Washington DC - courses coming up in September 2014
by Tony Quinlan on Sep 12, 2014 10:38:06 AM
Early bird discount's finished, but there's still time to book on the upcoming Washington DC Cognitive Edge courses - which would be highly recommended even if I weren't teaching with Michael Cheveldave. (I won't be there for the Narrative day on 2nd October, though - I'll have gone t …
The barber is shaving the donkey
by Tony Quinlan on Jul 1, 2014 3:07:48 PM
A compound in a village near Dhaka, Bangladesh
Getting more good results - while avoiding the "Best Practice" trap
by Tony Quinlan on Apr 17, 2014 6:54:14 PM
The greatest obstacle to better practice, to better results and to better impacts is the temptation to replicated what has worked elsewhere. It's a huge temptation - reinforced by academic programmes, self-help books and conference presentations that focus on "Here's what worked somew …
Overstating the end-state, Obscuring the objective
by Tony Quinlan on Jan 22, 2014 5:58:31 PM
I came across a glorious Churchill quote recently while reading Billy Bragg's The Progressive Patriot. It wasn't one I had heard before, but it sums up beautifully something that challenges many of the people I talk to - how to set direction and objectives for large numbers of people, …
Patterns of voices from the Balkans - working with UNDP
by Tony Quinlan on Jun 12, 2013 2:58:20 PM
The past two days have been intense and productive - spend in Bratislava on a raft of narrative projects being run by UNDP, coordinated by a client and friend who is an extraordinarily capable project manager. (Praise I don't give lightly - the ability to switch from detail to strateg …
Evaluating impact through stories
by Tony Quinlan on Nov 1, 2012 4:41:41 PM
[Written in haste - I'm supposed to be clearing the decks and preparing material for a trip to Bangladesh that starts tomorrow morning. I'm also preparing for the return of the family early this evening, having had the house to myself for a couple of days.]
Narratives, strategic narratives and micro-narratives
by Tony Quinlan on Oct 8, 2012 6:14:25 PM
If there's one massive change in the 12 years since I founded Narrate, it's the use of the word "narrative". Back then, any mention of the word was met with at best a puzzled query as to its relevance and at worst a comment to the effect that I must have been smoking something strong. …
Egypt - social media was not a silver bullet
by Tony Quinlan on Nov 23, 2011 7:52:32 PM
I've just seen another article about how social media caused change in Egypt. (I'm not going to link to it - or any of the others - as I don't want to encourage the causal thinking behind it.) The other element I've seen mentioned as important in the Egypt changes earlier this year is …
CASE presentation materials
by Tony Quinlan on May 13, 2011 5:28:15 PM
Yesterday afternoon was another interesting presentation - this time to the CASE group of internal communicators from Higher Education. Smart people, fun afternoon and just to add to the mix, I got to speak with Ghassan Kharian of Kharian and Box, who I haven't seen in a while. Follow …