Reading Time: 7 minutesSome messages arrive fully formed. Mine never do. It started as a line I wrote in service of someone else’s purpose. I was supporting employee and business communications at Cox Enterprises, working on content related to its purpose statement at the time: Empower People Today to Build a Better Future for the Next Generation. Somewhere […]
Reading Time: 7 minutesCorporate communicators often get pulled into problems they didn’t create and are asked to solve them without the authority to change the conditions around them. It happens all the time: A decision gets made in another room. A timeline gets locked by another team. A constraint shows up with no room to move. Then the
Reading Time: 4 minutesSpoiler: This isn’t a 7-Day Fix! Scroll your social feed and you’ll see it: “Master Tai Chi in 7 Days and Become Unstoppable!” “Unlock Communication Superpowers Overnight!” The promises are loud and tempting. But here’s the thing: Whether it’s mastering a form of movement or mastering how you speak and lead, meaningful change doesn’t happen
Reading Time: 5 minutesLessons in Trust and Talk and Why Your Message Isn’t Landing We all want our messages to land as intended. Yet, the real work isn’t in the words. It’s in the relationship that carries them. Words travel at the speed of trust. Competence cracks coconuts; curiosity earns entry to the peach’s core. — Al Viller,
Reading Time: 4 minutesA simple framework to write clearly, show your value, and move forward with purpose. Years ago, I travelled to Chicago and participated in a communication training session led by the often- provocative and always-entertaining Steve Crescenzo. Among the storytelling wisdom he shared, one tool stood out—simple, sharp, and powerful: What? So What? Now What?
Reading Time: 3 minutesEver feel like your message didn’t quite land… or worse, was ignored? You explained what you needed. Maybe even how to do it. But “why it mattered” got buried in the copy or lost in translation. That’s a problem, especially today where inboxes overflow, distractions are high, and attention spans have been trained
Reading Time: 6 minutesCrafting Messages That Matter, with Wisdom from a Presidential Pen Not long ago, I missed something special. Terry Szuplat, an award-winning author, former senior speechwriter to President Barack Obama, and speaker in his own right, was the featured guest at an IABC Atlanta event. I’d circled the date. Highlighted it. But life had other
Reading Time: 5 minutesWe don’t see things as they are; we see them as we are. — Anaïs Nin, a French-born American diarist, essayist and novelist If you’re a communications professional, you’ve likely faced this moment: You’re in a meeting, a change is announced, and immediately… your mind races! What will people think? How will this land?
See It or Shape It? How Perspective Elevates Communication Read More »
Reading Time: 9 minutesWhat if a barrier to employee engagement is the newsletter you keep sending? You or your team likely spend 30 to 40 hours (a conservative estimate) producing a companywide newsletter. Hours in editorial content meetings. Does everyone really need to be there? Does every article have the same importance or relevance? You write
Employees Stopped Reading Your Newsletter. Now what? Read More »
