Working with the public and facilitating groups, especially oftentimes upset people, isn’t for the faint of heart – it takes courage, and courage requires confidence. For most healthy people, I think confidence can ebb and flow; it isn’t an absolute constant, and sometimes, when confidence is a little low it’s ...
read more →
Eventually we’re going to have to figure out how to talk to, deal with, and work with people that we don’t agree with or maybe even don’t like very much. That’s going to require (re)developing a skillset that feels like we’re losing. I’m seeing more being written about the need ...
read more →
Warren Buffet said, “Trust is like the air we breathe – when it’s present, nobody really notices; when it’s absent, everybody notices.” The components of trust are important to recognize: think authenticity, rigorous logic and empathy.
Most of us don’t trust social media, but most of us still ...
read more →
There’s an old lawyer axiom that says, If you don’t have the law, argue the facts. If you don’t have the facts argue the law. If you don’t have the law or the facts, just argue. You’ve probably noticed that truth and facts are having a tough time these days. ...
read more →
One of the behavior changes that we talk about is giving affirmation and respect to people. And no, I don’t mean pandering to bad behavior or bad ideas, but giving people some respect for the way they feel and even maybe some empathy for the fact that the system runs ...
read more →
Government agencies are supposed to be the epitome of how a society organizes and authorizes things to be done for the common good, which, although necessary, easily gets out of hand, intimidates constituents, sometimes feels very arrogant and really ticks people off. So one of the dozens of things that ...
read more →
Most meetings and hearings are naturally scheduled evenings when more people are available, which makes perfect sense most of the time. Some time ago it was decided that most government organizations can’t spend taxpayer dollars on even basic refreshments for people who come to these meetings – the ubiquitous cookies ...
read more →
|
You might have noticed that listening is one of the 10 rules in the previous Ted Talk, so these next two dig a little deeper.
You’re a bad listener, here’s how to remember what people say.
When listening isn’t enough.
There are reasons why we hate to listen, ...
read more →
Good communication and engagement starts with connections and that typically requires conversation. Our focus on tools and electronic media has resulted in our degraded skills in interpersonal communication. It really is a craft and here are 10 rules for getting better at it....
read more →
