Family vacations are the last place I expect to encounter a crisis, but that’s what happened to us a few days ago at Mayakka River State Park in Florida. Everything turned out fine, but I think there are lessons contained in the story about dealing with a crisis at home, on vacation or at work.

The story

We arrived at the park, expecting to rent kayaks to explore the lake and wildlife for a few hours. The lake is filled with large birds, turtles and flying fish, but the undeniable stars of the show are the hundreds of alligators that live in the lake, some as long as 15 feet.

The park was out of kayaks, so we settled instead on renting two full sized canoes. We pushed our boats into the water, a short entry channel to the main lake, but noticed immediately that the wind was going to make paddling a huge challenge for a crew of one adult and one small child. We paddled like crazy (at least the adults did), but the wind pushed both of our boats against the shore. Finally making it out of the channel and into the mouth of the lake, the wind completely took over and blew us whichever direction it pleased. Even turning around seemed impossible and it wasn’t long before we had the canoes stuck in shallow water, getting our paddles caught in thick grass that covered the lake bed, parents getting short with the kids.

We hadn’t seen any alligators, but another family, also in canoes that were blowing sideways, had somehow managed to spot one not far from us. Frustration and worry now completely took over and we knew we had to come up with another plan to get ourselves moving in the right direction – any direction - and fast!

We decided that returning to home base was absolutely necessary and that our best chance of getting there was to tie the canoes together and get everyone in one boat, all paddling together. If that didn’t work, we had the option of waiting to be rescued, but we didn’t notice anyone coming around to see if the hapless boaters were okay. Another option was walking the shore line, dragging our canoes behind us, but the possibility that alligators could be hidden in the weeds on or near shore made this option significantly less attractive.

Using our paddles as poles, we pushed away from the shallowest water and got ourselves pointed in the right direction. The kids needed a lot of coaching to know on which side to paddle (read constant yelling), but very slowly, we were moving. I noticed about seven or eight giant vultures circling high overhead and couldn’t help but think that they had noticed our predicament.

After nearly an hour of struggling against the wind, we had made it back to our starting point. We barely had enough energy to pull our canoes onto shore, but we were safe and greatly relieved.

The lessons

1. Communication: When you realize you’re in trouble, communication to everyone involved needs to be clear and firm. The parenting handbook regarding calm, polite conversation goes out the window when kids need to know exactly what is expected of them, especially when failure to follow instructions puts their safety at risk.
2. Decision making: Speed and certainty are critical. Democracy might be best thrown out the window - it was in this case.
3. Contingency plans: Always be thinking about what you’ll do if Plan A doesn’t work and don’t be afraid to admit your current plan is a failure. Having options eases tension and frees your mind up to...
4. Take action: It’s easy to become paralyzed by fear, but you’ve got to get moving before the alligators find you.
5. Identify the vultures: In a crisis, vultures are only distractions and should be ignored - no good can come from allowing them to affect your decisions or your actions. Remember, they aren’t hoping for you to succeed.
6. Never rent canoes and enter an alligator lake on a windy day: Trust me.

Have you had to deal with a crisis? What advice would you add to the list?

The Toronto Blue Jays open their 2012 season today in Cleveland and I can’t remember a season in the past 20 years that has held so much excitement. There’s an equal chance that these Jays will challenge for a playoff spot or will be exposed over 162 games as a team still a season or a key player away from contending, maybe two.

But what can’t be argued is that the Jays have done more right than wrong this off season to create a buzz about their team for the foreseeable future. There’s hope they might be good enough this year, there are players to be excited about and there’s reason to believe this is a team with a future.

How have they done it?

