Follow the leader....

Keith has asked us to blog about leaders and teamwork this week...thanks Keith! :)

Last year, I took on the role of assistant coach of my son's school water polo team. I'm surprised I still have any hair left!!!

We had a terrible team. We were outclassed during every game. The boys were disappointed with the results each week, and couldn't understand what they were doing wrong.

There were many factors, other than their inexperienced assistant coach. The main issue was their greed for goals. So focussed on goal scoring, these boys failed to play like a 'team' and did all they could to get goals for their own glory. They lost sight of other players around them that they could utilise to score for the team.

Possession continued to change hands, balls missed the nets, the goalies had to do little to stop our boys from scoring. Their mindset was, "The boy who scores the most goals is the hero".

One day I pulled them aside. I asked them the question, "Who is one of the best players in the AFL?" Most of them agreed it was Carlton midfielder, Chris Judd. I then went on to discuss with them what Judd was famous for. I explained it wasn't for the number of goals he had achieved for his team, but his passion and ability to read the game, get the hard ball and to distribute it to his team mates.

This analogy can be used in most aspects of life where you have leaders and team players.

Judd is a natural leader. He doesn't do this by being the loudest or showiest. He does this by setting an example, having the respect of others, showing how things should be done by his actions, being positive and trusting others around him to be included in the task at hand. There is no way he can win a game on his own, despite his amazing ability.

A team player respects their leader, but doesn't expect the leader or his other team players to take on all the work. He works together with his/her leader and other members to best achieve the desired outcome. This might mean stepping back so others may have a voice, or seeing a situation where they need to put in a little bit extra themselves. The idea is to 'share the ball around' or to 'share the workload around'.

The water polo team continued to struggle, but actually began to win a game or two, once they realised they all had the same objective. There were some awesome passages of play where the ball was shared, and over time these boys will get the hang of it.

picture from http://www.ntnews.com.au/images/uploadedfiles/editorial/pictures/2009/06/03/Chris-Judd.jpg

Welcome to Country...

I admit I have had to do a little bit of research on this. I had heard and seen different references and arguments in the media, but hadn’t really given the topic much of my attention.

Basically, I understand that Welcome to Country stems from a Dream Time tradition; acknowledging Australian Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders as the traditional owners of Australia, encompassing the land or sea in which a meeting, event or ceremony is about to take place. There are many rules and laws to abide to, making sure that no traditonal owner is offended. An elder or other person of significance must be involved, with a great deal of boxes to be ticked off to get the procees right. It basically has us admit that the indigenous people have sole ownership of land and sea. We (as non-Aboriginals) are mere visitors, seeking permission to use their resources.

I first encountered Welcome to Country at my son’s school end of year concert and awards ceremony. I was a little bit confused when an Aboriginal woman addressed the stage and opened the evening with a welcoming speech and blessing. It seemed odd to see a non clergy member open and bless a Catholic function.

My initial reaction was the school was trying to embrace some culture, introduce the students and parents to a bit of tolerance, and to make the evening more interesting.

To be honest, the process did drag on. People were looking around at each other with faces of, “What is this all about??”

My opinion is a little bit mixed. I don’t have a major problem with its use, and think it is a colourful tradition to have, in moderation. Using it at every event will surely lead to overkill and possible resentment.

But why are we doing it? Is it guilt? I think the “sorry” message has been played to death and does it really mean anything to today’s generation of young Aboriginals and non-Aboriginals? There will always be some Aborginals that will never forgive 'the white man', and Australian born citizens that feel, "We have been here for 4 or so generations, our rights to Australia are equal."

One could argue this is just a token gesture with very little substance, and just today’s latest ‘thing to do’.

I also think the ceremony continues to highlight that we are different and not yet assimilated. I’d love to see a move towards us all being one people, instead of emphasizing our differences.

My hairdresser is proud to talk about his Aboriginal heritage. I never consider him to be different to me. He cuts my hair, we share a joke, discuss our views of the world. He goes to clubs, watches football, enjoys fishing and eats the same food as me. Dan has just asked his Italian heritage girlfriend to marry him. I like to think young Aboriginals like Dan are our future.

