Thought leadership
I write. I present. I train.
These are the three key vehicles for my thought leadership.
Over the past two decades, I have put forward, tested and refined many ideas which have shaped the practices of digital public affairs and policy communications.
I have also helped clients with their own thought leadership efforts, from concepting to dissemination.
What I write about
New ideas often start with a blog post or an op-ed. I write about things that interest me in the field of policy communications and digital public affairs.
These include commentary on new developments and trends in the sector, best practice and case studies. They also include suggestions for original models and frameworks, to be rolled out and tested. Crucially, they draw heavily on the latest insights from cognitive psychology and linguistics.
In addition, I write about broader societal issues, as they relate to communicating in a politically-charged environment. This is in recognition that our success as a sector is not just contingent on what we do individually or as an organisation – it is also largely tied these days to the nature and health of our information environment.
I’ve written a lot about the challenge of communicating expertise in a world where trust in facts and expertise has been eroded.
I proposed a new model of communications for policy organisations, based on stories and emotion rather than facts and reports. The model has been widely adopted in the sector.
Key pieces:
Policy communications
I’ve written about this extensively – most notably, a 5-part series on storytelling for policy organisations. The series explored the importance of narratives, framing, values and techniques.
I’ve also written about my experience of rolling out storytelling in the policy sector, and set out some case studies.
Key pieces:
Storytelling
Between 2016 and 2019 – when the website closed down – I used to write the annual column piece for Public Affairs News, on the state of the digital public affairs industry.
I have since published a framework mapping the road to digital maturity for organisations in the policy sector, alongside a number of analyses of trends and platforms.
Key pieces:
Digital public affairs
I have also written about how social media – and the Internet more generally – have transformed the nature of public debate.
The information environment today is almost unrecognisable from what it was 20 years ago. It has a major bearing on the success of any policy comms activity. And AI is about to radically transform it again, before the dust has even settled on web 2.0.
Critically, policymakers have been slow and largely ineffective at curbing the most negative effects of social media on our information environment (leading to distrust in facts, polarisation, bullying and worse). They won’t want to make the same mistakes again – but are they equipped to make the right decisions?
Key pieces: