View from the Hill

First time nerves

Do you remember the first time you made a speech to an audience? How many people were you addressing? What did you wear? How did you deal with your nerves?

Like many others all over the world yesterday, I watched the Duchess of Cambridge’s first speech and I was thoroughly impressed. No matter what you think of the monarchy, private education and image, you will no doubt appreciate what a scary thing it must have been for this young woman to stand up and speak knowing that she was being broadcast around the world.

What Kate (if I may be so bold) demonstrated is that there are tricks you can employ to control your nerves.

-          make sure you are very familiar with your speech (rumour has it she wrote it herself). Personally I think it’s absolutely acceptable to read from your notes as long as your head isn’t buried in them.

-          wear clothes/shoes in which you feel comfortable whilst also looking smart. You don’t want your outfit to detract from what you’re saying – either positively or negatively. As demonstrated yesterday, there’s no need to splash out on an entirely new outfit, you can borrow one from a friend or even your mum! For me, the shoes are crucial – wearing heels that are too high affect my ability to stand and breathe properly.

-          be well-groomed. Outrageously, I heard a comment on Radio 4 this morning from a tabloid newspaper that Kate “touched her hair too much”. If you had hair that lovely, wouldn’t you touch it? As far as tics go, it isn’t exactly a bad one and I would defy the journalist to present without touching their hair or face at some point. It’s an unconscious thing and doesn’t really affect the impact of your speech. Do your hands shake? Clasp them in front or behind you, in the manner of the Von Trapp Family singers!

-          speak slowly and incorporate pauses. This is the best way to get through any sort of public speaking when you’re at all nervous. It wasn’t difficult to tell that Kate was nervous but she took her time whilst reading. She paused between punctuation points taking her time to look at the next sentence so that she could deliver it to the audience with a smile, lots of eye contact and a few hand gestures. Pausing between points really does give the audience a chance to digest what you’ve said as well as giving you that all important moment to breathe, gather yourself and move on towards your conclusion.

The Duchess is quoted as saying “I find doing speeches nerve wracking”. Who doesn’t? Whether it’s speaking up in a team meeting or addressing 100 (million?!) people, it’s only natural to feel nervous. I think it’s worth remembering that if you’re not even a teeny bit nervous, you probably don’t care and that's not necessarily a good thing. Which leads me to my last point for conquering nerves and making a good impression. Speak from the heart. Kate clearly did this yesterday. You could hear it in the tone of her voice and it was obvious from her body language and the warmth of her smile. It only ever gets easier. I promise.

- Suzanne

Having a Voice

Breakfast on Thursday 8 March started with discourse on a diverse selection of good (and not so good) issues currently affecting the working lives of those present. The depth of the discussion which was wide ranging doubtless reflected the excellent mix of new and familiar faces.

Once the last morsels had been cleared from our plates we moved to how communication within the work place can affect not just our own job, but also the general way in which those same organisations are represented to the outside world.

One of our number had worked on an extended contract within a major government department where the research and writing output went directly to a Portfolio Minister and thus garnered an intense perception of personal job satisfaction and value. A solo researcher within a smaller organisation felt that being the focus for all queries created an exceptionally interesting job. These positive views were countered by some who felt that reporting to a far flung city in another country distanced the value of work done as well as the effectiveness. This mirrored another who felt that reporting into a manager in the office next door was no better, as that individual didn't understand information nor want to manage and this had a similar effect.

Lots of positive suggestions came to the fore: attaching yourself to high fliers, forging positive relationships in all areas of the business, demonstrating value, maintaining high visibility and engaging people to let them know your value and skill mix. 

We went off pondering two final questions. Why does breakfast taste better when the sun shines? And is hierarchy based on ego?

Sue H with able assistance of Donald Lickley.

Yam Jam at breakfast - more than just toast and jam

Some interesting words reverberated around the lively agenda-setting session at the breakfast table at Roast on Thursday morning for the first SHR networking breakfast of 2012.  Strategic review was swiftly followed by strategy, business objectives and restructuring; budgets, economy, offsite and time fitted nicely with volume; intranets and wikis; and last but not least governance, reliability and compliance.

