Tag Archives: communications

Communications, Internal Communications, Management

How do you know if you are on a good work team?

How do you know if you’re part of a good work team? I’ve been having lots of wonderful and intriguing discussions with friends of mine about teams. With my soccer team, about why we like each other enough to hang out when we don’t have to. With my friend Ann Max, who coaches corporate teams towards productivity. I also chatted at length with my friend Jen Hunter, who works with leadership teams to build on their collective strengths. The question is harder to answer than you might think. For one, sometimes people don’t know that they’re in a team.

I once had a colleague who regularly and without fail tried to ambush his team members. He saw us as competition. Was he a bright and capable guy? Absolutely, he is one of the smartest people I’ve worked with. He just couldn’t imagine us as being on a team and so saw us as chasing the same scarce resources, whatever he imagined them to be. Did the rest of us think he was competition? Nope, we thought we were on a team. Therefore, we were regularly surprised at his negative response to simple initiatives. If you’ve read my blog before, you’ll know I think surprises at work are terrible things with disastrous results.

Of course, there are those times when a team comes together and does amazing things. When this happens, it creates synergy, energy and amazing outcomes. My soccer team does one thing consistently, we laugh. If we don’t laugh, then what’s the point of getting together? We also know what roles we play.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have some fantastic work teams, those times when a group of individuals transcends their independent parts to produce results well beyond their scope. One of the tricks of success is that we didn’t allow ourselves to get too insular. Not only is navel-gazing boring, but it epitomizes counter-productivity.

Good teams also know that effective communication is central to success. Good teams have frank conversations, respectful consideration of ideas and the freedom to laugh at each other and ourselves when things get goofy. They are patient. Good ideas take time to share and understand and they can’t come to fruition without a team patient enough to listen. If you’re on a good work team you’ll know it because you not only like your colleagues, you respect them. You certainly won’t be afraid to speak your mind to them.

Quick Tips

Good team members give each other time, patience and fun.
They respect and can anticipate each other.
Good teams happen when you realize that you are collectively better than your individual parts.
Good teams are self-aware, everyone knows what their role is and how that role connects to and supports others.
Most importantly, good teams communicate.

Related articles

8 Fun Activities to Help Build Your Team – OfficeArrow Marketplace

Communications, Government Relations, Marketing

Warming Up The Audience Before Delivering Your Message

Debra Yearwood 12 Comments

Regardless of the setting, whether I’m leading a workshop, lobbying or speaking at an event, I always warm up my audience before delivering my message. When they’re warm, I’m hot.

A Story from the Field

The CEO of the large pharmaceutical company was anxious to meet with an Assistant Deputy Minister (ADM). His company had considerable concerns around a regulatory process and he wanted to share their proposals towards addressing that challenge. He knew that in the weeks prior to his meeting there had been quite a bit of bad press about the ADM’s program. What’s more, the bad press was the result of accusatory comments levelled directly at the ADM by another pharmaceutical company. It was of little surprise to the CEO when he was only granted 30 minutes for the meeting, and even less of a surprise when 30 minutes was reduced to 15 minutes once he arrived.

Rather than launching into his proposal, he started the meeting by explaining that he understood the challenges the department faced. He explained that he thought the press coverage unfair since it did nothing to contribute to an open dialogue between his industry and the department. The ADM who had started the meeting with her hands folded across her chest and her lips tightly pursed, slowly began to relax. When her assistant came into the meeting to get her after 15 minutes, the ADM shook her head and the meeting proceeded. By the time the CEO explained that his company funded a group of independent scientists who would be available for an exchange program with the department due to their specialized knowledge, 45 minutes had elapsed. The ADM was leaning forward attentively and asking how the scientists were chosen and how the exchange might work. The meeting ended after an hour and there were smiles all around.

As government relations exercises go, I have rarely been so impressed with a client for turning what could have been a disaster into a triumph. When we were told we had 15 minutes I wasn’t sure if he would stay or walk out, but he was made of sterner and smarter stuff. It’s a lesson that has stayed with me.

Four tips for managing first meetings:

Do your homework. Understand what challenges and opportunities face your audience.
Assume nothing about your audience’s knowledge of you; make sure your position/attitude is clearly stated at the beginning of the meeting.
Read the body language of the person you are meeting with and respond to it.
Establish rapport before trying to deliver your pitch.

