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Here’s my blog on strategy, work, words and communications.
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Malaphors
Coined in 1976 by Lawrence Harrison in The Washington Post article ‘Searching for Malaphors’, a malaphor is a mash-up of aphorisms, idioms or cliches.
It’s an error in which two sayings are merged, producing an often ridiculous and embarrassing result.
Banish the bafflegab
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the Plain English Bill going through the New Zealand parliament. The bill passed – it’s now law!
The high cost of bad writing
It takes more time to read and make sense of bad writing. It’s frustrating red-penning lousy work.
It’s a huge cost to business.
Consider this.
A tale of two crises
This past month I’ve been privy to both Optus and Medibank’s crisis communications with customers.
Yep, I’m a customer of both.
Good strategy requires us to stop things.
Most companies allocate the same resources to the same business functions every year. They don’t change. Inertia reigns.
But failing to be flexible undermines their performance.
Keep it simple stupid.
By using plain English, we get our message across faster, help more people to understand it, and reduce the chance of misunderstanding or error.
It also makes you look clever. Seriously!
The gap between intentions and actions
Whether implementing a business strategy, getting fit, or saving for a big holiday, we’re full of good intentions.
So why do so many of us fail to turn our intentions into action?
Making it easier to understand government
𝐖𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝? “𝐇𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐲𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨𝐱𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧.” 𝐎𝐫, “𝐇𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐝𝐫𝐮𝐧𝐤.” 𝐌𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫, 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐨𝐛𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐬.
To err is human, to forgive divine.
We all err at times in our writing. A typo here. A misspell there. A slide into the passive voice. A run-on sentence containing too many ideas.
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