Balancing Besties and Business

Run Time: 1-3 hours (depending on customization)
Description: Determining where to draw the line on friendship with those you manage – or those who manage you – seems more complicated than ever. Conventional wisdom says we should avoid building friendships across reporting lines, but today’s current leadership practices embrace connection and openness. In real life, the actual line between our personal and professional lives is very thin. This session will help you examine the benefits and challenges of friendship in the workplace. We will discuss common stumbling blocks like social media posts, as well how you can coach others to create healthy boundaries in your organization. It will encourage you to redefine what workplace friendship should look like for you, and how to set and maintain those lines going forward.

Recommended Readings: Balancing Besties & Business Pinterst board

Think Outside the Text Box

Run Time: 2 hour
Description: Libraries have been thinking about the evolution of communication and our role in the changing media landscape for decades. But often we cling to traditional styles in our own communications. We use writing as a default mechanism for relaying information. Our signs, our emails, our handouts, our website are still often solely text. How and when could we find other ways to communicate?
Recommended Readings: Think Outside the Text Box Pinterst board

Rise of the Social Employee with Sarah Pedersen

Presenter: Sarah Pedersen, Director of Customer Success for the Americas, Hearsay Social

I was interested in this talk because for years I've been hoping to tap into the ambassador potential of my organization's employees. I honestly think there are a lot of employees who are passionate about our organization, would love to be ambassadors in any way they can, but they don't quite make the connection in the social media space. 

Social listening is great and certainly gives us useful information, but how to do I get my coworkers to understand the power and influence they have and encourage them (and teach them how) to leverage that on our behalf?

Here are a few of my key take-aways from Pedersen's talk:

In your company you have:

• Brand Advocates-they are out there talking about you already
• Social Listeners-how do we let them share their knowledge internally
• Detractors-how you listen/deal with these employees is important
• Opt-Outs- we can't force people to have social media, that's ok, they do other important jobs.

This idea really clicked with me. I can totally see this at play in our organization. I think I had internalized this to a point, but how can we take this frame and make it a more formalized part of both our internal and external communications?

Pedersen also talked about the History of Social Media using the premise that social actually began with the launch of the postage service. Long before the technology, we had a longing to connect with others and this is the root of all social media. 

See all my SxSW recaps on the tag SxSW.

Expanding Your Mentor Network

Run Time: 1 hour
Description: Mentors provide inspiration, motivation and development. They can play a key role at any point in your career, but how do you find one in the first place? And, where do you turn when you begin to “out-grow” the mentors you found early in your career? In this session, we’ll discuss different styles of mentors and show you how to go beyond the traditional mentor-protégé relationship to expand your mentor network.

Recommended Readings: Expanding Your Mentor Network Pinterst board

Internal Communications: Beyond the Coffee Pot

Run Time: 1-3 hours based on customization

Description: Internal communications is a constant struggle. People often complain that they don’t know what is going on inside their organization, but then they don’t pay attention to the information you try to give them. In this session, you’ll learn how to evaluate your internal communications needs, develop a communications plan based on the information you gather, and how to execute the process for your employees. Although your plan probably won’t ever be perfect, your employees will appreciate your efforts, and your company culture will most likely improve in the process!

Recommended Readings:

Patience, Poise & Panic: Managing Emotion in the Workplace

Run Time: 2.5 hours

Description: Emotions are a part of life, and they affect how we work and interact with others. This session will explore the range of emotions that impact our work and how we can manage ourselves and conflicts with professionalism and respect.

Recommended Readings:

Think Like a Writer

"Think Like a Writer" is one of my favorite session to present. I write. A lot. I write for the web, blogs, social media, I write news releases, newsletters, magazine articles, business letters, emails, proposals, fundraising solicitations, even a couple book chapters.

Luckily for me, I love writing. And, I consider myself a writer. That's probably why I notice how much all of us write: we write to communicate, we write to document, we write for ourselves, we write socially, and we write for work. Everyone who take this class is a writer. It's my hope that by the end of this session, even if you don’t think of yourself as a writer, you can at least, learn to think a bit, like a writer.

Run time: 2-4 hours based on customization

Description: A writing process trains us how to write, improves quality, and helps us avoid mistakes. In this session, participants will see an example writing process and learn techniques for dealing with blocks along the way. Then we will apply the process to improve different writing projects like reports, memos and emails. The application portion of the session can be customized to fit the group’s needs.

Recommended Resources: Think Like a Writer Pinterest board