http://blog.ragan.com/shadesofgray/ A blog on corporate, political and personal communication by David Murray. en Copyright 2008 Fri, 16 May 2008 08:55:27 -0600 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss For reasons too prosaic to merit sharing publicly—take that, you transparency geeks—I have stopped freelancing for Ragan Communications and will soon start working for another publisher. This blog will disappear, but I hope a similar conversation will resume sometime soon, likely on a personal site I plan to develop. When it launches, I’ll spread the word. In the meantime, thanks to Shades readers for your interest and the generous spirit in which you received and in many cases clarified and amplified my ideas and added so many of your own. And to Mark Ragan and my dear friends at the company, thank you for your rich, rich fellowship over all these years. We will all, I trust, be in touch. http://blog.ragan.com/archives/shadesofgray/2008/05/til_then.html http://blog.ragan.com/archives/shadesofgray/2008/05/til_then.html Fri, 16 May 2008 08:55:27 -0600 not know!) But since most of the action on that phone seemed to be coming from the other end, I switched over to an African-American woman lecturing a friend on feminism. "I won't be with some man who can't do nothin' more than just sit there and smile in my face, huh-uh. I'm sorry, I can do that in the mirror! You gonna help me." Jerry Springer on one phone, Germaine Greer on the other. Some nights, there's less to watch on cable TV.]]> http://blog.ragan.com/archives/shadesofgray/2008/05/dramasurfing_on_the_bus.html http://blog.ragan.com/archives/shadesofgray/2008/05/dramasurfing_on_the_bus.html Tue, 13 May 2008 14:25:41 -0600 In three separate discussions at the Corporate Communicators Conference: I heard someone—was it you, Susan?—chuckle about consultants who avoid dealing with issues by putting them in "the parking lot." I heard another consultant avoid a discussion by saying he didn't want to "get into the tall grass" on that particular issue. And during a Q&A, I heard another dodge: "Let's talk about that off line." It's over-simplistic to say consultants use these terms simply to avoid saying, "I don't know." But it's also not coincidental you don't hear your car mechanic tell you, when you ask whether it's the carburetor or the fuel pump, "I'd rather not get into the tall grass on that issue." Why do consultants use this kind of talk? Not because they know nothing, and not because they aren't smart enough to come up with clever solutions. It's because they're expected to have all the answers on their fingertips and they are not allowed to say: "That's a tough one. Let me think about that and talk to some of my colleagues and get back to you." (No, they say, "let me 'noodle' that issue.'") I'm starting to think the problem isn't so much consultants who pretend to have all the answers, but clients, who force them to pretend. Readers, do you agree? http://blog.ragan.com/archives/shadesofgray/2008/05/why_do_consultants_act_the_way.html http://blog.ragan.com/archives/shadesofgray/2008/05/why_do_consultants_act_the_way.html Mon, 12 May 2008 09:34:11 -0600