Working Together Works: How to stop, collaborate and listen with colleagues

Sophie McNeil Wolf@sophiemwolf

Hello!I am Sophie McNeil WolfEnneagram 1w2. Lover of connections, strategy, and cats.

👉 @sophiemwolf

My journey: Small liberal arts college to public university system

Busting mythswe tell ourselves as communications professionals.

(I don’t know who needs to hear this, but…)

Myths:● Everyone knows how to get in

touch with us.● It is easy to get in touch with us.● Collaboration with my colleagues

is too much work.

Myths:● If they need something, they

should reach out. It is not important for me to take the first step.

● If I make myself too available, I will be over capacity quickly.

86% of employees and executives cite lack of collaboration or ineffective communication for workplace failures.Survey: Salesforce

If a tree falls in a forest, does it make a sound?

The JohariWindow

Creativity and the brain● “Reptile” brain > preservation (no)● “Creative” or “angel” brain >

empathy and community (yes)● We all have the right to be curious

and open. Our structures and systems have taught us differently.

Unit- Meet your main comms team in person and get to know them better. How do they like to receive info?

- Remember to send a heads up BEFORE interesting things happen.

Small unit // large institution

Institution

- Build trust with units and create a pipeline.

- Social media round table - in person

- The more you know, the more you can do.

How many of you have had the “more video” conversation in your

office this year?

My reality:➔ “More video” became an institutional goal for AY 2017-2018.➔ Our office had one social media manager, who also handles other

tasks, including photography management. Videos with a large time element or budget were not feasible. Budget was not being reallocated for video.

➔ Faculty wanted their story told via social media, but only a few send in “tips,” much less photos.

➔ Some faculty were submitting photos that would become social media posts… but we could do better.

saved my bacon.

Adobe Spark

Strategy➔ Build trust and collaboration with faculty through content submission.

Be transparent that not all submissions may be used.➔ Take photos and stories faculty submitted and make them more

interactive.➔ Create videos that are one minute or less. ➔ Post them natively in each platform.➔ Future goal: One Spark video a week.

Looking back over a one year span, our Adobe Spark video posts were four of

our top ten posts in reach for the year. Three videos comprised our top five

posts.

Adobe Spark saved our bacon and helped us reach our institutional goal.

Along the way, it also helped foster trust and collaboration between faculty and

the comms team.

#notsponsored

Facebook eventsStrategy: Spread the word about events, make colleagues feel heard, and beat the Facebook algorithm all at once.

Work with your system to spread good news.

Place your screenshot here

System collaboration

Ways to connect➔ Digital

Email

If you have a post or web story that talks about a department or professor - send them a link! More often than not, they will appreciate the heads up.

Tag, tag, tag

If you aren’t tagging departments, schools, organizations in your social content, you are missing out. If you leave the “social” out of social media, all you have is a news silo.

Respond

If an organization, school tags you in a post, consider giving them a like - bare minimum. Others want to know that you care and notice when you are engaging.

Ways to connect➔ In person

Meet people! Digital group or social media “round table”

Create a space(s) for others to ask questions, send content and links. Use this as a way to also send information to your colleagues.

Lunch and learn

Offer lunch and learn sessions, webinars or other events to help connect your messages across campus. Many of our colleagues are eager for support and advice.

Support Yourself

You need support from colleagues outside of your organization. Connect, gain knowledge, vent! Have coffee in person. Are you in the #HigherEdSocial group on Facebook?

Want big impact?

Above all else: working together works

Thanks!Any questions?You can find me at:● @sophiemwolf● swolf@mississippi.edu

CreditsSpecial thanks to all the people who made and

released these awesome resources for free:

● Presentation template by SlidesCarnival

● Photographs by Unsplash

● Illustrations by Undraw.co