The debt ceiling and deficit reduction talks have stalled once again and the deadline is looming. Is it possible for President Obama and Speaker Boehner to come to a plan they can live with that will prevent default? Maybe it’s time to bring in a skilled facilitator.
Yesterday, I did a webinar on media relations, that is, how to work effectively with the media. The question most on folks’ minds was how to go off the record with a reporter.
Earlier this week, I did a training for a company’s research and PR staff on how to improve their writing. In that presentation, I included my 10 Commandments of Good Writing. Number Six: Thou Shalt Show ‘Em Not Just Tell “Em.
Taking a vacation break from all that change management? Here are some recommendations (not in any particular order) for reading that will change the way you think about things and help you in your work when you return.
Does your company or nonprofit communicate effectively with your important audiences? If yours is like many enterprises that I encounter, the answer might be that you don’t because you don’t have a good communications team. That is a lame explanation for a failure in leadership communications.
William Donald Schaefer, the colorful and effective former Mayor of Baltimore and two-term Maryland Governor who died last week, is being remembered fondly by the well-known and ordinary alike. Schaefer was many things and among them a master of political customer service.
Sushi is the perfect food. Simple, direct and no frills. Sushi is colorful and carefully constructed. Unlike other cuisines, sushi is light without heavy sauces. For those of us who spend our days in pursuit of the best in strategic communications, sushi offers us some powerful lessons.
Living in the Washington, DC area, I am painfully aware of how inflamed our public discourse is today. Just look at the rhetoric flying between the two parties in Congress over a potential government shutdown. In business interactions it’s easy to see how simple matters often get blown out of proportion. Language isn’t the only culprit but it can certainly play a role in whether the recipient of messages hears and understands what the sender intended.
The earthquake in Japan and dangerous situation at the Fukushima nuclear power plant reminds us of how quickly and suddenly disaster can strike. Compounding the terrible human tragedy is the sense that people do not trust the information they are receiving and feel that the power company is not telling them the truth.
For several years now, many have been trumpeting the death of “traditional” media. But the Charlie Sheening of America and his record setting 1 million Twitter followers in 24 hours (now grown to more than 2 million) was created by the news media. Too bad it’s so tough to find real news like rising oil prices that threaten our economic recovery, political upheaval in Libya, Egypt and other countries, joblessness, a crumbling health care system, and the fact that we are still at war in Iraq and Afghanistan.