I had the pleasure of hosting this event with Phil Cass, Hazel and Chuck Morrow-Jones and Rick Livingston. The turnout for the event was great with about 30 participants including a couple of Oberlin students and a Boston area writer who is interested in covering the Columbus movement in an upcoming book that she is publishing with Meg Wheatley.

The event took place at the Ohio State University Knowlton School of Architecture which is one of my favorite facilities in Columbus.

Our event flowed through a check-in, two rounds of open space, a set of knowledge cafes and completed with a group breathe check-out. You are welcome to browse through some photographs of the event by clicking the thumbnails below.

Below is a video of Phil Cass talking briefly about leading through connectivity:

Below are the harvest sheet summaries:

I wanted to push up a quick post about various projects I’m working on right now that may be something you’d like to get in on as well. Of course if you don’t see something of interest here you can bet that this list is always evolving so check-in with me if you’re looking for some work.

WOSU Projects

I am currently engaged in a couple of WOSU projects that are going to need greater community involvement as we move forward. Whether you would like to help on the front end, be a participant in the event itself or just be a cheerleader passing along project information as you will we (myself and WOSU) would appreciate the help.

• WOSU Columbus Neighborhoods Program

The first WOSU television program about the Short North is due to air on March 8, 2010. Currently WOSU has funding to create television content about six neighborhoods in Columbus along with a companion website (this is where I come in).

ColumbusNeighborhoods.org (not yet live) will be a place to document stories about your Columbus neighborhood (or suburb) using video/audio/photos/text. Some of the area historical societies have agreed to work with us to get some of their archives uploaded. We’re looking for interested residents to join in and share their content as a way of building the story of Columbus, its neighborhoods and people, in an easily accessible online format.

Hopefully this will lead to enough interest that WOSU will receive further funding to do more of the neighborhood programs including programs about the suburbs that make up Central Ohio.

• WOSU Public Media Camp

Currently this event is scheduled for Saturday May 8, 2010 and will center around the question of: “Using collaborative project opportunities, how do we strengthen the relationship that WOSU has with the community?”

I was honored to attend the first national Public Media Camp with WOSU last year and this local camp will be an extension of what began in Washington, DC. WOSU has three core opportunities that they want to explore for collaborating more closely with creative and informed residents. This event will be a chance to discover what innovative ways we can turn those opportunities into real life collaborative efforts.

Upper Arlington Centric Projects

• Leadership UA Website

I’m currently working on a redesign of the Leadership UA website. The current site is at http://leadershipua.org and I would be happy to get some feedback from people about what they might find useful but is lacking on that old site. I hope to launch the new site in the next couple of weeks (there’s a deadline to this one so it has to happen sooner rather than later).

Some features of the new site that are in the works will be an RSS feed, monthly leadership notes and more multi-media content.

• Conversation Arlington

A very select few of you may remember that a few years ago I was a class member of the Leadership UA program and helped to develop the Conversation Arlington format for hosting conversations in UA about civic opportunities and issues. This has transformed into a few different outreach projects for Leadership UA (which I’m now a board member of) along with helping to bring together an Upper Arlington Art of Hosting Community of Practice.

Under Leadership UA I, along with some of my fellow board members, are looking to expand our conversations to help sustain productive dialogue in our community. Look for more on this once the new website is in place.

• Upper Arlington Family Bicycle Tour

This came about late last fall when I had a conversation with Tim Maloney (UA Parks & Rec) about an idea for a bike ride to help foster greater family bicycling in UA. After a meeting with James Gant (UA Parks & Rec) and word that UA would soon be home to 2 bicycle stores, both sitting pretty on Lane Ave (Trek store and Roll:), we are planning for a first event to happen late spring/early summer with two other events to follow.

The idea is to hold three events: one tour of the northern UA parks and schools, one tour of the southern UA parks and schools and then a longer ride that connects all of them. If you’d like to help out or just make sure that you’re alerted ahead of time as to when the events will be held then let me know!

• UA Bicycle Route Map

I’ve heard rumor of the existence of a general outline of a bike plan in UA that came about around 2001 or so during the transportation planning phase of the UA Master Plan. I have verification that some of these plans exist so I’m working to develop a nicely packaged version of this that will hopefully inspire even more families to get out and pedal instead.

A component of this will be a project that I want to propose building a bicycle boulevard that connects UA to Marble Cliff to Grandview to Downtown Columbus. Are you in? Let’s get to work on it then!

