Next Level

The Rotary Theme Logo for 2010-11

To move to the next level Rotary Clubs should ask questions of non-Rotarians in the communities about their perceptions of Rotary and the Rotary Club. This should be done in a way that the person does not feel like they need to make the ‘nice comment’, but rather allow the person to be completely honest. The Club should be prepared to hear information that may be unexpected and equally prepared to take appropriate action to work to repair any misconceptions or misunderstandings. Correcting misconceptions is the role of publicity, but it must happen after the Club is aware of the existing public image.

The Club should work to be accessible to members and the public with an active and updated website. The website should offer information about upcoming programs and projects, contact information via email or phone, and information about the Club, the Area, the District, and Rotary International.

To establish a plan for the Club Public Relations the Bulletin/Newsletter Editor, Programs Chair, Webmaster, along with other key Club leadership should meet to discuss Club goals and how the Club’s Internal message tools can be used to assist in communicating those goals. Using the resources for Club planning available from Rotary International, the Club Public Relations Committee can establish short-term, annual, and long-term goals.

The key is understanding that all Public Relations is local and that public image is what non-Rotarians perceive about Rotary.

Rotary related blogs by Paul Kiser

Rotary Public Relations and Membership: Eight Steps to a Team Win

Rotary@105: Our 1st Rotary Dropout

Best Practices: Become a Target!

Fear of Public Relations

Best Practices: Become a Target!

24 Wednesday Mar 2010

Posted by Paul Kiser in Human Resources, Lessons of Life, Management Practices, Passionate People, Public Relations, Rotary, Social Interactive Media (SIM), Tom Peters

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Breaking the Mold, Champions, In Search of Excellence, Robert Waterman, Tom Peters

by Paul Kiser

Paul Kiser - CEO 2020 Enterprise Technologies

I just read Dr. Bret Simmons blog post, Give Yourself Permission to Be Excellent. Excellence is a topic I fell in love with back in the 1980’s when Tom Peters and Robert Waterman wrote the iconic book, In Search of Excellence. In that book I finally found someone who confirmed that business as usual is not good enough.

In Search of Excellence by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman

Fortunately, the President of the hospital I worked at then had also read the same book and for two years I experienced what business could be when unleashed from the confines of the unimaginative and uncaring. All the ‘can’t-be-done’ stupidity had to face the light of day and it didn’t fare well when the control was removed from those who saw themselves as the ‘protectors’ of traditions. The hospital (run by a strict religious-based organization) grew and flourished under the new leadership. The facility kept it’s core values while eliminating most of the dysfunctional ideas that held it back.

But there was a price for those who pioneered the concept of excellence over authority. Those people came under scrutiny. Any mistake or failure was seized as proof positive that the people involved in effort of change were flawed….not that their ideas were flawed, but that the people were.

In Dr. Bret Simmons’s Blog he talks about the risk in striving for excellence and helps us understand why ‘risk’ happens.

(Click here to read Dr. Simmons Blog)

Dr. Bret Simmons http://www.bretlsimmons.com

Dr. Bret states that mediocrity abides by the current rules and to strive for excellence means defining new rules. Most people wait for someone in authority to define the new rules and in most cases those in authority fear risking his or her position by breaking new ground. Thus it takes a ‘champion’, as Tom Peters liked to call them, to step forward and make the new rules for everyone else.

However, once a person steps forward to lead the way they make themselves a target. Their peers ask, “Who are you to do this!!!” and they wait for the person to be struck down by someone in authority. The person in authority is embarrassed that they weren’t the one who took the bold action and so is predisposed to ‘put the person in their place.’ The result is that the person who leads the way is disliked…personally…by others in the organization.

The organization that lacks great leadership destroys champions, and make no mistake it takes GREAT leadership to love a champion. Good leadership toys with champions like a cat toying with a mouse. Good leaders are entertained by champions, but once they make an error the champion is lunch.

So why take the risk? Why not play it safe and color within the lines? George Carlin said, “Life is what we do while we are waiting to die.” It’s a matter of choice, but one can find purpose by being a champion and that can be a great feeling! So go ahead…put those red circles on your back and move out in front of everyone else. They can see the target easier when you’re in front…but then they have to live with the fact that they are always behind you.

Management by Coup 2: Eliminate Job Standards and Job Descriptions

24 Wednesday Mar 2010

Posted by Paul Kiser in Human Resources, Management Practices, Passionate People, Public Relations, Random, Re-Imagine!, Rotary, Tom Peters

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employee morale, HR, job descriptions, job standards, performance standards

Being the Boss is more than wearing a suit and looking important

by Paul Kiser

It seems like a very rational idea. Create job (or performance) standards for every employee that dictate their responsibilities and define the expectations (or for performance standards, defines ‘does not meet’, ‘meets’, or ‘exceeds’) for all aspects of every job. That is the only way an employee knows what is expected of them and the only way a manager can “objectively” measure performance.

Very rational…very, very rational….

News Flash: We don’t live in a rational, sterile world where we can put down on a piece of paper an adequate description of intangible concepts like:

Taking care of the customer.
Thinking outside of the box.
Anticipating unforseen problems

Paul Kiser - CEO - 2020 Enterprise Technologies, inc.

I used to think that I could write objective performance standards that covered the intangibles of the business world, but it is really like the Schrödinger’s Cat paradox. The more objective a set of performance standards, the more impossible it is to accurately and appropriately measure. Likewise, the more subjective the performance standards, the less accurate the measurement tools and the more a manager’s personality, mood, bias, etc. will influence an employee’s score.

