Cut Through!

<p>If you’re not measuring communications, you don’t know it’s working. Yet our profession has an evaluation problem: we’re counting the wrong things for the wrong reasons.</p><p>So what does good communications...

<p>Why would giving a train passenger a quiz question make them more likely to accept an excess fare? And what can that teach us about how to communicate bad news more effectively?</p><p>Procedural justice is the ideas...

<p>What can a traditional Chinese painting, an Austrian psychologist, and a Roman Emperor teach communications leaders about how to manage personal resilience?</p><p>Recognising you have more power to choose your...

<p>Leaders generally want to communicate inside-to-out. They begin with the messages they want to tell people. Then wonder why nobody seems especially interested.</p><p>A narrative is different. It is a carefully...

<p>At one level it's straightforward. We recently invented a technology that creates language at almost zero cost. We employ people who write for us. Therefore, the new technology will replace those workers.</p><p>I...

<p>Writing created the modern world. But today do we overestimate the importance of writing and overuse it.</p><p>It's worth remembering the limits of writing and the extraordinary power of speech. </p><p>And it’s worth...

<p>Measles is back. Not because we lack a vaccine, but because we lack immunity to misinformation.</p><p>So how should we as communications leaders respond?</p><p>We vaccinate against measles because prevention works...

<p>Where do Members of Parliament get their news? Which social media, news sites, and podcasts do they consume? And which AI tools do they use? A new report reveals all.</p><p></p> <br/><br/>This is a public episode. If...

<p>Most communications teams do risk management in ways that suppress candour, reward optimism and miss the things that actually bring a project down.</p><p>The pre-mortem takes a different approach. Instead of asking...

<p>The Harness Distrust strategy doesn’t see a lack of trust as a problem to solve, but a fuel to burn.</p><p>For insurgents and challenger brands, tapping into grievance against the status quo is becoming the...

<p>Is it the job of a communications professional to ‘persuade’ people, or is it to ‘inform’ people?</p><p>In a low-trust environment, where even the appearance of self-interested persuasion can be counterproductive...

<p>Co-creating trust is not about convincing people you are right, but about giving them a seat at the table.</p><p>The principle is simple. People are more likely to trust something they have helped to create, and...

<p>The Borrow Trust strategy. </p><p>If you want reach and credibility, then work with those who already have it. Build partnerships with credible voices who share your goals and values and command your audience’s...

<p>In this series, I’m looking at five ways organisations are responding to our changed information environment and modernising their communications operations to build trust.</p><p>This first episode is the Delivery...

<p>When you aren’t trusted, even your best decisions won’t cut through.</p><p>This episode looks at why trust matters, why it is eroding across government, business and media, and what the evidence tells us about how...