Issues Public Experts Face

List member Stephen Wood, an applied scientist at The Nature Conservancy, sent this response to yesterday’s email (thanks to Stephen for allowing me to quote him):

Your post touches on an issue we struggle with a science group I lead: there’s lots of excitement about [what we’re working on], but many of the practices that people are excited about aren’t substantiated by much evidence.

Great content starts by asking the right question first.

That didn’t happen for this wannabe thought leadership feature by Vox two weeks ago, to mark Facebook’s 15th birthday.

Vox asked 15 people they called influencers to respond to the question: Has Facebook been good for the world?…

​We’re awash in the industry of storytelling:

• Storytelling consultants selling storytelling templates and workshops and webinars and books, all with guidance for the majority of us afflicted with the lack of confidence to tell compelling stories but who conveniently, it turns out, just need a little paid training to unlock and unleash the unique story within us and to recognize the great characters in our lives and turn those, too, into powerful stories, all in order to revolutionize our impact, performance and lives.