Conflict and Innovation – Give Yourself Options
You can’t determine conflict outcomes by following any process. But you can own your behavior to give yourself options – and increase the chances of making conflict constructive.
Communications
5 Ways to Have A Quick One While He’s Away
It’s lunch time here at the cubicle farm and I’m distracted while trying to come up with a clever subject for this week’s blog. I have three, seriously three, colleagues sitting near me clearing their throats every 30 seconds or so. Not in time or anything synchronized because that would be very funny. I don’tRead… Read more »
Tell Me Straight: Plain Language in Governance
Reading wordy language is a real pain. As a graduate student of a social sciences discipline (I recently got a Masters’ in gender studies), I saw some of the most ridiculous examples of convoluted and elaborate language out there – social theory seems to spontaneously inspire this habit. It was annoying as a student, asRead… Read more »
The Case of the Introverted Extrovert
There has been many a night in my lifetime where I dream a dream about not being able to speak or my voice is gone. I try to scream and shout but not a word comes out. Paging Dr. Freud: I think this has something to do with me being concerned about whether my voiceRead… Read more »
Identifying and Dealing with a Weed (Toxic Person) in Your Garden?
Dealing with Toxic People (in my People Gardening terms I really like “Weeds” better), is not always easy. Of course we go through those same thoughts I asked originally, pull them, ignore them, eradicate them, but you know, what I’ve realized, is that it doesn’t make us any better to pretend them away in any… Read more »
A Day in the Life of an Accessibility SME
I met a fellow govie recently, and when I told him that I work in digital media accessibility, he said, “OMG, I could not review code all day, every day!” Well…neither could I, and although that’s what most people think we accessibility peeps do, that’s not the case. I may or may not look atRead… Read more »
The Psychology of the Candy Bowl
You know there are going to be those colleagues who always have a bowl of candy sitting on their desks or who bring donuts into the break room on Monday morning just after you’d set your alarm to hit the gym but slept in. If you view the candy bowl as a passive-aggressive attempt atRead… Read more »
Special Emphasis Observances: Mend Them or End Them
Can we do away with the following months or at least change the way we commemorate them: Black History, Women’s History, Asian Pacific American Heritage, Hispanic Heritage, National Disability Employment Awareness and Native American Heritage? Why. Rarely do these observances focus on what executive orders, public laws, federal regulations and Presidential proclamations require- the improvementRead… Read more »
Strategies for Dealing with Information Overload
I give up. You win. I know I’m missing something, and I’m jealous of how you make it work and still get things done. How do you do it? There is just too much information to consume: emails, news sites, social media apps, and even GovLoop posts. I turned to some previous blogs to get help,Read… Read more »
Perception is Reality: Alternate Realities Do Exist
You’ve heard the adage: Perception Is Reality. Well, I’m here to tell you that it rings true outside of sci-fi and super-hero realms in the comic books. It exists in virtually every agency. Every business. And, in every relationship. Following are some common situations where this comes into play. What you need to realize andRead… Read more »