If your corporate or brand values involve anything to do with “caring about your people”, then you should care enough to tell potential employees when a job has been awarded to someone other than them. If you can’t be bothered to do this, then I question how much you really DO care about people and whether your brand values are nothing more than “blah, blah, blah” for your website and corporate image.
Some notes about how I planned my first Deep Time Walk in Innsbruck, what worked, what didn’t, and what lessons I need to apply in the future.
Research into the science of framing and how it can help us to be heard and understood. When we change the story and how we tell it, we can change the world. [Fran mentioned this in Storytell.] #framing #conversations #facilitation #scicomm #climate
Like so many things, fostering a culture of communication has to start at the top. If leaders really want to have a two-way dialogue, they need to have an open-door policy, make time to listen, be open to new ideas, and not only act on good ideas, but acknowledge...
The Karpman Drama Triangle defines the roles that people take on (and can switch between) in stressful, emotional or high-conflict situations. Dr Stephen Karpman identified three main roles that emerge: the persecutor, the victim and the rescuer. We can often find...
You’re part-way through. You think you’re on the right track. And you have decided that you want to share your idea and get feedback and input that will not only help you move your ideas forward, but that will energise you and perhaps even make your creation even better than it would otherwise be.
The good news is that there are loads of interesting models, but which model you choose to use depends on what you are trying to achieve. If you want to give feedback on work-in-progress—a creation of some sort—you might want to take a look at Liz Lerman’s deceptively...
Conversations are life’s “grease”. Good conversation make things go smoother – work, relationships, buying something at the store, understanding a complex idea, and more. The challenge is that so many conversations become charged and filled with conflict below the...
Re-naming and re-framingAs a fish hugger (compare with tree hugger), I am always baffled at how people describe sea creatures as ugly. Who do we think we are that we can make value judgements about these extraordinary living neighbours of ours? Perhaps they'd rather...
As a fish hugger (compare with tree hugger), I am always baffled at how people describe sea creatures as ugly. Who do we think we are that we can make value judgements about these extraordinary living neighbours of ours? Perhaps they'd rather be judged "ugly and...
A thought about small talkI came across a thoughtful article this morning on the art (and power) of small talk. As someone who facilitates group discussions, champions meaningful conversations and connections, and spends a great deal of time thinking about creating...
Raising your pitch at the end of a statement makes that statement sound like a question. Whether you’re communicating in person, online, or over the phone, this speech pattern can make you sound less confident, less credible, and uncertain about your content. This article talks about why we do it, and how to stop.
Remembering someone’s name and pronouncing it correctly is a key part of making a positive impression. It’s also part of being a good communicator. Not bothering to remember someone’s name or continually pronouncing it incorrectly, or worse, using a name that they dislike (nicknames they didn’t choose, for example) tells people that you don’t value or respect them. Here are 9 things that you can do to remember people’s names, along with some information about why names matter, why we mess them up, and why, in a socially-distanced world, remembering names is more important than ever,
Making presentations "sticky" with storiesI love this story: Christopher Wren was a famous English architect and builder who lived from 1632-1723. Legend has it that he was walking past three stone cutters working on the rebuilding of St. Paul’s cathedral. He asked...
In Defence of Open-MindednessLast week, we stayed in a lovely B&B in a medieval town called Dürnstein in Lower Austria. The people were wonderful, the food delicious, the wine even better but the weather… Meh. It could have been better, especially considering that...
writer. communication specialist. climate communicator. storyteller.