by Jacqui | Jun 13, 2017 | Communication Skills
I spend a lot of time writing and responding to emails. According to many accounts, email is a dying medium. For me, that jury is still out deliberating – they are probably with the paperless office jury. So, while we await the verdict, here are my top 10 tips for...
by Jacqui | Jun 6, 2017 | Issues / Crisis Management
I am currently writing a book on issues/crisis management, so I have been doing a lot of thinking about the topic. What I have come to realize is that issues management is really a cycle: prepare, manage, recover and repeat. Since this is a cycle, people and...
by Jacqui | May 30, 2017 | Communication Skills
There are words and phrases that irritate me when I hear them in speech. Words like ah, uhm, eh, you know, so, whatever, fine – I could go on. But the one that has me ready to wretch is “basically”. When I listen to an interview, I often hear the interviewee...
by Jacqui | May 16, 2017 | Communication Tactics, Leadership
One of my favourite TV shows is Undercover Boss. The show almost always has a lesson about communications in that directives from head office often don’t translate well in the field – proof that one way communication is not effective. So how can companies avoid the...
by Jacqui | May 9, 2017 | Communication Strategy, Leadership
Values are the deep-seated beliefs under which each of us conduct our daily lives. To the best of my knowledge, corporations began articulating their values back in the seventies. In essence, the values of an organization should reflect their cultural norms and...
by Jacqui | May 2, 2017 | Communication Strategy
These days, communications people are almost always challenged to develop a social media strategy. Sometimes, that’s all clients actually want. I have a different take – I like a communications strategy that first and foremost identifies the “audience” for the...
by Jacqui | Apr 25, 2017 | Communication Skills
I love sporting competitions. I have attended many world-level events in figure skating and curling. Elite sporting events are an opportunity to see the world’s best athletes demonstrate their sport. They are also an opportunity for the sporting organization to...
by Jacqui | Apr 18, 2017 | Communication Strategy, Leadership
Leadership is difficult and when leaders want to steer their followers in a new direction or significantly change culture or processes, it requires careful thought. This point was driven home for me last week when I was working with a relatively new CEO who needs to...
by Jacqui | Apr 11, 2017 | Communication Strategy
From the very earliest days of my career, I have had a hand in doing consumer research. Back then, I learned the value of developing research that provides actionable insights. We agonized over the wording of questions, debated the value of asking certain questions,...
by Jacqui | Apr 4, 2017 | Communication Strategy
2017 seems to be my year to attend events and conferences. I have already attended four and have several more on the schedule. Events. Conferences. Seminars. Workshops. All have one thing in common – people who attend them. They are also complicated to do well and...
by Jacqui | Mar 28, 2017 | Communication Strategy
I am one of those people who is always looking for ways to do things better. It’s a disease with the status quo I caught in my days as a product development engineer that was fostered throughout my career at P&G over the next two decades. P&G could actually be...
by Jacqui | Mar 21, 2017 | Communication Tactics
This week, I am going to a conference. I am taking lots of business cards with me – even though this is a social media conference. So, my answer about whether the business card is needed, is a definite yes. In fact, The business card says a lot about its...
by Jacqui | Mar 14, 2017 | Communication Tactics
As a communications person, I am often asked how to breakthrough the noisy news environment to be noticed. Of course as David Brinkley once famously said, “the news is what I say it is”. So the first thing clients need to know is that their news is not the only...
by Jacqui | Mar 7, 2017 | Communication Strategy
There are two active states of communication; speaking and listening. When I think of speaking, I don’t just mean audible speech, I also mean the way in which a person or group presents itself to their audiences (potential “listeners”). Presentations, written memos,...
by Jacqui | Feb 28, 2017 | Ideas and Musings
There are some decisions I make really quickly and there are others over which I agonize. The difference between which ones are which, isn’t about the size of an investment or the complexity of the situation, it is my gut. How does it play out? I have made the...
by Jacqui | Feb 21, 2017 | Communication Strategy
I am watching Canada’s Curling classic, The Scotties Tournament of Hearts, this week. Success in curling requires a high degree of technical skill but the top teams have another thing in common – strong communications within the team. Make the plan: Before each rock...
by Jacqui | Feb 14, 2017 | Communication Skills
Communicators are typically not excited by data. In fact, most of the ones I know will be ready to turn heel and head for the hills screaming if you ask them to get involved in databases. However, this is the age of data mining and communicators, like other...
by Jacqui | Feb 7, 2017 | Communication Strategy
All of the chatter about branding lately seems to leave out an element that I see as key – style. Brands have a style whether by design or by happenstance. I prefer the former above the latter. Brand/visual identity The “printed” collaterals from an organization also...
by Jacqui | Jan 31, 2017 | Communication Tactics
I may have an old-fashioned view about respect. In some ways, I guess I have become a curmudgeon. Why? In this hedonistic society, people generally do what’s right for them and live their lives to achieve self-fulfillment on their terms. Unfortunately, that often...
by Jacqui | Jan 24, 2017 | Communication Skills, Communication Tactics
Trump is president. The Conservatives are searching for a leader. I just attended a conference. So I’ve done some watching and listening this past little while. I have been engaged by a few speakers while others have been regrettably dull and only speaking to...
by Jacqui | Jan 17, 2017 | Leadership
As a proud Maritimer, the colloquial expression that is the title of this blog is one that has held meaning for me for most of my adult life. I am a busy person – one look at my calendar would verify that. I am not asking for sympathy, I enjoy being busy and would...
by Jacqui | Jan 10, 2017 | Communication Skills
Well, the Golden Globes have started off another awards season and countless other award shows will follow – it is time for me to declare that I am not a fan of awards. I will never get to “thank the Academy” but I am involved in judging several professional awards...
by Jacqui | Jan 3, 2017 | Communication Skills
Communications people generally work with Subject Matter Experts or SMEs to produce content. Often the subject on which SMEs are expert is their life’s work. So when the communications person walks in with the objective of preparing content for general consumption,...
by Jacqui | Dec 27, 2016 | Ideas and Musings
I like watching documentaries. Recently I watched one about the Beatles and one about the Kennedy assassination regarding theories about how many bullets/shooters, etc. I lived through Beatlemania and remember the Kennedy assassination. In the 60s, film was expensive...
by Jacqui | Dec 20, 2016 | Uncategorized
No matter how or what you celebrate, enjoy!
