That's why I like to use this model of the Academic Society from the pen of Ansgar Zerfass for my work.

With the help of the model, you can train your eye for the holistic effect of communication and check where which effect arises.

For my lecture tomorrow, I have worked through the model using an example.

Read more about what I do privately and professionally can be found on my
LinkedIn profile, Xing, Facebook and Instagram.

Click here to read more about the model.

First learning unit "Strategic Communication": Who is my counterpart?

If I don't know who my target groups are and what they think about me, I'm likely to do the wrong communication. That's why I guided my students to this topic to start the case study.

I used a complex "force field analysis" as a model. The goal is to find all the target groups and assess how important they are to Communication. For a start, a lot of stuff with a lot of abstraction needed.

The "personas" analysis would probably have been simpler. Here, the focus is on a (fictitious) person who is considered to represent a group. What is this person's background, experience with me / the issue, what are this person's emotions / reservations towards me or my solution, all this is analyzed and defined in detail.

This allows you to understand and empathize with the stakeholders - before you can then tailor Communication well to them.

For a quick introduction to this tool and other good tools, I recommend the book "Toolbox Communicationsmanagement" by Ansgar Zerfaß and Sophia Charlotte Volk (2019).
#personas #training #concept #power sense

The automaker Tesla has disbanded its PR team, they say.

A really, sorry to say so, stupid decision. Press offices are and always have been more than those who pass through questions and coordinate interview requests.

PR people are strategists with the whole picture in mind, they are the critical journalist on the inside, they communicate positions from the outside in and from the inside out.

When a company like Tesla only makes contact with the public through Elon Musk's tweets, that's not authenticity, it's self-promotion.

A dangerous tendency not only there. Every organization is always a sum of parts and regardless of what you think of the car, Tesla is certainly more than Elon Musk.

The SZ has an interview on this with Lutz Frühbrodt, professor of journalism and corporate communication (available in German language only).

#powernosense #responsibility #communication #pr #journalism

How do I get from the problem to the solution in Communication? You can take the first step with a SWOT analysis. As we did yesterday in the lecture using the fictitious example of "EVES Clothes GmbH".

1st step: Analyze the strengths and weaknesses inherent in the decision for communication.

2nd step: collect the opportunities and threats that arise in the environment

3rd and certainly most important step: draw the right strategic conclusions, for example: Which of my strengths can I use communicatively to pay into which opportunity?

The SWOT is a classic analysis tool and was developed at Harvard Business School over 50 years ago.

It has added value because you can first break down a complex structure of interrelationships into its individual parts and then relate them back to each other.

Usually, in my experience, a nucleus for a strategy that works lies in a good SWOT.

If you want to know more about this or other tools, feel free to contact me.

#swot #communication #analysis #strategy #makesense
#fhm

What are the implications for us humans and for which industry?

This is what the Belgian team of the "Board of Innovation" has thought through with the help of the #scenario technique.

An exciting planning technique, a detailed elaboration. A lot I think is likely, and still hope in some places that it doesn't happen.

Click here for the study.

#change #postcorona

How do I get from the problem to the solution in Communication? You can take the first step with a SWOT analysis. As we did yesterday in the lecture using the fictitious example of "EVES Clothes GmbH".

1st step: Analyze the strengths and weaknesses inherent in the decision for communication.

2nd step: collect the opportunities and threats that arise in the environment

3rd and certainly most important step: draw the right strategic conclusions, for example: Which of my strengths can I use communicatively to pay into which opportunity?

The SWOT is a classic analysis tool and was developed at Harvard Business School over 50 years ago.

It has added value because you can first break down a complex structure of interrelationships into its individual parts and then relate them back to each other.

Usually, in my experience, a nucleus for a strategy that works lies in a good SWOT.

If you want to know more about this or other tools, feel free to contact me.

#swot #communication #analysis #strategy #makesense
#fhm

I think that the contrast between this (in my view correct) demand and the reality in teaching could not be greater.

The day after tomorrow, my master's degree in "Corporate Communications" begins at FHM Bielefeld. As always, I will do my best - as will all my colleagues - to manage the balancing act between the firmly prescribed content and the testing of skills.

But where is there time for students to try things out in an eight-hour timetable and the need to work or do internships?

Competence does not come from a chart that one learns by heart and can reproduce in an exam. Competence comes from doing.

Click here to get to the study.

#competencestateknowledge #teaching #befhm #work2050

Anyone who is serious about the question of corporate purpose does not just string together words like "sustainable," "climate-friendly" or "socially just.

They think about the purpose that the organization's products and services fulfill. How do they contribute to solving the challenges facing our society?

In the current print edition of the magazine "pressesprecher," Christopher Storck cites the United Nations' "Sustainable Development Goals" as an impetus and structure for this discussion in his readable article "The Great Search for Meaning."

There, 17 development areas are named on which we have to work in order to secure peace and well-being for mankind.

It is about "...creating a problem-solving community between economic and social actors" he writes. And that, of course, can only come about when organizations do things that pay positive dividends toward the goal and refrain from doing things that are detrimental to the goal. Then an attitude of credibility emerges in the purpose of an organization.

#corporatepurpose #worthreading #goodadvice

Anyone can understand the principle in no time, and even apply it - you bet!

For this purpose, Dark Horse Innovation has put a website on the Internet with an entertaining and instructive inventor test. It takes 20 minutes.
Time that I think is well invested. Have fun with it!

Click here for the test.

I have screenshotted my result - want to compare? Then send me yours!

#designthinking #digitaletransformation #customer-centric #solutions #addedvalue

May I introduce? Here you see the protagonist of my new lecture: EVE Clothes GmbH. A medium-sized, owner-managed company in the fashion industry that wants to implement and communicate changes after a tough year.

Starting Monday, I will have my students use this fictitious case study to design and implement strategic communication. In eight learning units, we will take a closer look at aspects such as target groups, strategies, internal and external communication, and preparation for crisis scenarios.

Even after 10 years of teaching once a week at the Fachhochschule des Mittelstands (FHM), the combination of "lecturer and consultant" is a win-win situation: The Currenten theories and how to do it under "ideal conditions" ensure my clients state-of-the-art knowledge and enrich my toolbox. My students learn from someone who operates in the field four out of five days and has 20 years of experience.

I'm excited to see the results we achieve.
If you have change coming up that you want to think through with an outside professional, feel free to reach out to me.

#training #change #communication #power sense