In keeping with today’s adopted persona, I am suitably behind the curve on trying out Twitter.

We’ll, I’ve signed up and had a bit of a faff with it, I’ll now set my subconscious on thinking of internal comms applications for it.

I was very interested to see how organisations are using it - particularly Downing St.

…channelling Harriet Schulenberg from the Green Wing.

Whereas usually I try to channel Sue White, obviously….

If you haven’t yet given to our ultra-marathon competitors in training then empty your pockets into www.justgiving.com/warwickwombles immediately!

On the 19-20 July 2008, 4 individuals of questionable sanity will be taking part in the Trailwalker event organised by Oxfam and the Queen’s Gurkha Signals Regiment. The event consists of teams of four walking 100 kilometres (62 miles) in less than 30 hours along the South Downs Way.

In order to ease the pain (at least psychologically) we’re trying to raise a minimum of £2000 for Oxfam and The Gurkha Welfare Trust. We’ll have a support crew on the ground to help deal with blisters and any sense-of-humour-failures, but we desperately need sponsorship from good people like you in order to make this endeavour worthwhile.

Money raised during Trailwalker goes to Oxfam and the Gurkha Welfare Trust (GWT) to fund their work tackling poverty and suffering: giving hope of a better, more secure future to people and their communities. While Oxfam works all over the world, GWT works specifically in Gurkha communities in Nepal.

Trailwalker is the largest ultra-marathon in the UK (the equivalent of two and a half marathons and an ascent of Ben Nevis - all in one go) and it is really going to hurt! We’re hoping that as a result of our physical efforts and the generosity of our sponsors, the event will assist communities to achieve a self-sufficient and safe environment in which to live.

All proceeds/profits will be donated to Oxfam. 

Stolen from Ellie’s blog: http://ellielovell.wordpress.com/2008/04/22/im-a-leader/

I am a supervisor.

The four aspects that make up this personality type are:

Summary of Supervisors

• Bring order to their home and work life
• Like to act on clear, achievable goals
• Think of themselves as stable, practical and sociable
• May be irritated when people don’t follow procedures

More about Supervisors

Supervisors like to make plans, organise people and get things done efficiently. They are natural administrators who dislike chaos and strive to bring order to every aspect of their lives. Supervisors like jobs where the goals are clearly defined and there are proven work methods in place.

Supervisors use logic to solve problems and believe in being open and direct in their communications with others. They prefer to work and socialise with like-minded people.

In situations where they can’t use their talents or are unappreciated, Supervisors may reject the opinions of others and insist they are right. Under extreme stress, Supervisors may feel cut off from the people around them and lose confidence in their own ability to cope.

Because they like to take charge and organise activities, others may find Supervisors too bossy.

Supervisor Careers

Supervisors are often drawn to jobs in management or administration that require logical planning.

What is the boundary between a healthy self-help culture and an organisational silo?

And, where do you go next when your central/corporate advice has been politely but flatly refused?

A degree of self-help is healthy in any organisation - but guerilla activity of varying quality can create an uncoordinated messy communications environment with clogged channels.

And this can make even your perfectly-managed and manicured corporate channels uneffective.

So, in my book, before you get to your funky all singing and dancing web 2.0 portals and pull-only information, a bit of pruning and air traffic control is needed.

My solution. An Internal Communications Network. Let’s break down those barriers and encourage guided self-help along prescribed channels.

So, what does any Internal Communications Network offer?

• A chance to meet other people, from all levels of the organisation, who play a role in communicating to staff (either across the organisation, or within particular parts of the organisation)
• An opportunity to co-ordinate your activity with others so that certain stakeholders aren’t inundated with conflicting messages at particular times
• Access to training opportunities including cross-training from other members of the Network
• Input into organisation-wide communications approaches, project and channels
• Relationship building with owners of key institutional channels

And what’s in in for the Comms Manager?

• Relationship building with  those important people so they are less likely to refuse your advice
• Opportunity to upskill those important people
• An insight into what’s going on in the organisation
• A feed for stories for publications
• A sounding board for ideas
• Honest info about how people are feeling and what they are thinking

My final top tips is to keep it informal, relaxed is best - you’re more likely to get undefensive honesty rather than party line backwatching.

So, the inaugural lunch of the IC Network at this organisation is next Thursday…

I was quite looking forward to Pushing Up Daisies - there was a lot of advance publicity and it looked fun.