1. Communicating the plan: The Jays have made it very clear that their plan was to acquire players with “high ceilings” at every level of their minor league system and allow them time to grow into a championship team. They’ve made sure we hear not only about Brett Lawrie, J.P. Arencibia and Henderson Alvarez, young stars who have made it to the big club, but Anthony Gose, Travis D’Arnaud and Drew Hutchison, future stars still a season or more away from making the big club. It doesn’t matter that we’ve never seen some of these players play, we believe that the plan is solid and that these players are going to be something special. Communicating the plan allows us to be patient and optimistic.
2. Communication from the top: Throughout last year and this off season we heard from President, Paul Beeston, General Manager, Alex Anthopoulos and Manager, John Farrell. All are open, friendly and clear when they talk about the direction of the team. The fans feel informed and trusting toward these three and are more apt to buy in to the promise of better baseball ahead.
3. Effective messaging: Team President, Paul Beeston was asked about the Jays and their chances of making the playoffs and said he expected them to be in the playoffs twice over the next five years. Beeston has said on many occasions that they’re building to be a team that can contend every year. Fans don’t want to hear, “We hope to be good,” or “We’re trying.” They want to hear, “We plan to win and more than once.” These messages go far with a fan base that wants to believe.
4. Using Social Media to connect with the fans: Jays’ players such as Jose Bautista, Ricky Romero, Brandon Morrow and Lawrie have embraced Twitter and communicate often with their fans. They’re seen as likable, hard working players who care to be part of a Toronto championship run. Today’s fan expects better access to their favourite players and the Jays deliver. The players see themselves as ambassadors for the club and genuinely enjoy their role in promoting their team. There’s a lot of good that comes from that.
5. Putting their money where their mouth is: Prior to last season, the Jays rewarded their best player, Jose Bautista with a massive contract after only one outstanding season. The risk of Bautista being a flash in the pan was very real and the financial peril of making a mistake on such a contract must have been troubling to Anthopoulos. However, when he announced the contract he said that he believed in Bautista the person as much as Bautista the player. Again this off season, they spoke those words when announcing a contract extension to Dustin McGowan, a pitcher who has missed three full seasons due to injury. Players around baseball want to play for an organization that acquires and rewards good human beings. Fans want to cheer for such a team. As they say, doing good is good for business.

How do you feel about the Jays and the way they communicate with their fans? Please leave me a comment!

I’ve had a difficult time coming up with something to write about today. The problem is that I’m on vacation and except for a few times each day, I’m totally disconnected. I don’t have my usual inspiration from stories in the media, Twitter or issues at work that turn into blog posts.

My days have been filled with travel, hotels, Harry Potter, rented houses, pools, and today, the beach. All of us are having a wonderful time and my inability to come up with ideas for blog posts is in no way affecting my enjoyment of this time with my family. The mental break from thinking about communications as often as I do might even be good for me!

Today, while I sat in the sun, watching my kids play in the sand and swimming in the ocean, I realized not for the first time that nothing in my life is better than this. We’ve spent a lot of money to fly down here and spend a day at Universal Studios (more perhaps than this humble blogger should be spending), and every bit of it has been special and memorable. But playing together, as a family, on this beach is better than anything else that we’ll do on this trip.

My family is easily the most important part of my life. Spending special time with them like this, whether at home or on a faraway beach, is the quickest way for me to realize that my life is great. I’m fortunate that I have them and also that I can slow down enough to realize that they are what really matter – nothing else compares.

When we focus on what really matters we do the work that has the greatest impact. We reach our audience more directly. We cut through the distractions and do what produces results. We find happiness.

To put this to use, ask yourself questions like these:

• What is the one point I want to make here? Have I made it? Is it clear?
• What is the one thing my business does exceptionally well? Are we focused on doing that or something else?
• What is the one thing I could do today that makes me happiest?
• What’s the one thing my customers are asking for that I’m not currently providing? Can we change that?
• What’s the most important relationship in my life? Am I treating it like it’s the most important?

Keep it simple – focus on what matters most and make sure your life is centred on these things, first and foremost.

Was this helpful? What other ideas do you have? Please leave me a comment or send me a message.

When we see this message attached to the same video, posted and emailed many times over, we know it’s in the process of going viral.

The latest (at least within my group of contacts) is of a teenage opera singer named Jonathan Antoine (one half of the duet Charlotte and Jonathan) singing The Prayer on Britain’s Got Talent.

In the video, we learn that Antoine has had to deal with damaging comments about his size and, not surprisingly, he completely lacks confidence. We see the judges and the show’s audience barely able to contain their laughter when he walks onstage. It’s an awful moment, but when Antoine sings, the audience is shocked to hear his incredible voice. Few, if any, who watch the video, would not be moved.

Why does a video like this go viral? It’s not because we’ve never seen a performance that exceeds our expectations so outrageously - that may have been Susan Boyle on the same show in 2009. But what we react to, what we feel so compelled to share with everyone we know, is the story of someone we discount at first glance that has the ability to amaze us. That’s what we find remarkable.

Most of us don’t know the pain of a lifetime of having people laugh at you, but we know insecurity and doubt. We know the feeling of being judged (both figuratively and literally in this example) and we know how tough it is to even make the grade, let alone amaze an audience, when no one believes we can.

We cheer for Jonathan Antoine because he’s done what we didn’t believe he could. And he does it despite longer odds than most of us face. He’s an underdog and he came through.

The video goes viral because it’s so human.

And more than going viral, it encourages all of us to take chances. It reminds us that no matter what our circumstances, we should never allow self doubt to stop us from getting on our stage and showing the world what we can do.

Do you have a story to tell? It may seem like no one wants to hear it, but if you tell it well, there’s a chance the world will stop what they’re doing and want to share it with everyone they know.

Go for it.

