Category: work
- Turn question slides into statement slides ()
This is a tip I often suggest when I’m giving people feedback on draft presentations. I thought it might be useful for other people, so here you go. In an effort to add structure to their presentations, I’ve seen quite a lot of people insert slides that ask a question. They usually say something like: “How […]
- Projects 13-18 ()
Another year done. Different from last year mainly because there were fewer clients and fewer small projects. This year’s work was dominated by Public Digital as they scaled up from a small part-time team to a much larger full-time one. The pace and scale of the change there has been very impressive to witness, and play a small part […]
- Planning comms ()
Not too much; mostly blogging This is how I advise people about planning their communication: “Plan comms. Not too much. Mostly blogging.” (A reference to Michael Pollan’s advice for a healthy diet: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”) Some teams, particularly government teams, love to plan their future communication out on what’s usually called a […]
- Making better corporate video ()
If the company or organisation you work for makes a video about a project or a piece of work, it’s important to make sure that the result is actually a video about the work. Too often, the video is treated as PR, and turns into something horrible, boring and unwatchable. Here are a few tips […]
- Collecting things ()
Doing future-you a favour This is a tip for people who find themselves in charge of communicating over time on behalf of a team, an organisation, or a piece of work: collect things. Collect things that future-you will find useful. Of course you don’t know which things they’ll be, because you’re not future-you yet. So […]
- Strategic thinking with blog posts and stickers ()
Cheap, quick, better than strategy documents The creative team I used to be part of at GDS pioneered the blogging-and-stickers approach to creative strategic thinking. The idea is basically this: you think out loud, on your blog, over a long period of time. At least months. Probably years. Each new post is about one thing, […]
- My favourite government posters ()
low-cost ambient broadcasting Various government teams have been making some fantastic posters over the last few years. But there isn’t a single place where they’re all collated and aggregated and curated. I thought about trying to do that, but I don’t have time to commit to it and keep it up to date. Rather than […]
- Projects 6-12 ()
Last time I wrote about work, things seemed to be going ok. They still are. The second half of the year was busier than the first. Projects 6 and 7 were small pieces of work for dotEveryone and new conveyancing start-up Juno. Project 8 was my trip to Vienna to see the It’s ok poster on show as part of the Biennale. […]
- Thinking about permission ()
A couple of weeks ago, I went to Vienna to see the “It’s ok” poster in an exhibition as part of the Biennale. The exhibition was called “How will we work?”, and it explored possible futures (and interesting presents) for workplaces and workers. Some of the ideas on show were quite dystopian and depressing, others were laugh-out-loud funny. […]
- Projects 1-5 ()
t’s been 6 months since I left the Government Digital Service and set up on my own. Time for an update on how things are going, I think. The short version is: pretty well. For the long version, read on. Project 0 was, as I said six months ago, mainly about finding my first bits of […]