There comes a point where we have to take the information we've generated, think with it and turn it into something that comes from our own brains.

Copilot is creating an avalanche of AI documents that say very little. And it could soon overwhelm us.

I’ll never forget the first time I was asked to write a report. I had recently graduated and was two months into a new job with the Environmental Health department of a local authority in Swindon. The day before, I’d accompanied my manager on his…

Too many people mistake complexity for sophistication. But telling it like it is signals intelligence and confidence.

Here are this year's most important issues, in case you missed them.

There's one critical problem with most articles and videos on ChatGPT. And it's glaringly obvious to anyone who works in a sizeable organisation.

How to get a good response even if they could be anywhere, doing anything ...

When emotions run high, it's time to ditch this standard writing advice ...

Filling documents with long words and flowery language impresses less than you might think. It could even damage your reputation ...

The anxiety that builds if a response takes too long to come through is hard-wired in all of us.

A client contacted us recently while still recovering from a mild trauma. He was the head of risk at an investment bank and had just finished reading a report on a major incident in the lending team. The report had rightly flagged the problem in the…

If you ever struggle with writing at work, take comfort in knowing that to do it at all should be impossible. In fact, the whole idea of communicating through the written word sounds preposterous when you break it down. If someone were to pitch it as…

Telling someone they need help with their writing rarely lands well. You may be right. They may even agree with you. But they’ll still probably feel at least a little wounded if you point it out. The trouble is that, deep down, we think writing is…

Let’s start out with a quick question. Look at the line on the left in the image below. Which one on the right do you think is most similar: A, B or C? It’s pretty obvious that the answer is C, right? Or so you’d think. Yet three out of every four…

I’ve got a quick question for you. How many people live in the Australian capital of Sydney? Is it two million? Five million? Seven million? The answer, of course, is none of those. Canberra is the capital of Australia, not Sydney. Well done if you…

Posted : 24 / 05 / 24 Share this: A few years ago, a leading NHS trauma surgeon I was working with transformed treatment in her emergency department. She did it, not with a scalpel or the latest medical device, but with a lowly Word document. She’d…

Organisations are full of documents that don’t work. The CEO of a London bank recently told me that he’d spent 20 minutes of his last board meeting arguing over the meaning of a single paragraph in a report. And the board had to get through ten other…

A better way When we write a report, our first instinct – of course – is to write. But that can feel so overwhelming that we may struggle even to get started for days. We’re trapped in the hell of the blank screen, unable to see a way forward through…

If you’re putting off writing a tricky email or text right now, you’re not alone. According to a recent poll by YouGov, almost one in three adults (31%) say they’re currently struggling to compose a message or have struggled to recently. And the…

Getting someone to read a document is often a bit like pushing a car that won’t start. You have to overcome a ton of inertia at first. But it then takes much less effort to keep them moving. You’re already halfway there if you can get them to read…