Co-Led Five Sessions at a Library Leadership Institute at the University of Hong Kong

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Alex

I just came back from Hong Kong, where I co-presented, with McMaster University Chief Librarian Jeff Trzeciak, five workshops at the 10th Annual Hong Kong University Library Leaderships Institute. The institute was a smashing success, under the leadership of organizer, Peter Sidorko, University Librarian at the University of Hong Kong.

Jeff and I presented on the following topics:

Transforming Traditional Organizations
Developing Blended Library Services
Going Online with Library Instruction
Developing New Media Services
New Models of Collaborative Research Support

The collaboration between us worked really well. Jeff brought his extensive experience as a change agent and successful library manager to the table. I brought a communications management perspective, as well as my take on organizational change management.

I was very impressed with the quality of the workshops. The Institute participants, who were librarians from across Asia, were dynamic, engaged and enthusiastic participants. They came from Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Hong Kong and Mainland China. The diversity of the group was a real strength, since it meant that each breakout session got people talking across both institutional and ethnic cultures. It was very exciting to be part of it.

While I was in Hong Kong, Jeff and I also met with members of the Hong Kong Chapter of the McMaster Alumni Association. I was so very pleased to see dynamic, successful and heartfelt people representing McMaster as our alumni. It warmed my heart to see what fond memories they had of their times at McMaster and how much they believe in McMaster.

The cultural events we attended were also great. We attended Institute dinners in Port Stanley and on Victoria Peak, which had a spectacular view of the city. In fact, there was a beautiful light show as the buildings were lit up in synchrony with a musical score – similar to the fireworks shows of the old Symphony of Fire, but with strobing lights up and down giant skyscrapers.

All in all, this was an extraordinary trip. Not only was Hong Kong as beautiful and exciting as I remember it to be from my last trip, but I felt as though my life has been enriched by all the new people that I met and worked with there.

What more can one ask of a lecture trip?

The view from my hotel room window in the misty morning.

Running a dotmocracy exercise at the Institute.

Having a glass of wine in cafe in Port Stanley after a long day of presentations.

Another view from my hotel room on a sunny afternoon.

The bay and boardwalk at Port Stanley.

Standing outside the Jade Market.

A Successful MCM February Residency!

Posted on March 3, 2012 by Alex

Last week, I hosted my first Master of Communications Management (mcm.mcmaster.ca) residency as Program Director. It was a chance for me and our new program assistant, Janice Peltier, to have our initiation as the new management team. The residency went very well!

Residency is a very special time in the MCM calendar. It is a period of five days when the students come together from across Canada at McMaster’s beautiful Ron Joyce Executive Education Centre for five days of intense learning, networking and relationship-building. Residency is truly a hot-house environment for ideas and problem-solving. Students gain as much confidence from one another’s professional stories as they do during class through case studies.

Students are immersed in the world of business, management, communication theory and public relations strategy for five full days of learning and friendship. They form friendships that last a lifetime – friendships which often result in long-standing and mutually-beneficial professional relationships. Instructors also come to campus for a week of intense teaching.

MCM instructors are either leading academic thinkers or cutting edge practitioners, who apply the latest pedagogical techniques to support the many different learning styles and needs of post-graduate, professional learners. Students develop close ties with faculty, who are then available for advice and counsel throughout the rest of the term through McMaster’s proprietary asynchronous on-line learning environment. MCM is truly a community of leaders – students, faculty and alumni – who are mutually supportive.

For February Residency 2012, our instructors were:

Dave Scholz, Vice-President, Leger Marketing
Al Seaman, Professional Accountant and Professor of Business
Michael Meath, President, Strategic Communications, LLC
Peter Vilks, Former CEO and Professor of Business

Quite the team.

The McMaster-Syracuse Master of Communications Management is a very special degree. It is really an MBA that has been catered for professional communicators, who want to take their careers to the next level, however they define that level. It’s more appropriate than an MBA for because we’ve catered the courses to meet the special requirements of the professional communicator, whose organizational role is unique. Blending core MBA courses with cutting edge communications and public relations research, strategy and technique make the MCM Canada’s premier management degree for communicators.

Many students who have a few years of work experience in communications (we require a minimum of 3 years work experience) take the program because they want to make the move into management in their organizations. Our students have ranged in age from 25 to 60 and the administrative team does its best to build a cohesive cohort each year that will work well together for maximum mutual learning and benefit.

MCM is truly a special degree. I accepted to become Program Director because I believe that communications management is becoming more and more important as an organization executive function and I am convinced MCM is the premier tool for professional communicators to get into the executive suite and take their seat at the senior decision-making tool.

