In one of his books, John Simmons (writer, brand expert and much more) recounts a wonderful story. I’m going to paraphrase the story here (appologies, John, if I get anything wrong):

John had just finished his book Great Brand Stories: Innocent, and emailed one of the founders of Innocent Drinks to let him know everything was done. John received a reply that said something like: “well done, it’s a beautiful day, you should go to the park to celebrate”. So John sent back an email that looked something like this:

Subject: Out of office reply.

John Simmons is not in the office. He’s in the park enjoying the beautiful day.

This story made me think. Are we missing a trick on our out of office replies? Surely, this is a good place to build closer relationships with clients and suppliers. Explaining what you are doing could be the starting point of a friendly dialogue when you get back. It would certainly add a little more personality to your communications - and as we often only ever meet each other over email, extra depth is something we could often use in our work relationships.

Obviously, in some cases, details can be less than helpful. It may not be a good idea to write: “I’m not in the office today. I’m in court facing charges of shoplifting.”

But “I’m skiing in Norway for four days. Barring accidents, I’ll be back in the office on Friday and will get back to you then.” is a nice thing for people to read. We all take holidays, go to children’s birthday parties, travel on business. And it may be nice to share this information with clients.

So, I’m going to try it. I’m out of the office until next Tuesday. Send me an email - and you’ll find out what I’m up to. And of course, I’ll get back to you next week.

After four years in Denmark I’d come to a very definite conclusion: Danes swear. A lot. In English. At the most inopportune moments.

Don’t get me wrong. I swear like a trooper. But there’s a time and a place for it. In Denmark, you can be confronted by an English taboo word at any moment. In business meetings, surrounded by families at the Tivoli aquarium, on huge billboard posters. It can be embarrassing - and it nearly always makes me cringe.

(We’ve already written about the topic: check out David’s post on a Danish pop song, or this WordSpin article on a certain alcopop campaign.)

So, one thing I was looking forward to when I moved to Norway was being able to relax without worrying about when the next unsuitable swear word would come out. The Norwegians almost never swear in English. If they do, it’s always to stress a point and never in a business meeting. All was going well. Until I visited Stavanger. There I saw the f word proudly splashed on a shop sign. (I’m not going to show a picture of the sign on this site, but if you want to see it you can.)

The sentiment is similar to this one (also spotted in Stavanger)…

So what is it with the people in Stavanger? Why is it, as soon as you go to the west of Norway, they start getting offensive in the shop windows?

There are two really good reasons to check out this YouTube video.

Firstly, it reveals that Denmark is the happiest place on Earth. Blue Zones has surveyed hundreds of thousands of people around the world and it seems that Danes are just really happy - not just at the time of asking, but with life in general. Which, if you live in Denmark, may be enough to make you forget about the weather for a while.

Secondly, it’s a great example of comments becoming more interesting than the piece they are commenting on. When I checked, 106 comments had been left - and the debate is raging as to why Danes are so happy, and whether they really should be. It’s fascinating reading. But be warned: not everyone is happy for the Danes…

What do Shakespeare and big businesses have in common? ‘Tis the ability to use beautiful metaphors to capture the audience’s heart and mind, of course.

Check out this great article about using metaphors to make your business communications as irresistible as a ______ (fill in the blank with something you find irresistible). I loved the point about remembering that even if you’re speaking to one individual, you’re always communicating with two different “people”: the right brain and the left brain.

When our clients ask us to work on concepts for, say, new ad campaigns, we work hard to come up with something that captures the heart and the mind. How can you capture the heart with a new IT system, you ask? By appealing to the listener’s emotional side - particularly by creating a mental image they can relate to and be pleasantly surprised by.

We all have it in us. It’s just a matter of training that creative muscle - and knowing when to use it.

I saw this sign on the Metro and have come to the conclusion that it’s a classic example of bad writing.

“There may be camera surveillance on all Metro trains…” is about as vague as it gets. Either there is camera surveillance on all trains or there isn’t. Without being able to understand the Danish version, I’m guessing that the issue is all. There may be camera surveillance on some Metro trains… makes sense.

But the problem could also be with the modal verb may. In which case, the sentence could read: There is camera surveillance on all Metro trains… .

This is an example of good intentions going to waste because of poor execution. While us non-Danish speakers appreciate the effort put in to giving us information in English, the effort is pointless if the English version isn’t checked for accuracy (and sense).

And it’s a lesson for all writers, whether writing in English or any other language. The written word is fixed and the reader rarely has a chance to double-check the meaning. So you have to be 100% clear in what you write…and the reader must be left in no doubt. For me, this is the number 1 golden rule and it is more important than style, tone of voice or conciseness. Because if the reader doesn’t understand, you’ve failed in your main goal.

So what’s the best way to ensure your writing is clear? Ask someone else to read it - because although it may make sense you, it may not be clear to the reader.

But back to the Metro. There is one more possibility. It’s possible that the Metro authorities don’t know if there is camera surveillance on all trains or not - in which case, they’d be better off not writing anything.

Merriam-Webster has just announced its word of the year. The word is w00t. I guess this reflects the huge influence the Internet is having on our use of language, a tendency that we often discuss on this blog.

