You’re wondering what I have been up to in May. I have been rushing around like a whirling dervish. Thus: • a presentation on Difficult Conversations to the senior management of a distinguished school • a talk at my old school on Lessons for Life • fielding a group of […]
UPDATE This piece below (“Short, pithy, packed with more wisdom than you find in bloviations ten times the length”) has been picked up by the Browser Here is my latest piece over at Commentator, looking at the startlingly poor performance by a clueless State Department spokeswoman when asked to […]
The latest European Speechwriters Network event in London has passed off well. Many top names from the world of British and wider speechwriting (Phil Collins, Max Atkinson, Martin and Martha Shovel) and others did their stuff. I was pleased to meet Denise Graveline, over from the USA. She has two […]
This is to let everyone know that ADRg Ambassadors LLP is now renamed The Ambassador Partnership LLP with a completely new (and simpler) website. Basically, after I left the FCO and qualified as a professional mediator, the idea emerged of setting up a new and unique distinguished panel of ambassador-mediators. […]
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 […]
So much going on these days it is scarcely worth bothing to opine on it all. The Nigel Lawson call for the UK to think seriously about leaving the EU is a huge shift. The Unthinkable is being Thought. The US and Russia are trying to get the warring factions […]
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 […]
Over at PunditWire my latest piece, this time on how to use subtle framing and reframing skills of the sort used by mediators to create a subtle bad smell around people and policies you don’t like, all the while pretending you’re being reasonable and objective: Framing is all around us […]
Here is a towering example of modern American freewheeling public speaking. Bruce Sterling shares with us in a ramblingly insightful way all sorts of ideas and insights about technology and its impact on us. This sort of thing would shrivel and die if you attempted to write it down in advance. […]
My latest piece over at Punditwire recalls a fine speech by Teresa Potocka in honour of Lady Thatcher at the Conservative Friends of Poland in early 2010: Lady Thatcher, in those dark years of martial law you were a symbol of hope and freedom for the Polish people. I grew […]
