We know a lot of introverts. You might be one. Many of the gifted people that we work with tend to be … a bit on the less-than-social side. Interestingly, many of the people who work with the public, like my partners and I, are often actually pretty introverted. I learned only recently that there… read more →
2020 was a year for the books, and given the events of the past few weeks in the U.S., it feels like 2021 is already nine months old. But the tone from the top is changing and that’s not a small thing. We’re seeing a remarkable contrast in the temperature of the words being used… read more →
Public Participation is Necessary for Democracy When determining how to ensure effective public participation, it should be noted that public participation is no less than the bedrock of a functioning democracy. Thomas Jefferson, the author of the U.S. Constitution, said, “I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people… read more →
Abraham Lincoln is the guy who said, “… you may fool people for a time; you can fool a part of the people all the time; but you can’t fool all the people all the time.” I’m confident that lies have been around since language was invented, but saying things that clearly aren’t true always… read more →
As long as we’re on the subject of reducing useless language, let’s see if we can all promise to at least try to move some of these to the recycling bin. Read More
Much of the communication that comes out of government institutions reads and sounds like it was written by a committee of Baptist coroners. I’ve been reminded of that because I’ve filled my outside recycling container several times in the past few weeks – cleaning out old client documents and files and stuff that I just… read more →
And for those who share my short attention span, I think you’ll enjoy this list of exceptionally brief but useful tidbits to help you get your point(s) across more successfully. Read More
Research has shown that people can make judgements about someone’s likeability, trustworthiness and competence after seeing their face for less than a tenth of a second. Nonverbal communication factors are even more important for the people doing the judging when trust is low and concern is high, which defines much of the work we do with… read more →
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 that no harm comes from… read more →
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, which means that people will… read more →