In my first Management by Coup blog I proposed that employee evaluations could and should be eliminated. Now I want to go further and propose that performance standards are also unnecessary….But wait there’s more.

I propose that companies can also eliminate job descriptions as well.

Someone is saying “You CAN’T do that!! Job Descriptions are required by LAW, you idiot!!!” To that I say, BS. There is no Federal mandate for an employer to have a job description.

There are some caveats to this statement:

In certain situations (government contracts, state government positions, etc.) job descriptions are required.
Job descriptions are also often subpoenaed as evidence in an employee relations case.
If you have job skills, educational requirements, licensing, etc., then that needs to be listed in some type of job description.

However, all the other things in a job description (job duties, reporting to, etc.) are all optional. So maybe you can’t realistically eliminate a job description, but you can slice it down to the bare bones, and I recommend doing so. Why?

First, anything a company puts in a job description can and will be held against them. Like employee evaluations, the job description is often more useful to the employee’s lawyer than it is to the employee or the employer.

Second, like performance standards, job descriptions can’t possibly describe everything an employee does 2080 hours a year. For this reason almost every job descriptions has the phrase, “Other duties as assigned,” in it. So why not have a one line job description: “Other duties as assigned” and skip the hours wasted on writing and re-writing job duties?

Third, management is about talking to your staff. When a piece of paper is more critical to your company than talking to the employee on a regular and frequent basis, then that is the moment to close up the business and let your competitors take over the market.

Here’s a test. Write a job description for the expectations you have of your child (if you don’t have a child, try a pet, or your significant other). Then at the end of a week measure how well the job description improved your relationship and if the job description had any value over just not writing it up in the first place.

I rest my case.

Other Blogs

Rotary Public Relations and Membership: Eight Steps to a Team Win

22 Monday Mar 2010

Posted by Paul Kiser in Management Practices, Passionate People, Public Relations, Rotary

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Membership Recruitment, Membership Retention, Rotary, Rotary District 5190

by Paul Kiser
Public Relations Chair
Rotary District 5190

Any organization must continue to grow and evolve over time and Rotary is no different. Rotary is a vital organization that has an impact throughout the world with Polio vaccinations; Health, Hunger, and Humanity grants; Rotary Youth programs; and community service projects. It is an organization that has a legacy of Service Above Self and as Rotarians we must do our part to fulfill the work done by those before us. Here are eight suggestions to use Club Public Relations and Membership as a team effort to maintain and promote the local Rotary Club.

Over 32,000 Rotary Clubs Worldwide

STEP 1. SELF EXAMINATION
Examine your Club’s public image. What do non-Rotarians think/know about Rotary and your Club? Ask every member find three people who are business professionals (of every age, gender, and race) and ask them five or six questions about Rotary. Questions for a non-Rotarian like:

What qualifications DO YOU THINK are required to join Rotary?
What do you think is the purpose of Rotary?
Describe your image of the typical Rotarian?
Why would you be interested/not interested in joining Rotary?
Do you have to belong to a political party to be a Rotarian?

Note: THIS IS NOT A RECRUITMENT EFFORT, ONLY FACT FINDING. Document the answers and discuss them at a Club Assembly. Determine what kind of public image your Club has among non-Rotarians. What issues keep potential Rotarians from being interested? Does the public image of your Club vary based upon the age/gender/race of the person asked? If so, what are the members doing that might cause that?

Paul Kiser - Public Relations Chair - Rotary District 5190 (Northeast CA/Northern NV

STEP 2. BRANDING
Armed with a better understanding of the public image determine:

How you can respond to incorrect perceptions using various internal and external Public Relations tools.
What, if any, negative perceptions are being generated by the acts of club members and how they can be made aware of their negative influence on Club PR (e.g.; telling political or religious jokes in club meetings)
Discuss how members can raise awareness of themselves as Rotarians (e.g.; wearing Rotary pin, Rotary license plate holders, posting membership certificate on the wall at work, etc.)
Review the methods that a person can find out more about the club (e.g.; Can the club website be found by a Google search?)

STEP 3. IMPROVE THE INTERNAL MESSAGE
Determine if club members are passionate about their Rotary club. If not, what internal communication tools can be used to boost excitement about the club (e.g.; speakers/programs, newsletter, website, Facebook, LinkedIn).

STEP 4. GET OUT OF THE BOX
Seriously review your Club’s ability to adapt and incorporate new and different ideas. The acid test: If a new member started suggesting new ideas would they be seriously considered, or would the current leadership tend to be offended by the brashness of the new member? Try anything and celebrate failure as the next step to success!

STEP 5. LET THE POTENTIAL MEMBER KNOW YOU CARE
Use three to five members to recruit one member. Make the recruit feel wanted by the club.

STEP 6. NEW MEMBERS AS A CLASS
Every month (or every quarter) inductee’s are a new class. All the members inducted in May of 2010 are the Class of May 2010 and they all work together to complete the New Member orientation and requirements to achieve their blue badge. Each class has a ‘Den Mother’: A Rotarian that is their advisor of all things Rotary.

STEP 7. FAMILY, FAMILY, FAMILY
Every member’s family to be involved in the club. The line between member and spouse to be almost invisible. Look for ways to communicate to spouse, children, and members. (Why shouldn’t a member’s children know as much or more about YES/RYE and RYLA than the member?)

STEP 8. ELEVATE THE CLUB PRESIDENT
Use a three-year succession plan to ensure the Club President plans for her/his year in advance. Create an atmosphere where the Club President is a respected leader, not the butt of member jokes during the meetings.

Rotary related blogs by Paul Kiser

Rotary@105: Our 1st Rotary Dropout

Rotary: All Public Relations is Local

Best Practices: Become a Target!

