Category «Communications»

Handling Questions: A Presenter’s Guide

OK, you have gotten through the body of your presentation satisfactorily. Time to relax, right? Nope. There is one hurdle left: The question and answer period. This is when some presenters wilt and others shine. With a few tips, some experience and a modicum of intestinal fortitude, you can shine every time. Jerry Lawson’s extensive experience as a speaker is put to good use in this article as he provides best practice advice for each stage of your presentation.

Read more

Subjects: Communication Skills, Communications, Presentation Skills, Training

It’s not just bad behavior – why social media design makes it hard to have constructive disagreements online

Good-faith disagreements are a normal part of society and building strong relationships. Yet it’s difficult to engage in good-faith disagreements on the internet, and people reach less common ground online compared with face-to-face disagreements. There’s no shortage of research about the psychology of arguing online, from text versus voice to how anyone can become a troll and advice about how to argue well. But there’s another factor that’s often overlooked: the design of social media itself. Amanda Baughan and her colleagues investigated how the design of social media affects online disagreements and how to design for constructive arguments.

Read more

Subjects: Communication Skills, Communications, Social Media

Client Portals: A Must-Have Service for Today’s Law Firms

Jim Calloway is Director of the Oklahoma Bar Association Management Assistance Program and co-author of the ABA books “How Good Lawyers Survive Bad Times” and “Winning Alternatives to the Billable Hour: Strategies That Work.” In this article he explains how beyond secure document sharing, client portals for law firms can serve as a “virtual lobby” for clients and potential clients.

Read more

Subjects: Communications, Cybersecurity, KM, Law Firm Marketing, Legal Marketing, Legal Profession, Legal Technology

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, June 6, 2021

Privacy and security issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: Two New Laws Restrict Police Use of DNA Search Method; On the Taxonomy and Evolution of Ransomware; Amazon’s Ring Finally Discloses Police Requests; and The Limits of Law and AI.

Read more

Subjects: AI, Civil Liberties, Communications, Criminal Law, Cybersecurity, Email, Gadgets/Gizmos, Legal Research, Privacy

Employees are feeling burned over broken work-from-home promises and corporate culture ‘BS’ as employers try to bring them back to the office

As vaccinations and relaxed health guidelines make returning to the office a reality for more companies, there seems to be a disconnect between managers and their workers over remote work. A good example of this is a recent op-ed written by the CEO of a Washington, D.C., magazine that suggested workers could lose benefits like health care if they insist on continuing to work remotely as the COVID-19 pandemic recedes. The staff reacted by refusing to publish for a day. While the CEO later apologized, she isn’t alone in appearing to bungle the transition back to the office after over a year in which tens of millions of employees were forced to work from home. A recent survey of full-time corporate or government employees found that two-thirds say their employers either have not communicated a post-pandemic office strategy or have only vaguely done so. As workforce scholars, Kimberly Merriman, David Greenway and Tamara Montag-Smith are interested in teasing out how workers are dealing with this situation. Their recent research found that this failure to communicate clearly is hurting morale, culture and retention.

Read more

Subjects: Communications, Healthcare, KM, Leadership, Management, Telecommuting

Review: Own the Map, by Conrad Samm

Jerry Lawson highly recommends Conrad Saam’s intriguing new book, Own the Map, which encourages lawyers to think about marketing in new and better ways. The author’s primary thesis is that most lawyers should concentrate appealing to potential clients near the lawyer’s location. Saam develops this thesis convincingly, but many will find his sometimes stunningly useful ideas about other aspects of lawyer marketing, like evaluating marketing efforts, even more valuable.

Read more

Subjects: Communications, Competitive Intelligence, KM, Law Firm Marketing, Legal Marketing, Search Engines, Social Media

Why Informal Information Sharing is Holding Your Organization Back

This article by Mary Ellen Bates is an excerpt from her recent presentation “The Strategic Value of Copyright Licensing Solutions,” to which she also provides a video link. Bates discusses ways published information is being used throughout organizations that you may not have considered, and the impact on copyright compliance.

Read more

Subjects: Communications, Competitive Intelligence, Copyright, Information Management, KM, Libraries & Librarians, Technology Trends, Training

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, April 10, 2021

Privacy and security issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and security, often without our situational awareness. Five highlights from this week: LexisNexis to Provide Giant Database of Personal Data to ICE; Intelligence officers predict a future shaped by faceless enemies like disease, climate change; Police Ask for Your Video Doorbell Recordings FAQ; Feds seize fake COVID-19 Pfizer, vaccine websites; Utah pilots mobile driver’s license; and Dallas Cops Used Face Recognition Installed on Personal Phones.

Read more

Subjects: Communications, Cybercrime, Cyberlaw, Cybersecurity, Data Mining, Healthcare, Medical Research, Privacy, Technology Trends

The Case for Law Practice Management Software

The software that lawyers relied on to run their firms used to be premise-based, but as reported by Nicole L. Black, in 2021 cloud computing software is the most prevalent. In fact, even before the pandemic, lawyers were adopting cloud-based legal software at higher rates than ever before. According to the 2020 ABA Legal Technology Survey Report, 59% of lawyers surveyed were already already using cloud-based software pre-COVID. Notably, the results of another survey conducted by MyCase in mid-2020, showed the social distancing requirements of the pandemic have only served to accelerate this trend.

Read more

Subjects: Case Management, Communications, Information Architecture, Information Management, KM, Legal Technology, Technology Trends

New Normal Start Up Resources 2021

As we collectively work toward establishing a post-coronavirus future, there is a need to go beyond identifying operational goals, objectives, products and services tied to work in physical locations. For both existing organizations and startups, effectively pivoting to a future that includes routine remote work and online collaboration that drives all facets of management, development, marketing, and communications. This guide by Marcus P. Zillman identifies a wide range of actionable resources that can help empower new companies and established public and private sector organizations as they navigate challenges and leverage new opportunities.

Read more

Subjects: Business Research, Communications, Competitive Intelligence, Information Management, KM, Social Media
➤