Archive for the 'Communication' Category

Vacuous Vocabulary?

Posted by Tom on May 31st, 2007

The Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries and the Houghton Mifflin Company have published (2003) a book titled 100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know.
It’s an interesting list. Some words are used in science (chromosome, gamete, mitosis, quasar), some in history/politics (antebellum, gerrymander, laissez faire, oligarchy). Others are useful to understand modern society […]

Debate and Groupthink

Posted by Tom on May 25th, 2007

I’ve refrained from posting on the voucher debate for a variety of reasons. But I realized some of my comments on other blogs were longer than some of my posts here.
The following comes with the hopefully unnecessary caveat that the opinions stated here are my own, and may not be representative of any group or […]

Customer Service Done Right

Posted by Tom on September 5th, 2006

A friend of mine recently accepted a position at Boise State University, and documented the numerous customer service troubles he encountered along the way. It’s a bit long but worth reading. I’ve highlighted his main points here.

As customers, we search for someone to blame, but only because we want a problem fixed. The person who […]

An Abundance Mentality

Posted by Tom on December 1st, 2005

I’ve been thinking a lot about what Phil Windley calls an “abundance mentality.” (He didn’t coin the term; it was through his article that I was introduced to the phrase.) I’ve been seeing variations on the same theme from Paul Allen (who really epitomizes the concept of an abundance mentality), Garr Reynolds, Kathy Sierra, and […]

Head First Learning Theory

Posted by Tom on November 18th, 2005

I stumbled upon Kathy Sierra’s blog, Creating Passionate Users, a couple of months ago, and I was hooked. She discusses management, marketing, and technology, but her biggest contribution is learning theory. She is the driving force behind O’Rielly’s “Head First” series of computer books, taking on the dry and often boring task of teaching […]