I just spent several days professing with the next generation of public servants at a major university recently and a hot topic of classroom conversation had to do with big changes made by their administration without engaging the students who would be affected – they weren’t pleased. The conversation was ...
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The changes in news, who and how it’s presented and how “news” is defined is top of mind if we’re interested in fighting disinformation and fakes. Most people now get their information from cable news and the internet. The Rand Corporation considered journalism facts vs. opinion and concludes that “cable ...
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If you’ve ever wondered if one of your more extrupulent (Yeah, I know there’s no such word … but it’s my newsletter) meeting attendees might be suffering from a lack of oxygen to the brain, we now have the answer – possibly. A recent study says “small rooms can build ...
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Mechanical engineers speak a language that urban planners don’t understand, and biologists use language that’s probably meaningless to atmospheric scientists. Experts and most people in specialized fields develop their own unique verbal and written shorthand and use acronyms that are meaningless to the rest of us mere mortals. It’s very ...
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Empathy is on the decline. This is pretty startling information because we talk about empathy a whole lot in this work. Research suggests that people are getting less empathic – or empathetic, if you prefer. And, in fact, people are getting more selectively empathic, meaning that we might care about, ...
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Great presenters and speakers are made – not born – so do yourself a favor and carve out sixteen (16) minutes to watch and absorb a couple of these tips, it’ll make you more effective....
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I’ve been tearing my hair out working to resolve an ongoing problem caused by my (now former) bank for the past several months. If you’ve had to try to find a live, responsive human person hidden somewhere in the phone tree at a bank, insurance agency, cable or other utility, ...
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Past issues of this newsletter have had lots of pieces on the decline of public trust and the critical need for the public sector to (re)build credibility with the people that it’s supposed to serve. I don’t think there’s a more obvious and glaring example of the consequence of distrust ...
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Just so happens that I’m writing this from Chicago (Second City, that Toddlin’ Town, the City of Broad Shoulders, Hog butcher for the world, or as the Wall Street Journal called it, Beirut by the lake) this week. I’m teaching the weeklong IAP2 Foundations in Public Participation course ...
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Welcome to the new Age of Unreason. When my opinions trump your facts, when any news that might be contrary to my existing beliefs must be fake, and the only information that I trust comes from sources and people who tell me what I want to hear – you have ...
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