gilead members only
LibraryClick here for suggestions to help you find what you need.
What if you don't have a recommendation or action to share?
Have you wondered how to use a storyline when you don't have a recommendation or an action to...
Optimising your ‘end of year' review for maximum impact
Late November is the time when many of us are reflecting on our progress for the year and updating...
Political Trade-offs
Have you been in a position where you must implement a solution that you disagree with?...
A New Influence Framework
One of my colleagues, Louise, has a treasure trove of practical human relations models. I have her...
What if stakeholders are wedded to out of date views?
I had a fabulous conversation this week with a client who is head of technology strategy for an...
Thinking harder about the context
You will I hope be familiar with the Ten Point Test by now, and may have even used it to check...
A ‘hack’ for helping you synthesise your so what
It’s not often in a working session that we are reflecting on hospital entrances! This morning we...
Another idea for engaging tricky stakeholders
It always amazes me how these emails naturally follow a theme. The last two weeks I have written...
More on nudging indecisive stakeholders
Last week I shared some ideas for engaging indecisive stakeholders by redefining your proposal....
How to handle indecisive stakeholders
Has this happened to you?You put your case multiple times to the decision-making team. They like...
EXERCISE: Strengthen your ‘synthesis muscles'
Synthesis is at the core of everything we do at Clarity First, and so when I saw an example...
EXERCISE: Rewrite this invitation so your grandma could understand it
This week we worked on an email and ended up discussing another truism that can be very hard to...
EXERCISE: Email Rewrite (procurement example)
Notes As with many customer emails, this one focused far too much on the author than on the...
Patterns vs Structures
Do you wonder if every story you need to convey 'fits' within one of our seven patterns?It may...
How to capture more value from an overview presentation
What to do when your manager asks you to ‘give a presentation’ to introduce your team?Perhaps you...
1 Story, 3 Lessons
In our most recent working session we helped Brooke prepare a ‘quick’ storyline. Even though on...
Making time work FOR us not AGAINST us
Do you always have too much to do?It's not entirely surprising since our only finite resource,...
One important consideration for progress updates
As always, my week unearths an interesting conundrum that has some useful insights buried within....
Diving Deeply into Big Picture Thinking and Synthesis
Over the first half of 2022 a small group of us have been working on a conundrum: what process can...
Why thinking into a doc is dangerous
I was reminded this week how we must get our thinking straight in a one-pager before we prepare a...
How to ‘flip' storyline patterns
Sometimes clients tell me they use our storyline patterns exactly as they are. They assume that...
How poor communication and burnout can be linked
You might be scratching your head about this week's topic, but let me ask you this.How often have...
Why not to use tables alone when recommending which option to use
When I heard that NASA spent millions of dollars trying to find a ball point pen that would...
What to do with ‘pros and cons'?
I had a fabulous question this week: where do we fit 'pros' and 'cons' in our storyline?That is a...
2 ways to spend less time prepping your comms
Love or hate Jeff Bezos, he has had some very, very good ideas when it comes to decision making...
How to kill off unwanted email chains
I wasn't sure if we'd have anything to work on during today's working session, but as usual I was...
The power of explaining ‘why' in getting actions and decisions
I have been enjoying a terrific discussion with one of my corporate clients this week that has...
Pimples: clarity of communication = clarity of skin
This is an unusual post but one I hope will help. I just responded to a post by an old friend, Dr...
INTERVIEW – Busting 3 Business Negotiation Myths
I came to Friday's interview with Matt Lohmeyer a bit selfishly. Negotiating has often made me...
Can you tell bad news by email?
Emailing bad news has traditionally been considered risky, and often down right poor form. But is...