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 …
Guest post: comms lessons from an 11-year-old
Thanks to the Easter school holidays I’ve spent much of the last couple of weeks hanging out with my daughter. Like many 11-year-olds she’s very wise and tells it like it is, so I interviewed her about her views on communication for this month’s guest slot. Listening to young people more is something we should all do. Why is communication …
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 …
The perils of no project communication
When I was researching topics for my blog, a previous client asked me to write about what happens if you have no project communication at all. This is what I regularly see happening: No-one knows what they’re doing, so they just make it up. People are confused so they do the wrong thing or cause more problems than you started …