Tagged writing
The Seven Deadly Sins of Employee Communications
How many did you commit this week? We are all sinners. Yes, all of us. When it comes to employee communications, we all sin. In fact, we often commit the same sins on a regular basis. In my 25 years working in employee communications as a speaker, trainer, consultant, and coach, I see the same …
How to create content that’ll (actually) engage frontline workers: my 5 golden rules
This article originally appeared on the Blink Blog. Blink provides mobile solutions for employee communications. Let’s start with the bad news: communicating with frontline workers is fundamentally hard. Why? Because… They often don’t have access to the same technologies that other employees have; They are crazy busy (and so are their managers) They often work …
Avoid passive voice with this proven technique
Just one word to describe this tip: genius. Go on … give it a shot. You know you want to. Thanks to Rebecca Johnson, a professor of culture and ethics at USMC for this proven writing technique: Just in case you have doubts: The HR initiative was launched on Monday (by zombies — passive voice) …
Where do bad words come from?
People say “world class” when they haven’t the energy or the courage to find and use a word that actually means something There are a lot of bad words out there. And most of them can be found inside companies, where good people use bad words for the wrong reasons. You hear words and sentences in …
Great Writing is built on specificity
Great writing is built on specificity By Steve Crescenzo Organizational leaders love to talk about “the big picture.” They love to talk about “the view from 30,000 feet.” Why? Because that’s where they live. They sit up there on the corporate version of Mount Olympus, and hurl communication thunderbolts down upon the masses in the …
Which Facebook posts annoy you the most?
Mine is the “Schoolyard Bully Post” There are all kinds of annoying Facebook posts. And I’m sure everyone has their favorite least favorite ones. Maybe you hate the “Random Song Lyric” post. Or maybe the “Passive Aggressive Plea for Pity” posts do it for you (you know, the ones that just say something like, “Sigh.”) …
Writing across all media
Imagine for a second that you’re a communicator at a large organization. It’s Tuesday morning, and you’re busy sketching out your plans for the next Town Hall meeting, when the phone rings. It’s the VP of Communications and she has an assignment for you: “We’re giving out this year’s Chairman’s Award,” she says. “Get …
Leaping the biggest hurdle to creative communication
This article was my last column in IABC’s Communication World. I’ve retired that column, to focus on Low Hanging Fruit. The obstacles to being creative inside an organization are many, varied, and tough to overcome . . . but it all starts with taming the approval process Writing for organizations is hard. Being creative inside organizations …