Making a point with PowerPoint

I have found myself explaining to a senior leader how 168 PowerPoint slides does not an engaging and dynamic business strategy make. I have also asked various executives whether they did a PowerPoint round up for their spouses when asked about their day or engaged in some good old fashioned conversation - the kind of communication employees often prefer. While I still think PowerPoint when used correctly is a useful aide memoire, you can imagine my horror at a story my friend told me recently. It seems the HR director at her work came home from a hard day at the office to tell his wife he was leaving her as she had failed to fulfill Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs for him for the past 20 years. And yes, you've guessed it, he used a PowerPoint diagram to spell out why he was off to live with his mistress. If you need to use PowerPoint (for business!), this is a good link: http://tinyurl.com/lonz5w
If you are leaving the love-of-your-life, can I suggest Relate?

More on Maslow and employee engagement at:
http://tinyurl.com/3qqqubs

Remember you're a Wobbler

Talking to a colleague yesterday we agreed the need for comms practitioners to have a goodly amount of  'resilience' to get their job done and to try and make a difference. It reminded me of a great quote (can't remember its origins): 'Corporate culture is like a giant jelly: unless you shake it hard, it wobbles back to its original position.'
I must confess that as a young reporter I thought 'corporate culture' was the stuff lurking in the unwashed mugs in my old newsroom. I am still not sure it's an entity in itself. What I am sure of is that organisations are the sum of their parts in terms of people, processes, how things have always been done and are done. That makes some of them very tough to work in and for. But how very satisfying when you  'wobble' them to improve communications and it works!