Check out the announcement and see the top 10 words.

Watching my ten-year-old son grow up is an amazing thing in itself - and is a source of constant fun, surprises and challenges. A topic of intense discussion in our house over the last year or more has been his fascination with his mobile phone. If you’re a parent, I bet you know what I mean!

Kids’ mobile skills are pretty impressive, to say the least. For one thing, their finger and thumb dexterity is streets ahead of mine!

Over the last few months, I’ve realized that this fascination with mobiles - and for that matter, other communications technologies - has significant benefits to multi-lingual families such as ours. That is, it’s a perfect opportunity for our kids to learn how to read and write in English! Brilliant.

I guess it’s stating the obvious. But, in my situation, where my son is not in the slightest challenged by the rudimentary English taught at Danish ‘folkeskole’ - here’s an opportunity to expose him to real and proper English. I take every opportunity to chat online, write texts and write emails. His English reading is improving, as is his comprehension and vocabulary. And we’re connecting in my own language, which is highly satisfying for me.

Have you noticed a difference in your kids’ communications skills as a result of mobiles, chats, emails and the like?

About a week ago, I had BBC TV on in the background as I was getting ready for work. From my bedroom, I heard a woman’s concerned, energetic voice say something like, ”In Germany, things aren’t looking too good – and it’s not clear what will happen over the next few days.”

The phrase has stuck with me. Not because it’s particularly clever or exciting, but because it reminded me of something I typically encounter when I try to understand Danish. Not speak it, because when I (try to) speak it, I generally know what I’m talking about. But understand it, because then, I often have no idea what we’re talking about – which leads to some pretty entertaining misinterpretations.

When you’re learning a new language and have a half-baked vocabulary, context is everything. If I know the discussion is about cars, I can follow. If not, I can just as well think that ”speed”, ”comfort” and ”prices” are still referring to the previous conversation about Søren’s cruise on the Rhine. And it can be a good 5-10 minutes before I find out that I’m on the entirely wrong track.

So what was the BBC anchor talking about? The weather? Or a national strike? It would take a bit more time in front of the TV to figure it out – and I just didn’t have that time.

The same goes for all communication. I often encounter brochures and web texts that go on and on about saving you time and money, or speeding up operations, or enhancing employee morale – you get the picture. This goes on for paragraphs. And I sit there, waiting for the punchline: ”We make remote-controlled robots” or ”We specialize in business to business advertising.”

Sometimes, companies forget the importance of context. They know who they are, so they assume others do too. But without an anchor point, you just can’t expect audiences to guess your message correctly – so it’s best to just set them straight right from the start with something like, “And now, back to Germany, where the strikers don’t seem to be stopping any time soon…”

Have you ever let your imagination run in the wrong direction because of a lack of context? I’d love to hear about it.

I was sitting on the toilet at the office this morning and couldn’t help but notice the text on the packet of toilet paper beside me. Apparently, the toilet paper we use at work is T4 System. This is what is says on the pack:

Toilet Paper
Roll
T4 System

T4 System? This sounds pretty fancy, huh? Perhaps some amazing technology or cutting-edge new way of creating extra strength and absorbtion? No, it turns out that the T4 System decribes:

1. The number of sheets
2. The length of the roll
3. The height of the roll
4. The fact that it’s two ply

The T4 System? Isn’t good enough to simply write toilet paper and leave it at that?

Last week I did something that I hadn’t done since I was 12 years old: I started to write a diary. I don’t really know why I decided to start one. Perhaps my move to Copenhagen this year has given me more of an observational outlook on things.

The tapping on my computer at home is a far cry from the scribbles and crossings out in a scruffy little exercise book. And my thoughts today are certainly different to the undoubtedly enthralling revelations entitled ’What I did during my school holidays’.

The interesting thing I’ve noticed since starting my new journal, is how my writing has changed from the first entry to the most recent. The very first paragraphs are a little bit formal, the day’s activities are chronicled, and there’s not much humour. After just one week, I’m less careful around grammar, punctuation and spelling - and I’m more inclined to make fun of myself. But there’s a more natural flow to the text. Re-reading stuff from the past two days actually made me laugh out loud.

And then it occured to me: my ‘writing muscle’ had been out of shape. Of course, working for Eye for Image, you can’t avoid writing. As well as creating things from scratch, there’s editing client work and emails about this and that. But personal feelings? No way.

The hour or so spent just typing away each night has really helped me to get my thoughts out on screen. And the fact that they are not organised in neat little paragraphs with headings and bullet points didn’t matter one bit.

But has it helped me with my work? Well, when emailing clients and colleagues I no longer deliberate quite so much over which words to use, or think twice because what I’ve written is a bit ‘cheeky’. I no longer have the fear of revealing my personality through my written communication, even though it is in some way permanent. Quite often, instead of pressing the ‘delete’ button, I’ll just press ’send’.

So my advice to all writers out there sitting on their big fat writing muscles who might be going through a phase of being too frightened to commit words on screen: start a diary. It’ll help you express things in a way that might be refreshingly different!

Why not check out this impressive list of diarists for inspiration?