What did you think of Jonathan Antoine? Did the video inspire you? Leave me a comment or send me a message, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

On my way to work on Friday, I noticed a large white sign at the side of the road. In big red letters it said, “Heavy traffic at RIM Park from March 30 to April 1. Expect delays.” The sign hadn’t been there the day before and I wondered what big event or circumstance was behind the heavy traffic.

Driving by RIM Park I looked over the parking lot and the outside of the sports complex to see what clues I might find in the mystery of the heavy traffic.
Aside from additional signs directing people where to park, it seemed like a day like any other. I was stumped. But still, I wanted to know - what was going on at RIM Park?

Chances are good that whatever was planned for RIM Park would be of little to no interest to me, but the desire to know had taken over!

I was reminded of a car dealership with which I used to do business. They were having a sale, but rather than advertise in the usual ways, they told no one and erected a giant fence around their property days before the sale was to begin. They hired a security company to have guards stand in front of the fence 24 hours a day to prevent people from trying to look through the fence. They were instructed to tell anyone who asked what was going on, “We’re not able to provide that information.”

People went crazy!

When we’re told we can’t know something, even when we have no idea what we’re missing, our curiosity takes over. Advertisers and marketers can create frenzies by teasing us and withholding information. Perhaps we’ll be more likely to want the product or service when it’s finally revealed.

On the other hand, when we have important information that we need to communicate to employees, customers, or the general public, we need to take a completely different approach. The sign needs to tell us exactly why we should expect higher than normal volumes of traffic. There can’t be any fences or people who stand guard, deliberately keeping us in the dark.

Of course only those organizations intent on sabotaging their image or reputation would ever do these things deliberately, but how often are those same circumstances created accidentally?

• Employees are told there’s a major restructuring planned, but they have to wait until next quarter to hear the details.
• Customers are told that pricing is going to change, but not when or by how much.
• The media reports a scandal, but the subject of the story says, “No comment at this time.”

Information may not always be available to be shared and perhaps the whole story isn’t yet known. But when partial communication is shared, deliberately or otherwise, curiosity will run wild.

Sometimes fences will be built when we don’t want them and there won’t be anything we can do about it. But just as often, our actions, or failure to take actions, build these fences when we can least afford to deal with the results – curiosity out of control, runaway stories.

Have you had similar experiences? I’d love to hear about them. And if anyone knows what was going on at RIM Park, can you let me know?

A week ago, Belvedere Vodka posted an ad on its Facebook and Twitter account that I assume was a horrible attempt at humour. It was horrible because it seems to be laughing at sexual assault and I’ll never understand how an ad like this was allowed to run.

There’s an excellent article in the Globe and Mail that covers the way the company has handled this mistake and how people are judging them for their handling of this issue. Worth reading if you’re interested in the story.

As I read the story, a few thoughts came to me:

1. Mistakes like this should never happen. The company must have an approval process that wasn’t followed.
2. Some things just aren’t funny. Ever.
3. When mistakes like this are made a company has to show the world how sorry it is without corporate speak or reservation.
4. Good PR can’t overcome horrible lapses in judgment.
5. What we do on social media lasts forever.

What other thoughts would you add to this list? Please leave me a comment or send me a message!

Yesterday, I attended an IABC webinar on employee engagement, led by Steve Crescenzo.

Steve shared with us his five keys to fostering an environment where employees feel engaged and provided tremendous examples of organizations that are doing the right things.

Steve’s top 5:

1. Bring employees inside the loop: tell them what drives the business and why and answer the question – why should they care? Then, tell them what you want them to do.
2. Show them what they do matters: feature the people closest to the work when telling the story
3. Help employees be ambassadors for the organization: when employees are asked, “What do you do for a living?” have we prepared them to tell a good story or hung them out to dry?
4. Let them talk to each other: organizations must trust their employees to act like adults
5. Show them their opinions matter: organizations should communicate the what and the why down, but allow for the how to come from the employees

Steve gave us an analogy to help us understand what true engagement looks and feels like. He asked us to think about a time we rented a car and whether anyone had taken it through a carwash or changed its oil. Of course the answer is no – because we don’t care that much about a rental car. Employees who aren’t engaged think about their companies like rental cars. They show up, do their work, get paid, and go home. When employees are truly engaged they feel like owners of the company and act accordingly.

As I sat through the webinar I made mental notes about the different organizations I’ve worked for and which ones did a good job of engaging their employees and which ones had a lot of work to do. I thought about the specific actions (or inaction) that made me feel engaged or made me see my company like I would a rental car.

I’m interested in hearing your stories – have you worked for an organization that made you feel truly engaged? What did they do? Have you worked for a company that had it all wrong? What did they do that made you feel this way?

Leave me a comment or send me a message!