I watched the first episode aired on UK terrestrial on Saturday night and was very disappointed.  It seemed to me to be a commercialised rip-off of Amelie.

And where Amelie, and even to a certain extent Ally McBeal and My Name is Earl were fresh and natural, this seems confined and forced into a parody of the paradigm.

Even down to the omniscient narrator telling us how many years, days, hours and minutes ago things happened….

La vie n’est que l’interminable répétition d’une représentation qui n’aura jamais lieu.

Writing about:

• http://caseyleaver.wordpress.com/2007/07/25/appreciative-inquiry/
•  Using Appreciative Inquiry to drive change at the BBC - Berrisford, Sam. Strategic Communication Management, Apr/May2005, Vol. 9 Issue 3, p22-25, 4p, 1bw; (AN 16676140)

The last is particularly valuable at it explains AI in action in a given context.

‘Making it Happen used the application of appreciative inquiry in a complexe employee consultation exercise called “Just Imagine”.’

Basically a large series of conversations seeking to solicit ideas for change from staff.  For this it sounds like an effective methodology.  “A way of asking questions building from a base of positivity.”

So, in essence, a giant suggestions scheme based on the concept that your staff know best what needs to change and how.

I’m all for a practical application!

Not a million miles away from Warwick’s Future (an extended and polished version of):

In October 2006 he set the Internal Communications Team the following challenges.

Objectives

By the meeting of the University’s Senate, the supreme academic authority of the University, on Wednesday 14 February:

1. Generate ideas about future projects or collaborations and improvements to processes from front-line staff, Heads of Departments, students, and everybody in between.
2. Design and implement a transparent process for assessing the ideas so that the best ideas can be included in the University’s strategy document.
3. Create enthusiasm for and buy-in into the strategy creation process.
4. Associate the new Vice-Chancellor with an open culture of two-way communication.

Evaluation and Measurement of the Campaign

• 76% of attendees who gave feedback said that the discussion day was of value to them personally.
• 85% of attendees who gave feedback said that the discussion day was of value to the University.

Implementation

• In November the Vice-Chancellor’s consultation document was published in a special edition of the University’s internal newsletter (CommUnicate), a dedicated intranet site and weekly all staff and Students’ Union member ezines.
  • Copies of CommUnicate were distributed to all staff, Staff-Student Liaison Representatives (students) and Students’ Union Society and Sports Club Presidents
  • The consultation process was also advertised on WarwickBlogs, Facebook, the Students’ Union website and the intranet homepage.
  • All Heads of Department (academic and non-academic) were requested to discuss the aims and generate ideas by holding departmental meetings
• University members were asked to submit ideas using on-campus suggestion boxes; an online form; a hard-copy form in the newsletter to put in the internal post; a dedicated voicemail box or through their line manager or Head of Department at a Team or Departmental meeting before the deadline of 31 December 2006.
• A large, externally-facilitated, discussion event was held on the afternoon of Wednesday 17 January (a non-teaching slot)
  • Over 400 staff and students were invited, drawn equally from those who had made submissions; subject specialists; and the Personnel database at random
  • The attendees split into seven groups which discussed all the submissions by topic highlighting recurrent themes and voting for their top three exemplar ideas
• A Primary Panel (composed of ten middle-ranking academics and non-academics) received comprehensive notes from the Discussion Event to inform their review of all the submissions against a set of pre-approved criteria
  • Each submission was sent to two members of the Panel along with the departmental responses
  • Each Panel member reviewed the ideas using a form provided and the Panel met once on Wednesday 24 January to discuss and resolve any areas of disagreement
• The Senior Panel reviewed those ideas referred to them by the Primary Panel.  They reviewed the ideas afresh, against the same pre-approved set of criteria and using the same process.
  • The Senior Panel was made up of members of the University and Students’ Union senior academic and management team.  A member of the Primary Panel was also present to provide continuity.
  • Each submission referred by the Primary Panel was sent to every member of the Senior Panel along with the departmental responses and the notes from the Discussion Event.
  • The Senior Panel determined which ideas will be included in the University’s draft strategy.
• A presentation of the Warwick’s Future headlines was given for discussion at the Heads’ of Departments Forum on Tuesday 13 February and at the meeting of Senate on Wednesday 14 February.

• A presentation was given to the University community by the Vice-Chancellor at an Open Meeting in the Spring Term
• Feedback from every level of the assessment process was collated to allow the Internal Communications team to ring every individual who submitted an idea with personalised feedback.

