[4 minutes to read] Feedback on writing can seem very personal. It’s easy for the reviewer to say, “It doesn’t look right to me,” and thus easy for the writer to say, “She was just changing it to her personal style.” Many organizations grapple with the alienation, resentment, and poor results that come from editing […]
Reduce Subjectivity by Using Check Readability Statistics Read More »
Arianne, a staff scientist at a regional utility, said she got an email from her manager that made her feel alienated. “Was it the content or tone of the email?” I asked. “Neither,” she replied, “He didn’t capitalize my name.” Arianne confided that she did not give her full commitment to reading the email when
For Lack of a Name, the Relationship Was Lost Read More »
Even professional jugglers drop a lot of balls. Research has proven that successful multitasking is a myth. What looks like multitasking is actually doing tasks in sequence very quickly. When we do this, our work suffers. Our productivity plops. We drop balls. Moreover, net-net, we spend more time on our multi-tasked items than we would have
How to Minimize Multitasking Read More »
It is embarrassing, and sometimes downright damaging, to send an email to the wrong person. Learn to make sure you are sending your email to the right person.
Send Your Email to the Right Person Read More »
[3 minutes to read] I was at an international conference in Washington, DC, a few weeks ago. There were 10,000 attendees. A consulting firm decided to make a splash at the conference by sponsoring one of the keynote speakers. The speaker was famous and therefore, presumably expensive. On the day of the speech, the firm
A Costly Writing Mistake Read More »
