Born to RACE

Every once in a while you read a book that you know is going to leave a lasting impression on you. The book this year for me is Born to Run, by Christopher McDougall. Even if you are not a runner, it will excite your passion about this sport.  McDougall traces the history of running to our Homo sapien roots when we had to outrun our prey to stay alive. Man was uniquely built not for speed, but for endurance, typically travelling up to 26 miles (marathon length) to wear down faster animals over the course of a day. The author tells the story of a hidden tribe in Mexico, the Tarahumara, who continue to run long distances and a bunch of superathletes from the USA who went down to meet the tribal members and compete in a 50-mile “race.” More than anything, this is a book about why running is important to all of us; we’ve left a part of our history behind by failing to stay active. “Perhaps all our troubles began when we stopped living as Running People. Deny your nature, and it will erupt in some other, uglier way.”

CSR and RACE

This is a shout out to Carl Worrell, owner of The Runner’s Mark (www.runnersmark.com) in Port Credit. Carl is helping the charity I support as a board member CameronHelps (www.cameronhelps.ca) to reach more people with its awareness campaigns and fundraising. Ultimately a large portion of our efforts will go to youth run therapy programs for depressed and mentally ill youth in danger of committing suicide.
Carl said to me in his store today when I was buying some running gear (sidenote: a GREAT store) that for him it is all about supporting the community where he is located.  I wish more companies had this wonderful sense of corporate social responsibility. We definitely need more Carls in this world to make a difference. Charities like ours can only do so much on our own.
Thanks Carl for giving back!

The Science of Motivation and RACE

I was at a conference last week and enjoyed a great presentation by Louisa Jewell on the Science of Motivation. Interestingly, she broke up her talk into the RACE formula, but a different type of race. She says we are motivated at work by Relativeness, Availability, Competence and Engagement.

With Relativeness, she says, we need to know that people care about us as a person, that they can feel happy and safe. People are hard-wired for social connection and can be de-motivated if we experience social pain (ie bullying).

For Availability, stress and overload causes us to withdraw. Organizations have to support individuals so they have the emotional and physical availability to perform.

Competence relates to self-efficacy–our belief in our ability to succeed in specific situations. Positive feedback is more motivating than negative feedback. It reinforces our strengths so we will do it again. If we build people’s technical abilities and confidence, they are mentally rehearsing to do it again (visualizing).

Finally, Engagement. This connects purpose and meaning–aligning personal values with organizational values. When we engage people about their lives, we get them engaged to perform better at work. A company with high employment turnovers in janitorial staff changed its course by asking their staff what motivated them in their lives. The company then helped them achieve these goals, whether it was financial planning to help send their kids to college, buy a boat,or save for retirement.

Another take on RACE

Race is running, race is also Research, Analyze, Communicate and Evaluate. Or sometimes you can make race fit into anything, Even a simple guidance for life. Here are four agreements, don miguel ruiz’s code for life, slightly modified by me to fit the race format:
1) R….emember: don’t take anything personally – nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be victim of needless suffering.
2) A…void. Avoid using words to gossip about others. Speak with integrity and be impeccable with your word. Use the power of your word in direction of truth and love.
3) C…hange. Your best is going to change from moment to moment. Always do your best. Under any circumstances, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgement, self-abuse and regret.
4) E…press. Express what you really want. Don’t make assumptions. Find the courage to ask questions. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

History of RACE

Those of you who think running is a 21st century fad are sadly mistaken. In Canada, one of the oldest races, Around the Bay in Hamilton, started in 1894, three years before the Boston Marathon. Some of the most famous Canadian runners such as Tommy Longboat and Gerome Drayton won the 30K Around the Bay race and went on to Boston and Olympic fame. The Hamilton race is annually sold out. I found out the hard way last year when trying to enroll. Fortunately this year I bid on an entry form ($90 value) while at the www.cameronhelps.ca silent auction and wine-tasting held in October 2011. Winter training isn’t really my thing, but perhaps you have to have a sense of history about this race to get motivated. I am curious what keeps people coming back every year. It’s in March, a cold, rainy and windy month. Let’s hope it’s a mild winter!

