The Wonderer Returns

After almost two months of silence I'm back, and this time I promise never to leave you in the dark about my oh so amazing life (you can't blame me for selling myself in!!)



So where have I been, I hear you all asking? The answer is nothing glamorous yet certainly exciting! I've been really busy what with my course, my fundraising and the associated training, plus I've been settling in at my placement at the amazing Lava PR - think I'll have to devote a whole blog post to do it justice!



My previous blog posts have tended to be structured pieces of writing that had a central theme that could be linked to throughout. This however often means that when I'm strapped for time I neglect my blog due to being reluctant to post a short and sweet update.



So from now on I'm blogging with a simple aim, to let my avid followers what the Rosie Affair really is so I apologise in advance for slightly of track posts but hey!



In the meantime for those of you that like me are part of the PR clan, I need your help: With one race done and another six to do, the campaign could really benefit if we could increase the level of exposure and perhaps introduce the idea of corporate sponsors who would pay to feature on race shirt. Seeing as you all have brilliant contacts, I think this would be a fantastic opportunity to show your support by donating your skills and ideas!!



Looking forward to hearing all of your amazing ideas and remember to re tweet the link to this post, so we can increase peoples awareness for my Year of Running for Bassetlaw Hospice.



Thanks x

Aint No Mountain High Enough - apart perhaps the Lincoln One!

In seven days time it'll hopefully be all over - assuming that I don't incur a massive injury such as a broken bone I will have completed the Annual Lincoln 10K Road Race. In aid of BassetlawHospice which you all should know by now is the charity I am choosing to fund raise for by embarking on a year of runs!

Over the last few days something very disturbing has started to happen. People have been asking me what time I'm aiming to complete the race and also what my race pace is. I think it is important at this stage to get a few things straight...
As long as I finish the course I will be ecstatic, I have never proclaimed to be the next Paula Radcliffe and quite frankly can you really see me weeing myself just to maintain my personal best!

I will admit that with less than a week to go I am beginning to feel that this is going to be way harder than I ever imagined - and this is where you come in. Rosie i.e. me has the habit of talking myself into a panic when all that matters is that I'm doing this to raise some money for charity.

So over the next six days I need all of you that read this to visit my just giving page and pledge money for my year of running!

Wish me luck for my last week of training... any hints or tips on how to prepare for race day will be greatly received!!

Shrove Tuesday... The Start of Something Big?

It took me an evening of pancakes - trust me much better in theory than in practice, to finally decide what I would give up for Lent. Ash Wednesday is not just a lingering day of obligation in the Catholic calender - it conjures for those die hard Catholic girls and boys memories of abstaining from chocolate and in more recent years alcohol!

Rather than the usual promises of no sweets or crisps I have decided this year to rather than give something up I will be embracing a sense of thinking: positive thinking and courage are the order of the next 40 days and 40 nights!

Why such a touchy feely proclamation I hear you mumble whilst scoffing your third pancake - If you've dabbled in reading my previous ramblings aka blog posts you will know that I am due to run the Lincoln 10k Road Race on Sunday 21st March with the aim of raising money for Bassetlaw Hospice http://www.bassetlawhospice.org/ However just over a week ago I fell ill with what I thought was a troublesome yet simple infection, the clever doctors seem to think otherwise - apparently my long standing yet mild bowel disease has most probably progressed to Crohn's.

This new disease will take some dealing with and all the other things that come with being ill - I am determined to keep my promise of dragging my reluctant bones around the city of Lincoln in the name of charity. Yes the remaining period of training will be increasingly tough but the sense of achievement when I cross the finish line (albeit with the added incentive of a Brunch time glass of champagne!) is something that I hope will keep my spirits high when my shin splints are playing up.

A final thank you to the sacrificial pancakes this evening for providing me with the eureka moment as to my direction through the Lent of 2010, Lets hope it doesn't take me to Emerald City in search of my much needed courage.

Well you can't run a race in Spanx pants... or can you?

Spanx pants sum up my approach to any type of physical activity... no work and all the perceived gain! However when it comes to a 10km road race apparently they have these clever little digital chips which record just how long it took you to complete the run - and what's more they publish this information on the Internet for all to see and in my case laugh their socks off!!

Why is this of any concern I hear you say? Well Rosie has entered the 14th Annual 10km Lincoln Road Race which takes place on Sunday 21st March... so in 56 days I will have to endure the torture of running 10km aka 6.2 miles around the town of Lincoln finishing in the shadow of Lincoln Castle. Apart from the obvious downside of having to rise before lunchtime on the day (race starts at 11.ooam) I have failed to mention so far that I have yet to start any form of training; and as Jane and my fellow students in Managing Public Relations will know my arse is one that leaves a trail of destruction behind it!

So what's the plan Stan? This is where you guys come in, as of tomorrow I will be rising at the ungodly hour of 6am to drag myself to the gym and pound the treadmill for 45 minutes! I plan to do this on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. However I have a terrible track record for not keeping to any sort of physical activity programme, therefore I am relying on all of you to motivate me in the hope that I will stick to the regime and eventually run the race and finish in a respectable time of under 90 minutes!

