Spinning Clock
Spinning Clock is a small design and events management agency, providing digital media and interactive exhibition stands for clients such as the Department of Health and Trinity Mirror Group.
The problem
With cutting-edge creative work as its remit, staff at Spinning Clock range from graphic designers and animators to computer programmers and event planners. Everyone has direct email access to clients so the company needed to make sure their writing was consistent.
“We found that some people were good at sending concise emails, but not at grammar and spelling. Others were good at grammar and spelling but didn’t know how to get their message across clearly. People were doing things in different ways and there was too much variety in our written communication,” explains Don Turner, Managing Director.
What Emphasis did
Emphasis trained the team in two groups to make sure everyone learnt the precise skills they needed to transform their written work. The course for the creative team and administrators focused on grammar, punctuation and proofreading, with tips on planning, structure and readability. The remaining staff – including directors – attended a high-impact business-writing course, where they learned and applied specific techniques for writing proposals, reports, letters and executive summaries.
Emphasis trained the team in two groups to make sure everyone learnt the precise skills they needed to transform their written work. The course for the creative team and administrators focused on grammar, punctuation and proofreading, with tips on planning, structure and readability. The remaining staff – including directors – attended a high-impact business-writing course, where they learned and applied specific techniques for writing proposals, reports, letters and executive summaries.
The benefits
Spinning Clock now understands what effective communication is.
“The main benefit is that we feel more confident about our writing skills. We now have a much clearer idea of what our clients are looking to get from us,” says Don.
The training also caused a shift in the way the company approaches the tender process.
“I thought proposals had to be 30 pages long to show…you’d put the effort in. But it was the wrong approach. A proposal should only be 30 pages if every page is concise and has a clear point,” confirms Don.
What the attendees said
The trainees appreciated the Emphasis training style: informal yet supportive.
“It was an interesting and engaging take on what could have been a very dry subject matter,” explains attendee Mark Osborne.
And the training has given Spinning Clock a set of practical writing tools and techniques.
“The approach I take now with my writing is to imagine that I’m talking to a friend. Using this strategy means that I don’t include ‘business speak’ or marketing strategy in my writing. Then I improve on what I’ve written and make each point even better,” says Don.
The lasting effects
Writing at Spinning Clock has become more consistent. And the quality of their written work continues to improve, with tangible benefits such as winning the Change4Life contract – a nationwide campaign to encourage people to eat healthily and exercise more. All new members of staff now take part in the training course.
“We also loved the Emphasis in-house style guide, The Write Stuff, and are considering having it personalised for our organisation. The next thing we need is a house style, down to the layout and font that we use for our emails and other documents,” says Don.