Workplace Collaboration: A Challenge or Triumph?

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With a few notable exceptions, more gets done when people work together. Except for the control freaks among us (and we all know at least one), we all know that collaboration can boost productivity. If we didn’t know it, consultants tell us all the time, using phrases like ‘teams in harmony,’ ‘working on internal synergies’, etc. All that jargon-y mumbo jumbo.

So, we know it. Consultants know it. Even the control freaks know it despite being possibly uncomfortable with it. So why is collaboration often such hard work, or so difficult to get right? Well, there are a few common obstacles you’ll find in all sorts of workplaces.

graphic of a team working in collaboration Continue reading “Workplace Collaboration: A Challenge or Triumph?” →

Who Is Your Target Audience? Hint: It’s Not “Everyone.”

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“Everyone” is never the answer to the question, “Who are your target audiences?”

It never ceases to amaze me when someone actually answers “Everyone” because it tells me that they’ve not thought things through.

Nothing has a target audience of everyone. I mean, if I am wrong, please let me know. But nothing comes to mind.

You don’t have to drill down too deep to start narrowing things down. Even if you do the barest minimum, you get at least three groups to focus your content a bit more. Continue reading “Who Is Your Target Audience? Hint: It’s Not “Everyone.”” →

How to Ensure Remote Working Works

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The recent flurry of articles about growing calls for a return to the office got me thinking. I’m sure some companies genuinely can’t break that habit, but I get the sense that at least some of the hype around this idea is coming from commercial landlords with space going spare and failing investments.

Not sure why it has to be an all-or-nothing sort of thing. More people are going into the office than, say, this time last year but we’re still seeing a lot of flexible working as well as a lot of people committed to keeping that flexibility. That means remote working isn’t going away – and that means you need to make extra sure it is producing the results you want or those calls to come back to the office will gain traction. And we don’t want that, do we?

So, how to ensure remote working works for you? Here are six things to keep in mind: Continue reading “How to Ensure Remote Working Works” →

What Is Happening With Hashtags?

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In a SHOCKING bucking of expected trends, I am not posting about Threads (which I imagine will get enough bandwidth today without my adding to it).

So no. Today I am posting about hashtags. Because more and more, I am coming to the conclusion that they don’t matter… or at least they don’t matter as much as they are generally assumed to.

Perhaps it’s evolutionary. Perhaps they mattered more before but they’ve become just a way to ensure I can find my own things in the future. If, for example, I want to do a round-up of an event I was doing live socials for or a monthly wrap-up…

But between posts with 30-40 hashtags and hashtags so broad in scope there is no telling what following it will turn up, they are becoming less useful as a discovery tool.

I admit this is just a feeling with a bit of my own anecdotal data from looking at socials with and without hashtags.

Does anyone else feel this way or see signs of this being the case?