It’s St. Patty’s Day – are you wearing your green? With a name like Liz Kelly, you may not be surprised that we’d consider an Irish-themed blog post in honor of the occasion. In fact, I have even more reasons to celebrate than you might think – my husband has dual U.S. and Irish citizenship, and my mother’s birthday happens to be today, so needless to say, St. Patrick’s Day holds a little extra significance for me.
To help you celebrate, here’s a special edition of Favorite Words originating from the Irish language. You get bonus points if you can work one of these words into your conversation over a pint ... Read more »
Carol Bartz
It’s Women’s History Month, y’all, and since Brilliant Ink is both woman-owned and led, we thought it would be fun to mark the occasion by sharing our thoughts on some of the women who inspire us.
One of my favorite words is “moxie,” and there’s nothing I like more than a leader with a little bit of moxie and a no-nonsense style. When I think of those kinds of leaders, one person immediately pops to mind: Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz.
In preparation for some consulting work I did with Yahoo! last year, I did a little online reading about Bartz and was immediately impressed. For starters, she’s tough. She was diagnosed with ... Read more »
Finding a clear purpose that people can connect with on a human level is incredibly important.
As we work with our clients in developing communications strategies and messages to keep employees engaged in their jobs, we often find ourselves coming back to a common theme, regardless of the industry or project we are working on. That theme is meaningful purpose. It’s the answer to “why should I care about working here?”
Sure, people come to a job every day because they receive a paycheck, but it’s the purpose behind the job that keeps them coming back day after day, and it’s often the difference between an employee loving his job – or leaving it.
Finding a clear purpose that people can connect with on a human level is ... Read more »
With Valentine’s Day just behind us, it reminds me of how many of us “share the love” in the workplace – that is, through corporate recognition programs.
Over time, the simple act of saying thank you seems to have become rather complicated in the corporate workplace. There are big, yearlong recognition programs with points and websites and Caribbean cruises. There are different levels of recognition with certificates that can be redeemed for cash and prizes. While there are certainly benefits to these more formal programs, I think some of the best – and most effective – recognition programs are the simplest.
We recently helped a client with a peer-to-peer recognition program that ... Read more »
Everybody loves a good story. As a kid, I became obsessed with reading early on. In fact, one of my earliest memories is waking up before dawn to read to myself while the rest of my family was still sleeping. And while I don’t necessarily set the alarm clock to read these days, I can still get sucked into a book and the rest of the world fades away. When I was in graduate school, I read The Prince of Tides in one day. I started reading over a cup of coffee in my pajamas one morning – by the time I finished, it was nighttime and I was still ... Read more »
Are you still reading? Unfortunately, those opening words often cause readers’ eyes to glaze over.
This time of year, many companies are working on their annual reports, one important element of which is the “Dear Shareholder” letter. The purpose of this letter is to summarize the past year, highlight key milestones and preview what’s ahead. The challenge is to tell a story that is compelling, engaging and most importantly, inspires confidence in the organization. Not an easy task, but keeping a few important best practices in mind can greatly improve your “Dear Shareholder” letter:
Be concise – This seems to be a huge challenge for many companies. Yes, it’s tough to summarize ...
Read more »
What do pirates have to do with writing skills? Everything, if you’re an organization known as 826 Valencia. Founded by author Dave Eggers (one of my favorites) and educator Nínive Calegari in 2002, 826 Valencia is a San Francisco-based nonprofit that helps advance kids’ literacy skills by providing after school tutoring, workshops and writing-based field trips.
826 Valencia’s writing lab is located, appropriately enough, at 826 Valencia Street in San Francisco, and here’s where the pirates get involved: to access the lab, you enter through a pirate supply store. What does one find in such a store? Everything you’d need to be a working pirate, of course, like peg legs, ropes, ... Read more »
After a restful holiday break, everyone is back to work (hooray, I think). With that in mind, doesn’t it sometimes seem like Friday is taking forever to arrive? Here’s a little something that we usually do on Fridays to inspire you to finish the week strong – a bunch of our favorite words. As always, don’t hesitate to send us some of your favorite words in the comments section below. And don’t worry; Friday will be here before you know it!
@janni10
braggadocious – overly proud, bragging in excess
taciturn – inclined to silence
voluble – characterized by a ready and continuous flow of words, talkative
mephitic – offensive to the smell
vim ... Read more »
| Date: January 13, 2010 | Author: Janice Smith Collins | Category: Our Favorites |
“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language, and next year’s words await another voice.” – T.S. Eliot
Happy Friday and Happy New Year, y’all! Here’s to the words, language and voices of 2010.
@lizkelly
Read more »
Happy 2010! I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday season as much as I did. I got a few cool “word nerd” gifts for the holidays this year, and I thought it would be fun to share them with you. This probably would have been more helpful before the holidays, but maybe they can inspire some future gift ideas for your favorite word nerds (or just entertain you for a few minutes).
Poetry for Your Table
This desk toy lets you create “poems” by using blocks printed with various words. Check out one of my very first tabletop poems above – and yes, I know it’s not very good. There’s a reason I’m not ... Read more »
