A conflict in the workplace is not uncommon. A workplace conflict battled out on Facebook, however, pulling in co-workers and the company, is not something you see every day.
Continue reading “Poetry at Work, Chapter 14: The Poetry of Interpersonal Conflict”
There’s nothing like a good crisis to demonstrate how little control an organization has. There’s also nothing like a good crisis to uncover the poetry in our souls.
Continue reading “Poetry at Work, Chapter 13: The Poetry of the Crisis”
It was the days before PowerPoint. Holding our overhead transparencies, three of us sat waiting to be called into the management meeting. We were three public relations people, three poets, working for a chemical company. And it was our job to explain to the people running the company why we had to tell people how much pollution the company was responsible for, and, more to the point, what we thought the company should do about it.
Continue reading “Poetry at Work, Chapter 12: The Poetry of Transparency”
The most solitary job in corporate America is not the position of CEO. It’s the position of the CEO’s speechwriter. It can be the loneliest job as well.
Continue reading “Poetry at Work, Chapter 11: The Poetry of Speechwriting”
The worst view I ever had from my assigned office at work was of the building’s designated smoking area. I had the most coveted type of office – a closed-door office, with a window. Except the window faced the smoking area outside the building, with its awning-like protection and clouds of smoke.
Continue reading “Poetry at Work, Chapter 10: The Poetry of Beauty in the Workplace”
For most of the 20thcentury, the structure of corporations was based on the technology of mass production. It was a command-and-control model, with managers directing workers, who had a very specific task to accomplish. It was not unlike the military.
Continue reading “Poetry at Work, Chapter 9: The Poet in the Culture of Control”