As part of my shout out to volunteers during National Volunteer Week, I compiled some great research about what is trending in the volunteer world. This research focuses on what non-profit organizations are implementing to make volunteering impactful, and what they are doing to meet the needs of busy people. In a world that demands our time for career stability and development, and family responsibilities and obligations, most people find there is little time to dedicate outside of these areas. I hope you find this research valuable as you contemplate your volunteering endeavors.
Not necessarily being in the “creative” field, my job entails that I come up with creative ideas on how to get the word out about internal initiatives and figure out how engage employees with a limited budget. In a world of crazy media swirling at all hours of the day, using social media to spur engagement is a fantastic way to get employees engaged. However, when is the best time to reach employees? Obviously on their downtime, right? I always thought that engaging employees at the beginning of the day was the best way, because that way news doesn’t become stagnant. After watching the following video, I thought the idea of ‘sharing’ information may be best exchanged after my creative juices have already been working.
I saw this image posted today regarding a Common Core homework assignment.
National Review Online also posted some interesting Common Core ‘word problems’ in their post The Eleven Dumbest Common Core Problems, stating “The Common Core State Standards Initiative is widely denounced for imposing confusing, unhelpful experimental teaching methods, involving test problems that lack essential information and sometimes make no sense whatsoever.”
In the Huffington Post Article: Smoke, Mirrors, and Common Core, it states:
“As a parent, I am troubled by developments in the New York Assembly. My kindergartner comes home exhausted after a day of school with almost no time for unstructured play. As the child psychologist Megan Koschnick explains, the Common Core standards are developmentally inappropriate, virtually insured to give many children math and reading anxiety.
There is no good way to implement bad standards.
Fortunately, some New York politicians listen to parents on the issue of the Common Core. There is a bill (A8844 & S6604), with bipartisan support, that calls for a Blue Ribbon Commission to hold hearings, do research, and make recommendations to the governor and legislature regarding curriculum and testing before moving forward, if at all, with the Common Core. The bill requires New York’s education leaders to think before they act: a sensible proposal.”
Too bad the proposal was rejected, right?
I do not object to standards – after all, we do need guidelines and something for us to reach for. However, I do oppose the way Common Core is being implemented. From what I can tell, instruction for this new curriculum has been lucid, at best. Students should not have to come home to hours of homework every night in order to keep up with instruction. I would really like to see a poll on how children feel about their learning experience.
On another note, Common Core may be here to stay for a while. The Washington Post highlights an article about How Three Teachers are dealing with Common Core in their Class.
One teacher admits that Common Core has its challenges. She said, “However, my school has prioritized Common Core implementation and tackled its challenges with consistent professional development, regular refinement of unit plans, daily lessons and assessments, and an intense focus on the Standards for Mathematical Practice. As a result, my students are thinking critically about numbers every day, and they are becoming accustomed to attacking problems with multiple strategies and assessing the validity of those strategies. The Common Core standards choose depth over breadth, and with appropriate teacher development and support, this leads to much more critical thinking and analysis in the classroom.”
Maybe the only thing that can be done is to give strict attention to how Common Core is being implemented. The ‘How’ remains. Is this something that needs to be taken care of on the federal level? Perhaps. Is this something that needs to be taken care on a school district level? Sure, why not. Is this something that teachers and parents need to learn how to deal with themselves? Looks like it.
I don’t have any answers to the questions I pose. I know rolling out any new policy is going to be tricky. Does it mean it is wrong? Not necessarily. But without the proper tools, resources, and training, policies that direct school curriculum is going to be hard for all those involved. One thing to keep in mind – who is feeling the inconsistency of this implementation? Our students. Period.
I am recently going up against what I believe a lot of people struggle with in the work place. In former positions, my sphere of influence was greater than where I find myself now. I used to have all control and authority to do what I needed to do to get the job done with full top-down support and financing. I was directly influencing the audiences I needed to, and had some incredible outcomes.
In a newer position with a larger company, I find myself vying to influence a larger amount of people, but with minimal authority. I always thought that in order to be influential, all I needed to do was communicate well. I am finding that there is a lot more to it, particularly as it relates to organizational change – a good result of my new role. Over the course of time, being able to influence decisions has become more difficult, and I end up running into a lot of internal politics that stymie movement.
Below is a series of articles that provide some valuable insight over conquering or, at least, accepting this dilemma.
