I recently read an article about an organization working to establish their culture by design rather than by default. Their approach, happily, included engagement of internal stakeholders. The concept of “design rather than default” made me reflect on my work as an engagement professional. I design processes that bring those impacted by a decision into […]
In our two previous blogs on communicating in the post-truth era, I focused on how to communicate in emotionally-charged environments and how to communicate to support broader engagement. In this post, I’ll focus on three tips for neutral communication, which, as easy as it sounds, is pretty hard to achieve. The public is skeptical, people […]
This is the second in a three-part series on communicating in the “post-truth” era. Read the first part here. What I love about this TED talk is when Celeste says: you don’t have to try and look interested, if you are interested. You may or may not be surprised by how many organizations seek input […]
In our January newsletter, I shared my top three engagement trends for 2017. One of them included the oversimplification of complex issues in a “post-truth” era. Oxford’s word of the year for 2016 was coined in part in order to describe Brexit and the US presidential election. The Guardian characterized it as: an adjective describing […]
Around this time last year, I wrote an outlook for 2016 around engagement for our planet, country and home. Click here to read that post. This year’s engagement forecast for 2017 focuses on three trends we see for the year ahead for communications, engagement and dialogue. #1 – Oversimplification of Complex Issues The foundation of […]
The context As we move into the New Year, and an era of increasing public engagement efforts by organizations and governments, a tool that was created originally for biodiversity conservation project planning, to break down complex problems, becomes more and more applicable. Problem flow diagrams, or simply logic diagrams, help unpack a large issue or […]
Imagine this: We sometimes tell clients not to engage. Why? Because if you cannot engage authentically, then it’s better not to do it all. It’s that important. Read on for some challenging questions to ask yourself when considering engagement. What does it mean? Authentic engagement is about bringing those impacted by a decision, or a […]
There are positions, interests and values in the world of stakeholders. When focused on positions, two parties are furthest apart. It’s a zero-sum game. Having a position is like: “No way are you going to build that new condo.” From the perspective of interests, we are closer together – but there is still a divide. It’s a […]
Many of the principles that we covered last week come together today. By carefully following each of the previous principles, we can create well-researched, stakeholder-driven, brilliant processes designed to meet – and often exceed – our finely-tuned engagement objectives. What does it mean? Beginning with the end in mind means starting an engagement by first […]
