Or so the saying goes. Last week, I had the most fantastic experience! I joined Samantha Sutherland and headed to the Cook Islands to train several local public servants how to facilitate. To say our participants were less than enthusiastic…
Taking clients with you on your comms journey
Ever wondered why people don’t really care about your communication strategy? You spend weeks perfecting it. Getting just the right tone, great messaging, creating detailed environmental scan. You send it off to the business area or client and…silence. No one…
I’ve made mistakes
I’ve been doing a lot of reading on leadership lately, and it has made me reflect on what type of leader I was before I became a solo-consultant. I thought sharing my insights with you might get you thinking too.…
Staying above the line
Many years ago, Samantha Sutherland ran a team building session with my government communications team. We had been struggling with several issues internally, including the age-old combo of demanding clients and feeling undervalued. As the manager, I was concerned it…
Why do we overthink when writing?
Share I was talking to a friend last week about how hard she was finding it to write a blog for a uni assignment. She had written and rewritten the piece, agonised over every word. Mulled on the themes. And…
What does demonstrating value mean?
Share Recently, I have been contemplating why I think it’s so important to be able to demonstrate value when working in communications. It is the purpose of my business but I realised I have never really articulated what it means…
Working women, change and organisational culture
An interview with Samanatha Sutherland Share This week I turned the tables on Samantha Sutherland. More used to being behind the microphone and interviewing influential women, I wanted to get to know Samantha and what she can teach those of…
One a week for a year
When I started Elm Communications 12 months ago, I thought I would write a few articles to let people know I was up and running. Then I thought I’ll do one a week for six months as part of my…
Building trust in your team
Have you ever worked in a team that doesn’t trust each other? A team without trust isn’t really a team. It’s just a group of individuals who work together. It means you will never be as effective or able to…
Communications planning – the key to not getting lost
Let’s say you’re on holiday and you are trying to get to a museum. You know the name of it but not what it looks like, or what street it is on. You don’t know what is inside or whether…