I’ve just read a great article in The New Yorker called ‘Why facts don’t change our minds’.

Like many people, I’ve been watching President Trump’s recent press conferences – especially yesterday's calamitous, hour-long session (16 Feb) - with my jaw dropped in disbelief. Leaving aside his policies, the conferences are fascinating lessons on how to communicate effectively and inspire confidence and trust - and how not to.

With this week’s news that Talk Talk CEO Dido Harding is leaving the firm, the biggest event in her career that comes immediately to mind is inevitably the company’s cyber attack crisis of 2015.

The final of my Top 10 Consultation Tips is always report back to consultees at the end of your exercise - in a clear, honest and timely way.

My last blog post looked at what makes a great brand, ways you can get a handle on your current brand and identify what's important to your customers and other stakeholders such as potential employees and partners.

In fundamental terms, an effective brand is one which makes an organisation - or person - appealing to its customers and other stakeholders.

The ninth of my Top 10 Consultation Tips is to be as open and transparent as possible. It will help you win trust and support. And, in any case, you don’t have anything to hide.

Another week, another lesson in how not to manage a deepening crisis of failures and mismanagement ...

The beleaguered Southern Health NHS trust has been lurching from tragedy to farce – with the deepening of its on-going crisis appearing largely of its own making. And its account of its actions this week have only caused further damage to its reputation.

The eighth in my Top 10 Consultation Tips series is genuinely to listen to people’s feedback - and see how this can improve your scheme.

The latest post in my Top 10 Consultation Tips series is about being mindful that, unless your proposals are extremely straight forward, you’ll not just be collating people’s views but answering their questions too.

This next post in my Top 10 Consultation Tips series deals with the importance of being clear from the outset about the boundaries of your consultation.

How amusing to see a photographic company - with the strapline 'image is everything' - promoting itself with such a terrible photo!

As the latest in my Top 10 Consultation Tips series, my fifth tip is: be as accessible as possible to your consultees.

The tragic case of the two children killed by a faulty gas boiler on a Thomas Cook holiday is a classic example of a corporate (as well as personal) crisis that's been hugely magnified by being handled abysmally.

With some rowdy friends round for dinner last Saturday night, we put on - as we usually do - some of my old vinyl records. (Too loudly, according to the kids trying to sleep upstairs).

As the next in my Top Ten Tips series, my fourth maxim for running a great consultation is to be clear. An obvious one, right? But it’s where so many consultations fall down.

As the latest post in my series of top 10 tips for running an effective public consultation – many of them learnt the hard way - here’s Tip 3: Be inclusive – within limits.

I’ve just read an article about some interesting studies from the clever people at the Influence At Work research group. They highlight how much more effective it is to get someone else to ‘toot your horn’ than do it yourself.

Continuing my Top 10 Consultation Tip series, here are my thoughts on Tip 2 – distinguishing what you must do from what you should ...