This week is Mental Health Awareness Week. It is fantastic that conversations about this important area of wellbeing are becoming more and more open. With increasing recognition of the impact of our mental wellbeing on all areas of our lives, our workplace communication has an even greater significance. We would not be able – or expected – to leave a …
How to handle CAVE dwellers
Every organisation has its CAVE dwellers. You know, those people who greet every new initiative, improved process or attempt to build excitement with snorts of derision. “We have seen it all before!” “What a lot of tosh!” “That will never work here.” They are, in short, Constantly Against Virtually Everything. CAVE dwellers. I first came across this term at an …
3 steps to spring clean your communications
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 the challenges of current and …
What is effective communication?
I often talk about ‘effective communication’ in my presentations, comms strategy conversations and training workshops. But what does that phrase actually mean? A good friend asked me this question after reviewing some text for me. And I thought ‘If Pat wants to know what effective communication is, then other people will probably be wondering the same thing’. Simply put, I believe …
Celebrating my birthday with 8 comms tips
Today is Browning York Ltd’s 8th birthday. I love working with charities and universities to solve problems through more effective communication. I’ve been doing it for more than 8 years (twice as long, in fact) but it was in March 2011 that I took things to a more formal level by setting up a company. To celebrate my ‘birthday’, I …