Fear of Public Relations

Woe or Whoa is me

22 Monday Mar 2010

Posted by Paul Kiser in Lessons of Life, Rotary

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PA, The American College, Travel

I’m almost back to normal…that is normal for me. Last week I went on a quick turnaround to Philadelphia and back. If my GPS was guiding me it would have sounded like the following:

The American College in Bryn Mawr, PA

(All times PDT) Proceed to highlighted route…(WED 10:00 AM) Arriving at Reno/Tahoe Airport…turn right and fly 800 miles to Denver International Airport…(WED 2:00 PM) Arriving at DIA…continue straight 1600 miles to Philadelphia International Airport…(WED 9:00 PM) Arriving at PIA…turn left and travel 15 miles to Radnor Hotel…(WED 10:00 PM) Arriving at Radnor Hotel….(THUR 4:00 AM) continue 2.4 miles to The American College…(THUR 2:00 PM) Return to Radnor Hotel…(FRI 1:00 AM) return to PIA…(FRI 3:20 AM) turn right and fly 2200 miles to Las Vegas, NV

Coming into Las Vegas early Friday over Lake Meade

…(FRI 9:00 AM) Arrive at LAS…(FRI 10:50 AM) turn right and fly 350 miles to Reno…(12:10 PM) Arriving at Reno…Turn left and drive 30 miles to Starbucks in North Carson City…(1:30 PM) Arriving at Starbucks…turn left and drive 3 miles to the Carson City Airport…(3:30 PM) Arriving at Carson City Airport…turn right and continue 30 miles to Reno…(5:45 PM) Arriving at home.

Over 5,000 miles in about 50 hours with only seven hours sleep (plus a couple on the plane) and I find that my IQ drops by 25%, my patience drops to zero and I still feel hung over two days later. I didn’t want to leave my room to eat or drink (there was a Starbucks across the street!) at the Radnor because I was so tired from the trip/time changes and when Friday morning’s flight left 30 minutes late, I was not a happy camper.

So why do I like traveling? I dislike the way airlines treat the customer. I often am critical of the lodging and I feel intimidated in eating by myself.

Still, I always like to travel. I think it is because I love what I get to do. I meet some very interesting people and gain new information about myself, other people, and other places. I’ll always stand ready to load up my suitcase and be off again….but for now, I’m going to get some more sleep.

Fear of Public Relations

21 Sunday Mar 2010

Posted by Paul Kiser in Crisis Management, Human Resources, Information Technology, Lessons of Life, Management Practices, Passionate People, Public Relations, Re-Imagine!, Rotary, Social Interactive Media (SIM), Tom Peters

≈ 4 Comments

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New Business World, Re-Imagine!, Social Media, Tom Peters

The fog of Social Interactive Media is burning off

There are two approaches to Public Relations. The first is to live in fear of it and tremble at the prospect of screwing up. Take only measured steps that are carefully calculated and planned.

The other approach is to dive in. Risk mistakes and live and breathe being real and human.

The old school of Public Relations is the former. It is controlled by the Chain of Command. No one is authorized to speak unless cleared by multiple levels of authority and even then, to say or do anything that is nothing less than perfect is to fail. It is that Public Relations of which the world has become accustomed. Anyone who mars the perfect image risks banishment from the corporate world. Nightmare situations such as the current Toyota recalls reinforce the fear that Public Relations is a beast that must be closely guarded and heavily controlled.

This is why the new world of social media terrifies the old school. The unprecedented access to expressing our individuality on Facebook, Twitter, or even our own blog is the worst possible situation for those who believe that control of the message is the alpha and omega of Public Relations. Many companies are establishing strict policies for their employees on using Facebook, blogging, and all other avenues of professional or personal expression. Most of this comes from the management attitude that employees are a necessary evil and potentially a major embarrassment to the company.

What the old school of Public Relations doesn’t understand is that social interactive media (SIM) is creating a new model of business that is being driven by a desire of the consumer to do business with real people, not corporations. In today’s interactive world the branding of the individual is now becoming a driving force to he branding of the corporation. This is 180 degrees from the mission of most Public Relation professionals in major companies and it gives indigestion to old school managers that live in fear of employee self-expression.

Re-Imagine! Business Excellence in a Disruptive Age

In 2003, Tom Peters came out with a book called Re-Imagine!: Business Excellence in a Disruptive Age. If you understand that the book was published before Twitter and Facebook were available to the public, you have to wonder if Tom Peters can travel into the future and back again. Today everyone throws around the term ‘Branding’ but few know that today’s usage of the term originated from Peter’s 2003 book. On page 232 of Re-Imagine! Peters explains a new world of people who develop her or his individual brand separate from the corporate world. Now, in 2010, social interactive media has provided the vehicle for individuals to show off who they are and what they know and Peters has become the Moses of the new business world.

Like all business, the winner will always be the one who can embrace change before others. Companies that can adapt and use social interactive media to promote and showcase the quality and expertise of the individual within their ranks will have the advantage over the competition. In those companies the new role for the Public Relations professional is to help employees brand themselves instead of trying to muzzle them.

Still, the old school will loudly point out every slight misstep or mistake made by an employee that may reflect poorly on a company’s reputation. What they don’t understand is that errors make us human and that can deepen the bond between the company and the customer. An error is the opportunity to make things right and that is the key to all long-term relationships.

Passionate People Can Save a City

16 Tuesday Mar 2010

Posted by Paul Kiser in Lessons of Life, Management Practices, Passionate People, Public Relations, Re-Imagine!, Rotary, Tom Peters

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Peter Drucker, Re-Imagine!, Reno Aces, Tom Peters

Rick Parr: A Force of Nature

Last night I sat in a back room of a restaurant in downtown Reno (that shall remain nameless) at the Rotary Club of Reno New Generations meeting. The restaurant had decided to pack the back room with patrons who were not part of the meeting and who seemed to be oblivious that someone was trying to speak to the group. Despite all of this distraction the club members were focused on the man standing up. To everyone it was apparent that this man was passionate about his job and all the noise around him didn’t keep him from making it clear that he loves what he does.

The man is Rick Parr and he is Passionate about his ball club. Rick is the General Manager of the Reno Aces and last year the new Triple A team came to Reno and erased all doubt of whether this town could support the Arizona Diamondbacks ‘farm’ team.

Rick Parr - General Manager of the Reno Aces

The Reno Aces exceeded all expectations for a first year club with a season attendance approaching 500,000 fans. But that achievement was nothing compared to what happened during the first four months of 2009.

On February 1st of last year the ballpark looked more like the first phase of a major construction project rather than a state-of-the-art baseball stadium only 10 weeks away from the first pitch of the first home game. But on April 17th all, and I mean all, were amazed. For anyone who was paying attention it was a miracle.

http://www.renoaces.com

Rick doesn’t look like he has 30 years in baseball management. When you talk to him about the Reno Aces he sounds like the person who was just hired to take a job that he has dreamed of all his life. He loves baseball and he loves his team. You get the sense that the miracle of last year’s opening day was due in large part to the force a nature known as Rick Parr.

But Rick’s passion doesn’t stop with baseball. He is passionate about redeveloping downtown. Like Denver’s Coors Field, the new Reno Aces Stadium is located in an area that has had little economic benefit to the city in recent history and like the Colorado Rockies, the Reno Aces are bringing in people and new development to revitalize the downtown area.

Rick has only been in Reno for 18 months, but as the designated hitter for the Front Office he taking the vision of the team owners, Jerry and Stuart Katzoff, and bringing home a Re-Imagined* downtown that offers more attractions than just a baseball team. This year the Aces will open up the next phase of new dining and shopping with the Freight House District’s first retail offerings. There is no doubt that this area will become a ‘Mecca’ for tourists and local citizens, bringing new jobs and revenue for local businesses and to the City of Reno.

Even before the completion of the full Freight House District retail project it is obvious that the Reno Aces have changed Reno for good. Rick would probably be the first to credit the work of many others for the success, but there is one common factor in all that is happening in the downtown area and that is the passion of Rick Parr.

Rick is a great example of how one person can change a city by having passion and vision. Peter Drucker wrote, “Wherever you find something getting done, you find a monomaniac with a mission.” Rick Parr is Reno’s newest monomaniac. Just in time!

(*Re-Imagine! is a 2003 book by Tom Peters about rethinking business in a new world.)

Reno Aces website is at http://www.renoaces.com.

Breakthrough Training Radio Appearance

16 Tuesday Mar 2010

Posted by Paul Kiser in Information Technology, Lessons of Life, Management Practices, Public Relations, Rotary, Social Interactive Media (SIM)

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99.1 FM Reno, Breakthrough Training, Jeffrey Benjamin, Motivational Speaker

Jeffrey Benjamin Motivates

This is an interview segment (about 6 mins.) on Jeffrey Benjamin’s (Breakthrough Training) radio show on Reno 99.1 FM on Sunday, March 14, 2010. Jeffrey is a motivational (kick you in the butt) consultant/speaker. I talked about my company and Rotary.

Breakthrough Radio Interview

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, OH MY!

12 Friday Mar 2010

Posted by Paul Kiser in Human Resources, Information Technology, Management Practices, Public Relations, Rotary, Social Interactive Media (SIM)

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Facebook, LinkedIn, Social Media, Twitter

My boy, Alexander, is almost four years and five months old. In one month (Jan. 2010) Facebook had almost one unique visitor (134 million) for each second Alexander has been alive. That is a 95% growth over Jan. 2009.

Alexander - The same age as Twitter

Twitter is also four years old and it has over 23 million unique visitors the same month. Their growth during this last year was ‘slightly’ bigger than Facebook. Twitter grew by 294% in one year. By the time my son is eight, Twitter plans to have over 1 billion users.

It is staggering to see how many people are connected in the Social Media world, and even more staggering to see how much it is changing every month. A person who graduates from college this May from a four-year Business or Marketing program started college before Twitter existed. Business colleges are trying to teach students about a world that is undergoing an extreme makeover every six months and they recognize the importance of social media in business. Fortunately for students at U of NV, Dr. Simmons (www.bretlsimmons.com) is staying on the top of the tsunami of social media and how it impacts Branding. Dr. Bret Simmons of the University of Nevada Business School calls Twitter “the center of the Social Media universe.”

But what about the rest of us. Why should we care about Social Interactive Media (SIM)?

SIM: End of Innocence
Imagine two people. Each want to start a bicycle shop in Davis, California. One rents space, puts up his business sign, advertises in the local paper and puts out flyers.

The other person does all that and also has a Facebook page, Tweets regularly on various items of note for bicycle enthusiasts, has a website with a shopping cart feature that allows people to order parts and purchase bicycles, and the owner has a blog about cycling in and around Davis. Who do you think will have more success? All other things being equal, the one who has better SIM smarts will have the advantage.

But it doesn’t just stop with business marketing. SIM is influencing opinion, shaping discussions, and in general changing everyone’s life whether they participate in the new media or not. Life is being changed because so many people are now involved in Facebook, Twitter, and other SIMs. A person can choose not to be involved and disconnect themselves from all forms of new technology. There will be a segment of our population that does exactly that; however, they will find themselves more and more out of touch with a world that isn’t waiting for them. No one knows what our society will look like in five years, but for those who unplug themselves from society, I think they will find the world is a lonely, foreign place.

