Integrate!

I wonder if what frustrates people so much about elections like the one we are having in Ontario now is that they are reminded of how often they have to make choices between alternatives that just aren't good enough. https://www.elections.on.ca/en.html We often want a change because what we have isn't working for us, only to decide that none of the options available are good enough either. And then we say something like, "Why bother?" Here are three reasons to bother. It is worth making a choice, even when - especially when - you don't like any of the options: Shift happens.  Very small changes add up to larger impacts.  It does matter even if one choice is only slightly better than another. You don't have to vote. But there will be many times when you have to make a choice in your own life when you don't like your options. Practice will make the process easier.  Life will often take choices away from you. In those moments, you will want to fi...

No picture in the post this week, and no politics. Just three communication principles applied to the US Election results. The first principle: matching states (pun unavoidable) creates rapport. Trump matched a mood of discontent and anger that is apparently epidemic throughout most of the states (as in United States). Literally, he won because he matched the state in more states (that's the way the Electoral College works). It's not clear to me that Trump did more than mirror: I haven't seen evidence that he can lead from the state he has matched into a more useful state. But when people looked at him, they saw their own state reflected back. Since states shared are states amplified, he has successfully created a wave of anger and discontent and that wave has carried him into office. The second principle: repetition creates reality. This is basic to advertising: if we hear something repeatedly, it will stick in our brains and when we are not actively engaging our criti...