A success story
The Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments (OBSI) is an organization that resolves financial disputes. Plain language has become, in their words, “the way we do things.” OBSI:
trained all their staff—we offered foundational and document- and skill-specific, training to give writers and reviewers tools
updated templates—this significantly shortened the length of documents and time to produce them and improved clarity
created consistency—they now have a one-page writing standard of principles and a style guide
streamlined the review process
Clearer letters in a fraction of the time
In a specialized and jargon-filled industry, their documents have become extraordinary examples of clarity. Consumers have responded to unfavourable letters by saying, “Thank you. You were the first person who helped me understand.”
Many of the major banks have now adopted OBSI’s approach to letter writing.
What costs can Wordsmith’s trainings save you?
Wasting time writing inefficiently and ineffectively can cost your organization money. Wordsmith has witnessed significant cost savings in its client’s businesses after training programs. Use the cost savings tool to project your organization’s potential gains.
What if you could cut organizational writing and reviewing time in half?
Our workshops give individuals tools to write twice as quickly in half the time. This builds skills, confidence, quality, and productivity.
You can multiply these same results across your whole organization. By reducing the time and cost of every document you produce, you free up time, money, and attention for other important work.
How Wordsmith writing courses have benefited our divisions
The resources Wordsmith provided, such as updated templates and checklists, helped PSC staff produce clearer, more concise documents, and contributed to more consistent and efficient processes across the department. We also saw an immediate reduction in style inconsistencies and common edits, which allows for a more productive use of reviewers’ time.
Specific highlights from my Executive Team included:
“I saw an immediate and lasting improvement in my branch and the PSC as a whole. Products became much more conversational and concise. The biggest benefit was that it gave people a sense of permission to leave extraneous details out. It definitely reduced the amount of time spent on reviews and revisions.”
- Lana Lougheed, Deputy Minister of the Public Service Commission
Latest blog posts
Why writing is a struggle… and how to fix it
What you’re likely accustomed to
Most people simply haven’t been given good tools for writing effectively at work. That can make writing feel like this:
Effort
Time
Page count
Stress
Frustration
Our workshops offer an alternative
Good writing is not rocket science. We teach a series of practical steps that give writers traction and lead to clear documents.
Ease
Clarity
Flow
Speed
Mastery
Effective workplace writing is
a series of practical principles
It often looks like something magical happened when you read a clear document.
In reality, you achieve this through a series of objective principles—that’s what we teach.
We think this City of Calgary sign is genius!