It was pointed out recently that we seem to be a nation united on values and divided by politics. (Values unite, issues divide.) Almost all of us want to feel safe, secure and provide better futures for our kids. How we do those things is where things begin to deteriorate. ...
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Normal people tend to avoid conflict like explosive diarrhea. It’s really difficult, messy, and makes your stomach hurt. So, most people do what they can to pretend it’s not that important or that bad or, failing to justify it away, they defer it to somebody else or they kick the ...
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I’m not talking about your next set of wheels (although electric vehicles (EVs) are clearly in your present or future) – we’re talking about public engagement. Reach and effectiveness are two arguably valid measurements for authentic public engagement. In this age of ever increasing demands on people’s time and attention, ...
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Clarity and Candor are the Batman and Robin, Lennon and McCartney, Bacon and Eggs or SpongeBob and Patrick of public engagement; the perfect pair and indispensable under the right circumstances. Clarity and candor are more often than not missing from much of the communication that organizations, both public and private, ...
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Feels pretty good to hear that, doesn’t it? Validation is something that humans crave regardless of who they are. Not getting some level of validation slowly builds resentment, of which we seem to have an ample supply these days. In helping people understand and deal with emotional, angry, frightened people ...
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May is typically a month when people make serious plans about what they’re going to do for fun the rest of this year. Wanna hear something really pathetic? Less than half of workers in the U.S. actually use all of their vacation days. And I’ll admit that for a long ...
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Only 21% of employees trust their bosses, according to Gallup. That’s a lousy way to run an organization, but it’s consistent with the overall decline in trust in institutions and authority. However, Gallup found, when leaders implement three specific actions, 95% of their employees fully trust them. The answer isn’t ...
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Can’t you apologize too much? Good question. It came from a client recently and it prompted a lengthy conversation starting with what constitutes a good apology. We all agreed that “We are pleased to have reached a settlement of our dispute with Dominion Voting Systems. We acknowledge the Court’s rulings ...
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Rude behavior at public meetings used to be an anomaly – the exception to the norm. But that ship sailed a long time ago. Media deregulation, the loss of the fairness doctrine, and the general suspension of the equal time rule gave rise to Rush Limbaugh and hate radio, ...
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I can’t tell you the number of times that I’ve been in the audience in tough public meeting settings and watched the speaker lob verbal duds into the crowd without a clue that he or she is doing it. I don’t know of any institution that provides formalized training in ...
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