what makes you different makes you stronger

Sametz Blackstone Associates

What makes you different makes you stronger

CASE D1 – 27 January 2011

Who I am Tamsen McMahon

tamsen@sametz.com @tamadear

Sametz Blackstone Associates www.sametz.com www.sametz.com/roundthesquare @sametz

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Setting the stage

EXERCISE: What do you want people to know about your institution?

What’s your “lobby pitch”?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevensnodgrass/4017403148/

Now, cross any of these off…

It’s okay. You’re not alone.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX educates the most promising students and prepares them for a lifetime of learning and of responsible leadership, through a faculty dedicated to teaching and the creation of knowledge.

XXXXXXXXXXXX is committed to fostering excellence in academics, the arts, and athletics within a vibrant, caring community. With emphasis on integrity, leadership, diversity, and service as well as on respect for self and others, XXXXXX provides its students with a unique opportunity to prepare themselves for the challenges and choices they will face as … citizens of the world.

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XXXX combines world-class academic programs with an active campus life that offers students countless leadership and volunteer options and rich opportunities after graduation…. Faculty members—world-class teachers and scholars committed to liberal arts education—collaborate with students in a learning experience that is transformational for both.

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Here's the problem:

You need to be here:

Not here.

Or there.

But when you use these…

You’re adding to this.

You need to stand out from the noise.

And the herd.

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Which means taking the noise away.

And figuring out what makes you different.

And figuring out what makes you different.

Really different.

Like this:

XXXXXXXXXXXX, located in the heart of Boston, Massachusetts, is the nation’s premiere institution in higher education devoted to communication and the arts in a liberal arts context.

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XXXXXXXXXXX is distinctive among U.S. and international universities in having two faculties, in business and in the arts and sciences, which are unified in their educational mission. XXXXX may therefore be understood as a university within a business school — a university because of the character and scope of its education and research agendas, and a business school because of its orientation. 

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XXXXXXXX regards education as a sensual and ethical, no less than an intellectual, process. It seeks to liberate and nurture the individuality, the creative intelligence, and the ethical and aesthetic sensibility of its students, to the end that their richly varied natural endowments will be directed toward self-fulfillment and toward constructive social purposes.

We believe that these educational goals are best served by demanding of our students active participation in the planning of their own programs, and in the regulation of their own lives on campus.

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Getting there

1) Take out the noise.

And what isn’t true.

2) Heighten contrast.

3) Add dimension.

And detail.

What’s different?

What you do

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Specific programs

How you do it

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Who you are

Where you are

Who’s on the faculty

Who your students are

Who your students are

Who your students were

It’s all about results.

How what you deliver…

yours

…matches what they want.

Going further

EXERCISE: MissionProgramsMethodStatusLocationFacultyStudentsAlumni

What’s different?

More ideas…

EXERCISE: What would be lost?

EXERCISE: If you were a ______ what would you be? (person, color, tree)

EXERCISE: What's your personality?

EXERCISE: Ask students / faculty / staff / administration / alumni why they're there (or were)

EXERCISE: Look at what people say in unofficial channels (or in comments on official ones)

Wrapping up

EXERCISE: Rewrite your “lobby pitch.”

Be different. Be you.

1) Take out the noise.

2) Heighten contrast.

3) Add dimension.

Because you’re not just part of the herd.

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You’re remarkable.

Who I am Tamsen McMahon

tamsen@sametz.com @tamadear

Sametz Blackstone Associates www.sametz.com www.sametz.com/roundthesquare @sametz

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