Welcome to The Communication Heretic

Welcome to The Communication Heretic, where I will regularly discuss issues regarding communication from a variety of perspectives — communication within and from organizations — issues regarding today's traditional and new media, political and other cause-based communication, even interpersonal communications.

As an individual who often finds myself internally responding to things I see and read, I have in recent months decided to move that internal soliloquy to an external forum, a place where I can draw public attention to the quirks and quandaries of professional communication — public relations, marketing, media, advertising and other forms — and initiate what I hope will be spirited dialogue around the issues I find.

Through three decades of professional involvement in the broad range of strategic communications — visioning, planning, implementation and oversight — I have come to deeply comprehend the true power of communication to inspire, inform, advocate, educate ... and to explode in devastating failure.

I have learned (among many other epiphanies) that communication — if strategically based and consistently internalized deep within and broadly across the organization — can drive the success and growth of any organization of any kind. In its simplest terms, this means if you truly ARE what you SAY you are, both internally and externally, you will succeed. (It sounds simplistic but is shockingly uncommon.) That concept is at my core, and holds particular relevance in this period when many organizations are facing difficult decisions about mission and priorities that are affecting every internal and external stakeholder.

I hope my blog will interest, inspire and sometimes inflame you, and that you will both READ and COMMENT often.

Jan Thomas
The Communication Heretic