Considering Phased Retirement?

As you near retirement age, there are a number of different factors you’ll likely be thinking about. You might realize that you aren’t as financially prepared to retire as you had anticipated, you might have trepidation about not having something to occupy your day, or you might just really like your job. If you fallRead… Read more »

The Digital Comms Planner

At Helpful HQ we’re a big fan of tools like the Lean Canvas or our friends Comms2Point0′s Comms Planning tool (PDF). A simple plan on a page or two that sets out what you’re trying to achieve, how you’ll know if you’ll achieve it, and what you’ll do to get there is more useful thanRead… Read more »

Why Government Uses Open Bid Processes

For most purchasing professionals in the public sector, solicitations and open bid processes are “just the way things have always been done.” Open solicitations are a way for governments to protect themselves, ensure transparency, show good stewardship of public funds and give the best value for monies spent. There is also a trickle-up benefit toRead… Read more »

Clean Water: Taking Our Most Vital Resource from Scarcity to Millions

A coffee, a run, meditation…. We all need one thing to get our brains working early in the morning. For me, it’s a long, scalding hot shower. But as a native of California, which is experiencing one of the most severe droughts in the state’s history, my long morning shower is a thing of theRead… Read more »

Small Umbrellas

Here’s a conversation that I have quite frequently during training courses when we play Dave Briggs’ evergreen Digital Engagement Game: Me: So, tell me how you’ll implement your plan… Team: Well, we’ll [do creative stuff with social media] and work with our stakeholder group to get the message out to the audience. Me: So, areRead… Read more »

Lightweight Project Management Made Easy

As we have grown and scaled one of the biggest challenges we have faced is ensuring that we maintain the type of collaborative environment we had when everyone sat in the same small office in Arlington, Virginia. Now with team members, partners and clients spread across time zones and the world we have had toRead… Read more »

92% of Australia’s Federal Politicians Now Use Facebook and/or Twitter

I’ve been tracking the number of Australian Federal politicians using Australia’s leading social channels for two years now, seeing the number using at least one of Facebook and Twitter grow from 79% in April 2012 to 90% in November 2013 to a current level of 92%. What’s even more interesting is in the details, whichRead… Read more »