We're all the media now

“Institutions that once had to go through media to deliver information are now themselves
media”. So said Andrew Nachison a business writer and futurist.

What so every organisation is now a newspaper or TV station? No, Actually, yes. Well, maybe yes and no. You’re not going to have to appear in front of the Leveson Enquiry on Media Ethics. Nor should you worry too much about being commented about on “Points of View”. James Murdoch won’t be applying for that job as Deputy Head and there’s no chance of you appearing in front of the Leveson Enquiry into media ethics.

Yet you have become media organisations.  You are a medium that transmits information, opinion, news, and solicits feedback to an extent that was probably hardly thought of 20 years ago.  At least if you are, or want to be, successful you’re doing this.

There are a few reasons why this has happened.  Here are two of the main ones.

Technology facilitates you being a media organisation. Who hasn’t got a website and the capability of instantly updating your words to the world?  You may, as an institution, have Twitter and Facebook accounts. It’s certain that many of your staff will. All are channels of communication where views and news about you are exchanged, spread, interpreted, at a speed and to a breadth of audience that wouldn’t have been possible not too long ago.  Even when you are not actually transmitting information, you sit on the web and are instantly accessible. 

Publics expect it.  All organisations exist in comparison with others, and not just in their own sectors.  We accept as the norm a steady stream of communications from nearly all those that are a significant part of our lives. Government, banks, restaurants, sports clubs, shops etc.  They have conditioned us to receive communication (not all of it wanted).  And, equally importantly, our attitude to what we expect to be able to obtain from organisations has also changed. We believe that they should be open, accountable, and responsive. We expect that schools, councils, health services and so on, as well as private sector companies, should explain what they do and why, and that we have a right to question and probe for information.

You are a media organisation. Your formal communications – newsletters, web site, Twitter, open evenings etc. – need to be on a par with the way in which others operate. Planned, professional, strategically linked to your objectives, and with the right messages for the right audiences.  And your informal ones – the way in which you use your brand, visual identity, the ease of your language to be understood, the care of your public areas, the behaviour of students on the bus – all speak about you and so should be looked at in the same way.

An organisation never stops communicating even when it doesn’t know it is.

 

Posted on: 12th February 2012 in

We want an inspiring Head who can lead with vision and raise standards, say schools

The identikit of a desirable headteacher is one who is an inspirational and visionary leader, and with the ability to improve a school’s standards.

That’s the finding of a study into what are the characteristics and attributes schools looked for in a new headteacher, and what the priorities for the job are.

Nearly two-thirds (63%) of ads identified Leadership Skills, slightly more than Inspirational ones (60%). Just over half (51%) wanted heads to focus on school improvement, and 46% said they were looking for someone with Vision.

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