In an age of unchecked, professional propaganda, keeping people on edge and jumping at boogiemen and shadows is a very useful strategy. It works because we suck at judging things to be true or not. It helps to better understand where conspiracy theories come from. Read More …
Here’s the list of 20 important words that slithered into our vocabulary in the last decade. I’m not going to mansplain any of them; you’re on your own. Read More …
Here’s a slightly different perspective on one of the hottest topics that we all face these days. You’ll find eleven (11) straightforward, simple traits of people who are trusted. Read More … If you’ve paid any attention to the saga of the Boeing 737 Max 8, you probably realize that Boeing’s credibility and reputation… read more →
Now that we’re all on the usual path of New Year self-improvement, I suggest we consider the following. These verbal tics are easy to pick up; it’s time for all of us to lose ‘em. Read More …
If you’ve worked in public engagement for a while, you should seriously consider the process of becoming an International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) Certified Public Participation Practitioner (CP3) or even a Master Certified Public Participation Practitioner (MCP3). My partner, Doug Sarno, and I were two of the first three guinea pigs to complete this… read more →
We spend a lot of time thinking about how people think…or not. Or more precisely how people feel as opposed to think. It’s often tough for thinking people to wrap their heads around people’s emotions and feelings, and apparently Bill and Elon think/feel the same way. But I think (feel) you’ll find the graphic that… read more →
Smart people don’t often take kindly to criticism about how they communicate what they know so well. The challenge is that subject matter experts (SMEs) are usually more accustomed to communicating with other SMEs than they are in communicating with people who aren’t SMEs. When you know a subject well, it’s hard to remember what… read more →
Growing up in America’s cheese state and having lived, and then worked, all across this country has shown me that people, although similar in many ways, are weirdly different in specific parts of the U.S. It appears that we have three very different personalities: friendly and conventional, relaxed and creative, and temperamental and uninhibited. Where… read more →
With all due respect to my civil engineering pals, I’m not sure that I could have thought of a subject less sexy and interesting than storm water management, and then I ran across the story below. Okay, maybe sexy is pushing it, but if you’re looking for public involvement success examples, try this one. Read… read more →
We’ve shown you many times here that trust in institutions – non-governmental organizations, big business, news media and government – is at generally historic lows. Recent Pew research into trust finds some interesting variations like public school principals being the most trusted and ethical by several barometers. Police are ranked in trustworthiness almost as much… read more →