Category Archives: Productivity
Virtual Meetings – How to Use Skype for Internal Communications
by Scott McIntosh on April 19, 2012 | 3 comments
in Corporate Communications, Crisis Communications, Productivity
Today, companies can be widely dispersed. Employees may live in different cities or countries from where the organizations are centrally located. Younger generations may request working from home or the local coffee shop, saying they feel more comfortable and inspired outside of an office setting. Some companies may not even have an office, but a team of mobile employees collaborating through various new technologies. So what happens when an important discussion needs to take place between members of an organization who are not located in the same area? Well, you have the next best thing: a virtual meeting.
There are MANY services available to conduct virtual meetings; from highly robust and paid services to free and simple ones. Recently updated, the Google+ platform allows for online video conferencing which it calls “Hangouts.” Other major services include GoToMeeting and Cisco’s WebEx. And did you know Facebook also allows for video chats between friends?
Facebook video conferencing is actually powered by one of our favorite services that we highly recommend, Skype. Skype can be used for free video conferencing directly with another Skype user, including online messaging and file sending. We recommend Skype to clients as a way to conduct meetings between organizational employees when not located in close enough proximity. If you haven’t tried it out already and would like to, Skype requires a quick set-up process before online communication can begin. To make it easy for you, we’ve created a How to Set Up Skype video below that will walk you through the process.
What services do you like using for virtual meetings? Please let us know your recommendations in the comments below!
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What Three Things Can a Champion Wrestler Teach Us About Marketing?
by Scott McIntosh on December 8, 2011 | no comments
in Marketing, Productivity, Small Business
As any marketing firm will tell you, marketing is a never-ending process. Whether it’s attending networking events, connecting with past clients or writing that new blog post, there is always something that can be done. This can get overwhelming and cause one to want to give up. But if you want your company to stand out above the rest, you have to keep going.
Anthony Robles, winner of the 2010-2011 NCAA individual wrestling championship, recently spoke at a local school in Nashville, TN (watch his inspiring speech here). He had some great things to say about not giving up and he should know. Anthony had a hard time getting started in wrestling. He had a losing record his first years in high school. He wasn’t recruited by any colleges. His father left when he was young, leaving his unemployed mother to raise four kids (at one point they were homeless). Oh, and did I mention he only has one leg?
Anthony Robles was born with only one leg but wrestled through his daily challenges to become a champion! He didn’t give up when times got tough and neither should you. Here are some takeaways from Anthony’s speech that you should consider next time you’re ready to quit:
- Focus on what you CAN do in life and not what you CAN’T do. The only thing you have power over is yourself. You can’t control your environment, you can only control how you respond to it.
- The only difference between a champion and an average person is that champions work harder, champions put in more time.
- The prize is in direct proportion to the price, the greater the rewards you seek, the greater the effort must be to achieve them.
In business as in life, passion and hard work pay off and that includes achieving your marketing goals. And this story gives me the inspiration to dig in and find a way to deal with every challenge.
Have you ever faced an enormous marketing challenge and overcome an obstacle to create a success?
Top 5 Travel Apps to Help You Stay Sane This Season
by Sam Sudano on October 13, 2011 | no comments
in Lovell, Productivity, Social Media
Ahhh, fall. Here at Lovell Communications, the change of the season is unmistakable, and not just from the pumpkin cheesecake hanging out in the kitchen (thanks, Sarah!) As talk of holiday marketing fills the air, I try to divert my attention away from the treats across the hall and let my mind drift to less calorific matters: holiday travel.
The very mention of those two words together could make you want to hide under your desk until Santa and his reindeer jet off to the tropics. But fear not!
Below you’ll find a list of this season’s hottest travel applications for your smart phone. Whether you are gearing up for business travel, visiting family for the holidays, or just trying not to lose your mind after your flight is re-routed for the third time, here are some of the best apps to help you keep your sanity during the busiest travel time of the year.
