This was the headline to a recent story in Forbes.com. A reader followed up by asking: "If this is really going to happen, how will it affect the practice of change management /organizational development?" Here's what I replied: Whereas it is true that nothing lasts for ever, it is also the case that rumours of the death of any channel tend to be wildly exaggerated. Just as the DVD hasn't ki...
Read MoreThe twitterisation of society continues apace. US covert action and super-injunctions have found themselves outed on the ubiquitous chatter blog. There seems no escape from it. Indeed, many of you will have come to this blog via that channel. It all seems very new, as if the foundations of traditional communications are being rocked. The reality is that society has always been pretty prur...
Read MoreWell, I've done it. I managed to get around a prestigious golf course in one piece. Only a few weeks after picking up a club following a 10-year absence, I played 18 holes without disgracing myself. The overall result was, as is often the case, a mixture of the good, the bad, and the ugly. But I thoroughly enjoyed the occasion. So what did I learn? Firstly, that despite working out in my...
Read MoreAfter two weeks of hitting balls at the driving range, it became very clear that all was not well. Short irons were pretty good but long irons were frankly rubbish. And as for the big woods? Well, I simply couldn't hit them for toffee. So I signed up for a lesson. What became clear was that my grip, and consequently my swing, were incorrect. My timing, eye for the ball and strength were...
Read MoreI’ve recently started hitting golf balls again after a gap of ten years. Reading Bounce by Matthew Syed helped convince me that talent is a misnomer and that it’s practice that counts. So when I was asked whether I played golf I said, despite all the evidence, that I did. And so I now find myself less than a month away from a corporate golf day. Golf has provided fertile ground from which ma...
Read MoreI've been thinking a great deal recently about leadership communications (in fact, I've been trying to write a book on the subject). Much of my attention has been focused on how communications in many organisations is still stuck in traditional one-dimensional mindsets. I've been writing about how the best organisations harness the power of social media techniques inside their operations. Not on...
Read MoreGood communications is a prerequisite for leadership. And so it can often come as a shock to leaders to find that most of their messaging seems to land on barren land. Take-up of internal communications can remain stubbornly low. When planning leadership communications it is not just the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ that are important. The first place to start is ‘why’. 1. Why do you want to ta...
Read MoreAnyone been listening to Radio 4's book of the week? Now is the Winter of our Disconnect is a light-hearted account of one family's attempt to live without all forms of electronic media. No Skype, Facebook, iPhones/pads/pods, and return to living in the RL (real world). It is worth dipping into. And if you thought that it was only a problem for the younger generation then count how many times y...
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There are few aspects of life that don’t involve making compromises. Every part of our existence involves curtailing individual freedom or postponing desires in order to co-exist with others. We happily obey rules that limit our personal liberty, such as driving on the left or paying taxes, in order to benefit from the security that a civilised society offers. Even those people who opt out ma...
Read MoreAs the country heads inexorably towards an EU referendum, the polls show that most people can barely contain their indifference. Despite this apathy, politicians and the media are running around talking loudly as if nothing else mattered. So why is it that on something of seemingly such importance most people simply switch off. To be fair, it’s not only on Europe that this is the case; inte...
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