The posts on this blog, Working with Sparkle will be, in the main, shaped as a story. Stories that house communication  tips and tricks we’ve learnt over the years. No magic, no sleight of hand,  just a few gems we’ve managed to dig up in our working lives.

They will be stories more about the adventure than the people involved. And because of that, there will be nothing that intentionally or personally criticises those people involved. 

Instead, they will be elements about the quest, the problem, the rescue, the treasure, the action, the cut and thrust and parry, the sail, the secrets and the companions. A virtual Odyssey. Let’s face it there’s only about seven types of story you can tell. After that it’s just re-configuring the characters and destinations.

The title, Working with Sparkle provides a great opening to a world of gem metaphors. If your penchant runs to diamonds, saphires, emeralds or rubies, we’ve the gem for you and the matching story.

Working with Sparkle is a blog about communication and is jointly written by Liz Mead and James Williams.

The genesis of the name Sparkle is covered in another blog so we won’t repeat ourselves (even though repeatability has some advantages in the communication process).

We came up with the idea of this discrete blog though, as a place to house our thoughts and distilled approach to communication. Each topic is covered by the partner with the most direct experience and expertise of that area.

Liz Mead comes from an arts background, one that is steeped in the tradition of presentations, production and events. Her special skills and passions are engagement and production. With a strong sales inclination and and highly planful nature, she’s not happy until she delivers a tangible and achievable strategy.  The selling side kicks in with her ability to make strong affective connections with people. In short, she matches the communication concept to the personal situtaion. With a provocative and humorous approach to  uncovering the cultural and personal blocks in the communications process she is able to persuade and influence others of the need for change in themselves and in their situation.

James Williams comes from a technology, communications and service background with an innate ability to create, brand and market solutions to complex problems and deliver effective and lasting change.

James is the one who pushes the boundaries out even further.  One of his greatest strengths is the rigorous diagnosis of a stituation.  His incisive almost intuitive questioning means he is able to ascertain what is really going on - be it a technical or cultural block of communication flow. Pushing buttons is a forte. His impeccable presentation and timing secures him a seat at the planning stages with senior management.

The blog postings comprise topics such as: engaging stakeholders, reducing assumptions, managing change, benefits marketing, evaluating the results, identifying the pain points, messaging.

We hope you enjoy  Working with Sparkle and start a dialogue with either or both of us any of the topics you read. Our learning to date has been cumulative and your input either in agreement or disagreement will add to that learning.