Monthly Archives: February 2015
March = Capitol Hill Fly-ins
March is nearly upon us. The month is a popular one for organizations to petition their elected officials by holding Washington, D.C., fly-ins. As a refresher, let’s reprise a post from last year that covered the basics. You can find a complete listing of writings on the subject here: If you are more of a visual […]
Networking Is a Presentation, Too
Lots of topics arise when people learn I have written a book about becoming a better speaker. Sometimes I get the reaction, “I don’t deliver speeches and never intend to.” Fine. But serious business people — from Fortune 500 CEOs to start up entrepreneurs — deliver presentations each and every day. Oh, it may not […]
Reporters: Do Your Job to Keep Sources on the Record
It has become too easy and convenient for news sources to hide their identities. Yet the ire is often misdirected toward the cloaked spokespeople when much of it should be targeted toward reporters who enable such behavior. The latest such kerfuffle comes courtesy of The Hill, a newspaper covering mainly Capitol Hill doings. It featured […]
Sitting in the Back Row
Slides can be misused in oh so many ways. In some cases, the design of the slides is at fault. Here’s how you can monitor for certain design elements. Pretend that you are the person stuck in the back row. Now call up your slides on the screen and assess what you see with a […]
Strategy Before Tactics
I had the recent pleasure of participating in an organizational planning session. A few dozen of the organization’s best and brightest packed into a room to contemplate the coming year and how we might advance the organizational goals. Participants put forth lots of valuable ideas, tossing out thoughts so fast and furious the scribe could […]
That’s a Great Question
A recent podcast by the Freakonomics guys reminded me of a bothersome trend in media interviews: The tendency of some sources to respond with, “That’s a great question.” In fact, their podcast is titled, “That’s a Great Question!” For me, that expression is like fingernails on a blackboard. Every time I hear an expert put […]
Does Media Training Work?
I got a call a while back from a client who works in the communications department of a large professional society. She is planning a communications training program for her senior staff, and asked whether I knew of any studies that proved the efficacy of media training or presentation skills training. This is a question […]
C-suite Blueprint 
Recent Comments