The Knowledge Translator

Partway through the workshop on “Cover Letters That Make You Stand Out,” a comment in the chat window stopped me in my tracks: “There’s so much more to it than writing a cover letter.”

“It” in this case referred to the challenge of finding a job. And the chat comment grabbed my attention because it captured in a nutshell the reason so many cover letters flop: most job seekers expect the cover letter to do too much.

There certainly is much, much more to landing a job than merely writing a cover…

One definition of innovator might be “someone who’s in love with the new.”

When you see the world through innovator eyes, you see the potential to do things differently. While everyone around you thinks things are running along just fine, you see how they could be running so much better—whether “better” means quicker, leaner, cleaner, brighter, or just newer.

Your visionary capacity sets you apart from the pack. However, it also creates a divide between you and your customers.

Most innovators…

How many times have you watched this scene play out at a store checkout counter?

A customer approaches the counter with a question about a product, a pair of shoes say. The clerk behind the counter answers the question hurriedly, not recognizing that the customer doesn’t speak fluent English.

The customer asks the question again, this time with gestures to fill out broken phrases. Now the clerk catches on. “Ah! “ she thinks. “This is someone whose first language is not English. I’ll have to ad…

It’s not their fault. Most of us find it easier to politely stare and nod than we do to admit we’re completely confused. Asian cultures aren’t the only contexts in which people will go to great lengths to avoid “losing face.”

Nor is it your fault. You probably do a great job of describing, in detail, the ins and outs of your offering. I’m guessing that you’ve spent hours and hours working out your value proposition, analyzing your buyer personas, and developing a market-ready message.

The tr…

This is the season of grant applications. If you’re in the throes of completing one, you have my sympathy. Many application forms seem to have been designed by a committee whose members didn’t communicate with one another. How else do you explain the repetitious questions, nonsensical questions, and typos to boot.

Anyone who successfully makes it through one of these paper or PDF torture devices should be applauded. But what about the folks who have to read the completed forms? They really dese…

My dad was a pilot, which meant he was always watching the sky with a pilot’s long-range vision. On family road trips, he could see sights his passengers never even glimpsed.

“Did you see that hawk just circle above those trees? It was right over there.”

“Is that a falcon or a crow?…. Oh, it’s gone now.”

“There’s an eagle… Whoops, you missed it. Again”

Visionary leaders have that same gift of farsightedness. And, like my Dad, they can have trouble getting others to see what stands out so …

Wooing readers online doesn’t happen as spontaneously as two characters falling head over heels in a rom com. Yet when you’re creating a website, it can be easy to fall into the trap of putting all your effort into attracting readers through a seductive home page. 

Few site visitors will fall in love with your offerings instantly, as soon as they scroll through your Home page. No matter how gorgeous your page design and how stunning your copy, not many of the web surfers who turn into customers…

I had the pleasure of delivering a webinar on "How to Write in Layperson." (Thanks to Springboard Atlantic for hosting this event!)

The audience included researchers, entrepreneurs, industry liaison officers from Atlantic universities, and students. As a former professor, I felt very much at home among these folks, who formed a thoughtful, discerning group.

I also felt their frustration with the conventions and limitations of business communication.

In my previous life as a scholar, I spent y…

Flash forward four or five hundred years, and today’s scientific community is still looking for a version of the Philosopher’s Stone. The hunt now is for an element to f…