Every week, I hear stories about communication in organizations gone wrong. I hear about decision-makers cutting communication budgets first when times are tough, since administration and operations, financial matters, and upkeep for buildings and grounds appear more important to daily functioning. I hear about staff meetings where the results of an entire annual communication planning process get reduced to everyone…
Read MoreI have a puzzle for you to solve. You ready? It starts with one simple question: What would you say is most missing from common understandings about communication? Here’s one clue. One of the first, wonderfully illuminating classes on communication offered at the college I went to was titled, “Messages, Meaning, and Culture.” Like many courses you could take on…
Read MoreAfter living for three years in Bedford, England, when I was 15 years old my family made the life altering decision to move to Corona, California. At the time, this was more than a move from one country to another. It felt like a leap between separate solar systems. Arriving in sunny Southern California, for months on end I didn’t…
Read MoreHave you ever seen a speaker oblivious to what’s happening in a room? In reading off some slides or performing some memorized bit, sometimes speakers and audiences end up in disconnected worlds. On the other hand, have you ever seen a speaker communicating with a group with high levels of rapport, interaction, and adaptations? With each word, gesture, and audience…
Read MoreOne of the top questions I get asked is how to shift the culture of a group, organization, or community. Sometimes the question arises because a team is rife with conflicts or, with much consensus, an institution is perceived as having reached the level of “toxic.” But more often than not, I hear this question because those asking it simply…
Read MoreIf you’ve sat through any of my classes or workshops, you’ll hear me say repeatedly that we’re still using forms of leadership and organization that are thousands of years old. You wouldn’t expect this of your dentist, who you’d hope is using modern and updated methods to take care of that pesky tooth in need of a filling. But when…
Read MoreIn the following Saturday Night Live sketch, we get to see just about everything that can go wrong in a Zoom meeting. Yet some planning and structure can turn the most average video-conference into an engaging and results-focused session that leaves no one wondering, “couldn’t this have been an email or a handout instead?” As a lot of working life…
Read MoreWhen my kids were little, I’d get home from a long day at work and collapse on our living room couch. The minute my joints and tendons thanked me for this act, my youngest would come running to me from another room, sobbing. “My brother came into the room and took my sheepy toy and threw it and then yelled…
Read More“I can’t get Terry in finance to return my calls, he doesn’t seem interested in our new AI training program and must want our department to get less funding this year,” says Sarah, the head of talent development at a nonprofit, to one of her colleagues in marketing. A week goes by and Terry’s name and number pops up on…
Read MoreCan people think their way into excellent leadership? Can you develop your communication skills by being more self-aware? And can each of us rise to our next level of growth by becoming more introspective? While these approaches hold value, the answer from an increasing number of sources is no. In many of my classes and workshops, I tell participants that…
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