All Things Related to Communication
11.14.2007
Thom Singer over at Some Assembly Required wrote a thoughtful post on how to revive a professional relationship that’s gone sour. He writes: Sometimes it is easy when you have a large circle of friends and professional contacts to place the blame on the other person. Obviously the issue cannot be you, as there are [...]
09.24.2007
As I wrap up for this Monday evening, I keep coming back to an idea that is fairly simple, yet ever so easy for managers to forget. It’s the idea of matter. No, not dark matter hanging out in the cosmos or grey matter hanging out between our ears. It’s the idea that employees want [...]
09.14.2007
Tammy Lenski’s writing a series on dialogue jump-starts as guest blogger at Notes on Design. Jump-start #3 is called Go to the Movies. In this post, she offers a fantastic analogy for stepping back and understanding (or at least trying to understand) another person’s perspective. She presents some clear ideas for getting into someone’s movie: [...]
08.15.2007
A week or so ago, Jamie Notter pointed to a recent interview with Stephen M.R. Covey in Associations Now magazine. This Stephen Covey is the son of the other Stephen Covey and even though his language and approach is similar, he’s clearly forging his own path. His most recent book is focused on Trust and [...]
08.02.2007
For anyone in the process of building or re-engaging a workteam, setting expectations and the right tone for what’s acceptable behavior is vital for healthy cohesion. Rather than establishing ground rules, Tammy Lenski suggests creating group norms. Group norms are co-created, with time for consideration (instead of an exercise to be gotten through) and updated [...]
07.31.2007
There’s some spirited debate brewing within my company around the idea of transparency and its benefits to customer service. Is it best to let the customer be ‘blissfully unaware’ of the company’s processes (essentially how it works)? Or is it better to allow them into the kitchen to see how everything is cooked? I argue [...]
06.12.2007
I experienced a moment of lucid learning today that’s well worth sharing. Hopefully, this will resonate with you, particularly if you work directly with customers and clients in a relationship-building capacity. I have a client who is delightful in most ways, but is rarely specific in their requests. They sort of know what they want [...]
06.03.2007
A fine bottle of wine single-malt scotch needs to make it’s way to Jamie Notter for keeping me informed about all the juicy items in the Harvard Business Review. Once upon a time, I had a subscription and it was one of the best professional development investments I made. Which begs a question of…why don’t [...]
04.25.2007
I’ve been getting a little bored with the more traditional ways to document and share information and concepts with colleagues. Tables are uninspiring and mindmaps can only take you so far. Sometimes you need a more fine-tuned mechanism to share knowledge. Along to the rescue comes The Periodic Table of Visualization Methods from Ralph Lengler [...]
02.27.2007
Ever work for someone who thought leadership was defined by an exclamation point? Ever get confused by your own leadership style and whether you should get folks to follow you through a series of statements ending with periods? Is there a reason I’m beginning this post using only question marks? Hmmm? We can get caught [...]
