If your listener trusts you, your impact is multiplied. To be a powerful communicator you need to know how to earn trust. There are eight keys: 1. Tribal solidarity: Are you part of the listeners’ community, or are you a stranger? If you speak the language of their group, you have the advantage. If your…
When they were quite young my kids believed in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, and the Great Croaking Lizard of Death (who lived under the bridge near the ice cream store). I funded the Tooth Fairy to ensure credibility, and the cost of maintaining Santa Claus nearly got out of hand. I’m…
Crocodiles can’t solve puzzles, write poetry or do calculus. They don’t need to. What a crocodile needs is instantaneous physiological response. A crocodile brain has only one role: to keep the beast safe and satisfied. But what does this have to do with communication theory? Plenty. You see, in addition to our “thinking” brains, each…
What fun this will be! Cartoon hippos are goofy, clumsy, silly and cute. Cartoon raccoons are dear little bandits who just want to be cuddled. In real life? Not so much. In Africa, the hippopotamus kills about five hundred humans per year. Lions get about a hundred, sharks do ten. The hippo will kill you…
Well, actually, nothing. Let me first explain why “youse” is OK, but then let me explain why you shouldn’t say it at the office. There are solid historical reasons why “youse” or “y’all” are absolutely good English, and need to be respected. Regretfully, though, “youse” and “y’all” have lost the status of being “Standard English”,…
History would almost certainly have turned out differently if the DNC server had been boring. But it wasn’t. It was a cesspool of salacious gossip, childish invective and pork-barrel politics. If you were Donald Trump, what wasn’t to like? The Democrats lost their apparent moral high ground, and they looked amateurish. Given two deplorable choices,…
When I was a kid I lived in rural New Brunswick. We had a dog named Mike– one of the smartest I’ve ever known, with one notable exception– he had a failing for porcupines. Mike preferred the direct approach. He gave new meaning to the Pyrrhic victory. Thus, every month or two I’d get home…
Paul McCartney awoke one night with the tune for Yesterday playing in his head. American Woman “just happened” in a tuning riff. Tennessee Waltz was composed while the musicians were driving their truck to the next show. No analysis and no forethought. Nearly all of us have awakened in the middle of the night with…
Nothing hurts like a smack-down. You’ve given your best to an audience, to the court, to your company, to your teenage kid and in response, you get smoked. As humans, we love to be loved, but it’s not always reciprocated. Often you reach out in peace, and in response, you get nuked. Now between you…
Did you ever ask yourself why all of our maps have North at the top? Why are globes always positioned with the North Pole on top (or at least within 23.5°)? Remember, our earth is just a speck in the Milky Way, and nobody has yet decided what is up and what is down in…