Sarah heard some refreshing thinking at a recent event.. so refreshing in fact that she felt compelled to write a blog about it!  She was listening to a chap called Tony Coates from Assima, who was talking about the training that takes place (hopefully!) when a business makes a huge investment in a new IT system (systems that often link their manufacture, warehousing, distribution, sales, finance, HR…)  His thinking went something like this:

• for about 50 years, the IT training industry has been training people to use their new systems in the correct way, i.e. ‘here’s how you enter a sales order’.  Lots of blood, sweat and late nights have been dedicated to the cause of getting it right
• technical teams are then on-hand once a new system goes live to sort out any glitches with the system (a bit like ‘snagging lists’ for a new property)
• despite this, between 80% and 90% of calls to the helpdesk turn out to be of the ‘I’ve made a mistake and don’t know how to put it right’ nature instead

Tony’s thinking is that we should turn the way we think about all this on its head and teach people to get it wrong too… Which makes sense really if you think about it for a minute, because it’s by getting it wrong that each and every one of us learns to walk, ride a bike, spell, drive…

Are you a local PR wizard with a few days to spare each month?  Can you help us make sense of the PR world and let everyone know how good we are at what we do?  Then you are just who we are looking for and we’d love you to read on…

We are a fairly new company (we’ve just had our first birthday!) and we’ve been incredibly busy working away doing what we’re good at.  However, we haven’t had a spare moment to let other people know just how good we are and we feel the time has come to spread the word.  We need a plan to get our story told and someone who can help us get our message out there.  If you are that person we’d like you to take a look round our website and get a feel for who we are and what we do.  If you find what we do interesting enough to say some interesting things about us and share our beliefs then we have a little task for you!

We’d like you to write a press release, in our style, that details what you can offer us and your one big PR tip for success and email it to gemma@rambutan.biz by Friday 6th November.  

We are very flexible about what form the ‘job’ will take. It can be on either a contract or self employed basis and we are also flexible as to days and times but we’d expect the role would entail around a day a week.  Most importantly we need someone who won’t mind our little office with woodchip wallpaper, who doesn’t take themselves too seriously (but takes work very seriously), is willing to travel occasionally and is prepared to have some fun!

Good luck!

Having completed a coaching review session in York Lance decided it was time for that much needed sugar rush.  On popping into a friendly cafe in the centre, he was surprised and delighted at the level of skilled coaching taking place amongst the staff.

You can learn a lot from watching people use different techniques in real life situations and there are many skilled coaches out there for us to observe.  So if you want a free coaching session, try visiting Krumbs cafe in York who work in partnership with City of York Council.

Thanks to those who attended the two-day Communication Skills for Managers course in York

From left to right in the photo...Dale, Lisa, Andy, Dave, Pauline and Mick). Sorry to Omer who had to dash off before the photo was taken to rescue his wife from a flooding kitchen!

As promised here is the summary of a ‘perfect brief’ discussion…

Think of delivering briefs as a great opportunity to spread the word and to listen to people. Give plenty of thought in advance to location, date, and who should attend and make sure you have practised (and sought feedback) before hand.  

Welcome the attendees and break the ice in an appropriate/linked way and make sure all the ‘little things’ have been sorted so that you don’t have to worry about them (the correct number of handouts, flipcharts, other props, music, video clips, room layout etc.)

Consider the structure of the brief – what are the key points? Sounds obvious, but knowing the subject well is vital in delivering a great brief. Make it well-structured and simple and think about your desired style and tone of voice! Pre-empt any questions that could be raised and allow enough time in your session for these.  Ensure the message of the brief is understood by summarising the main points, asking for feedback and questioning what people will do next?

Above all, take ownership and enjoy!

Now that we have our fantastic new website we’d like to spread the word and let everyone know what a refreshing bunch of people we really are.  We feel our ‘better than risk free’ guarantee sets us apart and we’d like to shout this from the rooftops – would anyone like to help?

What we’re after is a PR wizard who can help us come up with a winning strategy for our press and publicity.  It would be really cool if they had some contacts in the internal comms, training and HR world too.  In return we can offer some payment and also the opportunity to receive some coaching and personal development.  Mutually beneficial you might say!

If that person is you, or you know who they might be, then please get in touch and we’ll have a chat.  Tea and biscuits at the ready!