Management by Coup 1: Eliminate Employee Evaluations

11 Thursday Mar 2010

Posted by Paul Kiser in Human Resources, Management Practices, Re-Imagine!, Rotary, Tom Peters

≈ 8 Comments

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Employee evaluations, HR, job standards, performance reviews, Tom Peters

by Paul Kiser

Paul Kiser - CEO of Enterprise Technologies, inc.

I have worked many years in Human Resources and at one time my job was to help managers write employee job standards and performance evaluation tools. I would like to now publicly apologize for playing a role in the dark side of management.

HR people can give you dozens of reasons why employee evaluations are absolutely necessary. You need to give the employee feedback, you need to let the employee know your expectations, evaluations are documentation of the employee performance, documentation is needed for disciplinary actions, blah, blah, blah, blah…it’s all BS. Here are four myths about employee evaluations:

Myth #1: Employees need periodic feedback
WRONG! Employees need constant feedback. Respectable HR people will tell you that there should be nothing discussed during the employee evaluation that they were not already aware of; however, in actual practice the employee evaluation is the moment many managers use the GOTCHA Management Technique by dredging up hearsay and listing new expectations that the employee has never heard before the evaluation.

Tom Peters discussed a technique known as MBWA or Management by Walking Around. The basic idea is the manager stops wasting time sitting in an office and spends it by interacting with his or her employees and customers. This brilliant 21st Century management technique was first discussed in the book, In Search of Excellence by Tom Peters and Robert H. Waterman in 1982! For over 25 years managers have been told to get out of her or his office to manage and yet some people still don’t get it.

Myth #2: Evaluations are needed to support disciplinary action
While some managers use the evaluation as a GOTCHA moment, others will minimize a negative performance issue in order to maintain a positive working relationship; therefore, an employee’s evaluation often fails to support disciplinary action taken against them. Time after time an employee’s lawyer seizes on a lack of evidence in the employee’s evaluation to justify disciplinary action by the employer. A manager is better off having written documentation of a problem at the time of the incident rather than trying to use the evaluation to document an issue regarding the employee’s performance.

Myth #3: Evaluations are needed to determine pay increases.
Pay increases need to be fair and equitable, but many organizations find that withholding a pay increase based on performance causes more potential legal problems than is solves, and punishment destroys employee morale rather than improves an individual’s performance. Pay for performance was a novel idea that never delivered on the promises of improved productivity by the HR department.

Myth #4: If a manager is not required to do periodic employee evaluations they will never give the employee the information they need to excel at their job.
An evaluation does not a good manager make! If a manager is not giving constant feedback to their team, then what good are they?

Life Without Evaluations
I know it seems unthinkable for some, but evaluations are an HR imposed control system that is completely unnecessary. In fact, evaluations do more harm to teamwork because they create a formal “Us vs Them” situation between the manager and the worker. Evaluations can make a manager feel superior and that is not a good foundations for positive employee relations.

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Not so Greats are Killing American Business

10 Wednesday Mar 2010

Posted by Paul Kiser in Human Resources, Management Practices, Public Relations, Rotary

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Business, Good to Great, Jim Collins, Management Practices, Re-Imagine!, Tom Peters

by Paul Kiser

Tom Peters is one of the most annoying people in the world. I say this because people are usually annoyed by a person who is always right and Tom Peters is almost always right. For decades he has been scolding business, mocking those who excel at mediocrity, pointing out companies that are doing it better, and generally being relentless at not accepting the status quo in the corporate world. Sure he gets paid big bucks to chastise organizations and industries to their face, but that doesn’t mean they like him.

Tom Peters book, Re-Imagine! Business Excellence in a Disruptive Age

After almost 30 years of spelling it out for executives and business leaders that they are doing it wrong, he still makes a great living from ranting at the corporate world. The reason is simple. It’s not because it is difficult to take his advice. It’s not because Peters asks the impossible. It’s not because the corporate world consists of stupid people (well, maybe a few). The reason Tom Peters is able to continue his assault on business is because he offers the perfect commodity: Common sense in a nonsensical world.

The problem is a fear of Greatness. Most people seem to be comfortable doing good work and live in terror of risking failure by going for greatness. Case in point: Government. Right now most State, County and Municipal governments are operating under the assumption that they have failed and the only thing they can do is plan for more failure. You can’t do great things when you have decided you’ve already failed.

Jim Collins book, Good to Great, talks about how great companies have a realistic view of the challenges they face AND at the same time those companies are absolutely certain that they will succeed. Taking the lessons learned from Collins research, greatness involves; 1) great AND humble leadership, 2) getting the right people in the right positions AND getting the wrong people out, and 3) confronting the facts, no matter how stark, AND believing that success is possible.

Tom Peters has shown repeatedly that we fall into traps of mediocrity and that’s the alpha and omega to squandering a great opportunity. I am constantly amazed at how many people have never read Peters and can’t figure out why business seems so hard to understand. I am more amazed at those that have read Peters and still don’t get that ‘good’ is never going to be ‘good enough’.

Does Anybody Understand PR?

07 Sunday Mar 2010

Posted by Paul Kiser in Management Practices, Public Relations, Rotary

≈ 4 Comments

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Facebook, Public Image, Publicity, Social Media, Twitter

by Paul Kiser

Question: What is PR.
Answer: The 16^th and 18^th letters in the Alphabet.