How to Influence Without Authority by Jesse Lyn Stoner
This article provides 8 ways to influence without having authority including character, expertise, information, connectedness, social intelligence, network, collaboration, and funding. The author also gives some guidelines for influencing without authority and talks about not having any hidden agendas. My favorite quote from this article: “When we shift from authority-based to influence-based leadership, we have to accept that we are not always in control. However, the reality is that we actually never were.”
The Influence Model – Using Reciprocity to Gain Influence (Also known as the Cohen-Bradford Influence Model) by Mind Tools.
This article provides some valuable insight into what steps can be used to overcome needing support or commitment from peers, and/or executive leadership. The article details the steps and provides some good advice assuming that the end-result will be win-win. It seems like this model would be easier to use on a peer-to-peer basis. However, I also see advantages of following these steps when needing to engage those persons who have higher authority. For me, the most important step is to make sure to “…keep your personal wants and goals out of the situation. For instance you may subconsciously want to be seen as “right,” or you may want to have the “last word.” These personal motivations often get in the way of effective negotiation. Focus on your work goals, and leave personal motivators or drivers aside.”
Exerting Influence Without Authority by Harvard Business Review blog entry. I thoroughly enjoyed this article. While it was dated back in 2008, there are plenty of takeaways that are pivotal when trying to drive change without having the resources or authority. The article introduces the concept of lateral leadership. Partnering with peers and involving collaborative partners will absolutely help in driving an initiative forward. The article discusses networking being key in cultivating the portals you are going to need to influence change. It also discusses increasing knowledge in the art of constructive persuasion, negotiation, and consultation. At the end of the day, collaboration with others who would typically be bystanders as this initiative is dropped in their laps, is the best approach to creating influence even without authority. The article states, “To assemble a powerful coalition, begin by asking yourself who’s most likely to be affected by the change you’re proposing. Whose “blessing” do you need—whether in the form of political support or access to important resources or individuals? Whose buy-in is crucial to your initiative’s success?” The article concludes by speaking about the challenges and successes of lateral leadership.
Something else to keep in mind is a profound insight from John Hester’s article, Influencing Without Authority, or Even With It – 4 Key Behaviors, that said, “A common leadership challenge I hear in our workshops is: “How do I lead when I don’t have authority?” Even when we do have formal authority, we often need to influence up and across the organization. But should we use our authority to coerce others to do what we want or need them to do? I believe the answer is a resounding no…”
Other research also points out that it is still important to recognize that authority is what it is, authority. In one interesting video about authority, Jeffrey Gitomer says “I just read this quote: “The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.” It sounds good when you first hear it, but it’s not only completely without merit, it’s also downright dangerous. The quote should say, “One of the MANY keys to successful leadership today is influence.” It bugs me when someone attempts wisdom, and it flies in the face of logic, emotion, and especially reality. Imagine a person of great influence standing outside a major corporation, but not having a job at the company, let alone a position of authority. Would anyone take action? Would anyone follow that guy? Would anyone even listen? The “influencer with no authority” would probably get his biggest chance telling it to the judge after being hauled off by security.”
It is important not to step out of bounds when trying to influence. The articles mentioned above provide some great insight into what a person with no authority can do. I would like to add, in ALL cases, make sure that your boss or supervisor is aware of what you are doing behind the scenes to get what you need to be successful. The last thing you want to do is create a situation where you can no longer be trusted because you are perceived to be off having secret collaborative lunches with fellow employees about goodness knows what. While gaining momentum and collaborating in order to enhance the bottom line may seem innocent enough, it is also important to remember that part of this collaboration/lateral leadership/networking/influencing exercise should be maintained under the parameters of the authority figures you report to.
In one circumstance, I was having a hard time dealing with internal politics and understanding what I needed to do to gain momentum for an initiative. I asked for some advice from one of my personal “influencers” who said:
“Always keep the chain of command involved, unless it is something like sexual harassment. Be professional and do not allow emotion get in the way of discussion. Allow for the fact that others have differing priorities and understand that their report cards are not the same as yours. Schedule information exchanges far enough in advance to allow adequate time for planning. Get release approval for information from your supervisors, then send out reminders and material read ahead information prior to meetings.
Do your job and be proactive in ensuring your job is done…do not do the job of others …that is never your function.
Periodic status reports that are sent to your boss with cc’s to peers and others in the chain of command might work but get the boss’s approval on the distribution first.
There will always be internal politics, successful people know how to work within the construct rather than fight the construct.”
