What are the elements that make for a good communicator, or conversely, a poor one? Why is it that some have the gift of presenting and some do not? How do presenters stand out when most follow a very similar formula?
It is a fine line between engaging the troops and spooking the horses when your organisation is faced with significant change. I have been involved in a number of transitions, mergers and acquisitions and it really can be a scary time for teams. Maintaining a positive organisational culture is key to change success. So how much is too much information? What is important to those working in the team versus the executive management who are managing the change?
Ethics in engagement is vital. We need ethics to keep the process open, honest, inclusive, far-reaching, respectful, fair, collaborative, and informative. Without ethics, people lose faith in the engagement process, they don’t trust it, they feel used, marginalised, unheard and irrelevant.
Watching the latest episode of Biggest Loser (BL) got me thinking, where did it go wrong?
Conversational User Interfaces (CUIs), more commonly known as voice recognition tools or chatbots, have big implications for engagement professionals, and we should be excited – very excited. The question on my lips is not whether the rise of conversational interfaces can help us to engage, but how we can best use them to engage in meaningful ways.
To be noticed in today’s avalanche of information, businesses need to engage an audience within seconds. This means cutting through by being intuitive, innovative and truly understanding the audience. Finding fast ways to communicate and using engaging content is essential. Digital strategies are now a big part of this.
Without sounding dramatic, we are quickly and surely being made subject to a mass invasion of the technological kind. The Internet of Things (IoT) affects us on a daily basis, whether we like it or not.
Quite often, a major goal of any communication or public relations strategy is to have a significant impact on the feelings, attitudes and behaviours of stakeholders. The rise of technology like virtual reality offers new possibilities for storytelling and new ways to impact people. As a practitioner who loves the power of the written word, the potential impact for life-changing communication programs to be implemented is both intriguing and challenging.
If the rumours are true, and the NOKIA 3310 is set to be revised at the Mobile World Congress, this is an exciting time. I owned one of these delightful handsets, and it stood the test of time.
Millennials certainly are creating change and challenging our traditional beliefs when it comes to how work gets done. Managers who are traditionally accustomed to a Baby Boomer workforce will need to engage new strategies to retain and motivate this growing group of Millennials.
There are workshops that conjure up images of a dreary room full of disinterested people, negative attitudes, poor outcomes and bad coffee. I’m going tell you how to avoid running one of these workshops, ever again.
Here’s a secret most Executives won’t tell you: on their route to the top, they most probably received communications training.
Here’s a secret most Executives won’t tell you: on their route to the top, they most probably received communications training.
Technical brilliance and business acumen will have made them stand out, but it’s often the softer skills of interpersonal communication, business development or networking as well as presentation skills that pushed them to the top of the pile.