Paul Kiser - CEO of 2020 Enterprise Technologies, inc.

That’s probably the best answer most people can get today about the beast that has become Public Relations. Public Relations used to be so simple. It was about promoting your organization. You did it through newspapers, radio, and television. If you were good at it you could disguise it so it looked like news. It involved writing skills, and people skills, and often it involved that attractive young, female, PR representative in the tight business skirt. It was all so easy…if you knew what you are doing and had the right connections to the right people.

And then came the Internet, and bloggers, and MySpace, then Facebook and Twitter. Perky people fell in love with the new ‘social media’ and the cynical people loathed it. Young people became texting experts and old people smirked and scoffed at the young people…well, maybe old people have always done that…but they did it more.

Slick PR types smiled, and then didn’t smile as much, and then didn’t smile at all. A tight skirt didn’t translate on the Internet. A slap on the back didn’t register on the virtual shoulder. All the ‘critical people to know’ at the newspapers, radio stations, and television stations were not as important in a world that was tuning out of traditional media. Newspapers started measuring the drop in circulation not by how much it dropped from last month, but how much the percentage of drop increased from last month. Publishing became something anybody could do, not just magazines and newspapers…and the soft thud we heard was the editor’s cigar hitting the floor as they sat in their 1960’s office chair with mouth agape while kids with cell phones were ‘scooping’ reporters with laptops.

O Brave New World
New technology did not kill PR, just everything we knew about it. The PR Stoics still say that PR really hasn’t changed, but who are they trying to kid. The field of Public Relations is changing daily, sometimes hourly. A 15-year old kid can make a bigger splash than a 30-year PR veteran, and the teen can do it in one Tweet.

Public Relations has been evolving for over a decade; however, in the past five years the media world experienced a 10.0 magnitude earthquake in best practices of PR that has shattered everyone’s understanding of the field. Whether it is a corporate entity, a non-profit organization, or a political campaign; what worked in 2005 is only going to work for a smaller and older segment of a society. The Public Relations experts are mixed in with everyone else trying to stay on top of the tsunami of change.

Reality Check in a Virtual World

Publicity is not Public Relations –Get the message out, yes, but then listen for the response
All Public Relations is local – “How does this impact me?” is the only question people want answered
Public image is about what OTHER people think about your organization – Forget what you know, it’s what they think that is important
Genuine trumps ‘Slick’ every time – Manipulation and selling is red flagged by the social media audience
Passion trumps formality for the social media audience – Passion scares the traditional audience
New PR: Shape the message to the audience – Old PR: Control the message!
Communication is organic and messy – PR is about doing 1000 LITTLE things right, not just one BIG thing right
The true value of advertising is declining – Super Bowl ad may be seen, but does it translate to commerce?
Advertising = Spam – The audience has found the OFF button and they are not afraid to use it!
Public Relations is a two-way process, not just broadcasting –Can people find out more? Can they even find you?

more Connected, more Segmented, and more Complicated
The new world of social media allows us to be more connected, but it also make us more aware of things we may not like or agree with on flashpoint issues. This can cause some people to ‘unfriend’ or ‘unfollow’ with those that they disagree, which divide people into segments of like-minded audiences. Organizations need to be aware of their audience and how that audience perceives everything they do. Even one worker can have a negative or positive impact the on public relations of an entire company.

Public Relations is a now a 24/7/365 field where an organization has to understand all age groups, all media resources, and look in the mirror constantly to see what the public sees from their point of view. What works today may not work tomorrow. What worked yesterday might be novel enough to work again. Branding is important, but like a woman’s make up, too much and you look like a whore. An organization’s public image is the sum of its individuals as much as it is advertising. Everyday Public Relations gets more chaotic and less forgiving.

“Does anybody really understand Public Relations?” is the wrong question. The question is who can afford not to?

Rotary: A Tradition of Humanity

05 Friday Mar 2010

Posted by Paul Kiser in Rotary

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Community Service, Giving back, History of Rotary, Paul Harris, Rotarians, Rotary, Rotary International

“I know they say we’re in a recession, I just choose not to participate.”

Gary Foote
Past President – Rotary Club of Reno Sunrise, Nevada, USA

The financial turmoil of 2008-10 has impacted almost every part of the world, and as members of the world community Rotarians are no different. It is rare to have a discussion about membership recruitment and retention without the subject of economic hard times creeping into the conversation. However, it is in times like these that we should remember that Rotary has gone through many world-wide upheavals in its one hundred-year plus history and survived. More significantly, it has been in the darkest times of the 20th Century that Rotary has shined the brightest.

War and Rotary
Since 1905, the world has experienced many wars, but World Wars I and II were the greatest tests for our international organization. In August of 1910 the sixteen loosely organized clubs of Rotary met at their first convention to create the National Association of Rotary Clubs of America. Three months later the new organization discovered that a Rotary club had been created in Winnipeg, Canada and now they had the opportunity to become an international organization. A little over a year later the Winnipeg club was officially recognized and the organization became The International Association of Rotary Clubs.

In the years that followed, Rotary expanded in many countries, but as the War to End All Wars consumed Europe, Rotary’s rapid growth became stymied in those countries most affected. Even the chartered clubs faced challenges that threatened their existence. When rationing limited British resources a Rotarian suggested to the British Rotary Secretary that the Rotary lunches would likely have to stop. The Secretary replied, “Absolutely not! Rotary means SERVICE. Not only with a capital ‘S’, but all capitals, and if there were ever a time for SERVICE, it is now!”

Carefully avoiding involvement in the machines of war, Rotary assumed the role of providing compassionate support for troops and citizens alike. Clubs took on projects to assist in caring for the wounded, helping the victims of war and, in America, became the forerunner of the USO for American troops waiting to be shipped overseas.