Should C in RACE stand for change communications?

Everything we do as communicators should be judged by how well we do at trying to influence a behaviour or opinion and motivate people to change. Some of the toughest challenges we face are to help CEOs communicate effectively to make change stick. Chip and Dan Heath are authors of “Switch – how to change things when change is hard.” It’s a fascinating account of why some organizations were able to make change — and change communications — work for them. Here are the top points they make and I make no apologies for plagarizing directly from the book.
1. Direct the emotional side
- Follow the bright spots (investigate what’s working and clone it
- Script the critical moves (don’t think big picture, think in terms of specific behaviours)
- Point to the destination (change is easier when you know where you going)
2. Motivate the rational side
- Find the feeling (make people experience the change)
- Shrink the change (break the change into small parts)
-Grow your people ( cultivate a sense of identify and instill the growth mindset
3. Shape the Path
- Tweak the environment (when the situation changes, the behavior changes)
- Build habits (look for ways to encourage habits)
- Rally the herd (behavior is contagious. Help it spread)
Communicators can learn from the authors to concentrate more on the execution of their plans, than on the actual strategy. A good strategy is nothing without an equally good method for implementation.

The RACE for work

Looking for work requires using elements of RACE. Research the market, your strengths, analyze opportunities and “best fits”, communicate (get out there and sell yourself) and evaluate what works and readjust accordingly.

Here are a few tips for job seekers based on my experiences after a layoff during the Great Recession:

1. Industry experience trumps everything else. In a tight economy, employers have lots of applicants and you are more likely to be chosen if you have previous industry experience. Focus on these jobs first if you want to find work fast. Ie other engineering firms, architect firms, accounting firms, etc.

2. Divide your search into three segments. A) Friends and PR Collegues: stay in touch by phone and email every 3-4 weeks ask if they’ve heard of anything, tell them what you are looking for, ask for advice. B) Executive Search firms. Check internet etc to find ones in your area or are focusing on PR etc. Send them resumes and phone to find out who to speak to; visit them and introduce yourself if you can C) On-line job searches such as Workopolis. You are competing against hundreds of applicants. Don’t bother applying if you aren’t suitable, see point # 1.

3. Use Linked in. Get recommended (testimonials), add people frequently to your network as you meet them, add recruiters to your list, even update people as to what intelligent books you are reading or courses you might be taking. Recruiters are searching more using linked in. In your profile, tell them you are looking for a new position. Put you linked in url on your email signature block. ALSO, use your friends linked in colleagues to make introductions to meet people (for instance, if someone is working for Apple and is a friend of your friend, ask them to make an introduction so you can visit them.

4. Informal interviews key. Try and meet someone new in person to interview and ask them about their PR job and their company, ask them for job search hints, anybody else you can speak to get more information about an industry. I did this in wanting to know more about change management PR and ended up speaking to some consulting specialists in this field. They eventually offered me some contract work on a big project (unfortunately at that time I was employed at PwC)

5. Get your social media skills in order. Having more time looking for work gives you a chance to upgrade your social media skills. So start a blog, use twitter more often, read up on what the latest thing is. (I just read Power Friending by Amber Mac, a great book). The reality is that more than 50% of PR jobs are asking for people with social media experience.

6. Use the time to smell the roses. Looking for work is a full time job but take some time off to do different things you would never do. After a lunch app’t was cancelled on a beautiful fall day, I used the afternoon to do a photo essay of the fall leaves, country roads, Halloween decorations and posted it on Facebook. I also interviewed and wrote a book about my dad’s life and got from accredition from Canadian Public Relations Society.

