Hang on, hang on. Stick with me. I'm not advocating for rudeness, meanness, or disrespect. But I think the emphasis on nice (over, say, kind or clear) can get in the way of effective communication--and reinforce some pretty awful power systems in the process. For instance, one of my current clients has explicitly asked me … Continue reading Let’s Be Less nice in the Workplace
Tag: rules to break
The forever undead five-paragraph essay
Close your eyes. Picture one of your middle school English teachers handing you a sheet of paper to prepare for an upcoming essay. It has a series of fill-in-the-blank lines that you've seen before, adding up to a series of five short paragraphs. With me? Cool. Now let's crumple that handout, throw it in a … Continue reading The forever undead five-paragraph essay
Finding the Right Language
At last month's workshop on writing anxiety and the small steps we can take to get started on breaking through our blocks, an attendee right up front expressed long-held frustrations about the seemingly arbitrary rules that had been sometimes stringently enforced in school. The specific example sparking our tangent conversation was the compulsion to turn … Continue reading Finding the Right Language
Something Polished 