Conclusion First
The narrative build works when the reader has time and no power. Reverse it for anyone who has neither, because they will stop reading before your…
Read →Idaho leadership
Leadership Lessons
Practical leadership lessons from experienced Idahoans across the state's industries, institutions, and communities — guidance you can apply in your own work.
Writing Is How Decisions Persist
A decision that exists only in the memories of the people who were present will be gone within two years. Writing is not documentation of the…
Read →Repetition Is Not Condescension
The point at which a leader is thoroughly sick of saying something is roughly the point at which the organization has begun to hear it. The…
Read →Register: Formal, Plain, and When Each Fails
Register signals what kind of event this is. Getting it wrong tells people something about the situation that you did not intend, and they will trust…
Read →Read the Room Before You Choose the Words
Three questions decide the message: who is present, what each of them can act on, and what will be repeated afterward. The third is the one…
Read →Clarity and Simplicity Are Different
Simplifying a complex thing can destroy the information inside it. Clarity preserves the structure and removes the obstruction, which is harder and is what the situation…
Read →What Communication Is For
Before choosing words, decide which of four things you are doing. Most failures are a message doing one job while the audience believes it is doing…
Read →Communication as an Instrument of Authority
Communication is not a soft skill adjacent to leadership. It is the mechanism by which a decision becomes an action, and the only part of leadership…
Read →The Last Two Years
Announcing a departure converts a leader into a temporary one, and the organization reorganises around that fact within days. What can still be accomplished afterward is…
Read →Thinking About Succession From the First Day
A leader who intends to hand the thing on makes different decisions in the present. Succession planning is not preparation for departure; it is a constraint…
Read →