Andy Busam

You can’t truly solve customer’s problems on your own. No matter the industry, the time spent building empathy with the people most affected by your decisions will pay dividends. The editor-in-chief of Our State Magazine, Elizabeth Hudson, used to tell our team that we couldn’t create a

Every company has a culture. Yet, many of us forget that we have the power collectively to create the culture we want. Many types of cultures exist. Societal culture, workplace culture, cancel culture, and the list goes on. Culture is the belief system, customs, values, and principles that a collection

Motion and action are mutually reinforcing. And while action may be more visible to others, motion is just as consequential. In recent weeks, I’ve been thinking about the difference between motion and action from James Clear’s Atomic Habits [https://jamesclear.com/atomic-habits]. It’s a useful distinction and

Sometimes pain sneaks up on you. There’s no dramatic moment when something snaps or pops. You move through your normal daily routine without thinking about the small, but impactful choices you’re making. You ignore a nagging soreness as a temporary nuisance. Suddenly, you wake up one morning in

In 1978, Osmo A. Wiio, a professor from Finland, wrote 7 laws about the nature of communication. Though slightly tongue-in-cheek, the ideas point to a truth. The fundamental law states that “Communication usually fails, except by accident.” Some of his other laws include: * If a message can be understood in

“He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” – Friedrich Nietzsche Purpose Is Not Abstract There’s not much more daunting than feeling pressure to define your purpose in life. It requires understanding yourself, strengths and weaknesses, interests and motivations, experiences and perspectives. Knowing your purpose

The best professional advice I received in graduate school. It was the first day of graduate school at UNC Greensboro in January 2011. I just quit my job two weeks earlier and dove headfirst into a full-time Masters in Communication program, relying on my wife’s salary as a teacher

Careers have become dynamic. A once static part of life, marked by loyalty to company and worker, a job is a means to a personal end. People don’t stick with companies as long as they used to. Reflecting on my career path and a curiosity in how it fits

Using communication theory to create better relationships and outcomes. Control or Collaboration? When I start a new consulting project, one of the first undercover assessments I make determines my communication plan with the client. I call it the control-collaboration-control continuum. On one end is full-client control. They make all the

> “The enemy is noise. The goal is clarity.” – Jon Stewart in a 2020 New York Times interview [https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/06/15/magazine/jon-stewart-interview.html] Introduction We create new terminology to shortcut, simplify, and abstract complex ideas. We find new ways to say things we’ve