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Can you keep cool while others lose it?

A focused conversation, followed by

consensus on coping strategies

Facilitated by:

MichaelAmbjorn - @michaelambjorn

Sharon Hunter - @SharonHunter

February 9, 2013

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Purpose

Share stories, brainstorm and develop

strategies to keep cool while others are losing

their heads!

Focused conversation

Have you been in a situation where

somebody lost their head?’

Workshop consensus

What do the world’s best

communicators do to keep their cool

while dealing with cutbacks, crisis and

change?

Participants

Russell Grossman

Michael Nord

Jeff Bishop

Lisa Stockwell

Tracie Bettenhausen

Larisha Peterman

Cory Craft

Molly A. Walker

Rikke Jorgensen

Dan Maceluch

Jennie L. Lamb

Mary Feldskov

Katrina Rivett

Angela Wilson

Sophia Cambridge

Deb Amenson

Keri Renner

Susan Straub, ABC

Sarah Willis

David Rodenhiser

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A little inspiration to get started courtesy Rudyard Kipling

IF If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or being hated, don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;

If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,

And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

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The Stories – some of what we shared

1. A communications department copes with extreme demands when the chair and chief exec of a

national broadcaster are ousted in a complex political environment.

2. Employee endures nasty verbal attack, calmly hands back office keys while resigning on the spot.

Subsequently has a private meltdown in the parking lot only to be tracked down and begged to

return.

3. Plans to relocate company headquarters after disastrous financial losses are kept under wraps

‘though re-org activities are blatantly obvious - leaving the communication department to manage

the elephant in the room.

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What we did

• Play-Doh and Lego figures helped get ideas flowing and hopefully relieved any anxiety over being

filmed

• Participants began by writing down their own list of ways to stay cool

• We then compared notes and consolidated six big ideas per table

• Ideas were clustered on the wall for further consolidation into common themes

• Some topics were contested and debated

• Theme columns were named by consensus to elaborate top things communicators do to keep their

cool

Watch the fast-track and the pictures – and add your own

http://bit.ly/IABCflickr

View on Storify

sfy.co/bE47 (http://t.co/Db63Qa86)

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Most hotly contested topic

#HorseNotGiraffe ;-)

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Unique creations

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What our scrap paper tells us

Slowly eat something crunchy

Take a walk

Get some air

Talk to a trusted colleague

Assess current state of mind

Think positively

Find inner calm

Count to ten

Help organize other people’s staff

Acknowledge victory/survival

Have a glass of wine

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Workshop consensus: what the world’s best communicators do to keep their cool

SELF CARE

eat, sleep, go home

APPROACH TONE CALM

Laugh

Acknowledge success

Set boundaries

Ask for help

Listen (and repeat what

you heard)

Ask questions

Identify facts

Perspective

Evaluate situation

Marathon mindset

Define context

Role reversal

Review options &

consequences

Set the tone:

Positive, calm,

optimistic

Speak softly

Pause

Slow things down

BREATHE

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What we thought about it

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Resources

Books

Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High

Authors: Kerry Patterson , Joseph Grenny , Ron McMillan, Al Switzler

* Also delivered as training by various consulting organizations

Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business

Authors: John Mackey, Rajendra Sisodia. Foreword by Bill George.

Blogs

http://www.rsablogs.org.uk/tag/mindfulness/

Podcasts / Videos

The Scientific Method of the Mind

Mindfulness: The key to a healthier society?

The workshop was facilitated using the RSA Small Groups Methodology, originally developed in partnership with ICA:UK and draws on

their Technology of Participation framework. http://www.thersa.org/ http://www.ica-uk.org.uk/