Category: working in the open
- Sometimes, conversation is the best kind of editing ()
When you’re working on some words with a colleague, or many colleagues, and there’s disagreement about what the words should be, the best way to overcome it is with verbal, spoken conversation. Not email. Most of the time, that’s the worst way to solve disagreement. About anything, including words. In most cases, the cause of […]
- How to be clear ()
You can spend a lot of time coming up with tactics and strategies for your communication, but the most valuable tool you can use is also the simplest: clarity. If you communicate with clarity, people will spend less time trying to interpret what you’re saying. As a result, they’ll understand you faster, with less effort. […]
- All first drafts are bad drafts (and that’s what makes them good) ()
All first drafts of anything are bad drafts. It doesn’t matter what you’re writing – the first version of it probably won’t be very good. Understand and accept this, and suddenly the task of writing becomes a little bit easier, because it lifts a weight off your shoulders, and lets you use your first draft […]
- How to write like you speak ()
You’ve probably heard the phrase “Write like you speak” a thousand times before, but actually writing like that doesn’t come easily to lots of people. It’s a skill that takes time to master. So for most people, the easiest way to write like you speak is to write by speaking: step away from the keyboard, […]
- Writing for the web by drafting with the web ()
Over the past year or so, I took on several projects that were focused on web content, and I took the decision to share my early drafts not as Word or Google documents, but as web pages. Drafting not with Word, but with the web. Doing it this way makes a real difference because the […]
- Publish *well*, don’t send ()
There’s a saying you might have seen floating about for years: “Publish, don’t send.” It means that if you want to get a message out to a lot of people, don’t send them all an email. Instead, publish what you want to say, and tell those people where to find the thing you’ve published. What’s […]
- Corporate opinion is corporate agreement ()
Organisations like to have opinions. A “line to take” on a particular subject. That’s helpful because if you can make clear where you stand, people are better able to decide if they want to stand with you. Potential new customers might decide whether or not to spend money with you, if they know your views […]
- Tips for writing good weeknotes ()
Weeknotes are a format for regular communication. They’re well suited to teams who want to communicate about their work to colleagues or management. They work in other circumstances, too, such as individuals communicating to the teams they’re part of, or leaders communicating to the people they lead. Weeknotes work well as blog posts, but they […]
- Bookings open for the “Working in the open” training course ()
As promised a few weeks ago, tickets for my new training course are now on sale. ☞ Book a ticket I’m running the course in partnership with Content Design London, who have several years experience of running excellent training courses both face-to-face and remote. This one will be remote, of course. On the day, we’ll […]
- Training course: “Working in the open” ()
Following on from this week’s webinar (which went great, thanks to everyone who came along), later this summer I’ll be running a training course, “How to work in the open”. Once again, this will be happening in partnership with the team at Content Design London. ☞ This blog post on the CDL site tells you […]