When my brother and I were teenagers, we used to fight . . . a lot! I’ll admit that most of our fights were ones that I started and were probably unprovoked. In one particularly “lively” incident, I found myself trapped on our back porch, with my brother telling me that under no circumstances was […]
I’m five days into my trip to England and other than the obvious differences, such as their very fine British accent and the fact that they drive on the opposite side of the road from those of us in the US, I’ve noticed another interesting difference in British communication- they’re awfully polite, but still clear in […]
There are a lot of myths surrounding the subject of nonverbal communication. The biggest being the oft quoted statistic stating that nonverbal communication is 93% of communication, leaving verbal communication only 7% of our interactions. Despite the myths, I will agree that nonverbal communication is very powerful for many reasons, but two reasons really stand […]
Think about the last time you tried to get a refund at a store, get an extension on a deadline, or even asked a child why he didn’t complete his chores? It’s unlikely that the response was something you wanted to hear. As such, we go into such discussions defensively as if we know conflict […]
This week’s blog post is a guest post by Workplace Culture Expert Michelle Howison. Michelle holds Master’s degrees in Behavioral Sciences and Industrial/Organizational Psychology. It was this training that sparked her interest in the psychology of company culture: What happens in organizations that makes people stay or go. Michelle started her career in organizational development […]
How often do we take the time to really think about the words we choose to express ourselves? In most instances, we use the first word or words that come to mind. However, one of my favorite Mark Twain quotes illustrates the importance of choosing words wisely. At first glance, you might think that it’s unlikely […]
As some of you may remember, I wrote a post awhile back about the 8 Reasons Organizations Need Standard Operating Procedures. Although I know they are time consuming to write and can be a challenge to keep current, I hope you agreed after reading the post, that it’s critical that organizations have them and why. […]
This weekend I saw a news piece about a video that’s gone viral on YouTube. “Every Opportunity,” published by the Atlanta Speech School, contains a powerful message about how adults talk to children. In some instances, the adults in the video ignore the communication efforts of the children and we can see how dejected they are. Sometimes, it’s not […]
In January of this year, I first met Tinkerbell. At the time, her name wasn’t even Tinkerbell, she was just “Female, black, Chihuahua, stray,” at the animal shelter where I volunteer. After adopting her, I took her to her first vet appointment. The first question they asked was her name, and “Tinkerbell,” came out of […]
The 25/5 rule is simple. It has two parts: 1. Don’t say something in 25 words when 5 will do. 2. Don’t use a 25-cent word when a 5-cent word will do. If you’re anything like me, when you receive a long text, doctoral-dissertation-length email, or a voicemail that drones on and on, you tune […]