 One can be confident that 12 people working in strategic information roles will have something to say.  Those present represented all the facets of information not just sectorally but also nationally and globally

 It was exciting to hear of different organisations' views and usage of the myriad of communication channels.  Not all firms are fast movers and adopters and it seems that IT still hold the reins and are hesitant to condone organisation wide of tweeting, yammer, wikis and more.  Yammer implemented firm wide but working outside of the fire-wall raised eyebrows and certainly was of great concern to IT and we were greatly amused by the idea of a Yam Jam.  The need to drive IT to manage cultural shift away from fear of sharing was high in everyone’s minds.  At least one person found it frustrating and pointed out the difficulties in not being the owners of our destiny and thus needing to take a place in the IT queue which placed CRM ahead of KM.  We needed more time to talk about wikis vs intranets vs web but I heard enough to think I could find a use for an internal team wiki.

 I confess I came straight back to work and checked out http://digbig.com/5bfnkn a great blog by Austin Hunter on how he as a non social media user was able to use Yam Jamming as a way to discuss business priorities. 

Concern about corporate memory and impact of its loss came to the fore.  (Is corporate memory becoming an eroded value asset?)  So too did the mix in old business values re new highly mobile bright social media communicators.  This works well when we can ensure diversity in attitudes to work and life balance and boundaries. It’s good when oldies can understand young folks’ need to publicise all they do, and young ones understanding oldies need for boundaries between work and personal life in return!   

We all felt strategic reviews were happening more frequently and not always with good reason.  They shouldn’t’ be driven by panic.  Some felt them hard to endure and wondered what the end game was but others had found them positive and resulting in the creation of exciting new opportunities, directions and ways of working.

Our delicious breakfast (eggs benedict, full veggie borough, boiled eggs with marmite soldiers and more) nourished us for the day and also nourished our minds.

Bakehouse, Lounge and Hive

No not a law firm, three models of future libraries.

Amidst share price fluctuations, Euro zone rescue plans and continuing cuts in the UK job market we are living in a time when funding issues aren’t just feared, they are expected.  So at times like this we need a few more success stories. 

Having recently taken up swimming I have spent the past six weeks walking to my local pool (which also houses the local library) passing by a building site which has been taking shape into a rather funky gold building.  But it was not until I noticed the sign on the library door declaring it closed and reopening in the new build, christened the Deptford Lounge, that I put two and two together. 

There has been a fairly high profile campaign surrounding the closure of five libraries in the Borough of Lewisham, Wavelength Library (the new Deptford Lounge) is one of the lucky ones which is not only being retained but upgraded.  The other five have all been re-opened as community run libraries (does my Society look Big in this?).  In Blackheath a charity, Age Exchange, has led the charge reopening the library temporarily in a local theatre, with a view to creating a purpose-built space to combine the library service with the charity’s existing services.

With service integration in mind this leads me nicely on to The Hive which when it opens next year will house both Worcester City public library and the university library under the same roof, I am told the first of its kind in Europe.

So as the axe swings about our heads let’s all remember how through vision and hard work some groups have been able to adapt and improve public library services to meet today’s challenges.

Well done all!

- Jeremy Clarke

Scaremongering on temp numbers after Agency Workers Regulations (AWR)

My initial reaction on reading this article New Regulations 'will drown temp industry' in the Daily Telegraph a couple of weeks ago was a weary sigh. And then I got angry. Whenever there is a new piece of legislation to protect workers, certain sections of the press seem all too keen to herald it as the collapse of business in the UK as we know it.

Remember the fuss over the national minimum wage and how it would cause mass unemployment as companies couldn't afford to pay their workers. Didn't happen, did it? No, turned out fine.

The Telegraph article claimed that unpublished research from a leading business group shows that one in five employers is planning to cut their use of temporary workers due to costly new provisions imposed by the AWR, which come into force on 1 October 2011. Unpublished research, eh? Mysterious.

The article states that "Giving temps equal rights after 12 weeks in a job spoils any flexibility that comes with hiring them in the first place, employers warn." However, the equal rights only extends to pay and working time. Therefore the AWR do not in any way prevent employers from hiring temps to improve the flexibility of their workforce and to cover any short-term periods of increased demand or staff absence and then laying them off when no longer required.

It seems to me that this kind of article is quite irresponsible in its scaremongering. Most hirers (75% according to the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC)) will take the time to understand the regulations and what impact they are likely to have on their business. But it's all too easy to read this article and think the AWR will cause unemployment for "hundreds of thousands of temps" and hit UK productivity hard. 