Columbus Projects

• Casino Free Columbus

Contrary to what some of the groups out there would have you believe our organization (http://cfcolumbus.com) is opposed to any casino in Columbus. We are of the opinion that casino’s are exploitative and that we, as a community, should be looking at innovation to solve our problems instead of exploitation. We aren’t taking a particular stand on the amendment to move the casino location because for us it really is about the fact that we don’t want a casino at all. This isn’t a NIMBY issue for us. If you agree then please show your support on the website or at the Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/manage/?act=24621824#/casinofreecolumbus.

• Our Optimal Health

This is another website project that I’m working on and hope to at least do a soft-launch of in the near future. For the time being there isn’t much that I can ask you for in terms of outside help but just be aware that it will eventually surface and you’ll be invited to give feedback.

• Columbus Art of Hosting Community of Practice

Columbus has a rapidly growing community of practice that is growing the use of hosting techniques at an exponential rate. We’re all thinking about good ways to capture this story and this is something at the front of my mind. With any project that just feels colossal it is often beneficial to get feedback from people who are outside of the process. Any takers?

Writing Projects

• Social Knowledge: Using Social Media to Know What You Know

I’ve gone through a review round with this and am awaiting the latest revisions from the editors. The book should publish later this year (2010) as I believe we are still on track for that but we’ll see. If you’d like to get a sneak peak so as to give me some constructive criticism let me know.

• This Week Upper Arlington

As you will have noticed I picked up another freelance gig writing editorials for This Week Upper Arlington. Is there a community story that you feel needs some focus? I’ve got 5000 characters a month to tell it in.

• WOSU 820

I’m happy to say that I’m still on the air about once a month or so. Now, that doesn’t mean that Columbus is happy about that. As with my This Week UA articles I’ve come to find the truth in an old reporter friend of mine who used to say, “If you aren’t pissing off everyone then you aren’t doing it right.” Cheers to me I suppose! 500 words isn’t much but it’s the three minutes of airtime I get. Do you have a story you think I’d be interested in?

• Capital City Radio

I’ve been set loose on the Capital City Radio blog (http://capitalcityradio.org/) as another outlet for my unique musical tastes. Capital City Radio would like to focus more on local musicians and I’d be glad to help out with that if you have someone to send my way. Let me know if you’ve got some tunes online that we can link up!

Speaking Engagements

• OSU Digital Media in a Social World Conference, Mendenhall Lab Columbus, OH Presentation “Bridging the Gap Between Offline Engagement and Online Social Networking” February 20, 2010

What strategies are there for bridging the gap between traditional offline engagement and using social media and online collaboration tools? Using local examples of success and failure I will show that while the face-to-face meeting is still king, digital media is making those meetings much more productive than ever before.

• Flagler College Communications Week Presenter, St. Augustine, FL March 25, 2010

I don’t have all of the information yet as to who all I’ll be addressing at this talk but I know I’ll be speaking to a classroom of students as a part of this which will surely be about taking advantage of having your own keys to mass communication. Let’s see if I can inspire them to do something with those keys!

• Columbus State Community College Communications Conference, Columbus, OH May 1, 2010

How do you open your own doors of opportunity? Would you like to make your passion your career? Let me show you how by using social media and new technologies as a way of launching brand YOU. In this session you’ll learn best practices for expanding your online outreach and landing those all important face‐to‐face meetings with potential clients and employers.

Where to find me…

Of course I’m always accessible via my blogs at ElephantsOnBicycles.com and Andrew-Miller.com as well as at Twitter.com/Digitalocracy and other points in-between.

Espresso, Intelligentsia from Department of the 4th Dimension on Vimeo.

The video is really two stories and two opportunities. Depending on your interest you will surely pick out one of the two as being the obvious one, but they are both equally on the nose in my opinion.

The skill of the filmaker is in full view in this piece. Clean editing, good use of color splashed in with the black and white and a crisp message. The film’s star is clear and concise and there are no wasted words nor frames in this short film.

How about the subject of the film, both the idea of how to make the perfect espresso as well as the showcasing of such a knowledgeble barista? Given the opportunity to purchase an espresso from this barista versus another why wouldn’t you choose him? His attention to detail is amazing.

Look around in your daily life and find those people who take their job, something that might generally seem mundane, and elevate it to an art form. This pride in every detail is really something special – it is exactly what makes them stand out.

Consider how you might find something that is comfortable, a career path or otherwise, and turn it into your celebrated art. Then, think about how you might let the rest of the world in to celebrate with you. Are you ready to open those doors?

