Category: Communication & Influence
Getting heard, getting understood, and getting people to move. Listening, feedback, difficult conversations, persuasion and the reasons the same words land from one person and bounce from another.
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Freytag’s Pyramid: Story Structure for Leaders and Communicators
Gustav Freytag’s five-act dramatic structure, often visualised as a pyramid, shows how stories create and resolve tension. Every Time You Open Your Mouth, You Are Telling a Story Whether you are presenting quarterly results, explaining a restructure, or coaching someone through a career decision, you are engaged in an act of narrative […]
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Frank Luntz and Words That Work: The Power of Language
Frank Luntz’s central insight is that communication is defined not by what you intend to say, but by what your audience actually hears. His suggests ten principles of effective language as a practical toolkit for anyone who needs words to do work. As ever, we need to remember the difference between influence […]
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The Gunning Fog Index: Measuring Readability in Communication
The Gunning Fog Index is a readability formula developed in the 1950s that estimates how many years of formal education a reader needs to understand a piece of writing. It works by combining average sentence length with the percentage of complex words (those with three or more syllables), then multiplying by 0.4. […]
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Influence and Persuasion at Work – A Combined Consideration
Influence and persuasion are among the most practically important skills in working life, yet they are typically taught as disconnected theories rather than an integrated model. They’re also a bit nefarious, in some ways. You are already doing it… All of us are, pretty much all the time, influencing other people. The […]
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High and Low Context Cultures: What Leaders and Managers Need to Know
High-context cultures rely on implicit communication, shared norms, and unspoken understanding. Low-context cultures prioritize explicit communication and detailed information sharing. Understanding these cultural dimensions is vital for effective leadership in diverse teams. High and Low Context Cultures The terms high-context and low-context were introduced by anthropologist Edward T. Hall in the 1970s. […]
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Humble Inquiry – Meaningful Connection Through Genuine Interest
Humble Inquiry is a description and phrase brought to life by Edgar Schein. At its core it means adopting a humble approach and asking genuine questions of others in an effort to learn, connect and build a meaningful relationship. Humble Inquiry Humble Inquiry, a phrase coined by Edgar Schein, was explained by […]
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Think, Feel, Do – A simple checklist for communications and events
“Think, Feel, Do” is a simple framework to consider when drafting communications or creating development workshops and programmes. Before creating such things, ask yourself: what do you want people think, to feel and to do as a result of what you create. Think, Feel and Do The “Think, Feel, Do’ framework we […]
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DiSC – A Behavioural Preference Assessment Tool
DiSC is a behavioural preference assessment tool that is owned by Wiley. It’s based on the work of William Marston and is popular in many organisations globally. We use it with some of our clients. DiSC Behavioural Assessment The DiSC framework is owned by Wiley, and you can read more about in […]
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The Hero’s Journey – A structure to our stories
The Hero’s Journey is a structured framework that appears to underlie many great stories across the world and history. Also known as the “monomyth” the framework was captured by Joseph Campbell in his book “The Hero with a Thousand Faces.” The Hero’s Journey It appears to be the case that many of […]
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The AID Feedback Model: A simple, improvement focused approach to giving feedback
The AID feedback model is a simple, but somewhat limited method of delivering feedback. It stands for Action, Impact, and Development. It’s limited in that it’s very one way, leaving little space for discussion unless expanded. The AID Feedback Model This simple model stands for Action, Impact, and Development, each of which […]
