by Susan Johnston | Jul 4, 2012 | Uncategorized |
When I was eight years old, my family put me on a bus and sent me to camp for two weeks. I loved it. Living in the northern woods suited me right down to the ground, which happened to be the bare, exposed rock of Quebec’s Laurentian Mountains. I made jewellery boxes out of popsicle sticks, sang campfire songs in parts, swam in water over my head, and slept under the stars. Best of all, I learned to find my way in the woods using animal tracks, the sun, bird songs, the moss on the trees, and the smell of the wind.
Today, I can barely find my front door without a GPS. Time for a refresh.
So I went to camp again – Agile Coach Camp Canada. This annual event attracts people – mostly from systems development – whose work is to introduce new ways of working. The labels for the type of work they do are “lean” and “agile.” Their goal, as I see it, is to help teams be effective, quickly, without wasted resources. Their processes are highly people-centred.
My husband and business partner, who’s part of their world, suggested I come along. “For the drive?” I asked. “No,” he said. “For the conference.” Knowing this man isn’t crazy and trusting his assurance that I’d be welcome even though my geek credentials are limited, I signed on.
I’ve been back home for over a week and I’m still processing all the things I learned. The experience introduced me to some tools that help us find our way. I see real opportunities to apply these ideas and principles in areas beyond IT, particularly in communication. In the next few posts, I’ll be sharing some of them. They are, in no particular order:
To be continued . . .
by Susan Johnston | Jan 27, 2012 | Uncategorized |
I have the great fortune to know a lot of truly cool people in the field of communication. One of them is Donna Papacosta, blogger, writer, speaker, podcaster and social media expert. Donna and I got to talking about Communication Styles. One thing led to another and, next thing we knew, we were doing a podcast on the topic. You can listen here and then do the fun and free assessment, right here on the It’s Understood site.
by Susan Johnston | Jan 7, 2012 | Uncategorized |
At It’s Understood, we have lots of projects on the go. One that’s occupying much of my (Sue’s) time is completing Talk To Me: A User’s Guide To Workplace Communication. I aim to make it available, in February, as a Kindle eBook. (If people like it, we’ll publish for Kobo, iPad, Blackberry Playbook and in traditional book format.)
One of the communication concepts the book tackles is that people have distinct communication styles. Each of us is unique, yet our differences are somewhat predictable.
In my communication coaching, I often use the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) as a starting point in exploring relationships. That reliable and validated assessment is wonderful, but I needed something simpler to use in workshops and presentations. So I created Communication Styles as a way to highlight the different ways people like to receive and share information, especially in conversation. It’s a fun way to discover why individuals respond differently to your message – and to figure out how to present your ideas so they’ll be understood.
We’ve created an online version of the assessment and a special report that explains how it works. You’ll find the link on our web site (look to your right). It’s free. I love that price. Just sign up with your name and email – and have fun.
As a bonus, signing up also gets you our occasional email update “Be Understood.”
by Susan Johnston | Nov 27, 2011 | Uncategorized |
Here’s a post from Sue’s writing blog that applies to conversation as well as writing.
In my line of work, eavesdropping is research. That may sound like a lame excuse for (rudely?) listening in on other people’s conversations; however, sometimes, they’re simply too loud to ignore. A research opportunity showed up, this week, as I overheard a chat between some people we’ll call Manny and Franny. . .
Read the rest at Sue’s writing site.
by Susan Johnston | Jan 5, 2008 | Rants, Ramblings and Riddles |
One of my intentions for 2008 is to stop reading the comments after stories in the online version of the Globe & Mail, our national newspaper. They showcase uninspired and uninspiring nonsense posted by people who seem, with a few exceptions, to be ill-informed, ethnocentric, regionally oriented and partisan conspiracy theorists hiding behind anonymity. The outpouring of ignorance and intolerance is especially disturbing because these creatures are my fellow citizens. The news is bad enough; witnessing people at their least charitable makes it even worse.
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