At IABC in Kelowna!

Further to the survey begun last month, I'm at the IABC conference in gorgeous Kelowna, BC this week. (We are continuing to collect responses until December so please feel free to contribute!)

The more we looked into the questions around how the digital tidal wave is changing our working lives (and not just our work spaces and tools), the more obvious it became that many professions are asking the same questions about the immediate future:

• Do we all need to become programmers?
• Will smarter machines - from the coffee pot to the servers in the data warehouses - mean job loss?
• What's the new normal in the workplace for communicating on projects, with executives and with each other?

When the chips are down, relationships and communicating across them can be our only tools.
Why then is communication itself not being called out as a key skill to develop?
Why is communication strategy not figuring prominently as part of what needs augmentation and sponsorship?
Yes, communicators are calling this out... but folks are used to this message from that contingent.

We need to reframe the conversation to include the other professions. Communicators can facilitate and support the other areas in addressing the new demands for better soft skills - communication being the prime area of focus throughout all the change.

More on this to come... waiting to hear what our Kelowna crowd has to add to this idea!

Little changes to make today

It's the little changes that make the biggest difference.

• Saying "Yes, and..." instead of "no" or "yes, but..."
• Finishing a meeting 5 minutes before the allotted close time as a regular practice
• Smiling as you answer the phone
• Pushing away from the computer for 5 minutes every hour 
• Leaving "thank you" off the email sign off and instead as a genuine note after an action is completed
• Writing or doodling with a coloured pen/pencil to keep your brain firing during a meeting
• At end of day, remembering something you did correctly

Doing just one of these changes our mindset and, sometimes, that of those around us.
Mentoring ourselves is as important as anything else!