by Sue Horner | Dec 16, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Here’s one for communications guru Les Potter, ABC: Krudzu: Any proliferating management fad — or simply dumb concept — that overtakes and eventually strangles a company or organization. (From Buzzwhack.com.) Why Les? Because we had a discussion...
by Sue Horner | Nov 25, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Some of the writing I do for Big Client #1 goes to American readers as well as Canadian. All along, the articles have gone on separate pages, so we stuck to American spelling with things written specifically for the U.S. page and Canadian spelling for the Canucks. Now...
by Sue Horner | Nov 9, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
A smart reminder from Jakob Nielsen in his most recent Alertbox: “…the best way to boost your productivity is to switch off IM, Twitter and the like and refrain from checking your email more than once per hour. Even the shortest interruption costs you...
by Sue Horner | Nov 5, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Of course the world is buzzing today with the good news that Barack Obama will be the new president of the United States. I’m hopeful it will mean good things for the neighbours, too. What strikes me about this election (besides how painfully long it dragged on)...
by Sue Horner | Sep 9, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
(I posted this earlier today, but a hard drive failure on the server hosting my site washed it away. So apologies if it shows up twice. To make up, I’ve added two bonus errors!) We all make mistakes, but in this business, you need to work hard to keep the error...
by Sue Horner | Aug 27, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
If I have to write about another “enterprise-wide end-to-end process” or “methodology,” I may scream. The good thing is, in a home office, there are few in earshot to hear the noise. You’ll be glad to know I am working hard to not include...
by Sue Horner | Aug 20, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Is this a new HR term? I’m talking about “scrum” as a way of describing a manager (sorry, “leader,” as this particular client now calls the management level)/employee communications session. The old use of scrum relates to rugby....
by Sue Horner | Aug 19, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
You claim you’re trying to quit. You sneak off to furtively indulge in just one more. You check your pockets often to make sure you have your secret vice with you. In the old days (the Dark Ages, as my kids would say), you’d be a smoker. These days, you’ve...
by Sue Horner | Jul 29, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
A column in today’s Toronto Star had a great way of describing the liver’s function: “Almost all of the nutrients you eat have to pass through the the liver before moving to the heart for generalized distribution. Your liver decides what gets kept...
by Sue Horner | Mar 30, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
I’ve been playing with the grammar function in Word after a reminder from the Publication Coach, Daphne Gray-Grant. By paying attention to things like words per sentence (aim for an average of 14 or less), passive sentences (no more than 10%) and Flesch-Kincaid...