Having a special smoke ceremony or a traditional didgeridoo playing can be an amazing way to open a formal meeting, alongside the national anthem and flag raising. It can even give us an opportunity to display some culture, especially in a country that is too young to have an abundance of history (eg. at an international conference). If Welcome to Country’s sole purpose is to be politically correct and to emphasise the ‘sorry” message, then it fails to interest me. Australian society will quickly bore of it, and it will lose its impact.

pic from http://www.reconciliationsa.org.au/learn%20welcometocountry.html

Speed Dating in Cert IV

As creatures of habit, we seem to seek out comfort zones in our every day lives, even in the protective environment of the classroom. We have a habit of looking around for familiar faces, securing our study or work area for the day.

If you watch students enter the room, you see them almost instinctively sit next to someone they have bonded with who offers no threat.

Imagine taking a risk and sitting next to someone you know very little about? you would be amazed at the abundance of knowledge and insight you can gain from someone new, especially someone you are unlikely to associate with in your 'regular' world.

Choice was taken away from me today, as a result of computer malfunction. I was already comfortable next to my 'study buddies' and was in for a settled regular day. My screen began to flicker and spurt, signifying yet another computer deciding to die on me, a phenomenon that has created much amusement in the classroom.

Much to my dismay, the only available functioning computer was at the back of the room. Even back in my high school days it was never a favoured spot. I really like to be in the thick of things and feel like I am missing out, if sitting away from all the action.

We have been together for 6 weeks as a group. Cert IV is a fairly small and intimate class. Most of us meet frequently for lunch breaks and coffee, but there was one student I really did not know at all. This student also happened to be the youngest in the class, in contrast to me being ...*cough*...the oldest in the class.

We exchanged a couple of polite greetings and discussed what we were expected to carry out today. We compared ideas on a Word 2.0 task that has been presented to us.

What an amazing wealth of creative ideas came out of this new personality. I had heard she was 'good at art', but as I shared some of my ideas for my assignment, I was impressed by her enthusiasm, imagination, and her unselfish willingness to help me expand what I was working on. "Perhaps you could do it like this? maybe have this? change it like that?"

We exchanged ideas on a future blog, helped each other research, enjoyed each other's experience and opinions. I was able to assist her with my spelling and editing skills, which were appreciated from her perspective.

Sometimes you need to get out of your chair and speed date the room. You should never make assumptions or label a person, and begin to appreciate that we all have special gifts to offer. If you stay in that comfort zone, you may never really grab what exists so close to you.

There's a vast range of ages and backgrounds in Cert IV, different dreams, experience, personalities and talents: it's up to us to find the treasures.

Right place, right time: Keith knows what he is talking about!!

I was invited to two parties last night; the Shave for a Cure and one at my brother's. We planned to spend a short time at Pete's and then move on to the next, as soon as it felt polite to do so.

The party was for my brother's girlfriend, Jane We had never met her family before, and they were delighted to meet us - mum, sisters, cousins etc.

Like most parties, where you know few people, you sort of scope out the room and hope to find someone interesting to strike up a conversation with. I didn't have to wait long before a very vivacious lady approached me, introduced herself as Jane's sister and we were soon involved in some witty banter.

It was one of those moments when you meet someone and think, "Wow! this person is cool, I'd like to know more". We were like long lost friends, laughing and commenting on life etc, talking about a holiday she is planning with Pete and Jane. We knew many of the same people, were of similar age, had travelled to a lot of the same places and had a great capacity to make each other laugh.

She then asked me what I was doing, and I told her I was studying PR and was tossing around the idea of continuing on to journalism. Her face beamed as she excitedly asked, "You don't know who I am, do you??"

As soon as she mentioned her full name, I knew who she was, and her presence in the media. She is a journalist and the head media spokesperson for an organisation I am very interested in. I was able to impress her by telling her I had read an article in this morning's paper about her organisation, asked her how the article was generated, and continued to discuss other events that involved them. She sat back and smiled.

I don't know which of us was more excited! she offered to take me under her wing, introduce me to others in the industry, and wants to take me along to a group, which meets once a month, called 'Women in Media'. She talked about how she got her important and exciting role, the pressures and demands of her job (it is certainly not 9 to 5, 5 days a week), and made sure to highlight just how rewarding it was.

I was amazed by how cool and calm I was, sitting there in disbelief...how do you come across these people?? do things in life randomly happen for a reason??