Handling Hecklers

Communications, Leadership

Personal Paradigms, The Good, The Bad & The Impact

Debra Yearwood 52 Comments

They say that goldfish have a memory that’s about 10 seconds long, no doubt an exaggeration but for argument’s sake, let’s say that’s true. With a memory that short, they would be forever rediscovering the world around them. They would have no operating principle to help them navigate. Without personal paradigms, we’d be very much like that goldfish. Though his bowl of water is small he is forever shouting, “Hey, there’s a castle! Hey, there’s a castle!”

How Personal Paradigms Serve Us: Paradigms help us to interpret, define and engage in the world around us. Without our paradigms, we would constantly be struggling to determine and define what we see, what we hear and what we should do about it. Our paradigms help us to move through our lives seamlessly.

When I was in college, I made a friend who often shared stories about her family and their activities. She spoke of the antiques her mother collected and the beautiful old apartment they lived in. She shared stories of their travels and generally painted an amazing picture of her life. As I got to know her better it became clear her stories didn’t quite reflect reality. There were no antiques, no beautiful apartment and certainly no travels.

Flash forward a few years and I’m on Parliament Hill and the office across the hall has brought in a summer student. One day the student tells us about her adventures. She has met Sting, spent a few weeks on the streets for a research project, her grandmother has left all her money to her cats and she has written for a popular soap opera. As you can imagine, because of my history, my paradigm would not allow me to believe the stories she told unless I had evidence. It was simple when people start telling fantastical stories about their lives you need to look more carefully.

Later, I quietly mentioned to my colleague that I had some suspicions about the truth of the stories shared. Well, my colleague’s paradigm was different from mine, so she got more than a little annoyed at my suspicions and a few uncomfortable days followed. After a short period, the summer student… disappeared from the office across the way. It eventually came out that she had made up all of her stories, including her skills. People were shocked and angry, but not me. My paradigm had stepped in and said, this is bull. Once that happened, all I could see were flaws and inconsistencies. Our paradigms save us a lot of grief and can generally help us to interpret the world.

How Personal Paradigms Make Us Blind to the World: So your thinking, so what? You’ve heard all this stuff before. But what if despite knowing this, the most experienced and in some cases the most powerful people in our respective worlds persisted in behaving as if their paradigm was the only paradigm?

Is the black diamond the top or bottom of the square?

People get used to power and after a while, they can start to think that no matter what they do or say, they are somehow removed from consequences. They can build a personal paradigm around themselves that is so airtight that they become incapable of seeing pitfalls. They lose the ability to judge good from bad. They can divorce themselves from seeing the errors in their own behaviour.

Consider American President, Donald Trump, celebrity chef Paula Deen or former Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, all could lay claim to huge popularity and all had difficulty seeing problems with their own behaviour.

When our paradigms blind us, they don’t just make us blind to opportunity, they make us blind to threats, blind to ethical considerations, blind to the harm we are doing.

Whatever Your Perspective, Understand That You Have One: Although you may have heard it countless times, don’t forget that your truth is not necessarily THE truth. Your version of reality may not even be based in reality. If this was an easy thing to remember, then the examples above would be a lot harder to find.

Has your paradigm ever helped or hindered you? Have you ever seen someone else struggle because they just couldn’t see the “truth” of a situation?

Related Articles:

Marketing Attitude

Government Relations

Every Contact Counts

Debra Yearwood 10 Comments

Ever start to do one thing only to find that you have actually achieved something quite different? Well, the two young men in the following story set off to deliver some tickets to an important contact, what they accomplished was some very effective, albeit negative, branding.

Two young airline executives were on Parliament Hill for some meetings with members of parliament and thought they would take the opportunity to drop off a dinner ticket they were holding for the Chair of the Transport Committee. When the young execs arrived at the Chair’s office unannounced, the assistant greeted them with a smile and asked if she could help. They explained that they had a dinner ticket for the Chair and could she pass it along. She looked a bit puzzled and then asked which dinner they were referring to. They explained which dinner they had in mind and were somewhat surprised when she shook her head in the negative.

“I’m sorry, there must be some mistake,” she said, “the Chair is attending that dinner, but he is not sitting at your table.”

The young executives, who had risen up the ranks of the airline based on their brilliant assessment skills, collectively shook their heads in the negative. “No, no, we know he is at our table.” The assistant, looking a little less pleased said, “No, I just checked his schedule, he is not sitting at your table.”

