Build a Tribe! On Leading Groups

Recently, I came across marketing guru Seth Godin’s interactive list on how to build a tribe. That is how to create a group or a network or even a MOVEMENT that works and to build community between people. Mr Godin even wrote a book on his concept of Tribes (and at one point was ranked by technocrati as the world’s no 1 blogger), but I think the (free) resource discussed here covers the vitals.

This list (built on social media tool squidoo) is a resource that provides inspiration and ideas and make me think of how to take organizations and networks that I am currently a member of (like GhanaBlogging, IAS Graduate Students Network, FabFem etc.)  forward.

My favorite items on the list are:

Listen Carefully

As well as speaking have a strong ear for what the group is saying. Trust that the tribe knows what it needs to grow.

Invent rituals

Summer camps do it. So does organized religion. Great corporations have their own lingo, their own culture. How you speak and the totems and daily rituals build connection.

Give Peoples’ Lives Meaning

Have tribal goals that enrich peoples’ lives and give them more meaning

Create a manifesto.

Your tribe already exists… it just hasn’t been defined yet.

So create a manifesto. Give voice to the frustrations of your tribe members. If you strike the right tone – if they feel you can relate to them – this manifesto will be the viral tool that gets your tribe members to raise their hands and say “I am.”

How would you build a tribe?

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Global Voices Interview with Kajsa HA

Today, I am interviewed by Linda Annan, editor of American-Ghanaian Obaasema Magazine in the international online blogging/citizen media community Global Voices.

Global Voices is an amazing site that pulls together stories from blogs all over the world, with a focus on the areas we do not hear from every day. The community is largely volunteer-driven and is co-founded by celebrity blogger “My Heart’s in Accra”/Ethan Zuckerman.

Here is an excerpt from my interview:

How and why did you get into blogging? And why Ghanablogging?

In 2006 I was living in Paris and started blogging to keep in  touch with family and friends and write about my impressions of my new life. At the time, some Swedish friends had blogs at home. I have always loved to write and thought it was a brilliant forum, but couldn’t really find my own tone or topic. However, when I knew I was going to move to Paris, I found myself reading blogs, not books, about Parisian life. I think that spurred the decision to start blogging myself.

In Paris, I was invited to a blog meet-up, hosted by blogger Petite Anglais (who later got a book deal out of her blog). It was great to meet with other bloggers and it turned out two of them worked within the same big organization as me at the time!

So in 2007, when I moved to Ghana I continued blogging and was always on the lookout for Ghanaian blogs. When I had found enough of them, I organized the first meet-up with a friend. It was in July 2008, and eight bloggers came. We decided on the name GhanaBlogging as we wanted the action in the name. We are all doers.

What are you referring to when you say you love the shift from online presence to real life meetings?

When people think of blogging, they think about a lonely person in front of a computer, when in reality it really is a network! Blogging comes with belonging somewhere, blogging is an activity that has strengthened my relationship to Ghana. So yes, my blog is online, but many real life meetings have come out of it!

Read the full Global Voices interview here.

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Happy Birthday to Me!

Today I am leaving the flimsy 20s behind and finally growing up – today I am 30!

Got this wonderful song from my family in Sweden (in which they also mention this blog and summarize its content “It is me who is Kajsa”). Worth listening to even if you do not understand Swedish, you will get the chorus 🙂

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On Air: Kajsa on E-TV

E-TV, Ghana, Kajsa Hallberg AduKajsa Hallberg Adu, E-tv, Ghana

So here’s the promised report from my 5 minutes of fame.

I came into the E-TV studio in Asylum Down at 7.30am on the dot. I was whisked into the make-up booth, although I had already used an aging powder at home thinking they might not have my shade available…

In minutes, I was sitting next to the glamorous presenter of the “Awake” show, Ester, and without much ado she introduced me as “a very interesting lady living in Ghana”. We chit-chatted about how come I ended up in Ghana (“love”), what my favorite Ghanaian food is (“omo tuo and groundnut soup”) as well as on differences between Ghana and Sweden (“basically everything!”). I was allowed to talk about my blog and about Ghanablogging. I felt relaxed and Ester cheered me on through chuckles and follow-up questions.

Maybe best of all was that afterwards, I had the chance to speak to the producers of the show and promote Ghanablogging and my fellow bloggers. They sounded very interested and likely this will not be the last time a Ghanablogger goes on air with E-TV.

Reviews?

My Ghanaian family was very proud and called me after the show to congratulate me. A friend texted me saying “you are so sweet on TV – another career to discover!”

All in all, a good experience even though I had to leave home at dawn.

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Yours Truly on E-TV

I have been invited to E-TV, Ghana’s newest(?) free-to-show tv-channel, and their morning show!

I’ll be speaking to George, who found me through this blog. Heasked me to prepare for the following topics:

how you first heard about Ghana, a bit about your PHD project, your teaching, why you married a Ghanaian, and your future plans.

Tune in tomorrow Friday around 7.30 am.  Tune in or I’ll tell you in this space how it went!

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Only in Ghana – Twitter in Ghana

I signed up to Twitter some time ago and am still struggling with using it.

First it is the practical stuff. At times, I can upgrade my Twitter status or tweet from my phone – but many times this does not work.

Also, Twitter rarely works at home (Vodafone Broadband). Is it a firewall maybe?

But it has not really mattered, because I just could not see the use for Twitter. It is mostly a lot of noisy small talk.  The only (useful) application I have thought of is that I’d love to get (and contribute to)  updates about traffic for instance on the Tema-Accra motorway. I even invented a hashtag or searchable keyword for writing about traffic in Ghana  #TraGha – but how do one make a hashtag be used?

And OK, OK, Twitter is fun to use at events, with event specific hashtags but then phone updates have to work! (see above discussion).

So currently, I have given up on serious usage and as Twitter today is working from home/through a wordpress application, I found this up-and-coming funny hashtag: “#onlyinGhana”. Here are some of my favorites:

#onlyinGhana a Burger is regarded as ‘high class food’.

Theres a shop at the mall called WHITEley’s that sells only african stuff. #onlyinghana.

some cedi notes look like dey have fell in the gutter #onlyinghana

#onlyinghana where #facebook gurls paint their walls wid azar paint just to clean ya #wallpost

#onlyinghana does the whole parliament go to welcome Obama at the airport

What “only in Ghana” sentence would you add?

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Welcome to My New Blog!

Finally! Today I am moving (or should I say “launching”?) my new blog on wordpress and introducing you, my dear reader, to a new blogging concept. You will recognize much from Rain in Africa (I have imported all the posts, the headings of imported posts are marked “>”), but in this space I’d like to expand and give you

-More personal stories (on Me , myself and I)
-More work related stories (teaching and PhD/ migration research)
-More critical stories
-More international stories
-More of my favorite reads, links and resources.

To underline that the new blog is more personal, I’ve decided to “do an AtoKD” and simply give my new blog my name plus initials = Kajsa H.A. resulting in the web address https://kajsaha.com (please bookmark it and change eventual links!)

Thanks for reading my blog and I’d love to read your comments on my new blog!

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