5. KeyPoint – On-the-go business travelers frequently rely on PowerPoint for client presentations or business proposals. But when a PowerPoint issue needs to be addressed on the fly, business travelers are often out of luck. With KeyPoint, you can create, edit and play presentations, turn them into PDF’s, and share on your website or blog.
4. OpenTable – Did you make a dinner reservation only to find out that your connecting flight was delayed? Find out last minute that you’re in charge of organizing an eight-person dinner party for a client? With OpenTable, you can find a restaurant, choose a table and book it online. Included are more than 20,000 restaurants in all 52 states and more than 15 countries.
3. Mint – Setting (and keeping) a budget during the holidays can be daunting. Recommended by the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, Mint compiles all of your financial information in one place. You can see what’s happening with your checking, savings, investment and retirement accounts at any time, and track spending as you go. Funds are non-transferrable through the read-only app, but the app makes the list for being an efficient finance tracker for travelers.
2. Expensify – If you’re traveling for business, you’ll want to keep a paper trail of your expenses for a travel report. You could do this the old-fashioned way, but why give yourself extra work? Your smart phone will gladly keep track for you – for free. Using your phone’s camera, you can snap pictures of your receipts to retain a digital record, in chronological order. The app allows you to log mileage, meal expenses and other business related travel costs.
And our number one recommended travel app is…
1. TripIt – Keeping track of your travel reservations can be as tedious as logging your expense report, especially when traveling between several cities. Winner of a 2011 Webby Award, TripIt takes your flight reservations and puts together an easy to read, detailed itinerary. The app tracks your miles, points and more. You can also sign up for push alerts, which will alert you if your flight is delayed or changed.
Do you have any favorite travel apps? Let us know!
What’s Distracting You?
by Dana Coleman on June 2, 2011 | 3 comments
in Productivity, Social Media, Survey
Survey Estimates Electronic Distractions Cost Thousands per Employee in Lost Productivity
Trends in communications and business practices continuously evolve; even bad ones. A survey conducted in March for harmon.ie, a provider of social email software, reveals modern trends in electronic distractions that diminish productivity.
One of the most interesting findings relates to an increasingly common addition that psychologists call “online compulsive disorder.” The survey found this addiction to web-based activity is pervasive in the workplace and is also impacting our personal lives. It found, for example, that two out of three people will tune out of a face-to-face meeting to communicate digitally with someone else. And 65 percent of those surveyed under age 40 said they stay digitally connected even in bed, at least sometimes.
Most workplace distractions today are electronic rather than traditional activities like phone calls or conversations with co-workers. While the survey found processing emails and email alerts constituted 23 percent of the electronic distractions, toggling between multiple applications, windows and tabs, and using multiple devices at the same time contribute to the problem.
Another significant drain on productivity is “document chaos,” with users surveyed wasting on average 30 minutes a day searching for documents. The two leading locations people go to find lost documents do not include file servers; email and computer desktops are the first places people look, at 76 percent and 69 percent respectively.
Sadly, the survey indicates that 45 percent of today’s workers can’t work more than 15 minutes without being interrupted. What’s the cost of all this distraction? The survey results estimate an hour of wasted productivity at an average salary of $30 per hour translates to a loss of $10,375 per person per year, not to mention the impact on work quality and both personal and professional relationships.
Strategies respondents said they’re using to try and limit distractions include reading emails in batches, working outside the office, or disconnecting from electronic and phone distractions for a few hours a day. To combat distraction, some employers block access to public social and media networks. Others use corporate policies or track online usage patterns. Unfortunately, only a quarter said they provide training to their employees to address productivity issues.
As communicators, we know today’s online resources and social media platforms have created a new universe of opportunities to engage and influence stakeholders – both our own and those of our clients. In this like anything else, however, to maximize those opportunities without diminishing productivity requires balance.
What’s distracting you? If you live in our home state of Tennessee, it might be the buzz of the cicada, but more likely, the source of your distraction is an electronic one.
Are Women and Men Managers Really That Different?
by Paula Lovell on August 3, 2010 | 6 comments
in Organizational Behavior, Productivity, Small Business
By nature and by trade….I am interested in communications.
