Communications

See the Big Picture and Stir Things Up

In ancient Greece, privileged countrymen consumed a sacred drink called barley wine containing barley, grated cheese, and wine. But the if drink was not kept in a constant state of movement, the contents would harden and became undrinkable. Just like the barley wine, if we settle for comfortable routines, our thinking becomes rigid and ourRead… Read more »

Practice Makes Perfect: Improving Your Skills

We’ve all heard the phrase, “Practice makes perfect.” While many dismiss this idea as well-worn and antiquated, the concept of meaningful practice has been embraced by neuroscientists and life coaches alike in recent years. Author Daniel Coyle champions practice as the means to achieving excellent in his book The Talent Code. The idea is thatRead… Read more »

Take the Time to Explain

In this age of email and text messaging, we often see evidence of taking short cuts and stating conflicting ideas to one another. In doing this, sometimes the spirit of the message is not understood and often interpreted a negative way. When this happens we sometimes have to spend even more time trying to explainRead… Read more »

3 Ways Leaders Can Get More From Social Media (With Some Help from Motown)

If you’re a chief exec or a leader, you’ve probably given Twitter, blogging or even Facebook a go. Maybe you love it. But are you getting the most from it? Sometimes people tell me they’re on social media, they’re starting positive conversations about their work but they’re fed up of the same old topics croppingRead… Read more »

3 Rules for Gov Communicators to Master Media Relations (Part II)

Fostering effective media relations can be a challenging endeavor for anyone, including public sector communicators. This is due, in large part, to a history of adversarial relations between government and the so-called Fourth Estate. Thus it’s essential for government communicators to break down this firewall and build bridges instead. With this in mind, you shouldRead… Read more »

Disrupting Inequality: Design Thinking for Upward Mobility

Last week, we celebrated the launch of Living Cities’ latest interactive annual report Disrupting Inequality: Living Cities’ Perspective in 2013. Living Cities is an innovative collaboration among 22 foundations and financial institutions committed to improving the lives of low-income people and the cities where they live. This year, the Living Cities report is focused onRead… Read more »

Introducing the General Services Administration’s Silent Hero: Vanessa Ros

Young Government Leaders (YGL) and GovLoop present the NextGen Public Service Awards for superior public service and achievement. The 4th Annual NextGen Public Service Awards will be given at the 2014 NextGen Award’s Ceremony, which will kick off the NextGen Training Summit on July 23rd in Washington, DC. We have 18 finalists in six differentRead… Read more »