My heart was beyond excited when she said, "Do you think you would be interested in doing some work experience with us?" she explained it wasn't common where she worked, but she really liked me and was going to present me to her colleagues. She knew about some of the other places I had worked in, people I had worked with, and was very positive about my future opportunities.

Do these opportunities really happen?? Was there some kind of devine intervention? I was doing very little to sell myself. I was being myself and she liked "me".

She went on to say that she liked me as soon as she saw me enter the room (was one of those rare moments where I scrubbed up ok) and was keen to chat with me. We exchanged numbers and emails, with a promise to 'keep in touch'.

Somebody pinch me please!

World's Greatest Shave

Keith has given us the task of checking out The West Australian and to blog about a PR article in it. As I skimmed through the pages, it became clear that a great deal of today's material was PR related. I could have talked about Polair, or Coeliac Awareness Week, but decided to let World's Greatest Shave take the stage. Why? well, it's something I have a passion for.

Personally, I was disappointed by the lack of coverage in today's paper. Perhaps there was far more promotion/publicity in the lead up. The official day was yesterday, but I will be involved tonight. The West published a small report and showed a photo of some of its staff, who participated in the event.

Our friend, Christian, has been growing his hair since the shave last year! When I first met this middle aged man, he was as bald as Keith! We have watched him transform in to looking like a mid life crisis rock star, in the past 12 months.

What has impressed me about Christian has been his commitment to doing this. He has been the victim of ridicule , with his abundance of long curly hair, but he has been able to use that to his advantage. This has helped him to create himself as a PR vehicle for WGS for the entire 12 months. He takes great pride in letting everybody know why he has his mane.

Tonight we are having a party to support Christian and his cause. Hopefuly there will be a huge turnout to watch him have his head shaved, and hopefully raise much needed funds, as well as making people aware of this awful disease.

Much like that "for the cost of a cup of coffee" feeling we get when we donate to charities, being there for Christian will make us all feel part of this huge campaign.

pic http://www.worldsgreatestshave.com/

For the Cost of a Cup of Coffee....

You often hear non-for profit organisations pedalling the idea of, "For the simple cost of a cup of coffee, you can save starving children in Africa". This sounds incredibly cheap, but you could end up paying for 10 to 50 cups of coffee a day!

Ash, Nicole and I were tackled by a young man from Amnesty International today, as we scurried back to class after lunch, via the WA Art Gallery. There seems to be a different cause there every day! Yesterday, it was Greenpeace, other days it's been different high profile non-for profit organisations.

The Amnesty guy looked a little despondent, as people hurried past him, not making eye contact, not wanting to gain his attention. Ash, Nicole and I looked at each other, all knowing we were really needing to get back to Central very quickly but, in almost unison, we stopped to hear what he had to say. We will be that young man soon, so we respectfully stopped to hear what he had to say, much to his delight.

He was fairly predictable. There always seems to be some sort of contract you need to sign up for, where payments are deducted periodically from your credit card. There never seems to be a pamphlet you can take away with you, allowing you to cool off, allowing you to make a more educated decision.

To be honest, I was impressed by his spin. I had no idea that Amnesty were now involved in so many different causes, always believing their efforts surrounded the rights of prisoners overseas. I didn't know they were pressuring governments to stamp out the supply of weapons to child soldiers.

We were shown some compelling photos of young African children, as we were informed about AK 47's and other weapons being supplied to them, and Amnesty's goal to stamp out this practice.

Then, almost on queue, came the line, "You can help these kids with the small cost of a cup of coffee..."

In the car, on the way home tonight, there was an ad on the radio, asking for donations for abused children. It was difficult to ignore the emotion and appeal in the young child's voice, as he directed us to an internet site to pledge our much needed donations.

A good friend of mine loves to use the saying, "Changing the world one child at a time" etc The word child can be replaced by alternative words, depending on your cause eg. dolphin, plastic bag etc

What makes us give to one organisation over another? what buttons in us are being pushed? do we lean towards charities we can relate to? ones we feel are truly making a difference? or does our sacrifice of the cost of a cup of coffee make us feel like we are on the deck of a Greenpeace ship, alongside those fearless activists? do we sleep better at night knowing a child in Africa had a meal and fresh water tonight?

