Education

I miss meeting new people. I miss bumping into people I know. So, necessity being the mother of invention, my team has been experimenting with different ways to gather our community – and we have a plan. Introducing the Shelly Palmer Online Networking Salons. They are free, category-specific, weekly, 20-minute, super-curated, small, Zoom meetings where you will introduce yourself, meet some new people, bump into old friends, learn something, hang out for a bit, and then get back to work. Here’s how we tested the theory and why we know it works. Continue Reading →

If you were giving a graduation speech to the class of 2020, what would your message be? That’s a question I made the mistake of trying to answer on Twitter. Continue Reading →

On one of the toughest days of my childhood, a day that forged much of my world view, my father, as he often did, came up to my room to chat about my day. He offered some advice, some objectivity, and very little comfort. He wasn’t harsh; he was just brutally honest about my “very bad day” and his thoughts about what I could or should do to improve my situation. At the time, all I really wanted was a hug and a more powerful ally to go fix my world for me. What I got was sound advice about choices and ways to think about how to solve my own problem. Although I didn’t realize it at the time, it was one of the most formative days of my life. Continue Reading →

As out of control as everything feels today, we do have control over one thing: how we spend our time. Time is a currency. So much so that we call the use of it “spending” time. Today, while some are forced to put themselves in harm’s way to do what needs to be done, many of us will have the shared experience of being alone. How will you “invest” your alone time? Here are a few ideas. Continue Reading →

I met Delano Martin yesterday. He’s been shot twice, and he spends his days trying to figure out how to stay alive. Before I tell you how Delano and I came to meet, I want you to read one of his poems. Continue Reading →

An invitation to walk in the Labor Day Parade got me thinking about labor law as an alternative path to meaningful data privacy regulation. Think about this… Continue Reading →

What do you really need to know? Would a sixth-grade education give you enough basic skills to enable you to use online tools to learn a trade or become a service worker or a knowledge worker? Would you need eighth-grade skills? Tenth-grade? Perhaps a four-year college degree? Continue Reading →

Some teachers inspire you. Some teachers change your life. Mark Chernichaw, Associate Professor of Film and Television, taught Intermediate Television at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts from 1972-1982. The course was focused on the production and direction of television, and Mark’s classes were legendary. Continue Reading →

Real fake news articles feature fabricated stories crafted to push a particular agenda. In most cases, the thesis of the article is supported by alternative facts (lies). But there are more subtle, more insidious types of fake news. Specifically, articles that might pass a cursory fact check, but have been written to espouse a point of view unintended by the original author. Here’s a quick case study that demonstrates the technique and clearly illustrates why it will be nearly impossible to stop. Continue Reading →

We deal with procurement departments everyday. It's a fact of modern day corporate life. But this week, I've had to respond to so many RFPs asking for "blue disco balls," (my metaphoric name for a specific kind of middle management error that most vendors, suppliers and even solutions providers love most), I'm thinking about hanging one over my desk. What is a “blue disco ball?” Here's a story I wrote last year about every senior executive’s worst nightmare and every vendor’s holiday bonus all rolled into a budget-busting good time. Continue Reading →