My Takeaways
It is possible to be influential without having authority. It is also important not to compromise personal or the company’s integrity by trying to gain that influence. Becoming influential comes with time and with proper acknowledgement and understanding of a company’s hierarchy.
I am a little behind, but thought the following ads have incorporated those aspects I discussed in other posts about companies that create ads that inspire and – essentially – tug on the heart strings. Here is an example of a video advertising campaign that came out during the Sochi 2014 Olympics.
This second video is probably the most touching to me to date. The slogan for this ad is “The toughest moms raise the toughest kids. P&G proud sponsor of moms.”
Correlating closely to the previous video, there has been quite a parenting stir going on in cybernews. In an article 10 Common Mistakes Parents Today Make (including me) by Kari Kubiszyn Kampakis of the Huffington Post, there were some profound observations about letting children fail in order to be successful. Her column says, “One reason given is that parents today are too quick to swoop in. We don’t want our children to fall, so instead of letting them experience adversity, we clear the path. We remove obstacles to make their life easy. But adversity is a part of life, and only by facing it can our children build life-coping skills they’ll need down the road. So while it seems like we’re doing them a favor, we’re really stunting their growth. We’re putting short-term payoffs over long-term well-being.”
I am not a parent, but I do know that I am going to want the best for my kids. I personally struggle through deciding what is best for me. How do I make sure I teach my children what they need to know in order to succeed? These videos stimulated so much thought about how to parent, how to teach out children to never give up – and letting them fall in order to teach them that lesson. Just the other day, I was with a mother and her little baby. We were chatting near some electric outlets and the mother was constantly trying to protect her baby from getting zapped. I would have done the exact same thing. Let me be clear, I am not saying that parents ought not protect their children from danger. They should. But they should also be keen to explain what failure is, and why it needs to happen in order to succeed (a lesson I still have a hard time learning when I fail).
Interestingly enough, these videos and the article are not just great PR, they are a great lesson in the foundations of education. In school, there almost seems to be a misconception of failure. Right now, students do not pass their classes most in part due to if they pass or fail tests. Some teachers and school curriculum don’t base a passing grade on student test scores, but the way we, as Americans, measure student success rates is mostly through student test scores. Case and point – I am not a good test taker. The success of my grade school, middle school, and high school were based on tests. I was a good student, excelled in my project-oriented and graded assignments, excelled in writing and English, but bombed tests. Essentially, my failing grades on tests did not reflect the knowledge I had actually gained in these classes. Luckily, I worked with teachers on ways I could demonstrate that I wasn’t failing my learning. They did not cushion me, but provided me with the opportunities I needed to grow and maintain confidence that I was actually a smart kid.
Those were the boosts I needed to keep going. Just like moms, the teachers rose to the occasion. They saw me fall, and then saw what I needed in order to succeed. Great job moms and teachers, and great PR P&G.
This new ad campaign makes me grateful for those people who think outside the box. A Spanish organization, Aid to Children and Adolescents at Risk Foundation, created ads that open a new world of campaigning. What is not visible to an adult, is visible to a child – the victim, the one the message is really for. Well done ANAR. Not only is the campaign genius in the creation aspect, but it is so profoundly important. I fully support anti-abuse campaigns and hope they result in amazing outcomes. Here is the ad.
For the past several days, I have been looking at and viewing inspiring videos that demonstrate gratitude, perseverance, and inspiring stories…basically, anything that will make me cry because it is beautiful. As mentioned in an earlier post, people are using video as a mainstream way to communicate ideas, feelings, desires, passions, etc. in turn developing a brand in a way that touches the innermost part of the heart. The perception of the product or service changes as these amazing branding techniques send viewership off the charts.
For example, in my post Video Shorts: Great PR, I highlighted one particular video about a young woman raising a child – I won’t spoil the plot for those of you who haven’t watched it yet. I did some searching on the company that produced this touching video and found out it is a classy lingerie company via Mybeautifulwoman.org, and produced for Wacoal. It seems they have jumped on the Dove train and started highlighting women as beautiful, industrious, strong, and powerful. The campaign is moving, and tells a story. Its placement and viewership has been escalating since its release. This branding movement is AMAZING PR – and it is beautiful.
Here are some other organizations and companies that are using similar techniques to make branding an art form – to make it beautiful.
