Fact, Fiction and Telling Your Truth
December 2004
When confidentiality or other reasons prohibit using factual accounts about your work or the people you serve, developing stories based on these people and events can be just as persuasive and, yes, just as truthful.
Plus: Before Going to Print or Podium (PDF format)
Oh Say, Can They See?
November 2004
Public health, civic engagement, global warming — progress on these and other intangible issues can be difficult to see (if not downright invisible.) So how do you ensure your work remains in sight and top of mind?
Plus: Evildoers Tremble at Release of Second Edition! (PDF format)
The Art of Playing Yourself
October 2004
When it’s your turn to present, is your audience seeing the real you?
Plus: Find Your Story, Find Your Voice (PDF format)
Experience Required
September 2004
If you want people to pay more attention to your cause, just watch how Starbucks convinces customers to pay more for coffee. (PDF format)
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Wiser About Older
August 2004
Speaking your audience’s language is a golden rule of communications, and one worth remembering when your audience is entering its golden years.
PLUS: Logos We Love (PDF format)
The Fifth Annual Summer Reading List
July 2004
As the weather warms and your schedule lightens (hopefully), July & August offer time for some personal R&D. So here are some books to consider – along with some to avoid – as you pack for summer vacation.
PLUS: Five books that were “not my cup of tea.” (PDF format)
How to Listen Better
June 2004
Studying storytelling can help you tell better tales, but as medical students at Columbia University are discovering, it can help you listen better, too.
PLUS: Hearing What’s Not Said (PDF format)
Present tense? Talk about the future.
May 2004
By telling stories set in the year 2014, Charlotte’s civic leaders have found a powerful way to help community members address racial tensions in their city today.
PLUS: Must Reads for Aspiring Futurists (PDF format)
PowerPoint Corrupts
April 2004
…and it can corrupt your presentations absolutely if you let it. Follow a few simple suggestions, however, and you’ll discover how the software that everyone loves to hate can actually enhance your next talk.
Plus: For Even More PowerPointers… (PDF format)
From Now to November
March 2004
Do lobbying laws have your nonprofit pacing the sidelines? A new book from the SPIN Project can help you get back into the game and ensure your voice is heard in this most critical of election years.
Plus: The Guerrilla Girls and the art of getting attention. (PDF format)
Why Sioux Falls is Talking About Sex
February 2004
Parents and teenagers in a conservative South Dakota city are conversing more often and openly about sex thanks to advocates who took a chance with their campaign’s message but none with its planning.
Plus: Robbie Conal on Condoleezza Rice (PDF format)
When the Answer is a Question
January 2004
Since 1997, the efforts of youth advocates in Kansas City have been bolstered by a campaign that has elevated one question above all others: Is it good for the children?
Plus: Emotion, Reason, and How News Coverage Freaks You Out (PDF format)