7. Seek out those who jump from job to job. Those in PR who change jobs every two years have the best contacts with executive search people, have great tips on what works and what doesn’t and are generally the best networked people in the world. It’s like in Malcolm Gladwell’s book in Tipping Point, some people are true influencers and networkers – others who have no contacts are no help to you at all…

8. Customize your resume. Don’t get lazy and just send a customized letter and your regular resume. Make sure you customize your resume to fit the job… Also, when you are applying on-line, make sure you use the same buzz-words and references to job qualifications and skills that the job ad refers to. The computer sorts by the number of hits to key words…

9. Consider contract work. It could help you get through the tough economy and looks good on a resume. It could lead to you starting your own consulting business, you never know…

10. Utilize professional associations. Presidents of IABC, or PRSA would be good people to talk to, to get their advice. You could join and start attending lunches and join a committee to get further networked into the organization. They are more likely going to help you if you are member. I’d recommend doing it, but you have to take advantage of being involved otherwise it is a waste. You can write for their newsletter that is good exposure or offer to give a seminar on crisis communications (remember Salt Lake story, a GREAT example of PR mediation)

11. Form a job search club. I did this with a group of people who were unemployed from various professions. We met every 3-4 weeks, provided encouragement, keep each other on their toes (if somebody was slacking), provided job search ideas and hints, what industries were hiring. It’s a great support emotionally from people who are going through the same thing you are. I’m still friends with my group: one guy started his own B&B in Niagara and we go there every year for our anniversary!

12. Tell everybody you are looking for work. Your dentist, neighbours etc. At my gym, the personal trainer I bumped into used to be in executive recruiting. He gave me dozens of tips and some leads for work! One neighbour worked for Home Depot head office and put me through to their PR dept. and another was the head of HR at City Hall.

13. Every day you are getting closer to your goal. Realize that everything you do every day builds on the process to get you closer to your goal. Every new contact you meet, every new database entry, blog, application, interview is inching you closer to your goal. If we only knew what part works best, we’d concentrate on just that, but reaching out and connecting wherever you can is best. Everybody gets a new job; it’s just a matter of time and staying committed.

Modifying the RACE

So the plan has been executed and you’ve completed the “C” which is communicating your message.  Next step is evaluating your success against objectives. What happens whens you don’t meet objectives? This happened to us at our charity’s third annual fun run to raise money for teen suicide awareness. While over $10K was raised and more than 200 runners turned out, the event did not reach our goals despite more advertising and sponsorship assistance. When this happens, you go back to the beginning, the “R” in Race which is research, to determine how better to target our market.  In our case, my belief is that we weren’t focused enough on the people and organizations directly affected by teen mental illness and suicide. We reached out too much to the running market. So our next step is modify our approach and do some more research.

The ultimate canoe RACE

Those of us who attended an overnight canoe tripping camp called Pine Crest recently received a 100 year anniversary book about the camp.  It reminded me of some of the things that were unique about this testosterone-laced culture. It is where we were turned from boys into men (you wonder why men don’t cry?). Case in point: one of the more unique events held every summer was a canoe marathon, consisting of two paddlers (counsellor and camper), two portages and paddling over two lakes. It was the ultimate test of manhood, especially for us campers, eager to prove our worth as modern-day voyageurs. It may be to this day why endurance tests never bother us. Nothing can every be as bad as long portages, long days paddling in the rain or eating cold spam!

RACE Directors RACE

I signed up over the weekend to attend a course for Race Directors as part of my involvement with CameronHelps, a youth suicide prevention charity. With our 5k race in Port Credit soon to happen on Father’s Day, the organization is looking for all the help and ideas we can get. It’s hard being part of a small charity without a big sponsor — you need to spend money to promote your event which we don’t have in abundant supply. Social media will help, but as the seminar leader says, you need to incorporate at least three tools/techniques (I like to call the “touch-points”) with social media only being one of them. We’re definitely expanding our networks this year and we’ll have a booth at the Mississauga marathon expo on May 13-14 to hand out flyers and talk to prospective clients.