As challenging as World War I was for Rotary, World War II had even greater impact. By the mid- to late 1930’s Rotary International was a much larger organization with clubs in all the major countries involved in conflict. The Nazi party began a campaign against Rotary, insisting that the organization was a Jewish linked organization and banned Nazi’s from being members. By October of 1937, the German Rotary clubs were forced to disband. By the time America entered the conflict, 484 clubs had been forced to close in countries allied with or subjugated by Germany. During World War II, some Rotarians in Axis countries were imprisoned and in some cases died because of their affiliation with Rotary.

Still, Rotary clubs found ways to survive during the war by becoming ‘singing’ societies, or golfing associations to disguise their reason for meeting. When peace and sanity returned to Europe, so did Rotary. In fact, Rotary not only survived in Europe, but enjoyed a rapid expansion in the decade that followed. As in World War I, Rotary clubs had demonstrated a dedication to the concept of service. Many clubs organized a wide range of local and international relief efforts, even as the war was taking a personal toll on many Rotarians. Service above Self aptly described the sacrifices made both during and after the war.

The Great Depression
The financial disaster of the late 1920’s and early 1930’s brought about a terrible challenge to the fledgling organization of Rotary. As businesses failed almost overnight many Rotarians found themselves without the means to pay their own expenses, let alone help others, yet help they did. In the 1931 Rotarian magazine, Roy L. Smith wrote:

“No nation becomes great by becoming rich; neither does a man find enduring satisfaction in life by owning something – only by becoming something. This Depression has cost us some of the things we created, but it has robbed us of none of our power to create.”

Rotarians helped establish soup kitchens, fed and supplied schoolchildren, and created work programs for their communities. While Rotary clubs struggled to survive during one of the bleakest times in the 20th Century, the desire to help others, including fellow Rotarians held a greater power than despair.

Lessons for Today
There is no doubt that most Rotarians have felt the effects of the 2007-09 Recession and we face many challenges in the months ahead. But as we have seen before, now is the time for Rotary to shine. While many of us face difficult choices, Rotarians have learned that giving hope and helping others is the best cure for moving beyond our own difficulties. The history of Rotary shows us that one Rotarian can make a difference. It all starts with helping one person or starting one project, and the rest will fall into place. Paul Harris reminds us of the challenge we have been given in his words from the 1914 RI Convention:

“Whatever Rotary may mean to us, to the world it will be known by the results it achieves”

(A special thanks to David Forward’s book, A Century of Service: The History of Rotary International.)

Paul Kiser is a member of the Rotary Club of Reno Sunrise, Nevada, USA and Past President and former charter member of the RC of Sparks Centennial Sunrise, a Paul Harris Fellow and serves as the Public Relations Chair for Rotary District 5190.

Windows Office 2010: What to Do?

01 Monday Mar 2010

Posted by Paul Kiser in 2020 Enterprise Technologies, Customer Relations, Customer Service, Information Technology, Management Practices, Rotary

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Management Practices, New Business World, Rotarians, Rotary

by Paul Kiser

Paul Kiser - CEO 2020 Enterprise Technologies

(NOTE: This blog was originally published on March 1, 2010-Microsoft released Office 2010 on June 22, 2010)

In the next few months Microsoft will officially launch the next generation of Windows Office (Office 2010, code-named Office 14) and it will create new dilemmas for many business owners, Information Technology (IT) managers and users of Windows Office. Consider the following issues:

Microsoft Office 2010

Windows Office commands the office productivity software market with some claiming that Windows Office has a 95% market share, or better.
Once available to the general public, Office 2010 will be competing with its own predecessors. Office 2003 and Office 2007 are approximately equal in the number of users.
Although it is over seven years old, Office 2003 is still actively used in businesses because Office 2007 introduced dramatic changes that made the product more like a new product, rather than a new version. This caused many users to stick with the 2003 version, rather than trying to learn the updated product. (As of February 2009, users of Office 2003 still exceeded users of Office 2007.)
There are three different versions of the Windows platforms (Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7) actively being used in the business world.
Microsoft conceded to business last year by delaying the ‘Stop Sell’ date of Windows XP from June 30, 2009 to June 30, 2010, but the platform will not likely receive another stay of execution.

What faces the business world is a dilemma of what Windows platforms and versions of Office should be used in their work environment. This issue will become acute with the purchase of new computers, but will there be communication and document sharing issues between old computers and new computers and software?

The issue boils down to the individual user versus IT and management. From an IT perspective having everyone on one system is more efficient in terms of training and maintenance. Management usually prefers equipment to be interchangeable and using different versions of office productivity software could lead to minor conflicts when sharing files. However, individual users (including management) of Office 2003 are often adamant about staying with what they know.

The stark reality is that with the early success of Windows 7 and positive reviews about Office 2010 Beta, the old software (Windows XP, Vista, and Office 2003) have a limited business life. It is reasonable to think that by 2012, all PC’s will come with Windows 7 and Office 2010, and prior versions will not be an option. That is certainly the road that Microsoft would prefer and ultimately they will decide when all prior versions will 1) no longer be sold, and 2) no longer be supported.

How Did This Happen?
This issue has come to the surface for several reasons. First and foremost is the success of Office 2003. The version, originally named Office 11, built on the success of previous versions and coupled with the adoption of the Windows XP platform became the productivity software of choice during the years of 2004-07. When Microsoft introduced its new Vista platform and Office 2007 (code name Office 12) it anticipated a steady transition of business users from Office 2003 to Office 2007.

