The Potentiality

John Horn's Website for Community Builders

Communication

How to Make Awesome Introductions

Being introduced to people is one of the best ways to become part of a community. As a career practitioner, I’m in the business of making hundreds of human connections every year and this article will explore how to make…

How to Write Emails that Inspire Action

Email is the preferred communication tool in the world of work. Emails provides a digital footprint – a threaded record – of ideas, requests, stories, and all the rest of it. Unfortunately, most of us really, really suck at writing…

How to Communicate: Stories, Focus and Listening

The Potentiality’s Cartoonist in Residence, Phil Skipper, has an interesting take on communication. Here is how Phil captured our personal and collective definitions of communication: “Communicating means speaking and writing with simplicity, clarity and influence. This is the most sought-after…

Communicate with Success on Camera

Here are three tips for new spokespeople looking to communicate their message through the media Whether you’re an Executive Director telling the story of your non-profit’s fundraising campaign, a neighbourhood association spokesperson who is promoting an upcoming event, or a…

Positivity and Resilience Overcome Political Attack Ads

Are Acknowledgement and Humour the Antidotes to Attack Ads?

What to Say When You Just Don’t Know

You’d be surprised by the number of people who show up to a meeting without reading the agenda, minutes or considering the possible topics of discussion.

Three Tips for Overcoming Mediocre Presenting

Everybody fails. Sometimes we do so spectacularly and sometimes we simply don’t reach our potential; I experienced the latter sort of failure on Saturday when I gave what can only be described as a mediocre presentation – the audience probably thought “it was fine”. For me, though, giving a presentation that is “fine” just isn’t good enough.

Pitching a News Story: The Phone is Your Best Friend

In this email saturated world, it’s difficult to penetrate the din and connect with a journalist about your story idea. Granted, you probably have a great idea that includes many news elements or is a perfect fit for the media you’re pitching, but if you aren’t able to communicate it effectively to your targeted audience, your idea will sit by itself on your blog and/or be discussed amongst your colleagues around the water cooler.

Developing Successful Storytellers

This is a story about stories and storytelling. Its purpose is to inspire you to, first, give a copy of your favourite children’s book to a kid and, second, support A Good Book Drive if you live in Vancouver. Why? Because stories are the most powerful communications tool that we, as humans, have at our disposal.