The future of school communications

I’ve said it before, but everything’s changing... fast.

And, apparently, if you believe what you read about latest trends, we are all becoming more angry, less rational, more emotional in the ways we communicate with another.

I guess that figures. Damn it!

Here’s some other things I notice about the way in which things are changing:

· The conversations we have with one another no longer have boundaries. We say what we want, to whoever we want (we can speak directly to everyone from the Queen of England to President Obama if we so choose) and anyone can ‘write on our wall’ or ‘become our friend’;

· We expect more. We want to communicate when we want, in the format we want, and look for an immediate response. We feel mild to moderate frustration when there is no phone coverage, available Wifi, or the person across the other side of the world just happens to be asleep;

· A new breed of ‘choice’ or ‘experience architects’ have been born. These are the guys who understand how communication works and conjure up an experience that goes well beyond simple words on a page. These are the guys who understand that, in a world that is becoming more emotional, you have simply got to learn to speak to the heart in order to get your point across.

So how do we respond, keep up, and stay up-to-date? Here’s 3 questions I will often bring to the table:

· What is the past I need to let go of?

· What is the future I need to embrace?

· What are the pieces that never change over time?

Personally, I am ready to let go of ‘snail mail’. Anyway, the magic of the letter was always over-rated in my opinion (perhaps because, for me, they were almost always people wanting to take my money).

But before I rush headlong into this exciting future, I feel the need to go back to some ancient principles of communication that, arguably, never change; principles that we might conceivably sum up as: story, trust, listen, experience.

I have always said that my current job is that of storyteller: I tell the story of my school and help others find their place in that story.

Simple, isn’t it?

Well, yes and no. Communicating an exciting vision of learning in a way that engages people in a meaningful way, enables them to trust the tale that is being told, makes them feel listened to and understood, and communicates the experience of life in our school .... call that simple? The challenge is always to find the simplicity in the complexity.

So here are some questions I find myself wrestling with, almost on a daily basis right now:

· How do I capture the spirit of my school? Should I use words, or use paper in other, less traditional ways? And, anyway, what is the story of my school that provides the thread for everything I communicate?

· How do I have good conversations? What conversations am I starting? With whom? Using what media? How can I embrace new technology to spread the message in ways that previously were not possible?

· Am I a good listener? What are people out there saying about their own needs? What stories are they telling about me or my school? Again, how can new technology help me listen-in to what the ‘market’ is saying, thinking, feeling.

In answering these questions, we are now dipping our toe into the water, using paper differently and trying to capture the potential of social media applications – from Twitter to Facebook – as well as regularly monitoring what our online users are saying about us and the service we provide. We are also beginning to consider the potential impact of all this technology for crisis communications.

I don’t think any of us know where this will take us. But one thing is absolutely clear: this stuff is here to stay, so we had better cling hold of some guiding principles if we are going to navigate a proper path and ensure our schools are better at the end of it.

This post is based on a presentation given at the European Council of International Schools (ECIS) Administrators Conference, Lisbon, April 2009.