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As I mark 10 years working as an interim director/manager and consultant, mostly in communications, customers, coaching, and transformation, here are 10 reflections on what I’ve learned to date. 1 Don’t be afraid to take on an assignment that is a little outside your comfort zone. If you have the […]

Are levelling up and devolution real, or are they just warm words and window dressing? Governments of all persuasions have stressed for decades the need to rebalance the English economy, but what has been achieved? The devolved administrations of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales have all experienced significant and tangible […]

The new BBC director general Tim Davie is to crack down on staff social media posts in the name of impartiality. Maybe that’s fair, it’s the BBC, but what about other organisations? Is heavy handedness, or risk aversion depending upon your point of view, the path to follow? With all […]

In a crisis, communications and policy are usually two sides of the same coin. In early April I wrote COVID 19 – when communications and policy collide which looked at what had and hadn’t worked from a communications point of view. Written not long after lockdown began, a lot has […]

We’re living in extraordinary times. COVID 19 is still on the rise, intensive care beds are filling up, millions are working from home, a 24 hour news cycle needing to be fed, daily media briefings, and a deluge of information, much of it spurious, on digital and social media. Add […]

It’s nearly a couple of months into 2020. So how many communications professionals have followed through with your New Year’s resolution to leave your permanent role and move on to pastures new, and how many of you are still genuinely happy with your job? If you’re still wondering whether to […]

The world of communications and marketing is constantly changing, but are the communicators, marketeers and everyone else keeping up? How do we ensure that specialists walk the walk, and not just talk the talk, and how do we put plans in place so that the non-specialists ie the general workforce, […]

Today’s autumn statement has shown once again that local government is barely a discussion topic nationally, let alone a priority. As politics is increasingly dominated by Brexit, the economy, Trump, and the sacred cow that is the NHS, what is the role of local government and the communicators that work […]

With just under seven weeks until polling day, councils are cranking up their campaigns to make sure people are eligible to vote on 7th May. And, quite rightly, they will also be encouraging people to use their vote. But what are the choices available, if indeed there are any choices […]

‘Conversation’ is the current buzzword for engagement and communication. This applies to everyone we converse with, internally and externally. But what does it actually mean? In the world of social media we tell people, without a hint of irony, not to broadcast, and we trot out the mantra that consultation […]