It was interesting to find the corporate world acknowledging the value of engagement but using different terminology, in this case, influence … mutual influence. In other words, operating differently from a position of unilateral hierarchy, coercion or authority, which is the way that we have come to expect most companies ...
read more →
Blokes and birds who deal with anyone who’s lost the plot would be bloody well served by considering the following before starting their next chinwag....
read more →
Another Way of Dealing With Wankers Read More »
And as much as I want to think I’m an exception, I’m sure that I do, too. We all do. We’ve lost the art of brevity and if we want people with short attention spans to pay attention, we’d better be brief....
read more →
Working with people in leadership positions reveals an interesting conundrum related to credibility with communities. Leaders more often see themselves as cheerleaders for the projects that they manage. That zeal, however, makes it difficult for them to empathize with those who don’t see those projects quite as positively, which creates ...
read more →
Your Optimism May Be A Problem Read More »
One challenging thing we all face is recognizing the continual disconnect between what we intend to say or write, and how that intention is actually interpreted by the receiver. There is a lot of “stuff” that influences that exchange. For example, what specific words that you select to say, what ...
read more →
But, That’s Not What I Meant Read More »
We live in a time of talk. Someday anthropologists will decide that people who lived in 2023 all had ginormous mouths and itty bitty ears. We have 24 hour access to a megaphone that’s always on and people use that amplifier relentlessly, broadcasting every momentary thought and posting pics of ...
read more →
We’ve said a lot in the past about the ramifications of professional propaganda and the weaponized BS that seems to permeate the culture wars and attacks on basic democracy in this country. If you’re not really concerned about it and don’t know what you can possibly do, consider the following ...
read more →
Truth Decay Is Dangerous Read More »
Successful public participation requires authenticity. Authenticity requires participation to be meaningful, not perfunctory. That can cause stress for organizations that have dabbled in public involvement in the past, but have done so with minimum commitment. They want credit for engaging their stakeholders but they avoid any serious involvement because they ...
read more →
With A Little Help From Your Friends Read More »
We’ve talked a lot about the rule of threes in the past; it pops up in literature, communication, survival, photography – oodles of places. When you are trying to get a point across, you are best served and most successful when you think in terms of three. Don’t believe me? ...
read more →
The Rule of Three Strikes Again Read More »
Every large institution takes on some level of bureaucracy, which can be incredibly frustrating and infuriating to normal people who have to work with it. Almost every institution tends to adopt its own acronyms and language, in part to simplify internal communication but also, as I’ve seen, as a kind ...
read more →