With the advent of social media and integrated marketing communications, communications is becoming central to management, as the examples of Apple Inc and other communications-savvy companies have proven. I am convinced that winning organizations recognize that communications should be part of decision-making from the get-go, rather than a unit that is told to implement ideas from on-high.

We designed the MCM to create a unique blended business and communications degree that will enable communicators to speak the language of the executive suite and take their seat at the decision-making table.

I want MCM to become synonymous with “vice-president communications,” or “chief communications officer.” It’s working – our alumni are already experiencing success and promotion within their organizations. I invite you to check out our MCM Facebook Page to read their profiles and testimonials.

MCM Financial Management ClassProfessor

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Professor Al Seaman explains a financial management point during MCM February Residency.

My new year’s resolutions for 2012

Posted on January 1, 2012 by Alex

Last year I was both ambitious and deep with my resolutions. I was trying to make some positive changes in my lifestyle and I largely turned a corner. This year’s resolutions are more practical:

1. Fitness. For me this means swimming at least twice a week as well as doing 20-30 minutes of calisthenics (push-ups, crunches, one-arm row) or weights. It also means getting my weight down to a muscular 156 lb and sustaining it. Today, I weigh 174lbs.

2. Academic writing. While 2011 was a year of progress and change (i.e. founding JPC, taking over as program director of MCM, etc.), I am aiming to make 2012 a year of consolidation of those changes. That means writing several book chapters and journal articles, as all academics do. It also means writing two books: Understanding Public Relations in Canada (Oxford UP), and a second on social media theory and management.

3. Creative writing. 2011 was the year of writing 100 life-loves. This year I will get back to creative writing by throwing myself into the project I started last year, but abandoned: “Hamilton Tales”, a serial novel about the life and times of some fictional people’s lives and how they intertwine, set in my home city of Hamilton, Ontario. I will be posting these to the blog for your enjoyment and criticism.

4. Playing the piano. This was a complete failure in 2011. Life just got completely away from me. I will return to this in 2012, however, hopefully building a sustainable discipline.

5. Prayer and meditation. I want to make quiet contemplation a daily part of my life. I find such peace in prayer and meditation, such calm and perspective on what can otherwise sometimes be a mad and unstable world.

6. Home life. While I already do alright here, I sometime put cooking at home and healthy eating on the back burner. This year I will endeavour not to do this. I will also endeavour to beautify my home and garden. I feel this resolution is very important to the success of the others.

Well, there you have it. I will tell you how I did a year from now. I wish you strength and discipline as you seek to keep your resolutions in 2012.

How I did with my 2011 new year’s resolutions: a journey of growth towards principled living

Posted on December 25, 2011 by Alex

Last year, I had an ambitious list of new year’s resolutions. Here’s a recap and a report on how I did:

1. Get fit and lose weight. Partial success – I got fit for a part of the year, but then a stressful term and many preoccupations caught up to me and I gained it back again! So I am at 172 now, exactly where I was at this time last year.

2. Organise my time to get two books written. Half-Success. Well, I got one done! Understanding Human Communication, 2nd Edition came out. I am still working on the other one: Understanding Public Relations in Canada, and thinking about yet another on the topic of social media philosophy and strategy.

3. Keep a clean driving record. Yay! Success! I kept this one!

4. Take an advanced driving course. I just didn’t have time. Life caught up to me. I do have plans to eventually acquire a sports car, so this one will eventually come true, I guess. I learned this year, that this is really a back-burner issue.

5. Take at least one real vacation. Again, life caught up to me. I have never been busier or more stressed than I was in the last six months. Well, at least since my tenure year – that was pretty stressful.

6. Enjoy nature. Yay! Success! I got out for a quite a good number of walks, particularly in the first six months of 2011.

7. Pray and meditate more. A mixed result. I have definitely prayed and meditated more. But I have also had moments of complete self-absorption and dark anxiety, which weren’t in the spirit of this resolution.

8. Make more time for art and culture. Again, a mixed result. I have been to symphony more than ever before, but haven’t really been to the opera or the ballet, both of which I love.

9. Play the piano more. This wasn’t successful. I haven’t played much at all. Feel a little sad about this one.

10. Take life a little less seriously. Well, I think that while I haven’t really succeeded in doing this, in trying to, I learned something about myself. That is that I think taking life less seriously is heavily tied to prayer and meditation.

All in all, this year of resolutions was mixed. I think it was mixed because many of the resolutions I made would have been completely life-changing had I been successful. I have discovered that it takes time and dedication to change your life. It also means a fundamental and basic change in perspective. What this requires is not a change in the rules that you impose on yourself in your life, but rather a change in the principles that guide you.