Sure, conceptually every website we create is a presentation; however, Dawn has taken it one step further and actually created a presentation platform out of some tweaks to a solid, low key Wordpress theme (here’s the presentation). Think Powerpoint with a more useful type of overhead.

I’ve used Wordpress for a wide variety of website formats and I’ve got more ideas in the works but what Dawn’s presentation idea has done for me is to open my mind up to even more possibilities. All I can ask is that you go and check out her site right now and learn more about what she created by clicking here.

What innovative ways are you repurposing technologies? Have you asked your staff or your supporters how they are actually using the tools you’ve provided them? If not then now is the time to have that conversation.

Contact Andrew Miller Consulting for a free brainstorming session to discuss these possibilities and more.

In the current climate of communications your clients should find it totally unacceptable to have such a lack of communication from you, especially when that silence carries such a heavy financial burden.

Communicating with clients isn’t just about finding a way to market your newest products or projects; communicating with your clients should be done in a respectful way that best serves their needs.

The opportunity you then have is to form a relationship of mutual respect, the kind that builds life-long partnerships; instead of abusive client relationships, mistrust and short lived transactions.

During a staff meeting the administration proclaimed, “This is not a democracy, it is a dictatorship!”

That is all well and good. Clearly a single decision point allows for decisions to be made very quickly. Unfortunately, in the world we work in there are few decisions that can be made thoughtfully and wisely by one single person. Proclaiming yourself a dictator has strong connotations toward the fact that you will not be looking for help in making decisions or coming up with ideas.

What is most important in these scenarios is the declaration statement itself. You see, at the point you feel the need to declare your dictatorship – your supreme power over all decisions – you have already lost the ship.

Positive Leadership

Some leaders are much more comfortable taking the responsibility of decision making upon themselves, even in the best of times. This is effective in certain scenarios, and when done  from a stance of mutual respect can weather most storms.

To be a truly effective leader one must surround themselves with staff and advisers who are creative and motivated. Instead of fearing these peers they empower them. Instead of disregarding their ideas they develop a pool of solutions which can then be selected from. Even though the decision ultimately rests with that one administrator, that “dictator”, they will not be perceived as such because they have created a field of mutual respect.

In the most progressive of cases (the style that I teach), the leader will not be a dictator at all because they will use consensus to arrive at the solution. Instead of making an educated decision they can truly know that the wisdom of the group has spoken and delivered the solution to them.

I am Dictator – Hear Me ROAR

Sadly, when management roars out, “This is not a democracy, it is a dictatorship!” there is a reason that the organization shuts down around them. That is because the statement is only made when the leadership has decided it has a lowered (or zero) value for the staff. It does not trust the staff and, rightly so, the staff may be responding with a reduced trust of the leaders. Where staff has come forward with ideas to right the ship the leadership choose instead to run-aground out of fear that by changing course they show weakness.

Ultimately however this power struggle is already over and the leaders have already lost control. If the staff stays with them after not having their voices heard then the staff will know that they are not valued and will in turn work down to that level of diminished value. Whenever possible, the staff will leave and soon your organization will be competing with your past employees – some of whom will gladly exploit your fresh weaknesses.

Developing Positive Leadership Patterns

Transparency and honesty are the most direct ways to developing positive leadership patterns. If you are worried that your organization is on the verge of proclaiming itself a dictatorship please contact Andrew Miller Consulting for a free brainstorming session to break out of your negative leadership patterns.

Consider all of the very inexpensive options every single person with access to an online computer can change their future. We all now have a platform to share our creativity, knowledge, and opinions in as thoughtful and well crafted a way as we choose to.

The key is to have a great deal of love for the subject and a willingness to work hard at crafting exactly what you want.

• Do you want to showcase your photography, you can easily do it on Flickr.
• Do you want to showcase your filmmaking, you can easily do it on Vimeo or Youtube.
• Do you want to put your voice on the radio, you can easily do it on Vocalo.
• Are you an expert at pitching a change-up and striking out your opponents, you can showcase that too. (notice 53k+ views!)

Whether you are looking to effect your neighborhood or your nation you now have almost all of the same tools as any major media outlet and thanks to their shrinking budgets you may even be given air-time or newsprint as a way of providing you extended reach in return for your “free” content.

The key to this isn’t in coming up with the next “viral” web campaign. Instead what you need is to be diligent, work hard and find your 1000 fans online who will support what you’re doing. That crowd of 1000 may be mostly people you know face to face or it might be folks who span the globe, that all depends on who you’re trying to reach. When you consider the numbers of internet users (1B+) it isn’t hard to imagine finding 1000 of those people who believe in what you’re doing.

