This is the fourth instalment of the Social Leadership journey using Julian Stodd’s “Social Leadership – My first 100 days” self reflection guide. The Start of the reflection can be found HERE. The previous posts around storytelling can be found HERE.

This section, Days 30 to 39 is about sharing…..

Day 30 – Signal or noise?

I really like this idea of signal or noise. I connect it to, are we adding aligned value or detracting from it?

Noise can come from unclear or mixed messages or just the shear volume of messages being thrown out.

Clarity comes from stories and messages that have a appropriate context, are sent at the right time and are well written and clear.

Generally I think, like storytelling, this is not our greatest competence. I guess it can only get better.

Day 31 – Clarity

Internally two people that stand out in my mind around sending great content are my line manager Dr Sharon Slade. She keeps messages to a minimum and when she does communicate, she frames the communication really well. I also appreciate the sharing by Barry Verdin with resources around change, innovation and doing things differently.

Externally Helen Bevan and Jack Martin Leith are two people that share great content in areas that interest me. Again they share great resources regularly.

Day 32 – One for all and all for one

Interesting reflection for me on this day. Generally I do not send group emails beyond my OU students. Where I can add value or create more noise is possibly in the AL forum or AL Past and Present group on Facebook. To be honest I tend not to engage very much with either.

What I realise is that every single interaction: chat, email, forum post and so on is an opportunity to add clarity or noise. This certainly makes me think that I need to be more aware before communicating.

I also wonder if not engaging in debate / dialogue also has an impact?

Day 33 – Escaping the noise

if I look at my inbox, there is not so much noise from the OU. I am aware that what may be noise for me, may not be for others. This day has made me reflect that I do not necessarily read all “official” messages that come through. I should make an effort to scan read more of these.

People need to be aware that they can create less noise, by thinking about what the clearest message they can send is AND who really needs to read it. Reducing emails, particularly CC and CAMEL is important.

Day 34 – Interpretation

Thinking about what makes something relevant to me includes…

• Has an impact on my students and their studies – current and futures

• Has an impact on my roles(s)

• Has impact on the sustainability or effectiveness of the organisation

I really like the idea of being generous with our ideas and our time. This I find challenging as I am not particularly connected and don’t especially know how I can help others. This is a question I should ask of the #100daysOU community.

Day 35 – An action day

So today, Day 35, which is an Action Day, asks us to share resources with our community. Here are some resources that I have scan read and thought are worth sharing.

The links are to the OU Library which all OU students and staff can access. Others reading this may need to use their local library.

1) The Secret Language of Leadership : How Leaders Communicate to Create Individual and Organizational Change: “The book introduces the concept of narrative intelligence–an ability to understand and act and react agilely in the quicksilver world of interacting narratives. It shows why this is key to the central task of leadership, what its dimensions are, and how you can measure it. The book’s lucid explanations, vivid examples and practical tips are essential reading for CEOs, managers, change agents, marketers, salespersons, brand managers, politicians, teachers, parents–anyone who is setting out to the change the world.”
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/open/detail.action?docID=316193

2) The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling : Mastering the Art and Discipline of Business Narrative: “How leaders can use the right story at the right time to inspire change and action This revised and updated edition of the best-selling book A Leader’s Guide to Storytelling shows how storytelling is one ofthe few ways to handle the most important and difficult challenges of leadership: sparking action, getting people to work together, and leading people into the future. Using myriad illustrative examples and filled with how-to techniques, this book clearly explains how you can learn to tell the right story at the right time”
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/open/detail.action?docID=661484

3) What’s Your Story? : Using Stories to Ignite Performance and Be More Successful
No description for this, but it has tools and templates etc
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/open/detail.action?docID=3016179

OU Staff: You can only loan these for short periods of time, but may be worth delving into!

I also have some more resources HERE.

Day 36 – Reciprocating

I am catching up with writing this several weeks after I posted about in on Twitter. The day asks us to reflect on how we respond with what is shared. Generally I am VERY thankful for all ideas and resources. I tend not to get into discussions or arguments (not a very conflictive type of person. My actual reflection on this day was that perhaps my information sources are too narrow and I should look at new communities and sources for information AND inspiration.

Day 37 – Sharing Community

My focus this day was thinking about who could really join the 100DaysOU movement, rather than look at new communities. I used twitter to try and get three OU colleagues involved. One of them has joined the movement, so that is a result.

Day 38 – Sharing time

I really struggled with this day as it asked us to consider who we can help and how. It left me very perplexed, in the sense that I am not particularly connected to colleagues at the OU. I clearly need to broaden my network.

I drew a couple of variations here of time…

Day 39 – Sharing uncertainty

I am pretty uncertain of a whole range of things within the organisation:

• What qualifications will there be in 5 years time (how many on FutureLearn).
• How will the OU remain the leading edge university in distance learning.
• How can we raise our student satisfaction rankings.

Generally these are fairly macro issues. I am not sweating the day to day stuff.

I have no issues around sharing uncertainty. I have always seen this s a healthy thing.

THIS is the end of SHARING. Following on from here is ENGAGEMENT. Click HERE to head there.