What I have discovered is that one of of the most difficult things to do is to find the first principles which are at the root of your behaviour and your perceptions. Are you motivated by love? Do you want to build a good life filled with good things? Do you want to be a constructive and supportive force for good in the lives of others?

We can quibble over definitions of the Good, but the fact is that the Good is something we understand in context, given the people we are dealing with and the situations that they are in. That is where wisdom comes in – you have to understand and empathize with others, as well as have a connection with the history of human experience, feelings and stories to really be able to establish what is Good in a given circumstance.

What is most important is to make sure that your principles are always point you away from nihilism, selfishness, insecurity, cynicism and destructive thinking. Your principles should push you – stubbornly and relentlessly – toward the Good.

If you calibrate your principles this way, you will find the Good Life. Even if it takes you a long time and some errors along the way.

I will post a new set of resolutions for 2012 on New Year’s Day.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Gave a talk on social media metrics at #OHASM11

Posted on December 8, 2011 by Alex

Today I had the pleasure of spending the afternoon at the Ontario Hospital Association Social Media Conference at the Sutton Place Hotel in Toronto.

What a great group of communications leaders. There were a couple of speakers before me. Lee Aase from the Mayo Clinic Centre for Social Media, gave a great workshop on a sequence of case studies of physician engagement and media relations that his team has used social media for: very impressive. After that, Manuel Gitterman from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health gave a fascinating talk – using a well-conceived prezi – on the ways in which CAMH is engaging with social media. I was particularly impressed with their experiments in serious gaming and their use of Google Maps. Very progressive.

Needless to say, these were hard acts to follow.

I presented on how social media measurement is a part of institutional “social media hygiene,” that is to say that measurement should be a part of every social media communication strategy. I also talked about how many of the assumptions that corporate and institutional communicators have made are changing with social media: we are moving quickly to an oral culture. This move to an oral culture means that we need to develop metrics, KPIs and benchmarks that make sense for professional communicators and showcase the value of the practice to executives and institutional decision-makers.

You can check out the tweets during and about my presentation here. To follow the conference tweets in general, do a twitter search for #ohasm10 which is the conference hashtag. I kept my tweet deck live tweets going during the presentation, so the talk had an interactive component – lots of fun!

It was super to see two of our McMaster Master of Communications Management Program (MCM) students present: Cheryl Evans from Grand River Hospital in Kitchener-Waterloo and Anne Marie Males from the Scarborough Hospital.

It was great to go out for drinks afterward and continue the discussion. What a great event – hats off to the Ontario Hospital Association!

Giving a social media metrics talk at #OHASM11 Photo: @CarlosRizo

Students don’t read anymore. What does this mean for democracy?

Posted on December 6, 2011 by Alex

I have spent most of the last week marking papers. As professors, we sometimes grumble and complain about this task, but it is important to consider how vital evaluation and feedback is to student growth. The thing is, marking work is a two-way street.

I have been thinking a lot about the value of assignments and marking papers over the last little while. What kinds of assignments are appropriate? What do students learn from a particular assignment? Should assignments be on hypothetical situations or should the examples be drawn from the real world?

I have settled upon a compromise in the courses I teach, particularly at the fourth year level. I ask students to work on assignments incrementally, handing in a draft, which I mark up and then a final version, to which I assign a grade. I find that this is the only way to encourage a culture of constant improvement and self-evaluation. I also walk students through the elements of research methods and theory in every class I teach. It is a challenging balance to maintain, but it is valuable, since by the end of the seminar, they have produced a piece of work that they are usually proud to include in their portfolios, for presentation to potential employers.

The thing is, this strategy requires a commitment of effort and good faith on the part of the students. They have to commit to doing the readings and working through the theoretical components of the course, so that they are ready to come to class and have wide-ranging and profound discussions. There is a problem, however: many students have to work long hours to pay for their tuition and there seems to be a culture of “work hard, play hard,” which leaves very little time for reading, reflection and deep thought.

This is worrisome, because it downloads all of the learning onto the actual time students spend in class, which is not considerable. University seminars are two or three hour sessions, once a week. That just isn’t enough time to cover all of the material that would need to be covered to assure the depth and breadth of learning expected in a university level class. This means that students are leaving with a piece of paper that says “Honours Bachelor’s of Arts/Science/Commerce/Engineering/Etc.” but it is a degree that doesn’t represent what it once did. I can attest that student attitudes to reading and reflection have changed from even a few years ago, in 2001, when I started being a professor.

