CSC 595 “Research Skills” Elevator Pitch Day

CSC 595 is a required course for computer science graduate students that teaches new researchers how to choose a research method, prepare for and present a research talk, prepare a research proposal, do a literature search and evaluate research.

As part of their course requirements, students worked to polish and deliver their elevator pitches. The instructor is one of my mentors and the past-chair of the UVic computer science department, Sue Whitesides. Sue and I had pulled off many successful intrustrial networking events together and she was confident that I could show the students how to sell themselves in seconds. No pressure.

Looking around the classroom as we waited to start, I took in the diverse crowd and tried not to feel intimidated. I’m pretty sure any number students seated in the room could have out-pitched me! No matter, I kicked off the class off with my own elevator pitch. It was over in just under two minutes. Here’s how I did it.

Who are you?

Keep it short. What would you most want the listener to remember about you?

What can you do?

Here is where you state your value phrased as key results or impact. To organize your thoughts, it may help to think of this as your tag line, or purpose statement.

Why are you doing it?

Now it’s time to show the unique benefits that you and/ or your company bring. Show what you do that is different or better than others

What are your goals?

Describe your immediate goals. Goals should be concrete and realistic. Include a time frame. This is the final step and it should be clear to the listener what you are asking of him or her.

Vocabulary

Use words that show what you do instead of tell: advanced, approved, authoritavie, certified, confirmed, dominant, early, endorsed, established, finest, foremost, inaugural, inceptive, key, responsive …

Practise practise practise so you don’t repeat words or ramble, but be careful not to sound like you’re reciting off a script.

Be flexible. If your audience asks a question or looks like he or she wants to interrupt, be willing to go in a new direction. After all, the pitch is designed to start a conversation. If that conversation starts sooner, well done!

October 8, 2015March 7, 2018

Digital storytelling as a community engagement method

I was lucky enough to get a seat in the recent Community University Engagement workshop “Research with Community:
Digital Storytelling as Method and Engagement” hosted by ISICUE and UVic Fine Arts.

I was hoping to learn more about using visual methods and digital storytelling to engage communities.

The workshop was facilitated by Dr. Tamara Plush, whose research focuses on how participatory video can raise citizen voice in international development contexts. Tamara has worked in Africa and South East Asia facilitating a multi-day (or week) process that she condensed into a half-day workshop.

Here’s an example of how Tamara has used participatory video and elements of good practice for using videos to build agents of change:

We broke into groups of four and followed Tamara’s framework where there is a prompt that helps the individual experience inform the collective central theme. This is followed by the creation of a story arc and then a two-phase storyboarding process. This approach emphasizes the building of empathy from the personal to the group and then to the policy maker.

The prompt: Tell a story about a challenge you’ve faced in your work around community engagement.

We reflected individually and then discussed to pull out a central theme:

“Recognizing the imbalance of power that’s inherent when you have a diversity of the participants”

If we’d had time, we would have also come up with some visuals to represent the theme. Care needs to be taken to make sure that the personal experiences connect to the theme.

I opted to be totally engaged to the process instead of trying to divide my attention by capturing our progress on camera. Thankfully, Tamara provided more resources on her site that are useful to fill in the details about the techniques we used to work out the story arc and storyboard.

Storyboarding: Phase I

My group brainstormed how to tell the story that would illustrate our theme using sticky notes and then arranging the sticky notes onto pages labelled with one of four icons.

[👂] Who should hear the story?

[🤔] What do you hope they will think?

[😀] What should they feel?

[🗣 🗯] What is the dialogue you want the film to spark?

Storyboarding: Phase II

Using four pieces of letter paper, we created 4 frames that would make up our film.

Remember

The video itself sparks the conversation. It can be a point of interest that enables the larger dialogue to happen – the video doesn’t need to do it all.

Tamara mentioned other creative processes that can be used to explore the topic to help create a compelling story including body mapping, looking at a collection of photos, or conducting interviews.

October 8, 2015March 15, 2017

Authentic storytelling

I’ve had more that enough time to let the dust has settle and I think I’m ready to talk about my favourite session Social Media Camp and how I plan to apply it to my personal life.

