The Environment Agency
The Environment Agency appointed Emphasis Training in September 2003, following a UK-wide review of its training. The organisation, which employs about 11 thousand people throughout England and Wales, wanted to create a national training programme that would be consistent across all its regions and available to all staff, and that would support its new brand values: reasoned, active, vibrant and confident.
The main challenge for Emphasis was to bring about a culture change in people’s approach to writing – inspiring and helping them to write to reflect these brand values in order to transform the Environment Agency from a faceless bureaucracy to an approachable and customer-facing organisation.
Elaine O’Donnell, Strategic Communications Development Manager, explains: ‘Staff didn’t always see written communications as a means of building our identity as an organisation. And even if they did, they either thought writing was someone else’s job or were convinced their writing was fine. Since Emphasis began their writing training programme, people have become much more aware that writing really does matter. On a personal level, they have been keen to put into practice the skills they have learned on the courses to make their writing clearer and more confident. And as an organisation, we are really starting to harness the power of good writing in order to get our message across effectively and reposition the Environment Agency as a vibrant and active organisation.’
The training programme
Emphasis has created a progressive programme of training courses for the Environment Agency, including:
High-impact writing – offered to all staff at any level of the organisation. It includes an overview of how to: structure documents; build a persuasive argument; use language effectively; and make technical subjects more accessible without dumbing down. It also showed them how to make their email, punctuation and grammar more effective.
Writing skills masterclass – for staff who regularly have to do large amounts of writing, particularly reports or other documents with high external visibility. This included more advanced skills on persuading, making recommendations and delivering core messages to maximise the impact of crucial written documents.
Leading your team’s written voice – developed for senior people within the organisation who need to guide their own staff on how to write.
Emphasis has also trained a number of ‘writing champions’ across the The Environment Agency to run short courses on basic writing skills and the importance of using clear and concise language.
A real difference
Six years on and the initiative is clearly making a real difference. More than 3500 people have taken part in the programme so far, and Elaine says that people from across the organisation have really benefited.
An internal Environment Agency telephone survey of delegates who attended courses in June 2005 found that all were applying the new or refreshed techniques to their work as a result of the programme. More than nine out of ten (93%) rated the programme as good or above, and almost two thirds (60%) rated it as very good or excellent.
The following were rated as the best aspects of the training:
- Small groups and interactive format
- Pre-course analysis of personal writing style
- Quality of the trainer and the relaxed, informal atmosphere
- Links to Environment Agency writing style guide
- Wide range of useful topics covered and interesting exercises.
Comments included:
- ‘It gave me a totally different way of thinking.’
- ‘Practical and interactive. Helped me write with more impact.’
- ‘The relaxed atmosphere made for a good working environment.’
- ‘The informal style really got us talking.’
- ‘The trainer was brilliant – short bursts of practice and lots of interaction.’
- ‘Excellent course. The whole syllabus will help all parts of my work.’
- ‘Delivered in a professional, enthusiastic but fun manner.’
What’s changed?
‘Not only have the Emphasis courses improved our written communications – making them clearer and more accessible – but they are also changing staff’s mindsets,’ Elaine explains. ‘People who have been on an Emphasis course have really grasped the importance of good writing and have been motivated to take action to change how they write. Regional directors have recommended the course to their regional managers who have, in turn, put their whole teams forward for high-impact writing training. We now have a situation where making our writing style clearer and more accessible is at the top of the corporate agenda and every Emphasis course is oversubscribed.’