As a family, we try to spread our contributions amongst groups we have an interest or belief in. It's a common topic of conversation in our household. We accept you can only do so much, and really wish we could do more. Yes, like many, we are idealists, and deep inside we truly wish we could change the world.

In Cert IV Public Relations we will be asking these same questions, very soon. How do we get the public to share our passion for the organisation we represent, and perhaps give up their cup of coffee? This is going to be VERY challenging!

picture from http://www.amnesty.org.au/jobs/street_campaigning/

I have survived to week 5!!!

Who can believe it??? I'm going to have to throw in a much over-used cliche here...time has flown sooo quickly!!

I can't believe I am promoting a gym! Therese and 'gym' in the same sentence would shock most people. I have been to gyms, but you can tell by my 'lack of 6 pack' I don't have a fondness for them.

This is going to be an interesting task. I am going to be targetting people, just like me, and am going to encourage them to use the amazing facility we have in the basement at Central. Not only will I be encouraging them, they are going to be thankful that I have helped them on their way to their...6 pack!

I'm very excited about the group I am working in. I think each group (the others are promoting live@edu) has a wonderful mix of vibrant, talented, creative and enthusiastic young (and not so young) PR students.

My weekend has seen me excitedly checking my emails, wikis and facebook in case any new information has been posted. I am sure it is driving my family nuts!

I think we were still in shock last week, but reality will certainly step in this week...it has to! we are running out of time!

I'm curious about what ideas the others will have, which of my own ideas will be useful, how this is all going to unfold, and just how daunting, yet exciting, it is going to be when we present the completed proposal to our client...a REAL client!!!!

It is an amazing feeling when you actually want the weekend to be over so you can get started on an exciting new adventure.

pic from http://www.eyeonsoaps.net/images/6pack.jpg

How do You Mend a Broken Heart?

A friend of mine got hurt this weekend. They tried to be brave and mask the pain, with bravado and wit, but I knew their heart was tearing apart inside, painfully trying to release itself from their chest. That crushing, heavy feeling makes you feel like you are drowning, often leaving you unable to breathe.

We will all experience hurt..some more than others. We usually survive it and heal, and hopefully we grow from it. As much as we hate it, this is what makes man stand apart from other animals.

As a friend, we know how a broken heart feels. All we want to do is take the pain away from the person we loveas quickly as possible. Sadly, there is no cure or quick fix! I wish Johnson & Johnsonshad worked out a way to put a bandaid on our hearts, just like when we have a fall. Surely there's millions to be made from that concept?

A gentle hand, a listening ear, and time are all we can offer, but I wish there was more....

image from http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u240/EMO_GAGAH/brOken/icons/Broken_Heart.jpg

From Little Things Big Things Grow....

I'm chilling out listening to Paul Kelly, trying to digest all that we have learnt in Cert IV today.

The lyrics of this protest song are not really relevant, but the title certainly reminded me of what we began today, in our PR journey.

Still coming down from the spills and relaxation of a long weekend, we were thrown right in to the thick of things today, but what an unexpected and amazing feeling!

Text books and lectures are all wonderful learning tools, but there is nothing like experience to really marry all the new ideas and skills we have begun to gain, from our first 4 weeks of this course.

Keith has secured a wonderful project for us, where we can begin to access our creative skills and experience the REAL world of public relations. We no longer have the nurturing classroom environment to protect us, this venture is very real and has serious expectations. It's an important role, that we all seem keen and enthusiastic to embrace.

I'm tired, but it's a good tired. My body is aching, my head is spinning, but I'm hungry to see what results we can achieve, when we all work together on this.

There's already a sense of unity and passion...from lunch time chatter to enthusiastic ideas shared on the train ride home. The Cert IV room is buzzing and we all get to be part of the action!

pic from http://www.angeloaktree.org/JLFritschweb2.jpg

6 word blog...

Horrific scream, bloodied water, mangled surfboard.

This is my Dream When I Graduate from the Public Relations Diploma Course..

and this is the reality........

picture of Trabant from http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Bundesarchiv_B_145_Bild-F086568-0046%2C_Leipzig%2C_ausgeschlachteter_PKW_Trabant_%28Trabbi%29.jpg