So why am I going to all this effort to run round Lincoln on a Sunday morning?!?! Well it's all in the name of Public Relations. My group and I have been set a task for our group assignment to create a PR campaign for a charity. We chose Bassetlaw Hospice in Retford http://www.bassetlawhospice.org/- it is where both my Aunt and Grandmother lost their battle with cancer and I feel that hospices in general whilst not a trendy topic for people to discuss (no one likes to broach death at the dinner table) is a sad necessity in the fight to ensure dignity and calm in the often dark and painfully final stage of many lives. To kick start the campaign I jokingly offered myself up like a sacrificial lamb to do the race in order to raise some media attention and of course well needed funds!!

So here I am on the eve of my training and to be honest while sat curled up on my sofa sipping coffee nothing fills me with more dread than rising three hours earlier than needed to physically exert myself but I promise that I will give it 100% but I do need your help, if you see me challenge me to make sure I've been to the gym and for god's sake if you see a chocolate bar on route to my mouth: backhand me, the harder the better!! I am going to blog over the coming weeks updating you all on my highs and the definite lows!

I can't do this on my own, so I look forward to all of you helping me, together we can do this! Are you with me? Right better dig my running trainers out... do platform heels count?!?!?!

References...

And now for the boring part - Still not 100% confident that I would have been abe to successfully refernence in the style on blog so to cover my back here are the lists of references in the harvard system!

Beard, M, (2002) Running a public relations department 2nd edition. London: Kogan Page

Crofts, J. (2009) Where does PR fit in Managing PR lecture slides: University of Lincoln

Tench, R, Yeomans, L (2009) Exploring public relations 2nd edition. London: Prentice Hall

Gregory, A (ed) (2006) Public relations in practice 2nd edition. London: Kogan Page

Gannon, D. (2009) Internal communications in practice PR organisational communication lecture slides: University of Lincoln

Reflection, Reflecting, Reflective

Does that even make any sense? Three words that in effect mean the same, but by misuse can create a whole new semantic, and in PR unless deliberate this could spell disaster.

So what have I really learnt from the group exercise? Perhaps a few different faces – will that have a massive impact, I doubt it. There is no easy solution to creating My Dream Team much to my sorrow. Instead it is a culmination of confidence, consideration and communication.

The confidence to be honest with your team members but more importantly with yourself; if something is not working speak up don’t always think that if you plough on in mental solitary confinement that everything will be ok – ok it may perhaps be but a good team and work definitely not.

Consideration of others is something I have to admit that does not come that naturally to me, I often just see the task ahead and little regard for what people may have going on outside of the team. Now I know that you’re there to get a job done and it is indeed not a social support group but it does help if you can get to know your fellow team members, recognise if there are any issues and look as a group for any solutions that may improve the situation both for the individual and for the good of the team.

Communication is the one tool that if I had to pick I would say held the key to my dream team. It is a sorely underestimated part of any team work; however it is not a prized pony which is only brought out to impress prospective clients. Make it part of everything that you do, that way in time it will become a natural part of every part of the working day. Corny as this may sound –it is the simple yet vital component to ensure a successful team

‘Companies with strong communications across functions and widely shared information tend to have more productive external relationships’ Rosabeth Moss Kanter (taken from David Gannon’s Lecture slides – internal communication in practice, 17/12/09)

The thought that I wish to leave you with is very simple: knowledge is power. Yes so you may not be able to always choose who you are going to work with you may not even like them; however this I merely an opportunity for you to demonstrate as an individual how adaptable you are, get to know them (that doesn’t necessarily mean go and manicure together) try and find out what their working style is and see if it can compliment others in the group, you just may be surprised at useful they can be. And for goodness sake do The Belbin Test before you embark on group work. My dream team isn’t about whom I do and don’t have for me it’s about looking for the best combination and output productivity possible from what is available, I am under no illusion that it will be perfect next time or the time after that, but practice makes perfect.

Is disengagement a crime?

Before the group task my response would have been a resounding yes. My answer to that now is the complete opposite. One valuable lesson that I have learnt is that not everybody is in this for the same reasons; be it studying for a degree at university or working as part of a PR team. The key to successfully managing disengagement is to identify those that could be considered as disengaged and to try and minimise or even isolate any negative effect they may have on the group.
Whilst a subject which is often shied away from in the business environment, PR unlike other disciplines can be seen to be an area within an organisation where these sorts of potential eventualities are in an ideal setting planned for with a clear internal PR – this stems from PR having a boundary spanning role. Too often than not PR is able to identify such issues in other areas of the organisation and help those respective departments in creating a framework that can be applies to such situations.
This is where we see the great similarities of PR in general and the attainment of a dream team. As work progressed on the brief, it became apparent that what people wanted to put into the task varied enormously, the biggest challenge was whilst recognising this fact and wanting to allow everybody the chance to do everything their own particular way, there was still work to be done. At this stage communication could and should have been the saviour for the team, however it just crumbled by the whey side. Anne Gregory (Public Relations in Practice, 2006 p. 50) includes The virtuous circle of communication
Whilst simple in its approach its message is clear. We as a team failed to value the importance of communication especially offline – more is needed than pleasantries at meetings. Yes this may seem idealistic but this is the team I would choose time and time again; this framework applies to both the individual within the team and the team as a whole – both striving to deliver the message in a coherent and relative fashion to the desired stakeholders.