A few days ago, I led a writing workshop for a group of internal communicators. The best part for me was how easily my “students” grasped the techniques I shared and immediately put them into practice.

I’d like to claim that my brilliant teaching was responsible for participants being such quick studies. But the truth is that all I had to do was give them permission to do one thing differently: Stop writing like corporate geeks.

These folks were smart, experienced and talented. So they just needed to unlearn all those bad writing habits they’d picked up along the way, including using a formal tone, big words and too many details.

It amazes me that, in many organizations, the old-school style of writing still predominates. Not only is this approach retro (in a bad way), it’s also ineffective. What employee wants to read an email or intranet article that sounds like it was written by their scary junior high principal?

I can hear your protest: “That’s the way we do things around here!” But . . . why? Is anyone really stopping you from changing? After all, it makes so much sense to make internal communication content:

• Simpler
• Clearer
• Friendlier
• More conversational
• More useful

Plus, while many changes to your employee communication program require buy-in or a budget, you can make this improvement today—without asking anyone’s permission.

Need inspiration to get started? We’ve published a couple of blogs you might enjoy. I wrote a book that offers lots of tips. And I’d be happy to bring my workshop to your group of smart communicators. In just an hour or so, we’ll make amazing progress—once we realize that we don’t have to be trapped in the past.