Month: September 2016
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If You Screw Up, It’s All Your Fault
As Rosh HaShana is coming up next week I’ve been thinking about Jewish guilt. Of course, at work, we all make mistakes and we all feel bad about it. But as a Jew, at least for me, failure is never a “fun thing,” like they say “it’s a learning experience, reframe it.” No, there’s always […]
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When The Public Wants Information, Resistance Is Futile
In my nuclear family we never talked about controversial stuff. Basically, we handled conflict either by my mother saying “shhh” or my grandmother saying “shhh.” If unfortunately it would happen that a fight broke out, we simply didn’t talk to one another. Three days was the minimum, a few months was the max. It was […]
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5 Distorted Ideas About Communication That Destroy Americans’ Trust In Government
I’ve been a government communicator for a long time. In 13 years of doing this job at half a dozen federal agencies, I see the same problems over and over again. They lead people to think that the government can’t be trusted, when the problem really is that we allow a bunch of messed-up ideas […]
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Interview on Popular Culture and Feminism now available
You can find the full interview here, at NoDon’tDie.com. As always, all opinions are my own. – By Dannielle Blumenthal, Ph.D.
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Free Pre-Recorded Webinar, "Advancing Federal Government Communications," Now Available
On September 13, 2016 I presented a webinar for the Federal Communicators Network called “Advancing Federal Government Communications.” The audio is now available here (includes slide presentation). You’ll need to have Java enabled to see and hear it.Note: as always, all opinions are my own. – By Dannielle Blumenthal, Ph.D.
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How Bad People Rise To The Top
If I had a list of Top 10 topics that people like to talk about in life, this one would undoubtedly be on it. In his book of the same name, Harold Kushner asked Why Do Bad Things Happen To Good People and this is sort of the same thing. How is it that jerks always seem […]
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Reflections on my pre-Rosh HaShanah visit with the family
This is a picture of a certificate I got in the Hebrew year תשׁמא, or 5741 (1980) when I was 9 years old. My father found it in the attic. Apparently as a kid I dragged the family to 770 Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights to get a blessing from the Lubavitcher Rebbe and at that […]
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In Honor of Star Trek’s 50th Anniversary: Captain Picard’s 10 Best Quotes
Did you know that September 8, 2016 marked exactly 50 years since the first episode of Star Trek was aired? In my world this is a very big deal, not just because I’m a fan but also because Captain Jean-Luc Picard is one of my leadership “gurus.” In honor of this momentous occasion, here […]
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"Time Out"
The Washington Post has an article out about the pompous nature of over-workers. Yes, Silicon Valley startups, the lot of you are awesome. But the rest of us need to shower and sleep without buying an app to tell us how. The truth is, it’s good to be somewhat aimless half the time. […]
2016 Diary - Dannielle Blumenthal 