The Participation Blog

Wordsmithing

I was talking to ALEXA the other night and we were discussing the fact that the subtlety and effectiveness between almost the right word and exactly the right word can make or break any encounter between two people or between a facilitator (or presenter) and a large group. Are you
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Glossophobia is Not the Fear of Lip Gloss

Public speaking (glossophobia) is a source of high anxiety for most people – it’s our biggest social fear. So, when people are thrown into scary situations, they’ll typically hide in their more comfortable ‘expert’ zone and end up sounding like a robot reciting technical data. That, of course, sounds incomprehensible ...
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People Power

For a while now, it’s seemed clear that public participation is under assault at the highest levels of U.S. government. Functioning democracies share power with the governed. Of course there are arguments that politicians are obligated to wield their power on behalf of the people who elected them, therefore public ...
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You’re Odd

And by you I mean we – we’re all human, different, and irrational sometimes. And most of the time we have to operate in a (alleged) rational, objective, fact-based world. The world of our humanness and the world of reason frequently clash, which can make it tough to work with ...
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Being Soft is Hard

The world and working in it will continue to evolve at an astonishing pace with technology growth and artificial intelligence (AI). Oxford economics says that 47% of today’s jobs will be gone in 10 years. And that means that essential skills – empathy, communication, speaking, decision-making and good judgement – will ...
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Trusting Strangers

In spite of what Mom said, I frequently ride in cars with strangers. I travel a lot so I’ve come to rely on and trust Lyft and Uber. Now, normally I’m not a very good passenger – I much prefer to be the one driving. But I’ve become comfortable with ...
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#FakeNews

An 11-year-long study in the journal Science corroborated by six independent fact checking organizations found that false news stories spread faster, farther, deeper and more broadly than truthful news. Fake political news is most likely to spread. The problem is that what’s true is often boring or hard to understand, ...
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