I came across this dazzling keynote presentation by Esther Perel at the recent South By Southwest (SXSW) technology conference in Austin. Her theme was “The Other AI: Artificial Intimacy”. Her insights on the ways that cell phones and fragmented attention are eroding personal relationships felt remarkably on point. But it’s her commentary on how predictive […]
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For the last dozen years, I’ve devoted my career to strategic communications planning, including developing the Results Map® methodology. I’ve had the opportunity to work on hundreds of strategic plans – large and small, for the public and private sectors, all focused on aligning internal and external communications to organizational goals. From the vantage point […]
Any impressive building starts with sound architectural plans. The drawings step is vital to the creative process – it’s where architects and their clients can work together to think big, refine their ideas and validate that they’re on the same page before construction begins. No one would dream of starting a building project by digging […]
I’m back from my first Results Map® workshop national road show after a loooong season of online-only sessions. What’s crystal clear to me now is that nothing replaces the energy, buzz and insight that comes from in person connection. There is a sense of re-emergence and reimagining possibilities among the communications teams I’ve had the […]
Over the past few months, I’ve had the pleasure of facilitating several executive and leadership retreats. Most of these sessions have been focused on supporting senior teams through leading and communicating change related to new hybrid approaches to work. Without exception, these leadership sessions have been engaging, fascinating and refreshing. On a personal level, having […]
Last week’s post, WTF is going on?, generated a ton of online discussion. Clearly, organizations are struggling with the disruption of our time, particularly in cutting through the noise of the attention economy. My sense is that the corrosive cost of the current overwhelm has now reached the point of a burning platform – many organizations […]
This week I was invited to deliver a talk entitled More Signal, Less Noise at a national financial organization event on the theme of the attention economy. On the surface, the focus was to be on how to communicate effectively with employees in a hybrid environment. But the real topic – the one that is […]
Over the last few years, we have had the distinct privilege of working with several leaders on driving organizational change. The pandemic has triggered massive growth in my change practice, and also a fundamental shift in direction – moving from traditional “managed change” to supporting executives in leading through ambiguity, chaos and disruption. The essential […]
As the saying goes, fish perceive water last. When you’re swimming in the waters of your organization, you’re so immersed in its dysfunctions and idiosyncrasies that you might lose sight of what a really high performing communications function actually looks like. Let’s take a look at the five essential traits: The first is alignment. The […]
There has never been a more compelling time for communications teams to come together to help shape the future of work. More than two years into the pandemic, communications professionals are universally feeling both overwhelmed and underwhelmed. The pace of demands is relentless, technology and organizational change is constant and stakeholder expectations are sky high. […]
Let’s face it – nobody has a perfect communications team. There are always things we’d want to tweak – it would probably be better to have a bit more evaluation, tighter processes and a stronger planning culture. Fair enough. However, at what point do these areas for improvement turn into something more significant, and signal […]
One of the main occupational hazards for communications professionals is dealing with the frustrations of working with internal clients. The space between the communicator and the internal client is fraught with dangers, disconnects and delusional expectations. The first rule is this – do not accept the conditions that have you set up to fail. This […]
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