Building constituency: a communications approach for open leaders

Building Constituency A communications approach for open leaders to drive collaborative progress Rowan Hetherington Twitter: @RoHetherington Blog: http://rowan.typepad.com

We Need a New Leadership Approach to Make the Planet Smarter
“ We’re living in a time where our need for strong leadership is intensifying and the leadership qualities we need are changing.”
“ We’ve arrived at a juncture where the only barriers to building a smarter planet are imagination and leadership . We have to develop future leaders who have the vision necessary to make progress and the skills to lead companies and communities to that better place.”
“ Observing Leadership Series client protagonists this year has helped us pinpoint three attributes that they share. They’re all systems thinkers who can look across complex and interconnected systems and see their way to a solution. All are able to build a constituency despite resistance to change and conflicting interests. And they all have the ability to cultivate an information-led culture to help solve what sometimes seem like insurmountable challenges.
~ Mary Murphy ( View post )

Building Constituency: Related (Great!) Concepts

What is ‘Constituency’?
In the traditional political sense, a constituency is an electoral district of people to be represented. In the world of Web 2.0, powerful networks of people are defined less by demographics (incl. location) - instead by behaviorgraphics and psychographics, including shared interests, beliefs or ambitions.
Constituency: An activated group of people with a common interest, belief or ambition. They self-identify and seek change.
Leaders need a constituency to serve – whether it is a political party in a country, a defined group of an organization's prospects, clients or stakeholders, or a ‘Tribe’ (Seth Godin’s term) of enthusiasts who share a personal interest, belief or ambition (e.g. how to optimize the speed of mountain bikes or protect the world's remaining indigenous peoples ). To serve their followers effectively, today's leaders will likely need to be open, listening to and collaborating with their constituents online as well as offline to activate them to co-create value.
Building constituency goes beyond reaching audiences. It gets to how a leader shapes not just common ground, but deeper, enduring, shared ideas – and motivation for collaborative action .
The defining difference between “audience” and “constituency” is that an audience is a passive recipient subjected to interruptive messaging. Constituency members actively opt-in. “Constituency” is not meant to replace “audience”, it is a different concept.

Why Build Active Constituencies? There has been a paradigm shift in communication: Web 2.0 provided the masses with a voice and power. To get their attention amongst the abundance of content, leaders increasingly need to listen to and collaborate with constituents on their preferred platforms, in their language about their interests, beliefs or ambitions. *Adapted from IBM Digital Strategy Content abundance Content scarcity Social mediation Institutional mediation From To Channels Networks Mass consumption Universal participation Attention abundance Attention scarcity Asynchronous Real-time

Building Constituency Which constituents do we want to connect with? What value and relationship are we looking to co-create and measure? What do we know about these constituents? What system of activity will co-create, map and capture the value? What is your plan for regular iteration based on outcomes, data and learnings? Vision Consolidated Insights Engage Energize Embrace Constituency Outcomes iteration Data iteration Optimization iteration *Model developed in different context, for use within IBM Digital Marketing and Communications

A Five Step Approach 1 2 3 4 5 Vision Consolidated Insights Engage Energize Embrace Constituency Outcomes iteration Data iteration Optimization iteration

Step 1: Constituency
Define the constituency
Develop a tight definition of the constituents we want to connect with.
Then consider:
Who are the experts and influencers in this constituency? What are their common interests, beliefs and ambitions?
What is our current relationship with these people? What do they think of us now? What sort of progress would they value?
The more targeted the constituency definition is, the easier it will be to activate them through relevant communications.
Note: it’s better to start in a highly targeted way and then expand, as opposed to being too wide and then narrowing.
Constituency Which constituents do we want to connect with?

Step 2: Vision
Developing the Vision
What is the Vision or Mission of the defined Constituency? What are the specific outcomes we seek from the effort?
Two main types of outcome:
What value could be co-created with this constituency? (could be financial, operational, societal, innovation…) How do you plan to measure this value?
What kind of relationship do you want to establish / develop with these constituents?
Consider:
How will the effort evolve based on the data & learning it generates?
The tighter the Constituent definition, the more specific you can be with Vision.
The Vision and stated outcomes are likely to change over time.
Vision Constituency What value and relationship are we looking to co-create and measure? Which constituents do we want to connect with?

Step 3: Consolidated Insights
Sources of Insight
Use a wide range of sources to gather insights: e.g., Listening / social media research, third party data, existing research, benchmarks, influencers, external experts…
Sample questions
Does this constituency collaborate currently? If so, how?
Is it possible to further segment or classify them? Is there a productive segmentation approach (incl. psychographics, behaviorgraphics)? Consider online User Profiles & User Scenarios.
What are they talking about currently? What keywords do they use?
What are the goals of key stakeholders with regard to this constituency?
How effective have past approaches been to collaborate with them? (Include benchmark data where possible)
What activities are key competitors engaged in with regards this constituency?
What are the "best practices" of key competitors?
Vision Consolidated Insights Constituency Which constituents do we want to connect with? What value and relationship are we looking to co-create? What do we know about the forward thinker/s?

Step 4: Integrated Communication Strategies Embrace… What are we doing to listen and work in a collaborative way with these constituent/s?; How are we providing them with access to experts and expertise? How are we collaborating with them to drive progress or create value? Engage… How are we setting the agenda for progress within this constituency? How are we making the case with proven results and facts? How are we energizing the constituents to participate and contribute? How will we drive share of voice, more efficiently with higher quality responses? Note: loosely maps to ‘Linear’ communications. Energize… How are we encouraging them to share and spread our messages and activities with other constituents? How are we empowering their advocacy? Engage Energize Embrace What is your system of activity to co-create, map and capture the value?

Step 5: Iterate. Iterate. Iterate. Data iteration: to continue to optimize and evolve what we do according to what we measure and observe Outcomes Iteration: to continue to measure whether our efforts are creating the value and relationship we envisioned Optimization Iteration: a continuous improvement loop – how do we improve on what we did last time? What is your plan for regular iteration based on outcomes, data and learnings? Vision Consolidated Insights Engage Energize Embrace Constituency Outcomes iteration Data iteration Optimization iteration

Thank you
In the spirit of collaborative progress , I welcome your thoughts, ideas, comments and questions on Building Constituency.
Please comment on my blog post or
connect with me on Twitter @RoHetherington
About me
At work: Global Digital Strategy Enablement, Business Transformation Professional. Founder/Leader of the Digital Community of Practice, an active constituency of over 750 IBM digital (social, mobile and web) professionals in over 50 countries.
After work: Studying Change Management at the Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM).
This presentation is my own and doesn't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies or opinions.

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Building constituency: a communications approach for open leaders

by Rowan Hetherington on Oct 22, 2011

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Building constituency: a communications approach for open leaders — Presentation Transcript