There are no instant fixes to (re)building trust and there are no magic, automatic answers … but there are answers. At the risk of sounding like a shameless self-promoter, the courses that we teach all move the needle back in the direction of trust. (Re)building trust in leadership, science, ...
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Trust in expertise, academia, power and institutions of all kinds (particularly government) is at an all-time low. Research suggests that most people truly believe that business and government leaders are purposely misleading them. If that’s the case, how can a representative democracy function? This vacuum of trust opens the ...
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Michelle Goldberg in the New York Times said, “When one is accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.” I think that explains much of the opposition that we see to the Black Lives Matter movement, LGBTQ rights, and most other social struggles that people are … struggling with. Diversity, equity, ...
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Television advertising salespeople are having a spectacular summer! One major marketing analytics firm projects 2022 mid-term political ad spending to exceed $8.8 billion. To put that in perspective, the 2018 midterms generated only $3.9 billion, and $9.5 billion was spent during the much higher profile 2020 presidential election. If you’ve ...
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500,000 local elected officials control more than $2 trillion of taxpayer money. And every day an estimated 1,500 public meetings are held in the United States, many of which relate to what happens to that $2 trillion. Local newspaper (and radio and TV) reporters used to tell us who said ...
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Trust in people who used to have credibility just because of who they were, and trust in traditional institutions – especially government – is broken at best, nearly non-existent at its worst. But trust does exist, just not necessarily where you might expect it....
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Why anyone in their right mind would oppose eliminating urban blight is beyond comprehension. Who could possibly protest building a park in their neighborhood? What would possess anyone to push back on making their lives better? All questions from clients that we run into on a regular basis. Here’s why...
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Democracy – and a Democratic Republic like the U.S. – is an exercise in collaboration and it’s how we’ve gotten this far. I’ll argue that the best public participation is almost always a collaboration. But in recent times, the idea of compromise has been branded as a weak-kneed, liberal-minded copout. ...
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For a long time the common understanding of the purpose of corporations has been to make money for its shareholders – or its sole owners if it’s privately held. I suppose you could also argue that government’s only real purpose had been to do the bidding of the elected officials ...
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Most of the well-intentioned, smart and highly capable people that we work with and for assume that they will be taken at their word. That their well-researched data and facts will speak for themselves – end of story. It doesn’t. You have a story. Tell it well. Here’s how....
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