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Communicating the Value of a College Education

January 13, 2012 By 5 Comments
Conversation

The following are the notes from my presentation as part of a panel on “Communicating in the New Normal” at the College Board 2012 Colloquium held in Newport Beach, CA January 7-9.  I was part of very august company: moderator Phillip Ballinger, Assistant Vice President for Enrollment and Director of Undergraduate Admissions at University of Washington at University of Washington, Marie Groark, Executive Director of the Get Schooled Foundation, and Millree Williams, Executive Director for Public Affairs Strategy at the University of Maryland. The New Normal: The Changing Communications Landscape The need to explore new models was the emerging theme of the Colloquium.   I’d like to take us up to 20,000 feet for a minute and talk about the new model of communications and the media landscape that is the new normal. How many of you use Facebook personally? Compare this 30% to this number: 96% of your target audience, people aged 18 to 35, is on social networks.  The … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Education, Emerging Technologies, Psychology, Social Media & Networks Tagged With: , ,

Dangerous Method: Engaging but Not Satisfying

December 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Spielrein and Jung

The film, A Dangerous Method, is an ambitious effort to portray the complex and tumultuous evolution of the relationships and theories among the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, his protégé Carl Jung, and the patient-turned-psychoanalyst, Sabina Spielrein.  The movie is beautiful and engaging but not very satisfying.  But then, it is based on the untidiness of real life, and titans of western thought though they were, Freud and Jung were still human beings.  The film is well worth seeing, but be prepared to come out thinking 'huh, interesting' rather than 'wow!'  Dangerous Method succeeds as a largely nonjudgmental chronicle of impassioned people and big ideas that unfold over time.  In taking this long and very human view, however, it sacrifices emotional force, and leaves mostly ambivalence.  It's greatest moment is the glimpse of Carl Jung through the eyes of Spielrein as someone wanting to look beyond the dark side of the psyche into human potential. Few figures … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Culture & Society, Psychology Tagged With: , , , ,

Transmedia Storytelling: Meaning Comes from the Ability to Share, Explore, and Discover

December 2, 2011 By 4 Comments
story-globe-sticky

Transmedia storytelling is not just for telling stories. Thanks to social technologies, the principles that drive transmedia storytelling ensure that it will emerge as the basis for effective communication and engagement. Transmedia — using multiple channels of communication and technologies — is unique in that it allows stories and messages to be constructed in the same the way we make sense of the world around us. Transmedia storytelling works like the brain thinks -- constructing holistic meanings from bits and pieces of information and experience. We show ‘who we are’ through words, actions, and physical clues like clothes or hairstyles, not a sign around our necks that tells our ‘story’ like the synopsis of a TV show. Our brains create stories out of the patterns we uncover around us; it is the natural way for us to process information. Meaning comes from our ability to explore, share and discover. As technologies advance, why should our use of media be … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Brands & Identity, Emerging Technologies, Transmedia Tagged With: , , , , ,

Reverse Mentoring Won’t Work

November 30, 2011 By 1 Comment
No Respect Taken, No Respect Given

The Wall Street Journal reports that reverse mentoring has finally cracked the workplace so that senior executives can learn more about technology, social media and the latest workplace trends.  Great idea, but reverse mentoring won't work.  It violates the very premise of a social media environment that it purports to address.  Mentoring must be about a two-way flow of information and respect.  What organizations need is collaborative mentoring. Reverse mentoring is exactly the wrong way to think about knowledge exchange in an organization.  We live in a time of social networks and peer-to-peer connectivity.  Calling it reverse mentoring implicitly supports the linear and uni-directional exchange of information and existing organizational hierarchies.  Reverse mentoring won't work because it challenges not only the existing hierarchy but essentially tells someone who spent years developing skills that it's not good enough.  Whether that's true or not, it's not how you … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Psychology Tagged With: , , , , ,
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