Memory workout: How to boost powers of recall

Sofie Sandell’s tips were:

AWAKEN YOUR SENSES

Sofie Sandell is a creativity expert. “To stimulate your brain start the day by smelling something you wouldn’t normally smell in the morning,” she says.

“And listen to music that you wouldn’t ordinarily tune into – when we are in a pattern of repetition our minds stop developing.”

GO ON A MEMORY COURSE

There are countless memory courses where you can learn tricks to boost your memory and even how to remember the sequence of an entire pack of playing cards. Try floodlight.co.uk which also offers online courses.

My visit to death cafe in London 

How To Pitch Big Data To Your Chief Financial Officer

Sofie Sandell, a leadership and social media expert, says:

“CFO’s love numbers and big data can be used to track what the business is up to in spreadsheets, graphs and graphics. Show your CFO some of these that have been used by other businesses and have a discussion about how beautiful information can be when you present it using graphics. There are books about this topic you can purchase online. This will sparkle ideas about how to share new insights with the rest of organisation.

“Daily the CFO is searching for information and collating it and using it, so the use of big data is already there. If you are suggesting new investments and better use of the data that’s there you need to show what it is that you are after in a confident way. Explore the tools and learn some of the tricks by using them yourself first.

“Big data is all about being smarter with information. Right now we are drowning in figures and there are tools that can help us present this information so that even the busiest C-suit person will be fascinated by it and be able to interpret the world better to make smarter decisions.”

Read the full article here.

How to become a Digital Leader? With Sofie Sandell

Arabian social media forum

I also wrote a post about my experiences in Kuwait here.

Where are you going? be creative for a bright future

Member news

The book Digital Leadership is featured in Hounslow Chamber of Commerce magazine

The Book Review by Susanna Stratton November 2013. Thank you!!

“Digital Leadership – How creativity in business can propel your brand and boost your results.” Sofie Sandell’s book on digital communications for business.

For this first book slot I’m reviewing a book written by a fellow member of the “Fabulous Women” network. Sofie Sandell is a trainer and speaker with a successful track record of helping organisations to expand their digital and social media strategies.

“Digital Leadership” has been described as a “common sense approach” to the subject matter and I agree. I am not a marketing person by background. I have never worked in the world of marketing or indeed a communications department. However I am passionate about leadership, creativity, collaboration and innovation. I also now run a business which means I have needed to get marketing and I love social media. I love how you can put a tweet out and people hear you and reply or even better retweet and you can connect with so many people. It’s magic. Can you imagine we didn’t have this stuff twenty years ago?

Like a lot of people however I often wonder if I could be doing better . I’ve gone to a few talks on the matter, looked up YouTube “how to” videos. You can learn how to do lots of things on YouTube but I’ve never read a book on the subject before. I found this book so easy to read.

There’s no jargon to frighten the complete beginner. I have a few friends who’ve never used social media ever and I’ve recommended this to them once they’ve registered and had a go.

I have a lot of contacts in the NHS. I will be recommending it to them because the NHS definitely has untapped potential when it comes to social media. so many audiences and so many opportunities for health promotion.

I have contacts in education. Schools are often terrified of getting involved in digital communication. They fear their kids will be posting terrible things about the school. If kids are going to do that they’ll do it anyway. It’s up to the school to take the lead in what it communicates about itself and use media to help engage its kids. So don’t be afraid of social media and don’t be afraid of this book. It couldn’t be friendlier.

Sofie’s book is about a lot more than just digital communication. It talks about another one of my favourite subjects which is organisational culture. In particular the culture of creativity. Some cultures inadvertently have fostered a culture that sounds the death knell to new ideas as the words are out of someone’s mouth. It’s the “ Yes but….” culture. “ Yes but” basically means “NO!” and it takes only the strongest and most resilient pioneer to keep pushing with the idea until everyone can see that it works.

However these businesses are wasting opportunities for new ideas some of which could be the winner that brings in new clients and generates growth. So “Yes and…” opens up the conversation for new ideas to stretch and grow, get feedback, tweak, and problem solve, test and try and become the next big thing.

Sofie captures these concepts with her stories from her own experience. Infact I’d say it’s her art of story telling that really sells some of these ideas.

The book also talks about the need for connection, collaboration and sharing. We don’t have the digital technology we have today by the thoughts of one man or woman or one company. Ideas need to be shared to grow colossally and change the world. Creativity needs connection and collaboration. In the old days competition could sometimes slow down creativity.

Some companies even went out of business because they refused to share their technology. However the younger companies have a new way of looking at the world. They want to compete but they want to collaborate too. They don’t act like soldiers going to war to fight their enemy to the death.

They behave playfully like a sports team going out to compete against the other team. We might lose this time but we’ll win next time and there’s always a next time. What’s more playing this way means the game keeps getting more interesting as we just all keep getting better, stronger and faster.

Sofie’s book is great advice for organisations that want to be more creative but also for individuals that want to be more creative and for leaders that want to foster creativity.

There’s lots of excellent practical advice on how to manage your image on line as a business, how to manage conflict, how to use positive language to encourage others amongst other things.

Above all “Digital Leadership” walks the talk when it comes to thinking about how it communicates its message.

The book is well laid out and written in a very accessible way being very easy on the eye when you’re reading it. I’ve totally enjoyed reading it. On her website www.sofiesandell.com/bonus you can find extra resources. Her book is available on Amazon: www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1780356943

Read more about Susanna Stratton here: www.s-and-a-coaching.co.uk

Digital leadership and creativity

During our recent Digital Inspiration Square, Sofie Sandell, a digital expert from the UK, shared her learnings and insights on how to become a digital leader in your market (see video below).

The key to digital leadership is creativity

It is about being creative in the way you use the constantly renewing social media and in the way you use all of your other digital touch points to have your audience experience your brand to the fullest. It includes how to talk an listen to your audience via your website, mobile apps, e-mails, e-commerce channels, online customer care centre, blogs, forums, …

And – just as in classical media – to stand out in the clutter of millions of Facebook pages, Twitter channels, LinkedIn groups, websites, … and to make your brand story touch the minds and hearts of your audience, you need to be more and more creative … in a meaningful way.

Meaningful creativity requires an open mind for new approaches

It all starts with thoroughly knowing and understanding your target audiences. So your journey towards digital leadership will have to include constant monitoring, listening and learning how your consumers and customers integrate your products in their lives and how you can make a difference for them.

You also have to be open for new approaches and keep track off novelties in the market. In this way you may find new trends and you can set up some relevant actions. Once you found out some new approaches that suit your brand values, you can test them. Testing new things is a crucial part in the long process of becoming a digital leader. By doing this, you can see whether your action will work or not. Or as Sofie stated: ‘Test. Test. Test. It’s never flawless to work on digital development. It’s a bit of a bumpy ride!’. After testing your actions, you have to measure your actions of course. You have to know whether they work or not, whether you reached the right target group or not, etc. This part of the process helps you to better understand the needs of your digital public and will help you to anticipate more easily on new upcoming trends.

Best practices

• Get the basics right and make your website as user friendly as possible
• Follow the screens were they are and make your website responsive
• Share your best practice tips with your customers
• Be excellent at copywriting and website usability
• Record testimonials from your customers
• Deliver what you promise, always