Yeah, yeah. That's the name of an album, but I'll bet you don't remember the Communication Commentary part. That's because it wasn't there.
In my tribe, which today I'm defining as Communication at Texas Wesleyan, I have learned something this week. Take a deep breath. Listen.
Another crazy week in academia has me wondering just why is it that people get so tense around this time of year? I know the answer, but if you'd like to let me know what your issues are, I'd be happy to listen. However, for the rest of the semester I'm going to do what I learned: Take a deep breath and listen.
The reason I've learned this now in particular is because it is so tense this time of year. I feel pressure; my students feel pressure; everyone on campus feels pressure, and it's rising to a level of explosion, which is why I'm going to take a deep breath and listen.
I learned this lesson several years ago when I received a flame from a student. I flamed right back and felt really bad about it later. The student felt even worse. After that, I decided that any e-mail from anyone that sounded like a flame from the subject line, read like a flame from the first sentence and had lots of exclamation points needed to be thrown in the trash. It served me no purpose, and it served the student no purpose. So that's what I've done. Easy fix for e-mails, but in person flames....that's a bit different. Which is why I've decided to take a deep breath and and listen. While I may not be able to delete the person in front of me flaming, at least I can work to lower my blood pressure and avoid snide comebacks that are full of defensiveness and venom.
So everyone, let me encourage you to take a deep breath and listen. The flame you put out may be your own.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Friday, April 10, 2009
My Network, My Community
In reviewing my blog feeds today, I found this gem from Seth Godin at his blog.
Reminds me of an experience that I had yesterday. I attended the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association Conference in Dallas, where I volunteered to help with the live news contest. It's an event where students gather to report on a manufactured story, and the best reporting wins.
Standing in front of a crowd of 75-80 student reporters and photographers, I was a bit overwhelmed. Even though these were members of my community, here I was about to "perform" before them and become controversial. I had planned a live news event that would test their sense of objectivity and in the end, vilify me. I even wrote about this briefly in my Facebook account, where another segment of my community embraces me and serves as my network.
Standing outside of the community of journalists was strange. Condemning them and espousing rhetoric in total opposition to what I believe and what I teach was even stranger, but in the end, it has strengthened my network. From this experience, I have been able to build a common bridge with people in my Facebook community and advisers at the contest. I suspect that I will also be able to build a bridge to students who participated in the contest or heard about it.
The point being, commonality and difference can create bridges. Most lead to community and an expanded network, but some lead to nowhere. In the end, the things that we do, the organizations that we belong to are all about the people, the community and the network. Now I believe I can leverage this experience at TIPA to build bridges and create connections where none existed. I can only guess where this might lead.
Reminds me of an experience that I had yesterday. I attended the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association Conference in Dallas, where I volunteered to help with the live news contest. It's an event where students gather to report on a manufactured story, and the best reporting wins.
Standing in front of a crowd of 75-80 student reporters and photographers, I was a bit overwhelmed. Even though these were members of my community, here I was about to "perform" before them and become controversial. I had planned a live news event that would test their sense of objectivity and in the end, vilify me. I even wrote about this briefly in my Facebook account, where another segment of my community embraces me and serves as my network.
Standing outside of the community of journalists was strange. Condemning them and espousing rhetoric in total opposition to what I believe and what I teach was even stranger, but in the end, it has strengthened my network. From this experience, I have been able to build a common bridge with people in my Facebook community and advisers at the contest. I suspect that I will also be able to build a bridge to students who participated in the contest or heard about it.
The point being, commonality and difference can create bridges. Most lead to community and an expanded network, but some lead to nowhere. In the end, the things that we do, the organizations that we belong to are all about the people, the community and the network. Now I believe I can leverage this experience at TIPA to build bridges and create connections where none existed. I can only guess where this might lead.
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