Duplication. Inefficiency. Higher costs. Missed opportunities – for the organisation and for individuals. Bad feeling. Internal politics. Reputation issues. Loss of funding. If any of these problems sound familiar, your organisation may be suffering from silo-working patterns. There are a number of factors that can lead to this situation – such as conflicting priorities or … Read more
Email is generally held up to be the bane of business life. Especially now that so many of us have spent over a year working in different locations from our colleagues. We’ve all heard (and many of us have experienced) the horror stories of tidal waves of emails that just keep coming. But I have … Read more
I regularly discuss selecting the best communication channels with my clients. They may have been using the same methods for many years, not really knowing why, or they may not be sure what to use for the best, so they try lots of different things. In the last 6 months, many organisations have introduced new … Read more
Spring is definitely in the air and today I have been having a spring clean of my home office. I’ve put up new lighter, brighter curtains, tidied away some clutter and put a lovely bunch of flowers on the window sill. I find that I immediately feel more energetic and creative myself, ready to meet … Read more
This month’s guest post comes from freelance communicator, Genevieve Etienne-Farrell, and looks at workplace communication from an individual’s perspective. We often overlook communication in the workplace once we have covered the basics such as who to contact, why we need to contact them, and how we can contact them. Whilst this is a somewhat basic … Read more
My guest this month, coach for the self-employed Emma Cossey, shares her favourite communication tools for improving communication between colleagues – if your diary is over-run with unproductive meetings, this is the post for you. “Meetings should be like salt – a spice sprinkled carefully to enhance a dish, not poured recklessly over every forkful. … Read more
So far this year I have presented to groups large and small about how to communicate effectively with their target audiences. These sessions have ranged from a large presentation to 70 people at a sector conference to smaller, targeted workshops for teams of 15 people and an information session for 15-17-year-olds on a citizenship scheme. … Read more
Last month I went on a day trip to London with my Dad. Now approaching his 70th birthday he wanted to revisit his old haunts from the late 60s when he lived and worked there. We had a great day with lots of reminiscing and memories. Inevitably after more than 40 years, some things had … Read more
“I need a communication!” If I had a pound for every time I’ve heard that phrase during my career, the Sarah Browning Charitable Foundation would be up and running as a generous benefactor to many great causes. It’s always an interesting place to start a conversation because it gives me the opportunity to ask questions … Read more
I thought long and hard about whether to jump on the General Election bandwagon for my latest blog piece, but I’m afraid I couldn’t resist. It is such a big topic in the country right now (and is looking to stay that way for a wee while longer) and there are such clear communication lessons … Read more