Tag: Dannielle Blumenthal
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Becoming Brand-Driven: A Cure For What Ails You
The key difference between the terms “brand management” and “management” is the term “brand.” Here, we use it to refer to the intangible value added by the customer’s feelings toward the organization–a combination of awareness, trust, loyalty and positive identification. While visual and verbal symbols matter (the logo and the tagline), they are only a limited expression of…
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Just Step Over The Dead Bodies
It wasn’t what they said at the event. It was what they did not say. The gloomy feel to the room of professional federal communicators. Technically, it shouldn’t have been that way. The overall numbers — meaning, the annual U.S. Office of Personnel Management Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey results — show that federal employee morale has increased since President…
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We Need A Plan for Federal Communications
As a government communicator I have always had a heightened sensitivity to the gap between what the public wants to hear and what the government wants to say. I’ve also understood that the government tends to play catch-up with the communication tools used by the private sector. (It took us *years* to legitimize the use…
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On The Wastefulness of Taxpayer-Funded Mansions
People often say that “you get what you pay for,” but in the case of communication that’s not necessarily true. Rather, “you get what you’re committed to.” In the case of the federal government, it would be wise for leaders to consider renewing their commitment to honest, accurate, relevant reporting as to how agencies are…
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The Hidden Link Between All Crises
Briefly: We wait for disaster before acting. A friend of mine recently posted on Facebook that she lost one of her friends to domestic violence. At which point many other people commented in sympathy, and at least one person said she had seen the exact same thing occur. Did those women have to die? Workplace…
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Notes & Planned Talking Points – GovExec #CXSummit, Nov. 2, 2017
Background Yesterday, November 2, 2017 I participated in an event called “The Customer Experience Summit: Building Trust In Government,” on a panel about branding and trust, in a personal capacity. The discussion was sponsored by GovExec.com in Washington, D.C. and included Chuck Young, Managing Director of Public Affairs at GAO, and Jeremy Zilar, Director of…
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How Poor Government Communication Strategy Fuels Paranoia
By and large, Americans in 2017 have a fairly negative perception of government–and things are far worse than they were 20 years ago. The government’s failure to adapt its communication approach to reality is only making things worse. Let’s take a look at some data. A Pew Research Center survey of 1,501 adults age 18+…
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The Audience Was Not Happy
What is not measured is not managed.I attended a training session a couple of days ago that was sponsored by another office at work.The subject matter was the Baldridge method of quality control and how we apply it to our organization. This topic and all related topics is incredibly interesting to me. It should be…
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How Government Leaves Money On The Ground
The problem is the human factor. As follows: Government cannot decide whether its jobs are ultimately a “jobs program” or the products of a legitimate workforce planning system based on merit. Meaning, some people are getting paid as a way of paying them back for other things. This is inefficient. The most highly paid people…
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3 Lessons From The Hawkeye Pierce School Of Management
As a child I grew up on a steady diet of a certain kind of sitcom. Their names kind of run together — All In The Family, One Day At A Time, The Jeffersons, Good Times, The Facts of Life, and M*A*S*H. In many ways, the producers of these shows shaped my worldview. They put…
Management Excellence 