Unfortunately, Microsoft miscalculated by trying to make a major re-creation of its platform with Vista and, at the same time, introducing a ‘Mac’ like look to its software that required users to re-learn the software. The bugs of Vista and the new look of the productivity software gave a bad reputation in the business world to the revised software versions. Microsoft then pushed to bring out a newer platform version (Windows 7) to overcome the perceptions of Vista, but that did not overcome the negative impression of Office 2007. Office 2010 or Office 14 (the name ‘Office 13’ was skipped for obvious reasons) is Microsoft’s hope to get most users back on one version of its productivity software. It is a major gamble because the door is open for another software company to try and capitalize on users who don’t want to be forced to adapt the new look of Office; however, most businesses have invested too much into Microsoft products to change over now.

What to do about Office 2010?
The one inescapable fact is that Office 2003 is at the end of its business life. Yes, people will continue to use it and five years from now there will be a small group of people who are fiercely proud that they still use Office 2003; however, based on early reactions to the Beta version and the reality that new computers will soon come with Office 2010, it seems plausible that Office 2010 will rapidly eclipse both Office 2007 and Office 2003. In three years it would not be surprising to see Office 2010 have 60% to 70% of the market, so logically it would make sense for businesses to prepare to make the change.

But just because it is logical doesn’t mean the adoption of Office 2010 will be accepted by business users. Some companies will take a passive approach and let individuals learn Office 2010 as they purchase new computers. This approach is not recommended for larger companies or companies that have a high degree of internal and external communications. Having staff on different versions of office productivity software can create unexpected and time-consuming problems.

Each organization will have to make their own evaluation of what will work best for their situation; however, as Windows 7 and Office 2010 begin to dominate the market, staying with older version will seem less like an option and more like a liability for the company.

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Dissatisfiers: Why John Quit

21 Sunday Feb 2010

Posted by Paul Kiser in Club Leadership, Communication, Customer Relations, Customer Service, Employee Retention, Human Resources, Lessons of Life, Management Practices, Membership Retention, Public Relations, Relationships, Rotary, Rotary@105, Social Media Relations, The Tipping Point

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Attrition, Blogging, Blogs, Club Members, Customer Loyalty, Employee evaluations, Employment, Executive Management, exit interviews, HR, Management Practices, Membership Retention, New Business World, Public Relations, quitting, retention, Rotarians, Rotary, Rotary Club, Value-added, volunteer organizations

by Paul Kiser
USA PDT [Twitter: ] [Facebook] [LinkedIn] Skype: kiserrotary or 775.624.5679]

Paul Kiser

Why Did John Quit?
In my years in management, human resources, and service club involvement I have watched many people leave organizations and periodically someone in the organization starts throwing around the ‘R’ word: Retention. What follows are committee meetings, calls for surveys, and finger-pointing. The search usually turns up discovery of a plausible single cause for the problem based upon limited evidence, followed by a shrug of shoulders because the alledged cause is almost always determined to be a reason that is out of control of the organization.

Finding the real reason for attrition for any organization is elusive because there is almost never just one reason for someone to quit. The decision to quit is typically after the person has accumulated multiple ‘dissatisfiers‘ or negative experiences that finally caused the person to make a change by leaving. Dissatisfiers can be issues about pay, benefits, or other tangible reasons; however, most negative experiences are intangible acts that weaken (or fail to strengthen) a person’s perception of belonging to the organization.

A Dissatisfier may be something small, like a person not getting thanked for his or her contribution to a special project, or something more significant, like a lack of a desired promotion. As each Dissatisfier is added the person gets closer to the decision that the organization is not meeting his or her needs.

While a group or organization may be unaware of their actions that cause a Dissatisfier for an individual, people often consciously use Dissatisfiers to drive away a member or employee from a group because it is a subtle form of discrimination that is difficult to detect and easy to blame the victim as being overly sensitive. We learn this tactic at a young age and often as a byproduct of sibling rivalry when one child torments another by subtlety annoying them until they react violently. In adults, the behavior is rarely as overt, nor does it result in violence, but can be very effective in weeding out diversity in the group.

When the Dissatisfiers are not the result of a conscious effort against a person, but rather the failure to include the person, the result can be the same. Over time the person may ultimately decide to quit for a better opportunity, or, in the case of a volunteer organization, leave for no other opportunity.

The Perfect Environment to Study Dissatisfiers
Volunteer organizations are an ideal environment to study the effect of Dissatisfiers because the issue of compensation and/or benefits (tangible rewards) can be ruled out as factors for attrition. While some may conclude that because there is no tangible rewards for a volunteer, his or her involvement is tenuous all the time; however, often an individual has a deeper commitment to a volunteer organization simply because they are involved for more meaningful reasons. That reason may be as simple as wanting to be a part of an organization that seeks to do good, but for many people who need is often more powerful than monetary gain.

Members of a volunteer organization should feel that the work they perform not only gives them a sense of accomplishment; but also gives them a sense of worth, belonging (or friendship) and pride. For a member to leave that organization means that the group failed to provide or connect the member to the key rewards of volunteer service. Attrition in a volunteer organization is often blamed on a single external factor (a bad economy) or the person (not in the organization for the right reasons) rather than examine the Dissatisfiers that they might have been able to address that would have retained that member.

To improve retention organizations need to stop looking for the single factor for attrition, and start looking for the list of Dissatisfiers that led to the decision to quit. In volunteer organizations, a member’s involvement is to fill a need of belonging and attrition can only be attributed to internal Dissatisfiers, not external factors.

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3rd From Sol

~ Learn from before. Live now. Look ahead.

Category Archives: Rotary

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