We had a really successful staff development day not long ago, so I thought I might share the format - as it might be useful to other small companies or project teams. If you have a lot of associates and flexible workers as we do, it's important to get together now and then to catch up.

1. Vision - the vision behind the company or project, the inspiration behind it all. Does the mission statement need renewing?
2. Celebrate ourselves - review recent successes. It's easy to find in routine operational meetings that you're discussing mostly challenges and problems, and success is not lauded. You might find, as we did, that we had many successes to celebrate.  We made time to thank one another for the support we got within the team.
3. Review of projects, feedback from clients and learning points! We realised we had some strengths and skills we hadn't previously identified.
4. Magic Wand - if you could wave a magic wand and change something for the company what would it it be? (We decided moving en masse to the Seychelles wasn't really on, but as we actively promote remote and flexible working, an employee moving to  sunnier climes would not have to resign!) /more
5. Beat the niggles - what really bugs you regularly that we could change? We ended up with some new more ergonomic chairs, productivity software and a "cooler" phone!
6. Practicalities - new holiday forms or whatever systems are being introduced or improved.
7. Value words - what are the concepts that we live by every day on our company / team? Do we all share them (we did!).
8. Current projects - two-minute presentations on current projects from project managers so everyone knows a minimum.
9. Future projects - what should we be doing - wacky ideas?
10. Lunch - or other refreshments. We've found that good food helps to build a team.

It's a pretty simple format but it was effective for us.

Do you have any useful activities that have been particularly succesful for your team or group? Do let us know.

Every blog post starts with an idea. I’ve written previously about the types of blog post and how to “think blog” so that ideas flow to you. Don’t forget to keep track of those ideas! Now you have an idea, how do you turn it into a published blog post?

1. Just write. Once you've got your idea, your topic, your angle, give yourself some time and write. For this first draft don't worry about editing, checking back – that's for the editing stage. Use the “free writing” - give yourself ten minutes, or twenty – and just keep going, don't stop. Dump out the contents of your brain on the subject. GY38PVJRN35E
2. Now edit: That first draft won't be perfect. If you've done proper “free writing” it may be full of repetitions and unnecessary verbiage. Start to put in a structure, a beginning, a middle and an end. Make sure the arguments follow logically, one per paragraph. Clean up the grammar and check the punctuation. Polish those random thoughts into a coherent whole. This is the key step.
3. Structure: Although a blog post is short, it needs to be able to be read by itself, in isolation, and it needs to be easy to read. It needs a good title, an opening sentence and paragraph, a description of context, a logical sequence of points, and, at the end, a sum-up or rounding up of what you've said.
4. Don't say too much Quite often you will find that what you have is actually too long for a single blog post. This blog post itself became three in the editing. You're not writing an article or a short story: short and concise are the watchwords. However, it needs to be long enough to carry the reader with you – and posts do vary in length between blogs in within blogs. An introduction to a subject for the beginner, for example, will necessarily be longer – and even split across more than one post – when compared to a link post, which may be very short. There's no such thing as the ideal number of words or paragraphs for a blog post. With practice you will develop your own typical length.
5. Use your own voice There's a lot said when one studies writing about “voice”. The main thing is, however, that you can use a template or an idea from other blogs or blogging courses like Reach Further's How to Blog course, but ultimately it is your blog and you will develop your own voice in which you are comfortable writing. If you're not naturally a comic, don't try to be funny. Tell your story in your own style and voice.
6. Practice: Luckily a blog is the ideal format to learn to write, as your early posts will be eclipsed by your later and probably better ones. So long as you are honest, polite, and accurate – if they're good they'll be remembered, if they're not, they'll disappear into the trillions of words on the Web.

Picture by this lyre lark

The core principle of The Cohesion Model for Sustainable Online Communities and Social Networks (as described in my previous post on 13th November) is that there are effectively three levels within a community - the Public, the Community or Collaborative, and the Private or Individual level.  There is a role associated with each of these and we have defined the tasks associated with each role.  In the first post in this series I described the role of the Community Editor.

The model is necessarily refined and improved with each community that we run, and nowhere is that more relevant than in the second of the key roles, that of the Community Facilitator.  This role has many names, and indeed may vary depending on the context: it may be called the Community Manager, the Community Moderator, the E-moderator or the Community Lead. For example, there may be organisational reasons why the title Manager is not appropriate, or in FE Colleges the word Moderator is not used because it has a completely different meaning. Whichever job title you use, the Community Facilitator is a key role, and I could not begin to describe all the tasks involved in a single blog post (I teach full courses on how to undertake the role).

Often those who set up communities with little experience underestimate the time and resources that this role requires. Yet without it, a community is doomed to failure.

Some of the tasks of this role are:

• listening to the community (as for the Community Editor role)
• welcoming new members
• facilitating discussions and interactions
• avoiding or dealing with problems
• setting and maintaining the tone
• monitoring and modelling good behaviour
• responding to queries
• giving information and signposting sources of information elsewhere
• representing the owner(s) and stakeholders of the community to the memebrs and vice versa, as appropriate
• planning community events, online and offline
• providing learning opportunities and resources (because all communities of practice are learning communities to a greater or lesser extent even if that is not their main raison d'etre)

As with the Community Editor, this role may be split between several people, for example, some may set policies and deal with any problems while others take part iin the community being helpful and facilitating interaction. The roles of course overlap somewhat, especially when dealing with content that necessarily moves between the levels, for example when a collaborative group within the community produce a presentation or article to be shared outside the community, or a piece of public content is use to spark a community discussion.

In the next post in this series I'll look at the tasks for the third domain of online community - the Private or Individual level.

The British Council have launched their search for the young interactive entrepreneur award. Especially for those looking for opportunities in India.  The British Council are "seeking the brightest young business talent in the interactive sector: entrepreneurial, aged 25-35, with at least 3 years professional experience and the drive to push the boundaries of the interactive industry.  The award offers an amazing opportunity to extend your international business network. Six finalists will be selected to undertake a tour of the interactive industry in India where they will meet their peers and industry leaders, gaining valuable insights into the market and the way businesses operate there. The winner will receive a £5,000 grant to be spent on a collaborative project with India.
Applications close at 2pm on Monday 7 September 2009.
For more information and details of how to apply visit the website.