Future Steps

• The possibility of continuing a modified, scaled-down, ideas generation process
• The need to consider appropriate integration with the University’s financial planning process
• The creation of routes for acting on smaller good ideas not suitable for inclusion in the strategy

Creativity

The creativity in this submission is demonstrated in meeting the brief and delivering the required outcomes in a very short space of time with less than one month’s planning and lobbying.

The challenge was twofold:

1. To make as big an impact as possible within the first few weeks to encourage people to:
   1. take part and,
   2. meet the 31 December submission deadline.
2. To create a transparent and simple ideas assessment mechanism allowing the ideas to be sifted in an efficient and democratic way.

In Internal Communications a lot of creative energy is spent in making things happen: enlisting people from different parts of the organisation to help and aligning political allies.

But most of all the creativity in this process came from the staff and students themselves in generating such a volume of useful, innovative and well thought-out ideas.

Budget – inc. staff/retainer time

This project was accomplished within the budget band £10,000-£50,000.

The expenditure, including salaried and retained staff, was approximately £30,000.

“A failure establishes only this, that our determination to succeed was not strong enough.”

Christian Nestell Bovée

But it’s OK - because determination is one of my strong suits!

Having proved to be an abysmal failure at Guitar Hero round T&Ns recently, I have placed an order for a copy.  I was devastated because I really wanted to be good at it.

Practice will make perfect.

Notes from Gurkha briefing at Oxfam House.

Over 2000 people taking part.

Health & Safety

• Red Cross - Emergency medical cover at all Check Points
  • But blister care is the team’s business
• The equipment on the Essential list is mandatory
  • There will be a formal kit check at the beginning of the race
• 2 mobile phones - a combination of Vodafone & O2 give trhe best coverage
• Map and route - team needs to be able to give a grid reference in case of emergency
• For minor injuries go to the nearest Check Point (CP) and be collected by your Support Crew (SC)
  • SC to let Race Control know if a member drops out
  • 3-member teams can carry on, 2-member teams must find another team to sponsor them
• If there’s no phone signal leave at least 1 person with the casualty and report it to Race Control when you regain signal
• Road crossings are marshalled by Gurkhas - you will need hi-vis vests
• Drink frequently
  • You must leave each Check Point with at least 1 litre of water each
• Take warm kit for heights and nights
• If you contact Race Control in cases of difficulty they will need your race number
• If you get lost go back to the last place where you knew where you were
• Familiarise yourselves with the route, identify the bits you will be walking at night and try them out at night
• Watch fellow teams members for hot and/or cold injuries

At Check Points

• Access for walkers and vehicles
  • Walkers have priority
• Mostly in grassy fields
• Will be 400+ people at any given time
• Rely on good will
  • Follow vehicle access rout marked on maps - of least disturbance to neighbours
  • All SCs should have at least two drivers

Start Point

•  QE Country Park is the starting point
• Will be marshalled to the Starting Point
• In the camping area, watch the noise after 21:00
  • Layout of the site based on the start time
  • Use the correct area
• If you are camping the night before then come for the festivities
  • In fact, come anyway
  • Tickets can be purchased at registration
• Vehicles cannot be left at the start point, except in the public car park
• The site must be cleared by 12.00 on Saturday
• Upper Levels
  • Registration - Last minute info & vouchers
  • Kit check - mandatory
• Lower level - main marquee = e-registration
  • Participants only
  • Get your tracking wristband
    • Must be worn at all times and swiped at each CP
• Registration
  • up to 1 hr before start
  • if starting at 06.00/07.00 then register the night before (registration closes at 21.00)
  • team changes must be notified 45 mins before race
• At CPs
  • Check in and swipe before meeting SC
  • Team must check in as a whole
  • water, tea and coffee are available
  • Toilets are available
  • There is a pasta meal for teams & SC at CP7
  • 1 vehicle per team at CPs
    • However can swap car pass between vehicles en route
    • And can have as many vehicles as you like at the start and finish
  • No SC at CP 10 (no access)
  • SCs don’t rush to CP1 or 2 - everyone does - try CP3
  • SCs aim to be at a CP 30 mins to an hour befor your RV time

Finish

•  Your finish time is when your final member crosses the finish line.
• Only teams of 4 that all finish are eligible for prizes
• Collect certificates in the eating area
  • But they will be posted if you don’t collect them in person
• SCs park in main car park and go to the Oxfam welcome point at the finish
  • Familiarise y/self with the layout for the benefit of your team
  • Curry in main hall
  • Campsite available until 16:00 on Sunday
• Funds must be released to Oxfam by 30/9/08

Kit Notes

• 1000-mile socks
• Wear watches - watch the time
• Trail boots for walking, trainers for daytime or running(!)
• Supportive pants - ask Simon for recommended type

Fundraising

The top fundraisings on 30 April can choose their start times.

