Is it just me who cannot remember ever giving permission to hundreds of random organisations to make contact with me?  Is it just me who has more emails in my junk mail than in my actual inbox?  Is it just me who has to fight her way through 10 emails I have no interest in to find the gem that may mean I have some work?

Is it just me who struggles every time she is asked to come up with another new password?  Just me who fights against the temptation to use the same password for everything because at least then I will actually remember what my password is in any situation?  Of course I realise just how risky that is!

Is it just me who knows that, for my business, the use of ‘twitter’ needs to sustainably be built into my life? Is it just me who keeps trying to do that but finds it a really difficult habit to form? Is it just me who knows that if all I tweet is stuff I have written people will view me as self-centrered but often I find myself doing just that?  Is it just me who knows that I really need to use twitter to find and follow those who have interesting and inspiring things to say related to the things I too am passionate about but just don’t find the time to do it?  Is it just me who knows that what I need to do (as I do face to face) is to try to connect people with information and contacts that may be useful to them just for the sake of helping, and not for my own personal gain?  To get to this virtual place of sustainable, intuitive, helpfulness requires time, however, and that I seem to have too little of.

Is it just me who is uncomfortable with ‘facebook’ but knows that I need to get my head around it because most people love it? Is it just me who keeps attempting to do that but every time I go on I come off frustrated at how non-intuitive I find it and annoyed about the majority of content posted on my wall?

In this world where every piece of kit, programme and platform seem to have a varying degrees of being able to sync or share some level of information with another devices, it seems that nothing is sacred.  With an ancient inbuilt desire in me to control, order and prioritise information, I know I have no choice but to lose that control and to somehow learn to swim.  

Has anyone got any buoyancy aids?

'Relationships are like bridges, the stronger they are the weightier the message that is able to travel safely over them...'

Check out my latest article in the Business Section of 'The Yorkshire Times', my local online newspaper 

http://yorkshiretimes.co.uk/article/Relationships-Are-Like-Bridges

I love what Jo Ann Sweeney says about “natural communicators, resistors and the bulging middle” http://www.commsabilities.com/blog.asp In her experience she would say that just 10% of leaders are natural communicators; those who “have a passion for people, are respected by their peers and direct reports, know how to build rapport, listen with empathy, engage and motivate”. 

I concur completely with this and would like to build on it, suggesting that this 10% rule also applies across the entire organisation.   These communicators or ‘connectors’ have what I would describe as a ‘relational radar’. This inbuilt ability enables them to observe and interpret the relational dynamics of organisational life.   They naturally seem to be able to grasp how to build relationship with all types of people, whether they are those who may attempt to block things or those who may be catalysts for change. 

I have often reflected on the effect of for example placing Employee Communications under HR, Internal Communications under Marketing or perhaps Knowledge Management under IT.  From experience I would suggest that the function of communications takes on the persona or culture of the department under which it sits.  So in my example Employee Communications is dominated by information ‘needed’ by staff, Internal Communications plays second fiddle to external communications (in budget allocation and size of team) and Knowledge Management focuses on technology.

The issue of where communications should sit has been debated, without conclusion, for decades.  I would like to consider the synergistic effect of connecting the connectors.  Looking at how those who are naturally gifted in communications, networking and relationship building can be connected to help with the facilitation of Internal Communications. 

I would suggest there is great potential in a network of communicators rather than a team under a department. 

Just a thought…