Clearly, the assistant was new or uninformed they thought, “No, you’re mistaken we know for a fact that he is.” they insisted.

The conversation went on in this vein for quite some time with the executives getting increasing short-tempered with the assistant. Finally, in a fit of temper, they stormed out of the office with their ticket.

As it happens, the assistant was right; the Chair was attending the dinner but not sitting at the table with the airline. More importantly, they had left a very unfavourable impression with the assistant, which was unfortunate since she was not only the Chair’s Senior Policy Assistant and adviser, but she was married to the Executive Assistant to the Minister of Transport. While she may not have ever consciously done anything negatively towards the airline, the story of the rudeness of their executives certainly made the rounds and couldn’t help but to contribute to an overall impression within government ranks that, that particular airline bred a lack of respect in its staff. That lack of respect seemed to explain a lot about their customer service reputation.

A brand is not just a logo and it doesn’t just reside in your advertising, its reflected in every interaction you have with clients, customers and stakeholders. In fact, your brand is probably best displayed in your human to human interactions. The following tips may be helpful.

Assume nothing when walking into a situation, when confronted with conflicting information, do your homework.
No one likes surprises at work, avoid unplanned visits.
Treat everyone with respect and if a conflict develops, don’t escalate.
Every contact that you have with customers counts, so never take them for granted.

Related Articles

Marketing Attitude

Making A Great First Impression

Communications, Internal Communications, Leadership

11 Dangerous Misconceptions about Communications

Debra Yearwood 10 Comments

Communications is as necessary to our survival as breathing. It’s how we engage and interpret our world. We label and reference what we see hear and smell and then use that information to share ideas, solve problems and fire imaginations. Despite the integral role it plays in helping us to navigate our lives we often take effective communication for granted. We assume that everyone is seeing the world through our eyes and experiences. This can lead to misinterpretations, disagreements, and confusion.

Misconceptions can shape how we see and understand messages. They can inform decisions and drive objectives. While errors in understanding can sometimes be funny, too often the results are far from humorous. If you are in business then you are in the field of communications. Without the proper care, you and your brand can be felled by misinterpretation.

The following are some of the most common misperceptions I have encountered working in business communications.

Communication happens when messages are sent. Sometimes people assume that because they have sent a message, that it has been received or that receiving a message is the same as understanding it. Consider how many messages are sitting in your inbox unopened or all of the promotional mail that goes directly into recycling. Most messages never get to their intended audience. Assume communications has happened when you hear an answer or see an outcome that confirms it. This is especially true when it comes to social media. Thousands of posts don’t mean thousands of views, much less that people have understood or engaged with your content.
Fluency means comprehension. This misconception is related to the idea that your proficiency in a language is somehow a measure of your effectiveness in communicating. If that were true, then someone with a large vocabulary need not listen, ensure that messages were actually heard, understood or retained. If you have ever read an academic paper you know that a deep understanding of a topic is no assurance of the ability to communicate about it effectively. Unfortunately, having a deep understanding of a particular topic can actually result in lowering your ability to communicate about it well. One reason this happens is that you can get into the habit of using the jargon or abbreviations that are well known to those in the field but become a barrier to those outside of it.
If people don’t agree with you, then they misunderstood. Overconfidence in the truth or righteousness of your message can sometimes result in an assumption that everyone will agree with you. The belief that your message is the only message can be a reflection of your commitment to an idea or your passion for a cause. Think about how often political convictions can result in disputes amongst friends. Sometimes people hear your message just fine but they simply don’t agree with you. This is not necessarily a prompt to restate, repeat or say it louder. It can be a prompt to rethink.
You can’t plan for crisis communications. As a business, not having a crisis communications plan is a strategic blind spot that can result in a hard and fast fall. Consider conducting a vulnerability audit. If you are a small business or operating on your own, ask yourself questions related to worst-case scenarios. What would need to be in place if you got sick? What do you need to do if your regular suppliers are unavailable? Who do you need to train if they need to take over? Are there processes you should be documenting? Do you have an emergency contact list? If you have a larger business, ask people responsible for various departments to consider potential weak spots and plan for worst-case scenarios. Do you have a communication tree set up so that messages can quickly reach multiple people? Make sure that your response process is efficient. Slow responses in times of crisis can grow the crisis.
Always stay positive. Optimism is awesome, its good for you and practising optimism is important to success. However, while having a positive and happy brand has become the default for many organizations, sometimes you have to disagree with people or take a stand on a topic that affects or offends a large segment of your market. Avoiding conflict or negative conversations can actually result in tarnishing your brand or hindering innovation. Innovation often requires taking risks and risks can result in negative outcomes. Employees need to feel comfortable enough to take chances. Risk can be the difference between making the mediocre good and the good great.
One message fits all. If all humans had identical needs, experiences, and aspirations, perhaps one type of communication would be feasible. Since we have unique needs or at least groups of people have unique needs, then we have to tailor communications to match our various audiences. Not only do people learn and understand things in different ways, they have different expectations and priorities. By keeping communication styles responsive and flexible you will be better at getting your message delivered.
Any problem can be resolved with effective communications. Communications is not magic. There are some challenges that communications simply will not overcome. In some situations, the best that communications can do is facilitate interpersonal exchanges and help to make the position of both sides clear.
The more communications the better. Whether you are talking about interpersonal communications or the media more is not necessarily better. If you want press coverage sending countless press releases may only result in reporters learning to ignore your messages. Being stingy with knowledge is rarely a good idea if you are trying to influence an outcome, but as with most things, balance is important. Measure your responses, take the temperature of your audience to determine if your message is getting through.
Good logic makes for good communications. This misconception assumes that emotions play no role in communications. The reality is that you can get different reactions to the identical message depending on how it’s delivered when it’s delivered, and how you and the recipient are feeling at the time of delivery. Think about how effective it is sending a “get to work” message late Friday afternoon in the summer.
Ignore social media in a crisis. It’s hard to believe that anyone still thinks they can ignore social media during a crisis, but every year organizations that should know better do. Not only do you have to engage on social media during a crisis, you have to do so quickly or risk having your brand negatively affected. Being responsive means having a clear policy in place letting employees know what they can and cannot respond to in case of a crisis. It also means being available to respond after hours.
Communications is easy. Just because everyone does it doesn’t mean they do it well. While most people can learn to be better communicators with time and practice, good communications take work. Communicating effectively with broad and diverse audiences requires research, skill, and knowledge.

