Hearing Without Listening
This week I met my friend Colin Smith for a coffee and a talk. In fact, I should say that I met him for a listen.
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Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word
Once upon a time, a client of mine was going through a major change process. Things were rushed, communication wasn’t done right, words were misspoken,
One Word That Drives Engagement
In 1977 psychologist Ellen Langer conducted what is now known as the Copy Machine Study. In it, researchers would cut in front of someone standing in
Put Your Hand Up If
Here’s a quick sentence that is very good for encouraging people to become responders to, rather than just receivers of, your engagement, which is necessary to get
How to Write Sentences That Get Responses
A simple thing that I’ve taught for many years is how you structure requests to increase your chances of a getting a response. This isn’t
Point to the Bright Spots
The first stage of engagement is communication and messaging. You cannot engage with it: indeed, you cannot live with out! A big part of engagement
How to Ask For, and Get, the Right Amount of Participation
How to overcome poor response and get people involved
The Power of an Invitation
The simple change that’ll get responses to your messages
Three Strategies to Increase Participation
In this short video, I discuss three ways that you can increase participation. This is important because participation is the currency of engagement. Engagement is
Chrysler Creates a Common Enemy
Never underestimate the power of having an enemy to unite people. And certainly never underestimate how much the underdog brings people together. Chrysler did this
Keep It Simple, or You’re Stupid
Have you ever made the mistake of making something too complex? I remember when I was about 12 years old at school and we did
How to Write SMART Emails
Perhaps the largest time suck in the world of emails is responding to emails to get more information. This is unfortunately because most people’s emails
Freak or Unique: A Lesson in Twitter Bios
I wrote a guest post for Search Engine People this week, inspired by my friends Robin Dickinson and Olivier Blanchard on writing a great Twitter
If It Doesn’t Spread, It’s Dead
Why “stickability” isn’t as important as “spreadability”
Put People in the Story
I thought this video was a really great example of promoting a product by putting people in the story.