Pick n’ mix: tasty tips from our best-selling workshops

Here's a taster of what's covered in the webinar:

1. Lose the long-windedness 

Verbs are about action. When you use them, your reader should imagine a dynamic scene. Reading ‘the bank robber shattered the safety glass’ is like watching a blockbuster movie. But ‘the bank robber was able to shatter the safety glass’ is less exciting. And a general description wouldn’t do either (‘the bank robber roughly broke the safety glass’). The extra words get in the way and slow everything down.  

Here's a tip to try: 

• Challenge yourself to describe a dynamic scene in as few words as possible. That means no adverbs like (‘roughly’), but plenty of verbs (‘shattered’). 

2. Bounce ideas around with AI 

Smart people are working on AI. They’re either building the tools or figuring out how to use them. We can put academics from Wharton business school in that second camp. Because they’ve been researching methods for brainstorming with AI. Their favourite type of prompt is called a ‘chain of thought’. That’s where you break a big question into smaller instructions, which you give to an AI tool as a step-by-step guide.  

Here's a tip to try: 

• Start your next prompt with ‘Follow these steps. Do each step, even if you think you do not need to.’ Then, give a series of instructions that an artificial mind could follow to serve your needs.  

3. Find a fresh feeling 

Communication professionals are prone to déjà vu. To stay on-message, you have to say the same thing again and again and again… But that doesn’t mean you have to use exactly the same words.  

Here’s a tip to try: 

• Take out two pieces of paper. On one, write down all the words that usually appear in your comms. Keep jotting for a minute. Done? Good – those are now banned words. On the next piece of paper, try delivering your message without using the words that fill sheet numero uno.