Related Articles:

Marketing Attitude

Communications, Government Relations, public relations

Know When To Fold Them

Debra Yearwood 10 Comments

So it’s one thing to reflect on communications from the comfort of your office, but what happens when you do all of the right things and then because of the personality quirks of the person you’re meeting with, things get weird anyway?

A colleague of mine once took a client to meet with a member of parliament (MP) in the ante-room of the House of Commons. The MP was on her cell phone when they arrived for their meeting and waved to them to join her. As they approached she paused in her phone call to tell the client to start speaking. As soon as he did, she resumed her call. The client quite naturally paused again and the member of parliament stopped her telephone call long enough to tell him to continue. When he did, she did too. Eventually, my colleague signalled to the client to stop and they said goodbye to the MP without delivering their message.

You might think that it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that this is rude behaviour, but sometimes powerful people get so used to being catered to by their staff that they can lose sight of what is appropriate. They are by no stretch the norm, but they are also not as rare as we might like. In situations where your audience is being confrontational or just plain rude, it is best to cut your losses.

Quick Tips:

Try to refocus the meeting on the agenda topics.
Terminate unpleasant or unproductive meetings at the first feasible opportunity.
Do not take the opportunity to yell or make a scene, it may feel good momentarily, but it will most likely hurt you and in the long run gain you nothing.
If you are really annoyed about how you have been treated then share your story if possible. If you can’t, chalk it up to experience. We can learn from good meetings and bad ones.

Communications, Government Relations

What was the message?

Debra Yearwood 6 Comments

Imagine planning a message for two months and then forgetting to deliver it. Sound impossible?The following story really happened.

The real estate group had been planning their presentation to the Minister of Industry for about two months. They had prepared slides and organized who would speak first and who would address the series of itemized issues. The Minister was next to impossible to book and so this meeting was considered quite a coup within the organization. The presentation went like clockwork. The Minister and his staff had sat with rapt attention through the slides. The assistant had made occasional notes and the Minister had asked questions. It was, therefore, something of a shock to the group when the Minister at the close of the meeting turned to his assistant while the group was packing up and quietly said, “Why did they want to meet?”

It was no less surprising when the assistant shrugged her shoulders and said, “I don’t know; I assumed they wanted to address the pending legislation but they never mentioned it.”

