When it Comes to Inclusion, The CIA is MIA

The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States commonly known as the 9/11 Commission, concluded that a piece of the systematic failure to prevent the terrorist attacks on September 9, 2011 was rooted in the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) lack of inclusion. When the commission spoke about inclusion, they did not mean inclusionRead… Read more »

The Death of Disposable Content

By Emily Grenen, ICF International If you work in social media, you’re likely quite aware that creating new content is an intensive process. It often requires a good bit of creativity to find material that resonates with your target audience, but that also fits the guidelines that you, a partner, or a client have developed.Read… Read more »

One More Symbol to Wipe Out

The Nazi flag has been designated to the landfill of history. The Confederate flag is about to come down in South Carolina. Unfortunately, one flag still flies high in our nation’s capital, the flag of the Washington R-Word, an emblem of suffering, shame and racism to indigenous people in the USA. During the Confederate flagRead… Read more »

Plan Your Summer Vacation Around Customer Experience

It’s finally here. That time of year when seemingly half of the federal workforce flees the city for a well-deserved vacation. It’s a magical time for those of us who stay behind: Less traffic shortens our commutes, the Starbuck’s and food truck lines are shorter, and fewer people at meetings means more decisions get made.Read… Read more »

Unprofessional?

It isn’t often that this happens, but sometimes I do have the debate with other people as to what constitutes “professional” behavior or “professional” outfits or a “professional, high-quality communication product.” On its face, the debate may appear to center on substance. That is, the content of a particular document, photograph or video. But in my view, it’sRead… Read more »

$250 An Hour? For What? Who Knows?

Some communication tasks are highly valuable. For those you really need to pay what they’re worth. Take branding for example. Many people pass themselves off as brand strategists, brand gurus, brand visionaries, brand designers, brand ideationists, brand creatives, brand disruptors, brand innovators, and on and on. Most of them are not good at what they do. BecauseRead… Read more »

7 Questions to Help You Run an Efficient Meeting

A good meeting is a magical thing. Ideas flow, decisions are made, and everyone leaves invigorated and ready to take on the world. The problem is that good meetings – like most magical things – are rare beasts indeed. What should be a fantastic team tool often turns into a slogging, frustrating experience where nothing gets accomplishedRead… Read more »