I had a lot of fun bantering back and forth with Jim Blasingame, well-known Small Business Advocate, on his recent radio show devoted to small business owners. We were discussing male and female managers and, although we were talking in grand generalities and had a lot of laughs, we agreed there are some very basic differences in the way men and women communicate and perform as leaders. It emanates from the fact that, in general, the sexes process information differently.
I was first alerted to the “science” behind those differences when listening to a lecture given by biological anthropologist Dr. Helen Fisher. After much study of the way the sexes think and communicate, Fisher points out some interesting capabilities of most women. In her book, The First Sex, she lists many common characteristics, including:
- a capacity to read postures, gestures, facial expressions and other non verbal cues;
- excellent senses of touch, taste, smell and hearing;
- an ability to do and think several things simultaneously;
- a broad contextual view of any issue (called web thinking);
- an impulse to nurture;
- and a preference for cooperating, reaching consensus and leading via egalitarian teams.
By comparison, and generally speaking, men have their own set of natural talents, that include:
- a superb understanding of spatial relations;
- a talent for solving complex mechanical problems;
- an ability to intensely focus on one thing at a time;
- and a gift for controlling many of their emotions.
According to Fisher and many other experts, these differences play out in the management ranks of the workplace in a number of interesting ways. Women make good strategists because they collect a broad range of information and look at issues or crises from a holistic perspective. They want to gather data, look at all the angles, negotiate consensus, and talk through the options before settling on a position or resolution. Men on the other hand are more reactive, dictatorial and focused on securing a swift and tidy resolution – sometimes with or without “buy-in” from colleagues, employees or associates. Men will occasionally view women as not being focused; women can see men as being narrow-sighted or having “tunnel vision.”
In terms of which style is more effective and will produce better results, I think the answer is: Both. And that is precisely why it is so important for businesses and organizations to have women and men leaders at the top, working on senior strategy, jointly call the shots during challenging times and bringing complementary approaches to the management of business.
What do you think? Is this all malarkey? Have you had an experience where you noticed such a difference between the styles and strategies of men and women leaders?
Reaching Your Audience, Even When It’s Hard
by Jan Morrison on May 4, 2010 | 2 comments
in Event Planning, Nashville, Productivity
I’ve always been an activist – saving animals, conserving natural resources and advocating for the disenfranchised. But recently, I have found myself using my professional communications skills to accomplish my activist goals.
My neighborhood is on the threshold of a significant transformation, but to get there the residents need to work together. So I have decided to rally the troops to form a neighborhood association in my quickly changing, working-class neighborhood. As a whole, the neighborhood has been neglected for some time, but is sitting at the tipping point of a significant transformation. If we combine forces, my neighbors can work together so that tipping point teeters in our favor.
For me, this is a new endeavor and I find myself designing a strategic communications campaign in a whole new environment. It turns out that motivating people around messages and a call to action for a cause bears a strong resemblance to the goals I accomplish for my clients every day.
As I started organizing my thoughts I went back to the basics.
1. Who is my audience?
a. What are the demographics of my audience?
b. What are the psychographics of my audience?
c. What motivates them?
d. What language do they speak?
2. How can I communicate with them?
a. Do they use the internet?
b. Do they engage in social media?
c. Do forms of daily communication do they rely on? (e.g. email, mail, cell phone, etc.)
d. What messages that will strike a chord?
e. Do they feel that their opinions matter and that their voices are being heard?
I wanted to hear that the members of my neighborhood could all be reached via email or social media from the comfort of my chair. Unfortunately, the answers I got sent me in a different strategic direction. Many of my neighbors do not even have computers, much less spend time surfing the web or posting to Facebook. This community still relies on face-to-face contact, phone calls and mail to learn about what is happening in their neighborhood.
This means my work will be a lot harder than I anticipated when I began. But it also means that I am learning to apply my strategic communications skills to accomplish new kinds of goals that have personal meaning for me and my neighbors.