So do what you love and do it well and YOU CAN make your own opportunities.

Upcoming Speaking Events

I’ve got a few speaking events scheduled for early 2010 that I’d love to see you out for. I hope to meet you soon!

What would be my reason for following the show on Twitter and how has my Twitter usage changed over time?

In the past I might have wanted to “converse” with the shows producers and such but now I would mostly be looking for a convenient way to receive relevant information from them that ties back to the programming they already deliver. You see there is a natural progression that we seem to be following with social media that I think is worth further investigation.

History

Here’s the back story that evolved in my mind as I thought about that shows Twitter stream. In the early 1990’s people like myself learned Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) so that we could create websites. Many of these sites were very nice – most of them however were pretty crude and served as a very text heavy place for our personal stories. Hand coding websites like this wasn’t for the faint of heart even though it was significantly easier than most programming languages.

Then came blogging software. Those of us who were constantly hand-linking HTML pages and trying to keep track of our site-maps now had a nicely packaged solution. Gone was much of the HTML coding – hello WYSIWIG! With this new level of ease came along a whole new level of participation.

With the explosion of new online authors that you wanted to follow and the ability to easily comment on what those authors had to say brought about a need to connect with others; to build relationships between the authors and the readers.

The comments field became a battleground for many authors and organizations who worried about what they might hear from their audience. Unfortunately, if you chose to close the comments option your organization was even more likely to be targeted as old-fashioned and disinterested in what its supporters (and detractors) actually wanted or thought. That was a quick way to losing your support base. The catch-22 was that not having an online presence also has turned into a quick way to lose your support base.

Thus it became the norm that a blog must allow comments and that the comments moderation should be done only in extreme situations and with transparent reasoning. For the most part the users of the comments should self-moderate which didn’t always work out so well.

This was the norm for some time until about a year ago when both Twitter and Facebook really took over as the place to be in a Web 2.0 world. You see, these sites are a million times more accessible to users than even blogging software which means that another user explosion took place on both platforms. Since these are the places most people are having their conversations blogs themselves don’t “need” to have comments sections. By shifting the conversation away from your blog site and onto one of these other platforms you are increasing your possible audience exponentially.

This brings with it a number of other issues but for this conversation those are not directly relevant.

Today

Now frankly I’ve skipped a lot of details in the description above but I think you can sort of get the gist of where we’ve been.

Today we find ourselves in a very immediate stream of information. Just a year or so ago when Twitter was really blowing up there were some rules to the game, primarily that even the most well known organizations needed to be very informal in order to attract audience. Those same players, just a year later, are now able to once again act in a very push-information way on Twitter without suffering any great ill-effects.

This is because ultimately what sustains audience is sharing relevant and interesting information. Similar to traditional media, once you understand your audience (and understand how to track their shifting interests) you can significantly cut back on informal bi-directional communications and increase your push of quality information.

The road map that gets your organization to that point in any new platform appears to be:

1. Require very timely and personal involvement on the part of the major players of the movement (e.g. get your staff using the tool very informally),
2. Build a foundation for community through little to no administrative hierarchy (e.g. let your staff and close supporters create content without a lot of supervision), and;
3. Establish your “true believers”; those participants who will carry the torch as much as, if not more, than your own organization.
4. Finally, reward the most engaging participants and move into a more push information format as you migrate to the next platform.

Remember, this isn’t a single beginning to end track. With each new platform the same process repeats and currently only shows success due to a constant re-invention with each next platform. In other words, once you’ve built a successful outpost on the moon you make it self-sustaining and then start sending the harvest to Mars so that you can colonize there – and on and on.

Bridging Between Online and Offline

The most interesting component to all of this is the fact that, as we move into these social media networks that are more targeted like Facebook we find that we have an even greater opportunity to mobilize people locally. This is because of the ability to more easily make physically local connections and to use rewards and events much in the traditional way to further energize (and provide content for) the online networks.

If you’re interested in learning how to use these techniques to bridge the gaps for your organization please contact us at Andrew Miller Consulting and schedule a free brainstorming session.

Looking back at my last post I can get a sense of what I accomplished last year and what work I put in to make those things happen. This year I hope to continue to expand upon that foundation.

Yesterday, like many Sundays, I thought about what I had coming up in this week ahead. Similarly, over the past couple of weeks I’ve been considering what projects are in store for me this year and what I’d like to make happen. In this way the past few weeks have been my annual “Sunday” while the next couple of weeks will be my annual “Monday”.

I find that breaking time-frames down like this is much more comfortable for laying out my plans. What techniques do you use?