It was recently suggested that artificial intelligence (AI) could replace community engagement people, like AI is predicted to replace 375 million jobs globally by 2050. It won’t. AI will have, and is having, a major effect on data driven and technical fields, but when it comes to context, nuance, emotion ...
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One of my refrigerator magnets reads, “Use Your Words.” I got it at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., years ago, before, sadly, it closed for lack of funding. To cite a quote often attributed to Nietzsche, “All I need is a sheet of paper and something to write with, and ...
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My partners (Wendy and Doug) and I concluded a while ago that the best, most effective community engagement is happening at the local level. It stands to reason that the closer those who govern are to those who are governed, the greater the chance for real, authentic public participation. Consider ...
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Dealing with the level of public conflict and abject hate that we all enjoy in the U.S. these days is no easy task; in fact, with true zealots, it feels impossible. How can you influence people’s supposedly irrational beliefs and behavior when how they feel is so visceral, so engrained ...
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Having worked in public participation for well over three decades, I’ve worked with thousands of people who don’t look anything like me. (Lucky for them.) I’m no saint, but I don’t think there’s ever been a time when I’ve intentionally ignored or dismissed people who are different, nor have I ...
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Presuming that at least part of your job requires you to stand up (or maybe sit down) in front of people and transfer some kind of information into their noggins, I think this handful of tips will be useful to you. Aside from the clarity of the content that ...
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As professionals who work with the public, and as U.S. citizens, one of the more confounding questions to ponder is trying to understand how easily 30-40% of the voting age population has been, and continues to be, deceived, fleeced and conned. In last month’s issue of this little digest, we ...
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“Take care of yourself and each other” was and is the signature signoff line for both the late Jerry Springer, the former Mayor of Cincinnati and ringmaster of his crazy TV show that ran for 27 years, and Lester Holt, the NBC Evening News and Dateline anchor. As weird and ...
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Princess Diana once said, “You can’t comfort the afflicted without afflicting the comfortable.” We afflict a lot of clients. I mean that most clients hate conflict and avoid it any way they can and they often hire us hoping we’ll just make their problems magically go away. But, like most ...
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If you read last month’s issue, you probably remember the piece that we sent you about behavioral science differences between face to face and online meetings. We, and that story, have concluded that face to face meetings are generally superior to meetings done by Zoom, Teams or some other online ...
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