As the credibility of public institutions and leadership continues to erode it’s easy for people who work in those institutions to descend into a pit of despair and believe that there’s no way out of this mess – but there is. Rebuilding trust and credibility starts with acting and operating ...
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One of the tougher challenges for most of us doing public work is convincing the people who run the organizations we work for that communicating with and engaging people really is the priority that we know it is. Most organization leaders that I’ve consulted or worked with start out believing ...
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By the time you’re reading this, you may have seen two Presidential and one Vice-Presidential debates and you’ve gotten a lesson in the value and challenge of facilitation. Managing discussions or debates with people who are aggressive, aggrieved or just dominant requires skills that not everyone necessarily has, including seasoned ...
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Most people like to avoid conflict in their lives. Sure, some people get their jollies from chaos (and media feeds on it because it attracts an audience and produces lots of revenue), but the rest of us don’t go out of our way to invite the pain and confusion that ...
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Realizing that everything that happens online is just going to be different, we need to understand what works better and under what circumstances. Read more...
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Almost all of us have moved our work online and, thankfully, we’ve maintained our ability to connect in the best alternate ways possible. I can’t imagine where we’d be if the pandemic and lockdown had occurred before our current video and connection capability options. But as game changing as Zoom, ...
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Civil, open minded conversations feel like relics of days gone by. People are welded to positions, opinions and beliefs in ways that are more steadfast and strident than in the past. The work that we all do is typically about pushing beyond just those hard and fast postures to explore ...
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It’s sometimes tough to get people to take communication very seriously. I mean, everybody communicates – you’re always communicating something whether you think you are or not – and professionals assume they’re communicating well even when they aren’t. The question comes up a lot in relation to authentic public engagement, ...
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The public involvement meeting world has changed. The days of packing school cafeterias with people stuffed together into folding chairs munching cookies is gone for the immediate future. But life does go on and our engagement goes on online. Here are some helpful tips. Read more...
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Excessive police violence, particularly against Black people, is now part of the national conversation and it’s needed to be. A buddy of mine – a 25-year veteran Wisconsin cop (retired) – sent me a copy of the Training and Standards document that spells out the Use-of-Force Continuum taught to law ...
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