Nate Riggs: Social Business Strategies; communication, social web strategies, & passion in Columbus, Ohio.

Sometimes a wonderful opportunity just happens to fall in your lap.

When Mike Brown from Brainzooming called me last month, I immediately knew that the chance to work with him, Keith Prather and Barrett Sydnor on facilitating the Brainzooming process at Fort Hays State University was one of those opportunities.

Mike is a Hays Alumni and someone who I’ve highly respected as a strategist and speaker for a few years now.

I met Mike in 2007 at the TMCA Annual Conference, where he presented on some of the work he did with YRC Worldwide on building out their NASCAR Sponsorship program, and have been following his work ever since.

Go Big

As we were preparing, I asked Mike, “How many people will be in the room?”

Mike answered, “About 30 to 35 people from across university.”

[Scared pause.]

I asked again, “No, really.  How many people will we be facilitating?”

Mike answered again, “It’s going to be a big group.  Up to 35 people between you, me and two facilitators.”

Have you ever seen the commercial, from a few Super Bowl’s back, where the cowboys ride around on horses herding hundreds of cats?  That was the image that went through my mind as we talked on that call.

But, I trust Mike.  And I knew he had a plan worked out.

The Brainzooming Process

Driven by the necessity of working with large corporate teams, Mike and friends knew they had to beat the system.  They knew that in that environment, they needed to come up with a process that would help large corporate teams develop not only a strategy, but also an action plan in a very short period of time.

The result of years of work was Brainzooming, a strategy and ideation process that captures months’ worth of ideas and information in about seven hours of a highly facilitated, strictly timed and amazingly fun process.

I’m not going to give away Brainzooming’s secrets.  They’re not mine to give.  But, what I will do is show you a small glimpse of what the day was like and some of the methods Mike has developed.

Mike, Keith, Barrett and I still have a ton of work to do behind the scenes, but I must say, Brainzooming is absolutely worth talking about (and also worth your consideration for any type of organizational strategy project – it works.)

Here’s a teaser:

Leading Adoption from the Top

You should meet Dr. Larry Gould.  He’s the driving force at Hays, who is leading the charge towards organizational adoption of social media tools at the university.

I like Larry and his style.  In talking with him, it’s immediately evident that he can see the value of using social media tools at his institution, but also the value of the education around these tools for his students.  The best part is that rather than getting stuck in researching this new medium to death, he’s taking action that leads to learning.

All of us were honored that he called us to help him work up a plan on how to get there.

I also want to give special thanks to my new friend, Casey Rohleder, for all the work (and killer ideas and energy) she put into helping Mike prepare for this session.   Building a large team of the right people across an organization is no small task and Casey’s work on developing audience personas rivals what I’ve seen come out of Resource Interactive. Bravo, Casey!

What’s your take on using social media in the classroom?

nateriggs

I advise mid-sized & large organizations on how to adopt and use social media to market through organizational culture and better serve their clients. I'm also a blended family dad who enjoys music, photography and distance racing. When I'm not writing here, you can find me writing over at the Content Marketing Institute. Like what you've read so far? Then why not subscribe HERE?

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