Since the real estate group was under the impression that everything they said was related to the legislation, though they never actually made the link, they were somewhat dismayed.

Tips

Assume nothing before a meeting. Always clearly state why you are meeting and what you would like from the meeting.
Decide on a facilitator, someone who will lead the meeting and keep things on track.
Be clear on what you specifically would like the person you are meeting with to do next.
Make sure that you are always linking your information back to your objectives.
Avoid jargon, it is difficult to follow and may disengage or confuse listeners.
Ask if there are any questions before you conclude the meeting.
Follow up in writing restating your request and the highlights of your message.

Although the story relates to a failed government relations venture the same lessons can be learned by anyone trying to communicate. Essentially don’t get so preoccupied with how your message is going to be delivered that you don’t spend enough time ensuring that your audience actually gets the message. Imagine taking out a full page ad in a paper your audience doesn’t read or posting an important family message on Facebook and assuming all your relatives will read it.

Internal Communications, Management

Problem Solving 101 – How to Solve Problems

Debra Yearwood 31 Comments

Ever notice how easy it is to solve other people’s problems? When presented with someone else’s conundrum it can be easy to assess the possibilities, look at what might work and develop solutions. To the person who owns the challenge, our proposed solutions may seem innovative, creative, and perhaps even ingenious. “How did you come up with that solution so fast and make it look easy!?”

When our personal paradigms, perspectives or biases do not weigh us down, problem-solving is relatively easy. We can get a handle on the problem; look at each possible solution and determine next steps. The challenge, of course, is that we don’t get to ignore our own difficulties and focus exclusively on other people’s problems. The biggest hurdle to resolving our own problems is that there are two kinds of solutions, the ones that work and the ones we like.

If your emotions, ego or attitude are all wrapped up in the outcomes, how do you avoid distracting yourself? How do we harness our own inventiveness and objectivity, while avoiding natural biases to solve problems? Start by taking a deliberate approach.

8 Tips For Problem Solving

Figure out what the problem is. This may seem obvious, but unfortunately, problems can stretch out longer than they need to because we assume what the problems are rather than taking the time to analyze them and make sure.
Once you know what the problem is, refine and define it as clearly as possible. Develop a laundry list of elements that make the problem completely transparent. If there are elements that you cannot define, make a note of them too. Make sure that you list the barriers to resolution.
Consider possible approaches to reach solutions. Do you need to ask for help? Do you need to do some research, interview experts or contemplate the problem more?
Once you have gathered all of your information, put it in one place and organize it so that it makes sense and it is easy to identify individual elements. What do you need to do first? What parts hinge on others in order to be successful?
Determine what represents low hanging fruit or easy fixes. Quick wins are not only easy but are valuable because they boost morale and build momentum.
What will take more time, money and resources to resolve? All solutions should be either easy or matter. What are the mini projects you need to do in order to get your big projects accomplished?
Keep track of what you are doing as you do it. Make sure you are moving in the right direction by monitoring progress. Team and the communication within the team are critical. Getting the right people in place and making sure that communications are effective will go a long way towards avoiding unnecessary roadblocks along the way.
When the process is complete, make sure that the results you have achieved are the ones you wanted. Sometimes we achieve the right outcome but create other problems along the way.

What do you think? How do you resolve challenges? Ever solve a problem that had someone else in knots? Have you had a problem easily resolved by someone else?

Communications, Government Relations, Internal Communications

The Importance of Research in Business

Debra Yearwood Leave a comment

Risk is a part of most business equations, but making assumptions without first doing your research is just bad planning. Several years ago as a consultant, I worked with the Executive Director (ED) of an association on a government relations campaign. He had attended many government meetings over the years but I had gotten him an important meeting an Assistant Deputy Minister (ADM).

Since the association had wanted to meet with the ADM for some time, they had lots of information to share. The ED was eager to communicate as much information as possible. He glanced at his notes again and again but he hardly needed them. He knew his issues inside and out. The trick would be to make sure that the message was being delivered with all the necessary information following a logical pattern. The ADM was relatively new to the portfolio and was an unknown to the organization. The Executive Director wanted to make sure that he captured all the nuances of the message and left a good impression. I had suggested starting the meeting with a brief description of the association, followed by an overview of the profession, but the Executive Director was concerned about inadvertently insulting the ADM by addressing things that he could easily have learned prior to the meeting.

