It’s easy to get carried away with tactical bells and whistles. It’s much harder – and more effective – to define a strategy and objective first, analyse your stakeholders and then select the most appropriate engagement tactics to achieve what you set out to do. That’s why I like the engagement spectrum developed by the International … Continue reading
The number three is the professional communicator’s friend. It just is. There’s nothing niftier than saying “there are three things that need to be done as a result of this decision…” or “in summary, there are three points I need you to remember …” Three is tight. Snappy. Enough detail without losing your audience’s attention span. … Continue reading
Note to self: maintain vigilance on one’s vocabulary. Words and phrases can slip in like a well-dressed gatecrasher and next thing you know you’re ‘socialising’ documents and ‘reaching out’ to people. Totes. I readily admit it. I’ve dropped my guard many times. My husband took issue with me ‘populating’ a spreadsheet (how about ‘filling it … Continue reading
Allow me to be straight up on this one: listing your organisation’s key stakeholders is not stakeholder analysis. And it is not stakeholder engagement. It is stakeholder identification. And it’s a good start. Stakeholder analysis is the process of identifying, categorising and then prioritising stakeholders in order to determine the impact and influence that individuals or … Continue reading
Knowing what news is and where information sits in a hierarchy is a valuable concept in business. After all, time is money. Think of what you want to communicate and its various messages as an inverse pyramid. The most critical information is positioned and weighted at the top and delivered immediately. The least critical information – such as … Continue reading
Stay with me, I’m on a roll with my trusty tools of the trade series. Number one was the key message and number two was storytelling. Onwards to number three - inputs, outputs and outcomes. I know – measurement. Cue rolling eyes. I used to (still do sometimes). My career started out in journalism – a world away from any … Continue reading
Here’s a really fun game to play with other film-loving and literary-minded souls (no Googling allowed!). Name a dozen popular stories. Okay, I’ll make a start for you. Rags to riches. The prodigal son. David and Goliath. The hero’s journey. Man vs Nature. Man vs himself. Good vs Evil. Triumph over adversity. Teacher I’ll never forget/ the mentor. … Continue reading
We all have our trusty tools of the trade but there’s one that I picked up many moons ago that just keeps on keeping on. The key message. Just last weekend I helped my nephew write a speech for his tilt at the school captaincy with a key message template. Most weeks I use it as … Continue reading
Add this link to your holiday reading if you missed it: Tony Boyd’s recent Chanticleer column in the Australian Financial Review titled ‘Time the boss twigs to Twitter.’ I liked it because his column is prime-time, must-read copy for CEOs and senior executives across Australia - so when Tony runs a piece about social media, you know the … Continue reading
Today, apparently, is the last day of National Telework Week in Australia. I thought this occasion deserved a lone post. Written from the kitchen table in my home. Where I am teleworking. Semantics. Teleworking. It’s a slightly awkward definition. I feel like I should be wearing a headset. But whatever you call it is irrelevant. What is relevant is whether trust … Continue reading