The session was called “Brand Culture and Storytelling” and the speaker was David Reeve (@unleashculture) of Unleash Culture.

David explained that every brand story has three emotional hooks: purpose, values and have a hero. This resonated with me and I saw applications both personally and professionally. I already posted about how to implement storytelling into your professional brand, and I wanted to try and capture how I see this approach as a fit for me. David shared several examples of companies that spend as much effort sharing their emotional hook as they do telling people about their product.

Can you answer your “Big Why” in four words?

Your purpose statement is similar to a mission statement except that it’s foward focused and four-words or shorter. Look for why or how you do what you do, rather than what it is that you do. Focus on your character and the things that emotional emphasis.

Here’s my personal purpose statement (it’s a work in progress): Connect with positivity

Now, the next time you meet someone at a networking event, try introducing yourself using your purpose statement. Feel totally awkward? David assured us that this is the feeling of getting the first emotional hook. A more sublte way to integrate your purpose statement is to include it in your email signature.

Define your core values

Values represent who we are not who we would like to be or think we should be. They represent your unique and individual essense and serve as a compass pointing towards what it means to be your true self. Your values can be discerned from how you live in the world and tend to show up time and time again in our lives.

Keep in mind that values aren’t core if you have to read them off a cheat sheet. You need to be able to live your values.

To help identify your values, identify special, peak moments when life was expecially rewarding or poignant, rich or fulfilling and ask yourself what was happening, who was present and what was going on. What were the values being honoured?

Conversely, look at times you were angry, frustrated or upset – these times are likely to signal when an important value was being supressed or compromised.

Luckily, I had already worked out my top core values at a previous workshop. The following is the very top of a list of 25 values that I feel are most important in my life both personally and professionally.

Individuality: Room for originality and self-reflection
Fairness: Consider all people equally
Intelligence: Acquiring and applying knowledge, skills and experience
Competence: Do things well

I know that these are my core values because when I find myself in a situation where one of these values is tested, it’s almost like I have no control over my emotional reaction. I’ve been in situations where someone is treated unfairly and my blood will boil!

Make someone a hero

Who are the heroes in my life? Currently, I have several roles that represent keys to who I am: coordinator, communicator, mother, best friend, leader. I’m energized by the impact each of these roles has.

As a secret weapon, I build on the fantastic customer service my office provides by telling the story of our student’s success via social media and traditional channels.
As my spouse’s best friend, I show my unconditional love and support by helping him achieve his professional and athletic goals.
I nurture the character and abilities of my children to the fullest by giving them dedicated one-on-one time every day.
As my Sparks unit’s biggest fan, I boost the confidence of each Spark through discovering, cultivating and recognizing their individual strengths.

Build your story

Be the chief storyteller of your life. It’s up to you and your heroes tell the world.

June 28, 2015October 30, 2015

COM 405 Website Review Day

COM 405 “Career Preparation Across Borders” is a dynamic advanced career prep course in the Bachelor of Commerce Program at the Peter B. Gustavson School of Business. The goal of COM 405 is to set each and every Commerce student up with global networks, build their resume, gain mentors, international experiences and build technical skills.

Students are required to build out a website to showcase themselves to potential employers. To help them figure out what kinds of elements to include on a personal website, they were provided with a demo website. Most students chose a Weebly template to build out from. I was invited to attend a coaching session to help students build, strengthen and showcase their own brand.

The BCOM Experiential Learning Manager and one of the course instructors, Jennifer Gill, supplied a rubric to help make sure I was providing the right kinds of feedback. Some of the students showed up with fully built out sites and others were expecting a lot more hand holding.

I shared my favourite tips on effective writing for the web and basic content layout. I also asked some of my favourite “GROW” coaching questions. These open-ended questions helped them to nail down their purpose and values, and through this, clarity about their personal brand.

My favourite component that students included was a “global mindset” page. It helped to tease out the why and how that motivated each student. By fourth year, every Gustavson Commerce student has had some sort of international experience, either as an exchange student to another institution or on an international work term.

The completed sites were revealed at the Global Leaders Festival, billed as a “reverse career fair” for employers to identify new talent.