| Editorial: Your mission, should you choose to accept it!
This
mission... Is to ask six people in your organisation or connected
to it (e.g. users; clients; peers; your line manager) in a
very charming non-threatening manner what it is that they
think you do - i.e. what do they think your job entails.
Leading questions are not allowed; suggesting answers or feeding
information to ‘start them off’ on the right track is not
allowed either. Nor is preferring only those folk you think
you’ve got reasonably well trained on the matter by now.
That’s part one of the challenge.
Part two is to ask a follow-up question - in what way do they
think what you do effects the organisation. Again, no mildly
cheating by asking, for example, in what way do they think
what you do benefits the organisation! Anyone who feels their
blood pressure is likely to rise by engaging on the above-outlined
very dangerous process can of course take it one step at a
time and retire to a deserted corner at speed to take deep
breaths in between if necessary.
Now the above questions are of course very subjective; and
it’s certainly not using a highly scrutinised controlled representative
population. But the results can be worth giving a bit of consideration
to. If anyone is feeling adventurous Impact would be very
interested to hear of the answers and how closely they matched
what YOU actually thought you did and what effect it had.
Anyone whose chosen victims (ahem - investigative sample!)
pass both questions with flying colours can ignore the articles
in this issue about the importance of marketing and brand
image, and ways of utilising these in our favour.
The rest of us might get some new ideas however and be chastened
enough to practice them instead of intending that new marketing
initiative but getting side-tracked by other things! At the
end of the day it’s not just about what we do; but about what
we are seen or thought to do by others that matters. As with
many things in life it’s a matter of perception. And perception
does actually operate as the foundation for decisions.
An example of that is the article in this issue about how
to go about writing a Portfolio (something more and more of
us are becoming involved in for various professional pursuits).
My first sight of a professional portfolio was for a Chartership
submission some years ago and was hundreds of pages in length;
and I well remember sitting down somewhat abruptly in shock
as I resolved that I most definitely wasn’t doing one of those!
Experience
since of course proves that a portfolio is
not scary and is as long as the evidence requires and no more.
But the story hopefully illustrates that initial perceptions
do matter and can affect results.
Isabel Hood
Joint Honorary Editor | 
