Robert Paterson on Trusted Space

If you’ve not had the opportunity to read Rob Paterson’s collection of pieces on Trusted Space, then push everything aside right now and read them. Paterson uses real world examples to get inside the idea of trusted space and how public media can successfully become a trusted space for its members.

A few nuggets:

The Emotional Experience – In the new model, the member has to have a compelling emotional experience. Public radio has to transcend merely being a trusted news or entertainment source and become an emotional necessity for its members.

All for One and One for All – You are as strong as your weakest link. You stand together or not at all! To do this you will also have to stop thinking that you can allow many stations to operate below the standard by which this experience is delivered. [...] You cannot sit by and passively observe poor performers take down your whole system. Neither can you set out to manage everyone in the system. What you can do is to define standards for stations and for groups of stations as implied in your emergent plan.

Branding Principles in a Cultural Context – Southwest’s brand is not some marketing wheeze. It is the expression of the experienced reality of its culture and what this culture delivers to its employees first and then as a consequence of what its employees deliver as an experience to the customer. In the new model, the brand is driven by how you are as a person and as an organization.

There’s great stuff here – the ingredients that we need in the mix to create the next generation of service for our audience.