My foray to Geneva last week to give a two-day Speechwriting in Action masterclass to international officials went well: The workshop you facilitated was truly exceptional. The drastic improvement one could observe from one day to another was more than convincing My instincts did not let me down when I […]
There is a veritable tsunami of interest in my training/coaching skills as the World’s Leading Diplomatic Speechwriter ©. Tomorrow I fly to Geneva to give a two-day course on Speechwriting in Action to a group of international officials who have the tough job of writing speeches for some of the […]
Here’s my Commentator piece on that important Serbia/Kosovo/EU deal. Thus: Kosovo did better on symbolism than substance. It won agreement that Serbian officials in the municipalities concerned would henceforth be paid by Pristina, not Belgrade, and come under Pristina’s overall legal and political authority. And by the very fact of […]
Back from sharing with the Croatian Diplomatic Academy some training thoughts on Lobbying and Negotiating in the European Union. With the Cyprus drama helpfully unfolding before our startled eyes. These fiendishly complex financial/banking negotiations are impossible for normal people to follow, although anyone following my Twitter feed will have seen […]
Just back from this year’s Churchill Public Speaking Competition for schools at glorious Blenheim Palace. The format is interesting – and oddly difficult. Each school has a Chairperson, Speaker and Questioner. Within a timeframe of some ten minutes the Chair has to introduce the school and the team, then hand […]
Preparations chez Crawford are intensifying for next week’s fine Churchill Public Speaking Project event at Blenheim Palace at which schools compete to deliver powerful presentations on a number of possible themes. Here’s the list of subjects. Events like this help motivate children (and, ahem, their parents) to look at the […]
Does it matter if you have a limited vocabulary? Yes it does, according to this magnificent piece by E D Hirsch Jr: Why should vocabulary size be related to achieved intelligence and real-world competence? Though the intricate details of cognitive abilities are under constant study and refinement, it’s possible to […]
I have been away from here for a while, mustering my thoughts and surviving Christmas. Basically, I now have to work for my living. Various happy schemes and arrangments that I enjoyed when first I left Poland at the end of 2007 have fizzled out, so I find myself in […]
I am gearing up to give a coaching/skills session next week at a school on the general theme of Difficult Conversations. Notably with other colleagues – but especially with parents. It turns out that I am not the only one sending a stream of idiotic and abusive emails to schools […]
Having progeny of my own wending their way through ‘education’ and exams, I am struck by how little it has changed since I was their age, apart from the expected standards of writing/grammar and language learning being clearly lower these days than, say, 30 years ago. Why is this? Various […]