Ministry of Education – Singapore (2 videos)
First Video
Second Video
Pepper&Paul is another company that is shifting the branding paradigm by creating a “cinematic shopping experience where you will be entertained, discover high quality, ethically produced products, and be able to buy them all in the same place.” Quite innovative, brilliant, and beautiful. You should watch the first two videos on their website. They are stunning.
Thank you Coke for being awesome at great PR!
And for a little more serious video, I just had to highlight “I Forgot My Phone” a popular Youtube video that has been floating around and picking up momentum for the past 3 months.
Great PR folks, great PR. I get the message and am not doing this from my phone while I am surrounded by family and friends, but on my computer 
This guy is doing the best PR for your news channel than you will ever realize! This is the best Frozen parody out there. Someone give an award to this guy for his brilliance. Nothing to be ashamed of here….sir. You are a genius, and you are making your station look SO GOOD! Best PR ever!
Last week I read an article that stuck with me to the point where I had to blog about it. It isn’t everyday that I am captivated by education news. That ship for me, sailed a long time ago.
I felt like all these education issues were not being resolved, and that was depressing to me. So, I stopped caring as much because it isn’t something I see being top of mind to lawmakers, policymakers, or the people with the big bucks or big voices that can help turn the tide.
Case and point: I saw this article I mentioned on FB, read it, pondered it. When I went to find it in my internet history, I couldn’t. I searched my ‘likes’ on FB, and couldn’t. I searched for almost 45 minutes online until I put something completely random in Google search, “black and white photo of child finishing homework with education advocate mom.” It was a completely ridiculous search, but I was desperate, and that desperation got me to where I needed to be. However, I was appalled that I couldn’t find it. It should have been first on my search results. Tell me that is not top of mind. I digress.
Everyone, meet Missouri Education Watchdog, a fantastic website advocating for changes in education policy. The article of focus is A New York and Chicago Discover What Standardized Rigor Really Means for Children. What drew me in was the photo, called “Common Core Tears”. Making sure I attribute the photo appropriately, the photographer and contributing author of the article is Kelly Poynter.
My Takeaways:
The rigor of standardized testing, and common core may be too hard on our children. If that is the case, who is there to make sure our children can learn and yet still be children? Case and point: I have a friend with four children, two of which are enrolled in elementary school. Most of the time, the kids come home, do their homework, play for 30 minutes, eat, then start getting ready for bed. Pretty routine, right? Not really, you see, homework time lasts for about 1 1/2 – 2 hours a night, leaving them little quality family time a.k.a play, which means that total schooling has increased from 6-7 hours to close to 9-10 hours. One child would bring home 20-page packets to be complete at home before he went to sleep. Granted, this child is amazingly smart, but imagine families whose children may be struggling. How long do you think they have to spend on a 20-page packet. Tell me this is fair practice….really.
I saw this other great post/picture about school science fairs, and thought it was brilliant. I am not quite sure who to attribute this to as I saw it on FB,
but it certainly captures projects that take more than umpteen hours to complete. In the same article, another woman/mother (also an advocate) describes her experience helping students with an online test they were required to take. Imagine a 5-year old sitting in a ‘testing room’ with a computer monitor with headsets that do not fit their small heads, not being able to ask questions, or if they did gets the pre-designated response of, “Do the best you can.”
The mother posts, “I would imagine, that for many five year olds, this MAP test would be the first time in their lives that they could not talk through problem with an adult, or have an adult use different words that would help them better understand a problem. I understand that the testing field has to be equal, but I am here to tell you, it just feels wrong for a child so young not to be able to ask for clarification.”
Some parents have rallied around the unfairness of a nation-wide standard common core. We all hear “the one size does NOT fit all” phrase all the time, but most parents, community members, teachers, advocates do not quite have the voice they need to produce change, like in some other states.
The Indiana Senate recently passed a bill to kill Common Core, as reported by NUVO, that has given the right to develop academic standards to the state. The article continues, “The bill now moves to the House where Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, has said he would prefer Indiana to create its own education standards. This started as two parents in my district concerned with what their kids were being taught and what their kids came home with as homework in their backpacks. I think this is an important milestone in the state of Indiana. I think this is a benefit for all of us.”
Reading this article gives me hope that if there is enough noise behind something that is really out of whack in education, that we can make the changes necessary to improve our education systems. All you amazing people fighting the good fight, keep it up! Don’t give up like I did. It is worth the battle when instead of seeing your child struggle through hours worth of homework, they have less, more quality homework that adds the same value and helps them practice teamwork and success.