The latest insights on narrative, storytelling and leadership in higher education.
Questions can be very useful in helping you get started on a piece of writing. Why should this be so? Aren’t questions inevitably a sign of some uncertainty? What if we want to give the impression that we are totally in control of our case? Relax. You can still be in control because the process of raising questions leads you…
Louise Clifton examines why bringing humanity to your writing is essential to engage people online, and how you can get people to stick around to read what you’ve written. Technology has changed our habits. We often talk about Generation Z’s diminishing attention span, but few of us are immune from some (or all) of this behaviour. Before Covid, and probably…
Five ideas to reconnect you to your message Invisible Grail’s Louise Clifton draws on our own approach to facilitating original writing and suggests five ways to overcome writer’s block. [writing] permeates decision-making…helps us form alliances, and when we get it right it moves us to act.” Writing is essential to how we connect with one another: it permeates decision-making, shapes…
Meetings, emails, packed agendas: whether online or in the office, our days at work are full. Yet so much of what we do in these spaces relies on our ability to connect – negotiate, empathise, deliberate – with others. So whilst we work virtually, can we find more room to build deeper, more human and long-lasting connections – through simple…
Meetings are an essential part of working life. They often form the framework to our week and are the cornerstones to our days. So how do you balance getting work done with the myriads of meetings filling your diary? Here are five techniques to help make your meetings more productive, purposeful and maybe even fun. Note from the author to…
Honest feedback is hard. Hard to listen to, and hard to give. So does feedback work best in the structured moments we’ve made for it? Or should we embrace it in all the moments in-between? Drawing on her own experience, Louise Clifton explores. I wrote this blog in early 2019. Back then, I thought I was writing about feedback and…
Nurturing influencing skills are like playing a musical instrument: the more you fine tune, the better you get. Paul Gentle offers his insights on recognising the scary stuff, reading the room, and how to use questions to influence for solutions. Every time I’ve asked people in a group I’m working with to think about an influencing challenge they face, I’m…