I just left a meeting and the entire time I wished a meteor would strike the room we were in. How often has that feeling or something similar occurred to you? It seems to be fairly common in my 30 years as a government employee to have felt that way. I think there are meetingsRead… Read more »
I spend roughly nine hours a day in front of my computer working — minus bathroom breaks, lunch, meetings and a little Internet surfing for “research purposes.” Eighty percent of my duties involve direct interaction with a keyboard, my Outlook email account and a Word document of some sort. I’m a communicator by profession. My jobRead… Read more »
I just read a blog post about the benefits of an accessible site. Despite working in accessibility for the past 15 years, sometimes I still get surprised that we even need to have the conversation about accessibility being necessary and the right thing to do–particularly in government where we’re required to comply with Section 508.Read… Read more »
Email has become a primary form of communication for business, yet there are still so many terrible examples flooding company inboxes every day: Meandering, imprecise missives that don’t seem to have a point. Email chains a mile long that somehow leave everyone with a differing opinion on the next course of action. (When they wereRead… Read more »
In football, the distance the kicker kicks the ball is irrelevant if he doesn’t aim for the field goal. The same goes for an email campaign. Establishing solid goals and developing a testing strategy comprise a winning game plan for an email campaign.
If you’re like most people, you hate going to a meeting where the presenter reads verbatim from a bland PowerPoint presentation. So, how can you avoid common pitfalls and create a great presentation for your next meeting? If your agency requires you to use a specific template, you’re obviously a bit stuck with how creativeRead… Read more »
On Monday, January 19th, the federal government recognizes the life and legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. with a holiday. During this time, I have a ritual of digging out research papers I did in seminary on Dr. King who at the time was a major influence on my leadership style in the early 80’s.Read… Read more »
Recent “Innovate from the Inside Out” blogs focused on forming teams and generating ideas. Now it’s time to create an innovation plan. Ideally you will create a plan that conforms to a larger organizational innovation strategy. No such strategy in the organization? That’s OK. Think of your innovation plan as you’d think of a projectRead… Read more »
Happy New Year! Of course immediately after the New Year is the perfect time to get a fresh start with whatever needs to be renewed in our lives. This need for renewal might be because despite the merriment, the holidays can start to feel rote and rife with clichés. So now that the usual businessRead… Read more »
The past week has been freezing. Literally. As temperatures across the country dropped to single digits or even lower – looking at you Chicago – the need to stay warm was paramount. I am going to be honest. I am a cold weather wimp. Yesterday, I wore fur-lined boots (fake fur don’t worry), a heavyRead… Read more »