Defining terms by exclusion and by example
by Tony Quinlan on Sep 14, 2012 5:50:21 PM
Last week, I was an interested observer in a debate that rumbled on over three days - about the definition of a term being used by three different organisations working together. On this occasion, the term was "Strategic Communications" or "StratCom". (As an aside, it recalled the day …
Hong Kong and Sydney courses
by Tony Quinlan on Sep 13, 2012 9:49:11 PM
I'm going to be in Hong Kong on 24th-26th September, running a Cognitive Edge introductory course to using SenseMaker® - highly recommended. If you're interested (and you should be) you can get details and book on the Cognitive Edge website.
What's in 4,000 stories? What about 100?
by Tony Quinlan on Nov 28, 2011 1:30:55 PM
Two contrasting weeks working on very different narrative projects - both fascinating in their own right. And both doing SenseMaker™ analysis under time pressure, but with datasets that couldn't have been more different.
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 …
Giving voice to everyone - avoiding overload, cacophony
by Tony Quinlan on Nov 22, 2011 11:19:00 PM
One of the great truisms in communications and development work (these days, I seem to be having conversations in both areas and am aware of their similarities) is that "we want to hear from everyone, give everyone a voice". The principled, idealistic side of us believes that, but the …
Who are you? and Where are you?
by Tony Quinlan on Aug 10, 2011 2:56:06 PM
At some recent conferences, the issue of identity has cropped up a few times - usually with the underlying assumption that each individual has a core identity. It's a seductive idea - and one that I've seen permeate organisational human resources, the self-help movement and research f …
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 …
A new approach to corporate culture - scrap the values statements
by Tony Quinlan on May 6, 2011 7:16:00 PM
This time last week I was in Brussels, talking about internal communications - and made the point I always do about the problem with corporate values. They don't work. There's no context, they're generally meaningless (who's ever going to argue with them) and they're too easy to twist …
That Innovative Internal Communications workshop - the slides, the reading and the video
by Tony Quinlan on May 4, 2011 3:56:37 PM
Friday was an odd start - I'm used to catching the 0430 train to St Pancras for an early Eurostar. I'm also used to clubbers getting off the train on their wasted way home as I get on on my equally wobbly way to work. What I'm not used to was whole families getting on trains that earl …
Stories on offer for artists - take these stories and make art from them
by Tony Quinlan on Apr 26, 2011 7:24:09 PM
Read on - the offer in the title is real.