This post contains my opinions on a few hot topics and I want to start by talking a little bit about opinions in general. (Yes, I know I’m sharing opinions on opinions before I actually share opinions on specific subjects—I …
Category: Learning
What it means to be good at communications
I wrote a piece a while back about the joy and the pain of being a communications professional in the social sector, meaning, those of us who communicate for positive social change. This piece is a sibling to that one, …
The conflict between communicating and leading
I have always believed that working in communications involves creative thinking. My day-to-day work involves a great deal of creation—messaging, stories, language that I hope will resonate with target audiences. And this is the part of the work that I …
Communications as understanding
I think one of the most painful things I’ve had to hear for the past several years are people’s stories about how they’ve fought to maintain good relations with their loved ones who have swallowed Fox News storylines hook, line, …
Find – and learn – your work story
I saw our neighbor recently. I don’t see him that often—he’s a very nice guy, but he’s hardly ever home, and also, he has a grown son who moved back in with him for stints over the past several years …
Muscle memory and work
I took several years of piano lessons as a child; my level of skill would kindly be described as “intermediate.” I still play occasionally, though—my parents gifted me the very old Steinway upright that I first took lessons on, which …
Writing’s hard. Give help. And ask for it.
Over the course of my working life, I’ve been asked to write countless things. Once I write something, I generally remember how to write the thing again, but in lots of cases, I didn’t actually know how to write the …
Communications: From practice to belief
I’ve been struggling with belief, lately—what I believe to be true, and what I believe can be true. And I was worried that this could present a problem for me in my chosen line of work, which is communications for …
Messaging’s never not hard
Earlier this month, the New York Times published an article with the headline: For C.D.C.’s Walensky, A Steep Learning Curve on Messaging. The article outlined how Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has …
The good and the bad of sameness
Groundhog Day is one of my very favorite movies of all time. I love the central themes at the heart of it—that if you are stuck in a seemingly endless cycle of living the same experience over and over again, …