A lot of our clients are introverted. Funny, but we tend to be professionally extroverted introverts ourselves. Most introverted people are really uncomfortable making small talk. But small talk builds connections that lead to conversations which lead to discussions that can solve problems. This will help.
We talked about the power of asking great questions in a past newsletter and got a lot of feedback from you. I happened to run across the following that, although it speaks to workplace situations, is certainly applicable to asking really useful questions that we can use in stakeholder assessment ...
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Many moons ago, and in a different life, I lived in Arkansas. For a born and bred upper Midwesterner, it was a little bit of culture shock. I remember fondly my first grit(s), my first glass of sweet-tea, and most of all, I learned that genteel way of insulting anyone ...
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Nothing happens in the work that you do with the public without being able to communicate well with people. Communication – the exchange of information. One big challenge that we frequently face is how difficult it is for some clients to realize what effective communication requires. I can’t count the ...
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A few weeks ago, I did a customized online training session for a group of more than 30 environmental engineers who wanted help better understanding the angry public they were dealing with on one of their cleanup projects, and what to do about it. Now, the guy who set this ...
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Information is the bedrock of engagement, so where, how and why people acquire information and news is enormously important to the work that we do. Half of the adults in the U.S. get at least some of their news from social media, which should scare the pants off of all ...
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From the Words Matter desk comes this strong suggestion to eliminate three specific words from your verbal and written vocabulary. Words matter. A lot. That towering elocutionator and forty-fourth U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle made that point so clearly when he said, “One word sums up probably the responsibility of ...
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We know through research and empirical evidence that likeability is a strong, positive factor when it comes to building trust and credibility, communicating effectively, and influencing people. Yet whenever I point this out to clients or students, I’m frequently met with a smirk or casual eye roll which says that, ...
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Thirty plus years ago, I shifted to a mostly public sector career from a reasonably successful one in media, and then advertising and public relations. At the time, I was astonished by government’s ineptitude in conveying information to the citizens that it supposedly worked for. The people that I worked ...
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If your job requires you to work with the public, at some point you’ll probably get a face to face or Zoom to Zoom audience with those people. They’ll give you their time and attention and you’ll have them in front of you or on camera. You’ll have this one ...
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