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The election 2015 communication circus

April 14, 2015 By Tim

One of the main criticisms levelled at politicians has been that they are ‘out of touch’. The traditional parties have certainly borne that out in their campaigning and communication for this year’s general election.

Their bubbles have drifted so far from reality that they don’t seem to know how to connect with and appeal to people any more. It’s just repeating their dodgy mythology and stories of gloom. If they keep playing the tunes of decades past, people will be obliged to give them their votes.

There’s nothing in there of inspiration, vision or hope. Maybe it’s just me being middle class, intellectual, idealistic, etc. But I think people would really like to hear those things. I think people would like to hear a story of how we can support each other, address the problems facing us humanely and intelligently, open up and move forward into new opportunities, challenges and achievements. Everything I know about stories tells me that’s what engages people.

But the show opened with clowns who were sad.

Dreary examples

Conservative party posterDo you remember how the Conservatives kicked off the campaigning in January with the poster of the desolate road? No sign of human life and activity; just tarmac stretching off to an unseen destination. ‘Follow the path we tell you. All there is for you is obedience,’ was the message. And they got a lot of flak because the road in the image turned out to be in Germany. (Image from linked Telegraph article.)

Labour party flyerOr there was the Labour leaflet that came through my door. Front page, top heading item: “Balance the books.” That was their gambit to get the reader enthused and keen to read the rest of what they had to say. With all the things the government has done in the last five years that they could kick against with some fire, they resorted to blinding us with accountancy.

Fortunately for balance, this morning a Facebook friend shared this Liberal Democrat video. The first 80% is about driving around aimlessly while people drone on in the background. They’re stuck on the ‘neither left nor right’ mantra, positioning the party in a space between Con and Lab that most people can’t see any more. Defining themselves by what they’re not instead of standing for something makes them look like nothing.

Too much of what they’re all putting out is about abstract economic game-playing. Too little is about people’s lives and wellbeing.

Oh, and have you noticed how ‘chaos’ has become a major campaign issue for this election? Apparently we’re all at terrible risk from it. It’s an ill-formed appeal to people’s desire for a world they don’t have to think about too much.  [Read more…] about The election 2015 communication circus

Filed Under: The Upward Path Tagged With: branding, campaign, election, marketing, politics, reflections, stories

Social change is a personal development issue

March 31, 2015 By Tim

Storytelling graphicImagine that the world can be different.

Some people will find that easy. Some will find it harder. Some will find it alarming and retreat from it, dropping word grenades to discourage pursuit.

We are psychologically disposed and socially conditioned to have a stable worldview and defend it against conflicting input. “This is the way things are.” When people’s worldviews include the social and political status quo, they avoid or block change.

What can overcome this? Our deeper values, and our sense of empowerment. But many people are disconnected from those. Perhaps they never learned to feel them, or they suppress them because they’ve been taught that it’s more important not to rock the boat.

That, surely, is the territory of personal development. [Read more…] about Social change is a personal development issue

Filed Under: The Upward Path Tagged With: authenticity, development, politics, psychology, reflections, social change

Planet of the Bubble People

March 9, 2015 By Tim

Worldviews, change, the frustration of persuasion, and why people say mad things

Planet of the Bubble People - worldviews, change, the frustration of persuasion, and why people say mad things.

Do you struggle to understand why people refuse to take on board ideas that are principled and sensible and would lead to fixing problems?

If so, your personality type probably has some overlap with mine. Congratulations and commiserations. 😉

Untangling this kind of thing has been a big deal for me. As some of you know, I was involved in the environmental and sustainability movement from the late ’80s through the ’90s and beyond, and part of the frustration of that was that people didn’t simply understand the explanations of the problems and move swiftly to solutions. No, it was all so much messier than that.

If we want to build a better world, we have to begin in people’s heads

So now I’m interested in how all that head stuff works – and how to use that understanding to help people building the upward path so you can bypass the frustration and make your messages more effective.

The content of this post, and the title, popped up when I was writing Crowd/Control. It became the beginnings of a future book, but I realised it’s important to get the basics out now, as it’s part of the foundations of what I talk about.

So read on for my take on a framework for understanding how people react to messages, based on years of observation and reflection.  [Read more…] about Planet of the Bubble People

Filed Under: The Upward Path Tagged With: chimp response, influence, psychology, reflections, story, worldview

The age of illumination

December 11, 2014 By Tim

This piece is an excerpt from my ebook ‘Crowd/Control’, now available on Amazon.

Crowd Control coverWe had the Industrial Age. We had the Information Age, which slid into the Communication Age of putting information to use. We saw ourselves from space as one planet for the first time, and then set about making it a technosocial reality.

If you had to classify the times we’re in now, or are moving into, what sort of Age would you call it?

I’m juggling a few different words for it. It could be the Age of Consciousness, or Psychology, or Illumination.

Use the brain, Luke

I’m not talking about consciousness and illumination in a woo-woo airy-fairy sense. It’s very practical.

We’ve learned to do amazing things, and more all the time. But what we’re increasingly bumping into is ourselves.

Our brains were wired up a long time ago, in ways that don’t always suit the modern world. For instance, if you’ve ever had a panic attack you’ll know that our threat detection and adrenal response systems are not always very smart.

Our social structures are based on principles that no longer hold (and some that never did).

We routinely mess each other up.

The world, and our fellow travellers on it, desperately need us to solve problems, to redesign the way we do things, to free human potential and build for happiness. Yet our sludgy conditioning makes us pretend these things don’t exist, or to scramble for illusory advantage, or to trot out maxims that will keep things safe and stable and low-energy.

I think the tide is turning on all that. I think more and more people have had enough of it. They look at where it leads and say it’s not good enough.

This is the age when we look inside ourselves and reorder our ways of thinking and being – or get brought down by the world they have manifested.  [Read more…] about The age of illumination

Filed Under: The Upward Path Tagged With: books, crowd control, ebooks, reflections, the future!

Elections and stories

May 28, 2014 By Tim

Broadcast iconThis blog is mostly about the practical ‘how’ of communication, but that’s in service to making a better world and sometimes I talk about issues and change too, especially when it’s communication-related.

This seems like something I can’t let pass without reflection. Here in the UK, we’ve just had elections for some local councils and for Members of the European Parliament. It’s supplied fascinating (and scary) examples of the ways stories can be presented. [Read more…] about Elections and stories

Filed Under: The Upward Path, You and your message Tagged With: hope vs fear, media, politics, reflections, stories

Clutter conversations

February 12, 2014 By Tim

Golly gosh, I didn’t intend to stay quiet for so long! As some of you know, I moved house in early January, and it took a lot of my mental and physical resources in the run-up, doing it, and the fallout. Of course everything’s a learning experience…

Life, luggage and the pursuit of happiness

So yes, I moved. Three doors down the street. See, I didn’t really want to move right now, but I didn’t want to stay in my rented house either, as it was increasingly in need of TLC that it wasn’t getting and the issues were becoming louder in my headspace. Then a sign sprouted in a neighbour’s garden, and I thought I’d better take the hint from the universe!

Pile of clutterThat led to a mantra about letting things be easy, which I want to keep coming back to in my own development this year. Mind you, it was hard to hold on to that as I spent a week and a half carrying all my worldly goods down the street (with a friend and some neighbours helping with the tricky bits and moral support). Musings ranged from, “Hmm, I love books but they are an inefficient medium for transporting information”, to, “By the gods, why do I have all this crap?!”

[Read more…] about Clutter conversations

Filed Under: The Upward Path Tagged With: clutter, reflections, space

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