Chris Hussey

Facilitating – so much more than just managing a meeting. With my Community Broadcasting hat on, I recently spent the day being ’facilitated’. Bryce Ives had the challenge of leading a bunch of talkative diverse humans in an important discussion about the future of media, and boy did he do a great job! It got me thinking more about the art and skill of facilitating productive gatherings. Facilitation is a dry word to describe a process that is really quite magical. You have heard of 'cat herding'. Wrangling humans - particularly large numbers of humans - is even trickier! You might be thinking, how do I do that? You might even be terrified to try that for the first time. Learning at the feet of some inspiring facilitators (hello Heidi Martin, Kevin Nuttall, Randall Pearce, Paul Taylor, Nancy Hromin, Kate Chaffer and many more), here are a few tips if you find yourself in the facilitation hot seat for the first time: Be crystal clear about the outcome.🎯 What are you here to do? State it up front, test it with everyone, revisit it as the session goes on. There is nothing more dispiriting than a gab fest with no outcome. Bite sized chunks are your friend. 🧩 Plan the session ahead of time and don’t try to squeeze in too much. Imagine the session like you are giving directions – first you go here, then you go there. After a series of steps you get to the outcome. Try walking and talking. 👨🏼‍🦽 If ever I need ideas, I walk. Taking a stroll with a partner is a relaxed way to have a chat. Send your participants in pairs for a trot around the block and be surprised at what they come back with. Keep it pacey and upbeat. 🙂 Dwelling too long on anything is the enemy of good facilitation. ‘Hit it with pace’ as my favourite Bachelor used to say. Respect the group's time and energy. ⏱️ Keep an eye on the clock and check in on energy levels as you go. And beware the dreaded ‘afternoon slump’ - not even the mints will get you through that! Bonus tip – if you are wanting to upgrade your facilitation skills, enrol in Waterfield’s 'Rapid Consensus' course and thank me afterwards. 🙏🏾 I'd love to hear more of your best facilitation tips in the comments.

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Ten years ago today Bell Media pulled the plug after only seven months on its only experiment in a new format for national news. The rise and fall of #KNLive taught me a lot about innovating in large legacy media organizations. Among the lessons: 1. Hire hard working restless people who want to prove something. 2. Lead with an understanding of mission and 'voice'. 3. Be brave in creation. You can easily abandon what doesn't work. 4. Don't show the world the work until you're comfortable. Not polished or even confident, just comfortable. 5. Manage and engage those in the organization threatened by innovation. 6. Build and nurture corporate alliances. 7. Legacy models will seek to self-preserve in a crisis. 8. When hard choices need to be made, make them quickly and fairly. 9. Fall in love. 10. Be ready for heartbreak.

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Would you want a "digital resurrection" of your lost loved one? Check out our latest Media Minute from KMOX | Audacy and Julie Smith

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Thanks to everyone who attended this week’s conversation about responding to audience loss.  A recording of the webinar (w/presentation warts and all) and the deck are here. https://lnkd.in/ggXMHvzV The question we started to explore was: “How might we (as stations, NPR and other content providers, and as leaders shaping the culture of our organizations) earn back 50% of the audience most stations have lost in the past few years?”   Let’s keep the conversation going. Just this morning, Mikel Ellcessor shared this essay (https://lnkd.in/gE8EGzJW) about “News as Product.” If that idea makes you wince or cheer, here’s the core idea in the piece, which resonates with the discussion in the webinar:   “What does product-market-fit mean? Putting it in journalistic coverage terms … For example, if your newsroom is very good at crime headlines reporting with articles on your website, but your audience for that content is shrinking. You need to make a change - and I’m not gonna be sheepish about this, you may need to scrap that reporting or deeply reduce it. You do not have product-market-fit.”   Jarl Mohn always said, “We’ll keep the audience we earn.” Onward to earning back a listening habit. Mike Henry, Paragon Consulting Izzi Smith, Listen Again Tomorrow

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It would appear that the “new realities” public radio has been discussing for years have arrived, and they have our full attention. Audiences are down in most places, deficits are mounting and staff are being cut, and the editorial heart of our news coverage is in question. As Programming leaders, the question of the moment is, “what now?” We can “admire the problem,” or we can act. On April 24 at 2p CT, Paragon and Listen Again Tomorrow want to start a conversation - ideas for "what now". What meaningful steps can the programming community take individually and together to respond to this new reality? RSVP at listenagaintomorrow at gmail We imagine April 24th as the first of three sessions - earning back the core, new things for new audiences, and scalable/sustainable digital. If you’d like to join this first conversation, send an email to listenagaintomorrow at gmail with the subject line “what’s next,” and a topline response (2-3 sentences) to the question below. We’ll pick 2-3 responses to highlight and discuss on Zoom. Space is limited (because Izzi has a cheap Zoom plan), so RSVP soon. Question for April 24 - How might we (as stations, NPR and other content providers, and as leaders shaping the culture of our organizations) earn back 50% of the audience most stations have lost in the past few years? What this is NOT - a sales thing for Paragon and Listen Again. We’re interested in ideas about action, not pitching work. We will also not be directly discussing the Berliner essay. We look forward to thinking and evolving together. Izzi Smith, Listen Again Tomorrow (listenagaintomorrow at gmail) Mike Henry, Paragon

