Tag Archives: corporate speak

Writing elsewhere

While we continue to pay daily tribute to International PEN’s 50 imprisoned writers through 26:50, I find myself constantly trying to imagine how they managed to write; where they found and concealed their materials, how they avoided the scrutiny of … Continue reading

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Good Friday

Today seems like a good day to write about persecution. Trying to imagine the agony of crucifixion, of nails through palms and feet, of torn flesh and muscle, of gradual dislocation as the legs start to give way and the … Continue reading

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The rhythm of life

We start our Dark Angels courses with a simple but illuminating exercise. We ask everyone present to name a favourite word. The resulting list allows us to make the point that we have a relationship with words that goes well … Continue reading

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50 words for 50 days

My fellow Dark Angel, John Simmons, responded to my last week’s post by adding ‘the pretence of objectivity’ to the list of ingredients that I suggested might be swilling around in the toxic soup called management speak – or Manglish … Continue reading

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In the beginning … (part two)

Last week I mentioned the opening of St John’s Gospel: In the beginning was the word … I didn’t have the space to add the perennial writer’s question: But which words should I begin with? It’s one that business writers, … Continue reading

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In the beginning …

A friend sent me an article from a recent edition of the Harvard Journal of Management, not my normal bedtime reading. It reports how a group of scholars and business leaders came together to consider the great challenges involved in … Continue reading

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Human capital

I’m a latecomer to the superbly written White House drama series, The West Wing. In the first series, the deputy chief of staff meets with a black senator who wants the government to start making reparation for slavery. As their … Continue reading

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Murder by process

“Viola Tors wanted more community involvement, public hearings, more transparency, a poll, an environmental impact study …She was a killer of wonderful ideas and like so many murderers, she used procedure as a weapon.” Viola Tors features in Liberty, the … Continue reading

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Welcome to my blog

  I’ve called it A Few Kind Words because that’s the title of a talk I gave recently to a group of HR directors. Paradoxically, it’s HR people who are often the unkindest of all in the way they use … Continue reading

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