Whose fault is this? I don’t know. Students tell me they simply don’t have time to read, between work, internet and social commitments. They tell me that there is no culture of political, ethical or philosophical discussion – only a constant chatter about celebrity news and lifestyle information that is pulled from various outlets online. They explain that there isn’t really a desire for more heady conversation, either; that they get shut down by peers if they try to talk politics or current affairs.

This will not lead our culture, our economy and our democracy anywhere good. An uneducated, unreflective public, tuned in largely to passing fancies and trivialities can’t make good voting choices, smart investments or career and lifestyle choices. This can only lead to a two-tiered society, where people who are “tuned in” make all the decisions and have all the know-how and depth of understanding to pull the levers of power and influence, while the rest – both men and women – are chatting about celebrity gossip and dieting/workout tips.

How do we repair this situation and right the good ship education? Or is it our culture that is broken?

The last day of class

Posted on December 3, 2011 by Alex

Yesterday, I had my last day of class. This is always a bittersweet moment, since I love teaching and look forward to it as one of the highlights of my week!

This has been a big term! I have been busy working on many different projects: a new journal, a program review, an election campaign, a new phd program proposal, a proposal for a new bachelor of professional communication and taking over the directorship of the Master of Communications Management Program. On top of this, I taught four courses (which is double a usual research professor’s load).

Through all of this, I have looked forward to every class I had to teach. I gain energy from my students and I revel in their learning and their epiphanies. Seeing them master course content and guiding them through what’s sometimes a very challenging academic journey are truly what makes me get out of bed with a spring in my step.

So, to all of my students who are now preparing their exams: good luck! I hope each of them knows that I am in their corner, rooting for them.

Lecturing in CMST 1a03. Photo: @JoeyColeman

Lecturing in CMST 1a03: Intro to Communication

LAUNCHED TODAY: The Journal of Professional Communication (JPC)

Posted on November 30, 2011 by Alex

The long wait is over. I am pleased to announce the launch of the Journal of Professional Communication (JPC) - the first international journal of its kind.

After announcing the birth of JPC at the Canadian Public Relations Leadership Summit 2010 at the Old Mill in Toronto, we have spent over a year developing the journal. From choosing our hosting software, to soliciting papers and arranging for peer reviewers, to selecting fonts and graphics for the page layout, our JPC team has been working very hard to deliver the best inaugural issue possible.

Working with my friend and colleague, Dr. Terry Flynn, Senior Associate Editor, has been both stimulating and fun. Terry’s vision, optimism and personal drive to succeed are daily motivators to everyone around him. Working with Shelagh Hartford, our tireless assistant editor, has been an absolute pleasure. Shelagh’s keen eye for elegance in layout, grammar, style and APA formatting has made this first issue attractive, accurate and readable. Both Terry and Shelagh have been wonderful collaborators and patient fellow pathfinders for a novice Editor-in-Chief.

We have done our best and we humbly offer it up to the community of public relations and public affairs practitioners, journalists, artists, media/audience/opinion measurement professionals, policy makers and academics who, together, make up the exciting and emerging interdisciplinary field of professional communication. We also welcome any constructive criticism and feedback: we want JPC to be as inclusive and representative as possible.

Finally, we invite you to submit. It is your journal, after all.

Terry Flynn, Shelagh Hartford and Alex Sévigny Photo:@DocSavagePhd

JPC 1:1 | Inaugural Issue | Table of Contents

jpc.mcmaster.ca

Editorial

Alex Sévigny & Terence (Terry) Flynn – A reflection on the evolution of the field of professional communication

Opinion Pages

Joey Coleman – Open Data: “There’s an app for that.”
David Estok – Paywalls
Nik Nanos – Polling in the 2011 Canadian federal election
Rikia Saddy – Social media revolutions
Dave Scholz – The several premature autopsies of AVE

Lecture

James & Larissa Grunig – Public relations excellence 2010

Research Articles

Jeremy Berry – U.S.-Canada study of PR writing by entry-level practitioners reveals significant supervisor dissatisfaction
Denise Brunsdon – The gendered engagement of Canada’s national affairs and legislative elite, online
Émile Foster – L’utilisation du marketing politique par les groups d’intérêt: Proposition d’un modèle théorique
Andrew Laing – The H1N1 crisis: Roles played by government communicators, the public and the media
Philip Savage & Sarah Marinelli – “Sticking to their knitting?” A content analysis of gender in Canadian newspaper op-eds
Heather Pullen – Eastern Health: A case study on the need for public trust in health care communications

Book Reviews

Alan Chumley – Not your father’s ruler
Rebecca Edgar – Old ideas redux
Laurence Mussio – Depth Perceptions
Lars Wessman – An old quarrel, revisited
Lauren Yaksich – A global brand?