The Executive Director was about 45 minutes into the hour-long meeting when the ADM asked a question that revealed he had absolutely no knowledge of the profession, never mind an understanding of the association. It was at this point that the Executive Director decided that he would have to do three things, 1) abandon his presentation 2) start the discussion over again with a description of the profession and 3) not make eye contact with me for the rest of the meeting.

Fortunately, we subsequently built a strong rapport with the ADM, but the story stays with me because it so beautifully illustrates what happens when you make assumptions about your audience in business.

Tips on engaging your audience:

Assume nothing about what people know
Do your research, learn as much as you can about the person you are meeting with before you meet. Look them up on LinkedIn, search the internet for their bio.
Send a briefing note in advance of the meeting if your time is limited.
Bring material that you can leave behind in case your audience has questions after you leave.
Complex messages require multiple meetings or messages.

Communications

Mean What You Say, Know The Meaning of Sayings

Debra Yearwood 38 Comments

A few years a ago a friend of mine who teaches and does research through various universities was trying to rally some of her colleagues around an initiative and used the phrase, “Jump on the band wagon.” Shortly afterwards she was reprimanded by the administration for using politically incorrect language. Apparently the interpretation of the phrase she used was that it was racist. Confused? So was she.

To me the phrase means, go along with an idea or get on board with an idea, but apparently the interpretation was somehow associated with First Nations and Inuit bands and in a derogatory way. It was only recently that someone was explaining to me the origins of the expression. It started with PT Barnum and he was referencing the band’s wagon. That is the wagon the band performed on…no connection to First Nations or Inuit people whatsoever. It would seem the reprimand said more about the prejudice of the university administration than it did about my friend.

The bow of the ship (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The experience made me think about the origins of phrases that we commonly use, or as the case may be, expressions that we assume are commonly known, but are really regional in origin or known by specific people. A friend of mine once received a document from a client that was so full of local phrases she couldn’t make sense of it. She called me to see if I could help. The client who lived on Canada’s east coast had used such lively phrases as, “cut of his jib” and “shipshape and Bristol fashion” and my personal favorite, “A shot across the bow.”

My friend had no idea what her client was talking about but as it happens, I could explain it, not because I knew the east coast of Canada, but because my family comes from an island and there are more than a few fisherman in the family. The phrases that were stumping her were all nautical in their origins.

Using expressions and old sayings can add colour and interest to language and can even be instrumental to the adoption of ideas by making things sound more familiar to the recipients. They can also be distracting and disturbing if they are misinterpreted. Consider the expression, “cotton picking”, depending on context it can have a wealth of meaning. Does “Wait a cotton- picking minute” mean the same things as, “Don’t touch me with those cotton picking hands.”?

So before using them, know your audience and more importantly, say what you mean and know the meaning of your sayings.

Have you ever come across a phrase that left you stumped? Or used an expression that made your audience confused?

Some expressions and their origins from the “Phrasefinder”

Expression	Meaning	Origin
A shot across the bow.	A warning shot, either real or metaphorical.	The action taken by an approaching ship to warn off another.
Cut of his jib.	His general appearance and demeanor.	Some ships had more than one jib sail. Each country had its own style of sail and so the nationality of a sailing ship, and a sailor’s consequent opinion of it, could be determined from the jib.
Jump on the bandwagon	Join a growing movement in support of someone or something	The wagon the band performed on which would pick up followers as it made it’s way across a town on the way to the circus/performance.
Done a runner	Leaving in a hurry under questionable circumstances.	From running out of a restaurant before paying for a meal.
Quid pro quo.	Something given in return for an item of equivalent value – like tit for tat.	From Latin meaning, something for something.
Cotton picking minute	bothersome, difficult or challenging	Earliest reference from the UK and associated with the hard work of picking cotton.
Cotton picking hands	referring to someone n a derogatory way	Largely associated with the American south (though there are early references from the UK) and with the hands of the cotton picker, generally black person. Can be interpreted as racist.

CommStorm

Tag Archives: communications

How do you know if you are on a good work team?

Warming Up The Audience Before Delivering Your Message

Personal Paradigms, The Good, The Bad & The Impact

Every Contact Counts

11 Dangerous Misconceptions about Communications

Know When To Fold Them

What was the message?

Problem Solving 101 – How to Solve Problems

The Importance of Research in Business

Mean What You Say, Know The Meaning of Sayings

Developing Better Professional and Private Communications