In my line of work (communication), sometimes you get so caught up in the planning and the doing, you skip over the “did it work?” part. Sometimes, that part is built in—if you are communicating on behalf of a political …
Expectations: Yours, mine, everyone’s
There’s a part of the working experience that doesn’t get talked about very often, but I think it highlights one of the most important skills that one can learn in a job: managing expectations. Your own, and others. This issue …
Emotional work at work, still hard.
“Emotional labor” was a Hot Topic a few years ago; the term was originally used to describe the work of managing personal feelings in a work context; then it was coined by a sociologist at Berkeley (why is it always …
I want that pony!
My husband, when we were first married, was somewhat….taken aback by what a good shopper I am. Listen, it runs in my family: my mother is an expert when it comes to outlet-shopping, and can comb through overstuffed racks of …
Retrospective: My communications evolution
FIRST IN COMMUNICATIONS (meaning the publishing industry, in 1990), there were printed materials, and there was the telephone, and the fax machine. We had computers, but they were blinking green cursors on black screens. We communicated through the books we …
Clients and consultants: Thoughts
We take a break from the nonstop dumpster fire that is the ongoing news from 2020 to return to some more mundane work topics. Today’s topic: consultants. In thinking about today’s topic, I unearthed a blog post I had written, …
On standing still, and moving forward
This post is not about the heartbreaking deaths of George Floyd/Breonna Taylor/Ahmaud Arbery/Philando Castile/Michael Brown/so many other Black people at the hands of police officers and white supremacists, and it’s not about the wave of anguish and rage, that’s being …
Getting past the anger
In Myers-Briggs lexicon, I’m an ENTJ—a decisive strategist, someone who you want on your team to get shit done, and maybe even to lead the team, but someone who has to be mindful of ensuring that other voices are heard …
Communicating a better future
Ten years ago, I moved with my family to our present home in Mountain View, California. Mountain View is the home of Google, in the heart of Silicon Valley—two towns over in one direction lies Stanford University and Facebook, and …
Winning narratives that matter
I am a big one for research in all areas of life, including parenting, and one of the evidence-based recommendations I took to heart is to have dinner with your family as often as possible. Apparently, research showed that sitting …