So I was pleased to see that the REC has published a statement on its website and has also written to the Telegraph refuting their figures. Data from July from JobsOutlook, the REC's monthly employer tracking survey, shows  that 79 per cent of businesses are intending to maintain or increase numbers of agency workers in the next year. Only five per cent intend to significantly reduce numbers.

Kevin Green, the REC’s Chief Executive, said "Other European countries that have introduced this directive have seen a small initial blip in demand for temps, only for usage to actually surpass previous levels within a few months.  We are confident that the careful preparations by businesses and recruiters across the country will mitigate the negative effects on UK employment."

Here at SHR, we have a dedicated project team who are in the midst of preparations for the introduction of the Regulations on 1 October. We welcome equal treatment for our temporary workers and are keen to work with clients and temps to ensure that we meet the requirements of the legislation with minimum disruption to business.

- Fiona Wheeler

Breakfast cures industry hangover

Decisions and development (or lack thereof) were the order of the day at today's SHR breakfast at Roast. Having collectively decided not to allow the "Murdoch Pause" for fear of running out of time, we discussed how the workforce will adopt differing ways of completing work.

Senior management came up several times - from keeping them engaged and ensuring their buy-in to the difficulty of knowing that their focus is always financial so you have very little chance of getting anything on the agenda. Is it true that finances are driving information/records/knowledge programmes rather than strategy? There's a sense that people are meeting the immediate need rather than addressing the long-term strategy meaning the the level of effectiveness is never improved.

Cuts, change and, subsequently, some resistance have fuelled a sense of frustration and low morale and one term that reflected the whole situation is that they have a 'hangover' - in many cases self inflicted, painful but with the knowledge that it will, ultimately, get better. The realisation that this has happened before means that there is awareness of the cyclical nature of events. Cutbacks also mean different ways of working, for example using social media. This, in turn, has massive reputational risk - can we see this as a challenge to our profession to raise its game? We discussed examples of other departments who make the most of their confidence by promoting their services internally and externally. Conversely, we talked about examples of people who don't want to be seen to make a decision, even though approval has been given, as they are afraid any deviation from the original plan will be looked upon negatively. We should use our expertise and be decisive whether others aren't. Sue Edgar quoted a former colleague who said "it is easier to seek forgiveness than to ask permission".

I'll conclude on the subject of responsibility. It was quite apparent at yesterday's Select Committee hearing that no-one, specifically the Murdochs, wants to take responsibility for something that has clearly gone wrong. We discussed at length how we must understand personally and professionally what it means to take responsibility and to act upon it rather than sit back, deflect blame and give one word answers.

- Suzanne

Economy and change - I'll say it again "Economy and Change - and did I hear outsourcing?"

Breakfast at Roast Restaurant this week ended with a vox pop of the eleven replete breakfasters.  The question asked was: "In one word, what has had the biggest effect on your daily work in the last five years?"   We all thought, wrote down our word and then said it out loud:  economy, change, economy, enterprise2, change, outsourcing, change, outsourcing, transparency, market research, change!  So four for change, two each for outsourcing and economy (surely related in some bizarre spider web way) and one for the rest.  There was consensus that the speed of change was the highlight.  It will be interesting to see who has what to say on that topic next week.

 

Earlier, while delectable kippers, old-fashioned boiled eggs with marmite soldiers, lush eggs Benedict and copious quantities of coffee were consumed the conversation focussed on the many things that occupy our working (and sometimes waking) hours.  Change of course had featured then as well.  A recruitment freeze was seen as both positive and negative in that it encouraged managers to think smarter as teams got smaller.  That tied in with showing demonstrable ROI when new systems or ways of working were introduced.  Decision making surfaced both as a positive (where prompt and effective decisions were made) and as a negative where failure to make decisions is like a weight around our necks impacts on progress.  Decisions lead to change - keep change positive - give colleagues credit to understand why change is needed, keep communication lines open and include them.  There was more of course - at times intense and at times we roared with laughter.   

 

Want to know more?  Come to a Sue Hill Recruitment Networking Breakfast.  You won’t be scrambled or boiled - just the eggs will be. 

 

- Sue (Hill)

 

 

"Leave the libraries alone. You don’t understand their value."

It's Monday morning so you're bound to be busy. I won't keep you long. Thanks to @mrchrisaddison on Twitter for pointing me to this wonderful and inspirational speech by Philip Pullman. He gave this speech back in January 2011 but it's only just appeared on my radar.

I hope it will give you a little extra lift on this lovely sunny day.

