Perspectives
« Previous EntriesA Simple Truth
Tuesday, July 13th, 2010As professionals we sometimes forget the simplest truth about communication. At its most basic level, it is really about human connections. I’m reminded of this fact as I anticipate our annual family vacation on the Maine coast this and every August. A college roommate used to say that this was the best part of any [...]
Different Generations Want the Same Thing?
Monday, June 28th, 2010I came upon an interesting post the other day on the CRM Learning blog titled The Myth of Generational Workforce in the Workplace. The blog post reviewed new research on the multigenerational workforce by Jennifer J. Deal, a research scientist with the Center for Creative Leadership.
Deal argues that the stereotypes associated with the different [...]
The Movement to Open Communication Cultures
Thursday, June 3rd, 2010In my last blog I suggested that we were unlikely to see the fulfillment of a vision of full corporate democracy imagined by a new generation of anti-authority Internet bloggers. Their dream is of the end of corporate hierarchy and autocracy to be replaced by consultation and the flowering of social media that presumably will [...]
Who’s Managing Whom?
Wednesday, May 26th, 2010Imagine this workplace scenario. You work for a company run by a member of the Silent Generation – those born between 1925 and 1944. Let’s say he or she is in their late 60s or early 70s. You are in your late 30s, which makes you a member of Generation X, and you are managed [...]
Corporate Democracy versus Corporate Hierarchy
Monday, April 26th, 2010A very interesting trend has emerged in internal communication circles over the last several years. It’s the formation of a group of professional communicators who are ardently anti-hierarchical in their thinking and philosophy. For the most part their position has been shaped by the politics and viewpoint of Internet bloggers, who believe that organizations will [...]
The Magic of Face-to-Face Conversation
Monday, March 29th, 2010A few days ago I had the exhilarating experience of meeting with four colleagues in a two-day, brainstorming session. The members of the group have known each other for years as colleagues and even as competitors, so this was a group with a common history.
Our subject was differentiation in what has become a crowded profession. [...]
In the age of technology, it’s not about age at all
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010Anyone out there want to take a guess at how many entries you’ll get if you google “multi-generational workforce?” Try over 450,000. Sure, that’s not the over 20 million you’ll get by googling Lindsay Lohan, but it is an amount worth tweeting about.
As I read through some of the blog posts that come up, I [...]
What happens when you and your clients aren’t speaking the same language?
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010As communicators, we’re constantly surrounded by buzzwords and jargon that no one outside of our companies or communications teams may understand. So isn’t it fun when we all get to talk to each other? We can “build on” each other’s perspectives, we can “to your point” each other to death, and we can talk ad [...]
The Internet, Communication and the Multi-generational Workforce
Friday, February 12th, 2010Thirty years ago the unifying force in the workplace was more often than not what you watched on TV, possibly the movie you saw that weekend, and maybe the latest music. Because this was all truly mass media, for the most part the way a 25-year old in 1980 interacted with it was no different [...]
The Deliberate and Accidental Abuse of Language
Friday, October 10th, 2008One of the saddest things about political campaigns is the abuse of language and intelligent dialogue—the tendency to make words connote something other than their real meaning and to mask intent. Or worse, to disseminate outright lies. At this phase of the presidential campaign there’s plenty of both.
For anyone interested in truthful communication, this is [...]