Thoughts
Blog
Here’s my blog on strategy, work, words and communications.
If you enjoy it, get it first by signing up for Matterings, my fortnightly e-newsletter.
More insight, more personal.
Picking something that matters
As billionaires bustle to be first into space (Branson beat Bezos and Musk to it), I’m reminded of this JFK quote.
“We choose to go to the moon in…
![What [not] to do](https://louisacoppel.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/checklist-1919328_640-400x250.png.webp)
What [not] to do
A To Don’t list is for actions that get in the way of achieving my To Do’s. Things I don’t want to do include:
– #unproductive work that feels urgent but isn’t important
Like artificial sweetener, this app left a bad taste behind
Bad writing wastes time. How many senior leaders spend too much of their day ‘red penning’ poorly written briefs and copy-editing case studies?
The cost of poor writing is profound, particularly in the public sector, when communities and stakeholders can switch off if communications don’t resonate.
Be short, be simple, be human
I rarely tweet, but I watch a lot of Twitter. If that watching is on the coronavirus pandemic (and how people respond to the work going on to curb it), I can be in turn infuriated, frustrated and despairing.
Changing the culture of the courts
While I was away, the report from Dr Helen Szoke’s Review on Sexual Harassment in Victorian Courts and VCAT was released. My colleague Helen McDonald and I have been working on this project since July last year, doing the comms strategy, brand, website, collateral and media management. Most of our work is strategy – we rarely get into the implementation side. But we choose to work on things that matter and programs that have a social impact. So every now and then, we roll up our sleeves. And this was a project that mattered to us.
Worn-out words and lazy language
Last week I was asked to include the following line as an action in a strategic plan: Develop a digital strategy.
I suggested perhaps we could add an explainer to help readers know what we meant by a digital strategy.
What strategy isn’t
It was great to speak at the VID21 conference last week. One of the fab things about a virtual conference is that the audience participates in the online chat and the commentary has left me with so much more to think about. Yep, I’m a strategy tragic!
One of the things I talked about is what strategy is not. All too often, I see strategy described as a process. It’s not.
The way we work
Much of the research and discussion about the workplace reboot is about safety and trust.
The safety conversation grapples with how people interact in offices and on the shop or factory floors. How we’ll travel to and from work. The focus is on touch-points and cleaning, record-keeping and ‘density quotients’.
‘Look at moy, look at moy’ were the famous words of Kath Day-Knight.
But for some autistic people looking you in the eye is a really hard thing to do. Talking to a stranger can also be difficult.
In this 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 café scene autistic actor Ryan New sensitively shows how crushing it feels when someone talks over you, or about you.
Subscribe
I write regularly on strategy, work, words and communications. Subscribe to my newsletter to read it first.
Subscribe
We’ll only use your email address to send you (good quality) emails and you can unsubscribe any time.