- Suzanne

Synthesising, synergy, scrambled eggs and smoked trout

On a brilliant sunny morning a diverse group of information professionals met this week at Roast Restaurant in London’s Borough Market and talked at length about the two things that are currently having the biggest effect on their working life.

The list, as Val Skelton so aptly summarises in the Information Today blog, was lengthy.  The organisations represented ranged from Central Government, Investment Banking, Charities, NHS, Academia, Digital Content Support and Publishers and yet commonality of interest shone through. 

I am still intrigued at the comment that the Punk generation (now 40-55) are currently running our businesses and that they are generally not inspirational managers.  Is it any wonder given that their 1980-1995 MBAs were written by others who did their MBAs in the 1960s?   One breakfaster deep into his MBA had been asked by his MD what ‘Creativity’ (the title of one his modules) was.  Lateral thinking?  Whatever the name a skill that is either welcomed or stifled depending on management.  Seven years working in Australia was seen as a fast track way to develop skills and push the boundaries as the general attitude is ‘What are you waiting for?  Do it!’

Information workers shouldn’t worry about what they do, where they fit and where they stand on the ‘professionalism’ ladder but more act as consultants, confident they have something unique and special to offer.

Next time I am going to have the pancakes with yoghurt and rhubarb jam.  - Sue

Inspirational Monkeys

How often do you feel inspired?  What or who last inspired you? It was last night for me and the inspiration was the Uncaged Monkeys. Let's start with the audience - 3500 people turned out on a Monday night at the Hammersmith Apollo to hear about science. Impressive. I speak at conferences, running workshops about the mechanics of using your voice effectively - pace, tone, volume, projection - so I was particularly interested in how these (now seasoned) presenters but above all, scientists, communicated to the audience in such a huge venue.

We were treated to a whirlwind look at carbon dating by Chris Addison (who, if I’m honest, could speak a bit slower - it pains me to say this as I'm a BIG fan), geek love songs by Helen Arney (ukulele + science = lots of laughs) and a look at perception with Richard Wiseman (Carmina Burana will never be the same). For me, it was Robin Ince hosting who set the tone and got me hooked. He was as excitable as a small child who had discovered a new insect in the garden and thus found a new toy.

Now, I'm a musician, not a scientist. But I have a fascination for all things medical so the last presenter was of particular interest to me - Dr Ben Goldacre, actual doctor and also writer, broadcaster and author of Bad Science. He bounded on to the stage and whizzed around it like another excitable child. His language was, quite rightly, medical and scientific whilst talking about clinical trials and withheld data. But it was the musical delivery which made him stand out as an inspirational speaker for me. He set off at an allegro pace, sometimes hitting vivace as his passion poured out of him but he slowed to a purposeful andante to give us a chance to properly listen to and digest his key points. As if to highlight how invested he is in pursuing the truth (sorry, I went a bit X Files there), Goldacre’s voice occasionally hit the high notes usually only emitted by choir boys but this only served to show us how much he cares.

Moving from the musical Dr Goldacre to the poetic Prof Brian Cox, who was the highlight of the evening for me. Whilst I have a fair grasp of medical terminology (thanks to an early stint in St John’s Ambulance and a love of Casualty, ER, City Hospital & a Dr best friend), my understanding of particle physics is, well, lacking. It didn’t matter. Listening to Cox speak was like soaking up Shakespeare – I got the general gist of it, picked up a few key phrases, but mostly enjoyed his lilting delivery. It was quite a geek-fest at the Apollo and I imagine the scientists in the audience appreciated Cox not dumbing down his language – and so did I. But it’s not just about the words. Why was I hooked on hearing more about the Large Hadron Collider and Gravity Probe B? I think it was the combination of being utterly enthralled by someone so passionate and knowledgeable about their subject and also the imagery he used. There was no background music (controversial or otherwise), just images projected onto a big screen (which were easy to view even from the cheap seats at the back) – far away galaxies viewed by the Hubble telescope, the curvature of the Earth as seen from the moon. It was pure poetry.

What makes an inspirational speaker? For me, it’s someone who speaks clearly but with passion and emotion. It’s someone who knows their subject. But ultimately it’s someone who commands my attention and my respect, someone who engages me and makes me listen whether or not I understand every word. Thank you Dr Goldacre and Prof Cox for making me want to be a better speaker.

We were all entertained and educated last night. I wish all CPD was this much fun.

 - Suzanne