So I hit the pavement. For the past several weeks I have been on the phone and walking the neighborhood and talking to my neighbors. And so far, the results have been wonderful. People are learning about our little organization and we are on the brink of big things.
And the bonus prize for all of this effort is that our neighborhood is becoming more of a community. We aren’t just neighbors…now we are friends.
It’s all about Strategy!
by Jan Morrison on January 19, 2010 | 1 comment
in Media Relations, Productivity, The Media
Thanks to Netflix and my avoidance of winter weather, I’ve been working my way through the list of nominees for 2009 Academy Awards. After spending an evening watching Frost/Nixon about British journalist David Frost’s exclusive interviews with Richard Nixon more than two years after Watergate, I am convinced it must be required “watching” for all media professionals.
To provide a little background, David Frost was considered more of a “TV personality” than journalist until he landed an exclusive interview with Nixon by paying for the opportunity. Nixon accepted the request, presumably because of the money and his overconfidence that Frost would soft-pedal through a fluff piece that would improve his public image after the Watergate scandal.
Much to Frost’s credit he did not let the opportunity to conduct some serious journalism slip past him. Granted, he was a little distracted at first, but you’ll find out more about that when you watch the movie. Ultimately, he and his team of assistants researched, investigated, planned and, most importantly, strategized, about the opportunity.
His team didn’t just refresh their memories about the Watergate scandal, they learned enough about the situation and the parties involved to pin Nixon into a quasi admission of guilt. They never would have gotten the opportunity if they had not strategized about the opportunity first.
As professional strategists, we are charged with thinking through all of the possible scenarios of a situation before acting on them. When we work with members of the media, we strategize first to make sure we accomplish our goals and, equally important, that the reporter gets what he/she needs. We start by asking some of these questions:
- What information is important for the reporter to know even if he/she doesn’t ask?
- How do I provide that information to a reporter?
- Who is the best person to represent or personalize this topic?
- Who will benefit from this interaction?
- Are there topics I cannot discuss, and how do I respond if asked?
Now that you’ve added Frost/Nixon to your Netflix list, tell us how you strategize when contacting media or responding to media queries.
An After-Action Review for PR Pros
by Jeremy Roe on March 11, 2009 | 1 comment
in Productivity, Social Media
PR people are experts at getting things done. We move quickly to diagnose communication problems and develop solutions. Amid unprecedented media consolidation and the proliferation of social media outlets, communications and PR campaigns are shrinking from months to days. Evaluation and assessment periods are brief and often perfunctory. But this ever-shortening cycle can corrupt even the best laid plans without making time for a regular mini review of lessons learned and applying minor course corrections. The military has a great system for this, conducting an after-action review, or AAR.
For civilians, there’s the weekly review.
Popularized by the book, “Getting Things Done,” by productivity guru David Allen, the weekly review is a regular appointment you make with yourself. For an hour each week, the weekly review encourages you to take stock and think about what you’re doing. This is the 30,000-foot view of your projects, tasks and goals. The weekly review provides space in your life to go beyond getting things done, and explore the question: “Are we getting the right things done?”
The weekly review doesn’t have to be complicated, or take a long time.
There are a number of excellent resources on the web for people who want to break the tactical execution cycle and learn to think critically and strategically. Here are some of my favorites:
- “The Importance of the Weekly Review” by Michael Hyatt
- “How to do a Weekly Review in Under an Hour” by Leo Babauta
- “Getting into the Weekly Review Habit” by Gina Trapani
A Google search for Weekly Review will yield more results than you can shake a stick at. Whatever you do, I recommend making space in your life to step back, and evaluate where you’re going and how you’re getting there. You can apply this principle at a personal level, a project level, or a team level. Leaders and senior management can explore this at an organizational level and incorporate it into strategic planning.
For those individuals new to their career, the weekly review is a healthy habit that can reinforce critical thinking skills. For seasoned professionals, the weekly review can put a refreshing new wind in your sails. Whatever your name for them, the benefits of a weekly review create a stable foundation for a resilient, innovative organization that’s oriented toward growth.
