The biggest obstacles I see to evaluation are fear, lack of resources and mis-alignment. The latter challenge is the easiest to tackle, so in the spirit of going for progress, not perfection, here goes: Often teams struggle with measurement because they don’t have a common language to address evaluation. This causes mis-communication, missed opportunity and […]
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As we wind down 2010, there is no doubt that an unprecedented body of knowledge on social media has been created this year. Social media have become ubiquitous, and there is officially no longer any place to hide. Witness Time’s 2010 selection for Person of the Year… What strikes me about social media is not so […]
Many communications teams struggle to keep up with the demands of their internal clients and managing what seem to be ever increasing expectations to do more with less. Peter Shram of Communications Unlimited offers an excellent practical perspective in his blog post “Why SLAs should be a priority – and 5 key elements for creating them”. […]
I am often asked about lessons from the trenches from my experience of bringing a technology product to market as a shift from a service-base consulting practice. Certainly, there are too many lessons learned to list here (!). However, I was recently interviewed by Canadian Women in Technology (CanWIT, on which I am privileged to […]
I’m often asked about what kinds of training would be most valuable for communicators interested in learning and growing in our business. One of the most overlooked areas that I strongly recommend be treated as a core competency in communications is project management – if you’re interested in investing in your career in this industry, […]
Without a doubt, the number one lament of all time for communicators is this: “How do I get a seat at the senior management table?” This week I spotted a brilliantly insightful answer to this now quite overdone rant on my Twitter feed – I loved the straight shooting, pragmatic and wise counsel so much, […]
Building a Communications Dashboard is a great way to drive a focus on strong performance indicators and outcomes. A Dashboard is essentially a performance monitoring tool – it provides a real-time snapshot of performance to help guide decision making. The model is similar to the idea of a pilot’s dashboard, which delivers easy-to-use information quickly […]
Dan Sullivan, Founder of The Strategic Coach, has had a significant influence on my career as an entrepreneur. Lately, Dan has been doing a lot of thinking on the concept of the “multiplier effect” – as a communicator, I was particularly taken with this recent blog post linking Marshall McLuhan’s thinking to the multiplying power of […]
Here’s a quick validation exercise – does the form follow the function of your communications? If you’re working on fostering collaboration and teamwork, are the communications techniques you’re using matched to that outcome? For example, wikis are inherently highly collaborative tools which by nature contribute to bringing ideas together in an engaging dynamic forum. In […]
In the dizzying world of the communications business, preparation is at least half the battle. And one of the secrets of effective preparation is to be armed with good questions – that’s because the cold hard truth is that when a tough problem comes up (and in this biz, it will), you may not have […]
One of the easiest ways you can immediately enhance your strategic value as a communicator is to make a shift in the way you think about your function. Communicators generally are in the business of producing “stuff” – their focus is on the very real day-to-day challenges of writing press releases, developing key messages or […]
As a communicator, you are essentially the “glue” between your organization and the public you serve. Communicators have the unique, powerful ability to bring what I call “outside-in” thinking to their organizations – the intangible skill, experience and instinct to know how an issue will play among your key audiences. In this capacity, you can […]
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