Memos
« Previous EntriesNo News Is Bad News
Friday, August 1st, 2008The group of managers walked into a Better Business Writing class, talking to each other but not to me. They responded to my greeting but didn’t seem especially glad to meet me. That’s unusual. Most people act eager at the start of a writing seminar.
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Business Writing: Don’t Ask Too Many Questions
Friday, July 25th, 2008Yesterday I received an e-mail solicitation that was a good example of a bad technique: asking too many questions. It began with this question:
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Six Proven Tips for Making Your Business Correspondence Inviting to Read
Friday, July 11th, 2008With today’s business moving at the speed of broadband, everyone expects better results in record time. Every day, we deal with hundreds of communications in the form of e-mails, letters, phone calls, chats, and meetings—and that’s before we tackle the “to do†list.
It’s no wonder that many business messages often reads as if they […]
Saying Thank You Can Open More Doors Than You Think
Monday, January 7th, 2008Now is a great time to reflect on the power of thanks. It is a magical word with enormous potential for good in all facets of business as well as life in general.
Today’s media headlines never let us forget that civility appears to be waning in American society. With the decline of civility, of […]
Avoiding Disasters with Better Communication
Tuesday, October 16th, 2007Many of the memoranda and letters related to the Chicago flood, the Three Mile Island nuclear accident, and the Challenger and Columbia shuttle disasters that warned of impending disasters went unheeded.
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Ten Grammar Mistakes That Make You Look Stupid
Tuesday, August 28th, 2007When we commit a grammatical crime in e-mails, discussion posts, reports, memos, and other professional documents, there’s no going back.
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Are You Choosing the Right Day of the Week for Your Communications?
Thursday, August 2nd, 2007What days of the week are best to break bad news or push through change? Different types of communication are better suited to different days of the week, according to a survey of managers. It claims that people have a “work clock” and identifies reasons why it’s psychologically advantageous that certain communication is best […]
Freeman Explores Results of Study on Delivering Bad News
Tuesday, July 10th, 2007IABC’s president, Julie Freeman, has contributed a review of IABC research about organization’s ability to deliver bad news. You’ll find it and an intriguing discussion.
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Bad Words: How Much Can Poorly Worded Memos Cost?
Wednesday, December 27th, 2006How much does using the wrong words cost a company? According to IWCC Training in Communications, a consulting and training firm in Toronto, Canada, it can cost $4,258.60 for one employee’s poorly worded memos for one year. You don’t believe it? Here’s the math: Source: Entrepreneur Magazine, February 2000 Technorati Tags : Memos
Bad News Is Not Like a Fine Wine
Friday, September 1st, 2006"Bad news comes in many forms, project delays, veterans’ records compromised, bugs in new technology products, to name just a few. Some organizations ignore a problem and pretend it doesn’t exist until it turns into a major crisis. Unfortunately, very few problem just disappear.
Handling bad news requires enough information to understand the problem and develop […]