• Messages on/with payslips
• Treasure Hunt
• Quiz nights
• Gifts in kind for raffles
• Join Facebook group
• Collection boxes to go with maps
• Guess our finish time
• Hold a Gurkha curry night

Training

• Get training dates in diaries - about every 3 weeks
• 15m - first walk
• 20m - second walk
• 25m - two or three times
• 30m - 2 weeks before Trailwalker
  • Need 2-3 weeks to recover before the main event
• Consider practicing on The Ridgeway - Avebury - Ivenhoe Beacon
  • Similar to South Downs - but flatter
• Wear the boots you train in
  • Make sure they’re worn in
  • Consider sturdy cross trainer with walking boots as back up
• Support Crew
  • Remind walkers of progress - the big picture
  • Get the SC to carry all your kit for you
• Chaffing - wetwipes/ talcum powder/ supportive pants
• Design a training plan
  • Follow it - even if it’s raining
• Don’t underestimate the walk
  • Serious climbs after CP6 and 9
• Try a night walk - night is prime drop out time, so be prepared
• Walk as much of the route as possible in advance
  • Try CP 8 onwards, nice section
  • Try the bit you’re going to do at night - then you know how it works
• Consider changing pants & socks at every CP (Under Armour)
• Vaseline & kepis
• Don’t rush off at the start - have a game plan
• Don’t stop too long at CPs - will slow you down

Support Crew Advice

• CP2 is very busy - only space for 40/50 cars
• Parking might be a problem at some CPs - in which case park as close as you can and walk
• Consider meeting at every CP from 2 onwards
• Factor in queuing and access times when arriving at CPs
• Take rubbish with you
• A27 tunnel closed at night
• Practice drive around routes and scout out local shops and amenities
• Advantage in having more than one car

I like to start any given activity with a few basic lists.  It helps me to feel in control!

So here is my master-list for Trailwalker so far - it will eventually be divided up into shorter more managable lists!

• Head torches
• Spare batteries
• Cameras x 2
• Tents - at least one big one for checkpoints
• Mobiles - 02 & Vodafone - a set for the team and a set for the crew
• Spare footware for each walker
• Torches for crew
• Agree kitty
• Label all gear - consider a box for each walker’s kit in boot
• Identification for support car - flags/baloons - consider Warwick flag?
• Change of clothes per walker
• Toothbrushes & toothpaste for walkers
• Towels
• Hats - wooly and sun
• Bin bags
• Emergency cash
• Coolbox(es)
• Timetable for RVs with agreed meals/treats
• Toilet rolls/ wet wipes/ deoderant wipes
• Spare mobile chargers - battery ones
• Bags for valuables
• Vaseline
• Sun protection
• Info sheet on each checkpoint
• Fundraising business cards
• Complete first aid kit
• Blister kit per walker/ compede
• Insect repellent and bite ease
• Spare socks - up to 10 per walker
• Ensure annual leave is booked for the Monday
• Overnight arrangements for support crew
• Gloves
• Walking sticks
• Practice night walking
• Reconnaisance of South Downs
• 2 drivers & two navigators needed
• Motivational tools - inc. kazoo/ bubbles/ songs
• Talculm powder
• Blankets
• Stretching space
• Ringing through drinks orders in advance
• Banners
• Costumes
• Music - ipod, speakers
• Research food preferences
• Remember food for support team
• Roof Rack?
• Rent a mini bus/ people carrier?
• Chocolate/ fruit/ dextrose bars/ Kendal Mint Cake!
• CP 6/7 likely to be dark
• Disposable BBQ?
• Inflatable snowman - Katie?
• Bivy bags/ space blankets
• Emergency whistle
• High vis - Justine & Claudie?  Or Himself from work?
• Change of footware
• Compass
• Map holder - Justine
• Sun protection
• Who has tents?
• Petrol £
• Spare safety pins
• Nightwalk practice
• Supportive pants - ask Simon the name - otherwise cycling shorts
• Battery-operated phone rechargers (from station)?
• Warwick banner? Jackie G?

We are having our first meeting tonight…..