Holtz Communications + Technology

I have never been a fan of the business practice of blocking employee access to online content (as you know if you read this blog). I believe the practice kills trust and prevents employee engagement. Prospective employees see it as a big sign that says, “Don’t work here.” The issues that lead companies to block access are better addressed by strong supervision and…

Upon returning to Apple in 1997 after years of exile (or so the story goes), Steve Jobs observed that employees were hunkering down in their offices. Wanting a more free-flowing exchange of knowledge, Jobs ordered urns of coffee and boxes of donuts delivered to Apple’s buildings on Fridays. Employees emerged from their offices to enjoy the caffeine and sugar but, while…

Sometimes satire is a better way to make a point than repeated explanations. I got a huge kick out of this satiric post at a blog called SubBrilliant News. It’s pure fiction—at least, a Google search turned up zero results on the research firm cited in the article, which leads me to believe it’s pure fiction. (The fact that all of the site’s posts…

Hot on the heels of MyRagan, a social networking site for communicators, Ragan Communications today launched MyRaganTV, a companion site (only a single login is required for both sites) that is a kind of YouTube for communications video content. Like MyRagan, MyRaganTV is free.

The site was populated at launch with a variety of Ragan videos, including interviews with the likes…

It will come as no surprise to anybody who has ever held a job that managers are often lousy communicators. Even if you have leaders who communicated well, you undoubtedly had co-workers who weren’t so lucky.

Employees are not promoted into jobs with supervisory responsibility based on their communication skills. Rather, the promotion track eventually leads to a job with managerial…

Neville Hobson writes that more than two-thirds of UK companies are blocking employee access to Facebook and similar sites based on the fear that employees will waste time rather than get their work done. (This according to according to a study reported in the Daily Telegraph.

I wish I could say I was surprised by this, but I was expecting it.…