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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/
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