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JOURNALISM TIP OF THE WEEK: Be skeptical. Understand that most people who want your attention usually have an agenda. You must ALWAYS drill down past the surface to find the truth. Look past the surface of emails and phone calls from PR people, school spokespersons, Chambers of Commerce, lawmakers, government officials, even alleged crime victims. They want you to tell THEIR version of stories. Social media rumors are often passed off as facts by tipsters. Loved ones of crime suspects often tell convincing stories about their innocence. Officials often boast about their record of success. Take nothing on face value. Get documentation. Ask tough questions. Find sources that either validate or debunk things you’ve heard or read. Skepticism will not only protect your company from lawsuits, it will make you a credible journalist.

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How do people feel about tv news? A new study is out and it focuses on local news. A look at the results and what it means. Check out Newsblues.com https://lnkd.in/g4BYbc7m

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🌟 Thought of the Day from Chris at I.D.E.A. Cleveland: 🌟 Let's face it, your marketing budget should work as hard as you do. If it’s not bringing you leads, maybe it's time to rethink your strategy (or just get that boat and enjoy some downtime!). Always evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. If they’re not bringing in results, it might be time for a change. Remember, it’s not just about spending money, it’s about investing it wisely. Sometimes, stepping back and reassessing can lead to better strategies! 💡 At I.D.E.A. Cleveland, we ensure every dollar you invest in marketing not only works, but works wonders. Let’s make your marketing as exciting and effective as possible! 🛥️ Who knew a boat could be a reminder to keep our marketing on course? #MarketingTips #BusinessGrowth #IDEACleveland #LeadGeneration #FunMarketing

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Each week I get sent around a dozen new songs by email, and most of them have the exact same problem: the lyrics are too literal. I’m not a songwriting expert, but through my RNZ show and the support we give to new music,  artists often send their songs to me personally for a listen. I’m up for it! We have actual experts on our team, but I think of myself as the intern who reads 50 movie scripts then sends the best handful on to Mr Spielberg. So yes, too literal. By which I mean the songwriter is saying exactly what they are thinking/doing/feeling. To me the best songs don’t do that - they either add some poetry or obscurity or, my favourite, some weird unique specificity to take it out of the bland and into the sublime. You can usually tell by the end of the first line. Look, for contrast, at the top five NZ songs of all time as voted (in 2001) by APRA. No one’s doing literal here:  “Through falling leaves I pick my way slowly/Talking aloud, eases my mind” I have no idea what’s going on so far and there are few clues to orient me, but I like the feeling of where we’re heading. There are already a couple of lovely images here and we’re only 13 words in. “There is freedom within, there is freedom without/Try to catch the deluge in a paper cup” Again I’m confused, but we’ve been gifted a nice piece of wordplay and another lovely image. As with the last one you sense the narrator is struggling with his mental health without him having to open the song singing “I AM STRUGGLING WITH MY MENTAL HEALTH”. “I can’t remember last time I thanked you/Keeping my distance unintentionally” This is the most literal yet but there are still some tricks going on. It’s addressed to “you”, for a start, giving the effect that you’re receiving a confession. It looks like we’re in a relationship breakdown here but he hasn’t gone for the dramatic - instead he’s opted for the even more devastating slow drift-apart. The not-being-able-to-remember-the-last-time-you-thanked-your-partner is a lovely, heartbreaking way of saying, in eight words, that the goodwill is all gone. “Look at the sunrise, I look at it burn/ I look into your eyes, don’t know where to turn” I’ve never listened to this lyric before - I thought it was just a silly song to dance crazily to. But there is poetry in this one, and a great little rhyming couplet. Side note: so far all of these guys seem like they would be bad bets as boyfriends. “When I was a young boy, I wanted to sail round the world/ that’s the life for me, living on the sea” Okay this is pretty literal, but maybe Tim gets a pass because he’s putting us in the head of a different character who speaks plainly. The second part of the line seems to refer to a kind of pirate-y kinship for the ocean too, so there’s at least a little bit going on here. I'll never have the talent to write even a bad song, but for young songwriters who do have talent, I wonder if their best collaborator might not be a guitarist, but a poet?

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