Back To Basics

When I took this job, I didn't realize it would be so hard. I didn't realize that it would take so much work to get the organization up to speed on basic communications activities. I didn't realize there was so little happening on the communications front. I didn't realize that this organization was only ready to take baby steps into the 21st century and not leaps and bounds into Web 2.0.


Now I know. After six weeks on the job and two long discussions with staff over the past week, the picture is becoming clear to me... and it's not a pretty one. The organization does not have a record of attending relevant conferences, even locally based ones. They do not have a regular packet of information for potential funders. They do not have a clear path to relevant information on the web site. The web site itself is outdated, clunky, and irrelevant. A local organization has asked us to have a info table at a public event and we don't have any materials ready to pass out -- and the organization banner is all crinkled and folded, sitting in a dusty corner!


Now I know. When I interviewed for this job (and even in the first week or two) I talked about my ambitions to get us involved in social media -- blogging, Twitter, Facebook. It seemed like a natural direction for our work and our desire to mobilize people around our issue. But now I see we are not even at Web 1.0. We are not even at Communications 1.0. We are in the Stone Age.


I can see that before moving forward on any ambitious outreach, we have to build the infrastructure. This will take time and it means we will keep missing good opportunities for outreach (such as that public event I mentioned). This is especially frustrating because I sat in these discussions with staff and heard energy, enthusiasm, ideas, and excitement for telling our story to the public. Especially among the twenty-somethings on staff, there is an abundance of innovative ideas and get-up-and-go that I love to see -- but I don't know what to do with it. I hate to think that their energy will dissipate into frustration because they will have to wait so long for their cool ideas to occur. Most of their ideas will have to wait for the basic communications infrastructure to be built -- public mission statement and vision, program descriptions, program images, program graphics, promotional materials, basic web pages, etc. It may be quite awhile before we can do the "cool" things of blogging, v-casting, using Slideshare, building a network of supporters. It will take patience on my part and their part.


My task in the next week or two should be laying out a strategic plan for how this is going to happen. Show them how we can do their ideas (to keep their enthusiasm alive) by doing the basic building blocks first.


Is this a common situation for new communications director's to walk into? I came in with all these strategic and tactical ambitions, but they will all have to wait. I won't have a chance to flex my strategic or visionary muscles for a while because what this organization needs right now is simply a leg to stand on.


Comments? Thoughts? Advice? Commiserations?