“A method of charitable giving that involves the donor’s consideration of their retirement plan and family estate plan, and usually means cash to a charity at the donor’s death.” I’ve been relying on that definition for years of public speaking and training. It’s easy, short and accurate. Others may quibble. It’s served me well for …

Lack of training and compassion shows in airline’s weak crisis management When Dave Schneider was asked by Delta to check his baggage, including a $10,000 Gibson ES-335 guitar, he went along with it because, well, how else is a traveling musician supposed to get around? Upon arriving at his destination, Schneider was devastated to see …

Some time ago, I had a conversation with a group of colleagues about “expectations” in our relationships between consultants and clients – our expectations, and theirs !! We all pretty much agreed that it really doesn’t make much of a difference what we spell out in our contracts regarding deliverables, as the client (who often …

Do you find yourself tongue tied or feeling awkward in “small talk” situations like networking events, cocktail hours or meeting where you know no one? Most of us do – even extroverts like me. So don’t despair! Here are a few ninja skills to help you get over the “I don’t know what to say …

How do you manage your documents to provide consistent and accurate communication? Depending on your organization, how do you control documents in your Technical Communications or Technical Writing Department if some groups or branches have different procedures for writing, gathering data, maintaining, verifying, or even for getting feedback? This can occur in an organization that …

Part of a Technical Writers job is to create test plans and to communicate it to the Quality Assurance Team. The Technical Writer will be responsible for the standard test plan (see previous posts) for user acceptance testing to be performed, maintenance of an organized list of open issues, verification of resolved issues, and continuous …

And that’s a good thing !! Special events have evolved. Gone (for the most part) are the rubber chicken dinners — with a dais or a two-or-three-tier head table on stage, featuring the board or the event committee and lead sponsors sitting and eating dinner while the rest of the guests stare up at them. …

The question was asked, “Can anyone tell me what characteristics make a publication a good development tool? What can I do to begin to pull together the various publications so that they help garner parent, student and donor support and further the continued growth of the school?” First must come the understanding of what development …

Editor’s Note: Winnie the Pooh and Friends encounter many crises in the Hundred Acre Woods, but always manage to muddle through. In this post, guest author Brian Adams connects quotes from these cartoony creatures to the world of social media. Winnie the Pooh and his friends had wonderful opinions about the world around them but …

We’ve all heard of the term dysfunctional people, but today I heard a speaker allude to the thought of having dysfunctional beliefs. Wow, what an enlightening thought. We all have those thoughts or beliefs in our lives that lead us to dysfunction. When we get our beliefs right, we do right. A belief is a …