At the Crossroads of Social Networking: If You Lead, Will They Follow?

Warm Up

While waiting for the session to begin, please introduce yourself to the people sitting on either side of you by sharing the following:

Describe your learning center in three sentences or less.

Give a summary of your job in one sentence.

At the Crossroads of Social Networking: If You Lead, Will They Follow?

Tacy L. Holliday, PhD Certified Learning Center Leadership Professional—Level 3

What is social networking?

In small groups, please take a minute to generate a list of words or phrases that come to mind when you think of social networking. Be ready to share in the larger group.

What social networking means to you:

Social Networking is NOT New

The Tools Have Changed DramaticallyDramatically

Geography is no longer the defining factor in a social network.

The New Network

• The strongest networks are created around shared interests, values, and purposes.

Social Networking Recap

• Social networking is not new.• The tools are new, enabling people to

network around common interests and purposes.

• The tools are not the point, they are merely tools.

• Social networking is about building relationships.

At the Crossroads

Option 1: A Giant Cocktail Party

Study

Study

Option 1: A Giant Cocktail Party

• Superficial level. Driven by the wrong numbers. Wasted effort.

Option 2: Connect to Add Value

• Create real relationships where the potentials for mutually beneficial exchanges, trust, and success are cultivated.

Applied to Learning Centers

• Social networking can help you get permission to help students so

the impactimpact is bigger.

Music Lessons

• Sounds of Hope & Healing for Children: sent to National Childrens Hospital, Kansas City Hospice, St. Jude's.

• Music Heals: for wounded soldiers and their families sent to bases around the US, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Germany.

• The Holiday Project: Music for nursing home residents, many whose family and friends were unable to visit for the holidays.

Current Projects:• Weekly live music performances for NIH patients.• Hearts Sing & Melodies of Flights: CDs for children.• The Reading Express: Story and Activity Hour for young children, with DVDs sent to pediatric departments in local hospitals.

So what does this have to do with Learning Centers?

This is an invitation to rethink what learning centers are and what our jobs are from the social networking framework.

What if…

We stopped thinking of a learning center as a location in a building or collection of programs and services and started thinking of it as a social network…as community?

What if…

We empowered our employees, coworkers, and students to figure out what they wanted/needed and helped them figure out how to create that?

What if…

Those relationships and mutual benefits/goals became the guiding force for program development and service design?

“There go my people, I must find out where they are going so I can lead them.”

--French Revolutionary Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin

From this perspective we can consider a significantly different approach to our roles, responsibilities, and values.

• Our job becomes developing that portfolio.

A Learning Center is a Portfolio of People and Resources

Rethinking What Leadership Is

• The leader is the person who does the job of a leader:– Translates shared interests into

passionate purpose.

– Tightens the existing connections.

– Reduces the friction in making new connections.

How to Communicate Purpose

• Be selective about sharing.– Who shares the same vision?

– Who might be a win-win addition to the network?

• Look for the stickiness factor.

• Point out heroes, stories & demos.

How to Tighten Connections

• Make the effort. • Wander around onsite and online.• Show you care.• Customer service.• Pay attention to Fans and Connectors.

Reduce Friction

• Multiple channels of communication.

• Introduce

• Include

• Set the tone

• Encourage feedback

• Go the extra mile

Program & Service Design

• Collaborative.• Responsive.• Empowering.• Address ways to tighten connections and reduce

friction.• Let Fans and Connectors help you spread the word.

Consider Subgroups

• How might we create value for small groups, motivating individuals to involve their friends?

High Tech or Low Tech?

To be successful in social networking, you need to use “old-fashioned skills” as well as leverage the technological tools that fit you, your audience, and what you’re trying to do.

What matters is that they are communicating about a shared interest in a mutually beneficial

way.

Learning Center Tech Wiki

Low Tech/High Tech Examples

• Communicating Purpose

• Tightening Existing Connections

• Reducing Friction

“When the Leader governs, the people are hardly aware that he exists…When his work is done, the people say,

‘Amazing: we did it, all by ourselves!’”

More Tips

For more tips about specific high tech tools for center management, staff development, and student success, check out the Learning Center Tech Wiki (www.learningcentertech.pbworks.com).

You’re also welcome to e-mail me:tacy.holliday@montgomerycollege.edu