Policy Document

Canadian Public Relations Society – Pathways to the profession: An outcomes based approach towards excellence in Canadian public relations and communications management educations

Happy news: ADFW Ted McMeekin Campaign Team wins advertising award

Posted on November 26, 2011 by Alex

I was very pleased to learn that our Ancaster-Dundas-Flamborough-Westdale Ted McMeekin Campaign Team won the “Ontario Liberal Party Province-Wide Riding Advertising Award.” We nominated our entire communications committee (Alex Sévigny (chair), Peter Curtis and Peter Hargeave (campaign managers), Tom Aylward-Nally, Melonie Fullick, Nathan Shaw, Zac Spicer, Mark Ungar) which really worked wonderfully together.

We put together a communications plan that integrated traditional print, radio, TV, billboard, bus-stop and social media communication. It was a lot of fun. We worked together and everyone had something they were particularly good at doing. This was the best campaign communications team I have worked with yet – and I have worked with some excellent ones!

Honestly, our team wouldn’t have been as effective, if we didn’t have a superb candidate to work with, Mr. Ted McMeekin (Ontario Minister of Agriculture): a class act and a truly decent man.

Congratulations to the whole team for a job well done. Teams like this are what political volunteering so rewarding and so much fun.

Cool breezes, fresh thinking

Posted on November 7, 2011 by Alex

The cool breezes of autumn are upon us, and I couldn’t be happier. This is my happiest time of year – as nature falls asleep and we have to bundle up to keep warm. I find that the coolness keeps my mind crisp and focuses my thoughts on what is important.

Last weekend, I went to watch the McMaster Marauders play in the Yates Cup semifinal against Queen’s Golden Gaels. It was a wonderful night out, with my colleagues and co-authors, David Estok and Terry Flynn. I found myself watching the game unfold and the crowd cheering as McMaster routed one of its perennial rivals to advance to the Yates Cup final.

As the final splashes of orange and crimson light glowed and faded over Ron Joyce Stadium, I felt the cold air penetrate my fleece and black McMaster baseball cap. The cold made my skin tingle and focused my mind – I felt that I could watch the plays unfold before me with renewed clarity. As the game was a route, my mind drifted to thinking about my work as an academic.

As we move to open higher education to a majority of the population, we need to rethink our offerings across the board. This means forging partnerships that span the divide between community colleges and university, and offer professional programs that are steeped in the liberal arts and sciences to provide a broad education, but also focused in on the skills, training and coop experiences that will make student ready to get a job when they graduate.

I teach professional communication and communications management. My field is really the liberal arts applied to organizational communication and strategic management. In our discipline, students can achieve a liberal arts education while learning skills that could grant them entry into the thriving public relations and communications management industry.

The reality of today is that a majority of young citizens are entering the higher education system. Letting in such a great proportion of the population means that we are welcoming people from a diversity of backgrounds – socio-economic and cultural. No longer are universities only serving the upper middle and middle classes.

To ensure a good start for everyone, a blended theoretical-practical education is the way to go. It is a way for universities to help transfer social capital and cultural capital and even the playing field for young people. This is how universities and colleges can work together to make sure education continues to be a solid path toward social mobility.

Blended programs need not be any less intellectually challenging, nor must the skills taught be watered down. In fact, I think that this kind of blended education will be more challenging and fulfilling – making young people more self-reliant and well-equipped to forge their own futures.

The road will not be easy. Offering this sort of education will mean a major mindset change for many academics – particularly in the humanities – who are used to living in a separate world from the business, government and not-for-profit sectors. Often the mindsets of such colleagues is mistrustful of entrepreneurship, business or professional studies. However, the humanities cannot sequester themselves in a shrinking critical and ideological circle. Splendid isolation only leads to loneliness and irrelevance.

The humanities used to be the “school of leaders”. Over the last 30 years, it has gradually become the “school of critics”. Society needs critics, and it certainly needs its citizens using critical thinking, but critics are, by definition, not leaders and doers. Critics are by definition voices from the sidelines or from the stands, leaders are always in the field, at the forefront of the action.

Action and enterprise are central to the social media world we are entering. As Chris Anderson describes in The Long Tail, the networked social media society that is upon us requires more leaders, more entrepreneurs and more innovators. Obviously not everyone can be a leader. Everyone can, however, develop enterprising and leadership qualities that make them more confident and engaged.

The winds of change are picking up for universities – especially in the liberal arts! These are cool, crisp currents. The change will be exciting. I can’t wait.