What’d She Say?
What people think they’ve heard or read can be very different from what you think you’ve said or written and that’s where the trouble starts. Here’s a 10-step solution....
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Fear and Loathing in the Lunchroom
| Engaging people starts with communicating and connecting and that’s just not easy or intuitive for a lot of people. You might think that it’d be easier to do with people that you know and work with everyday, but even that isn’t necessarily true, so imagine how tough it is for |
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Participation or Peddling?
Public policy and politics have vastly different objectives, but are now obviously mixed in the minds and perceptions of voters and citizens. Authentic public participation is the path to recovery....
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Expert Facilitation
OK, let’s just say really good facilitation. If you’re looking for some tried, true and methodical suggestions for handling groups, we think you’ll find this useful.
Being called an expert in anything always sounds a little blustery, but developing real expertise is always an honorable goal. Expert vs. expertise...
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Reach Out and Touch Someone to Find Collaborative Solutions
OK, so this may not be the most politically correct headline for a blog today, but I will stand by it. For over 20 years, before cell phones made the effort moot, Ma Bell and later AT&T used this slogan to get people to call long distance. It turns out ...
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Telling It Like It Isn’t
You probably realize that what comes out of your mouth is often irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. Your non-verbal messages are always being broadcast. And when you are speaking, your paralanguage (No, not parrot language) is a big part of what people are paying attention to....
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We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This
Running better gatherings of people is an exercise in understanding human behavior. Here are the simple basics....
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Humor is a Funny Thing
The United States is in a bad mood. I was talking with a group of smart people recently who agreed that there’s a general sense of malaise these days. I’m not suggesting there isn’t good reason for it, but we’re taking inconsequential things and ourselves pretty seriously these days – ...
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Do This, Not That
If you make presentations to people – and who doesn’t – here are 31 things to avoid....
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Consensus or Kumbaya
Consensus is, arguably, the true essence of effective democratic public policy. Crafting decisions that most people can live with isn’t easy or quick, but usually beats simple majority voting when 51% wins and 49% of people become losers. Of course, there are people who see consensus as the naïve and ...
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