It's not often I see a video that exemplifies my philosophy of clarifying, simplifying and engaging employees; but my colleague Allison Jones at the City of Hamilton has done just that. Based on an idea she got from a City of New Market communications video called Glow, she put together a video that sends a clear, simple and engaging message to employees at Community Services: what they do makes a difference, one starfish at a time. Since the production, the City Manager decided to use it when he presented the Strategic Plan to Council to illustrate the good work the City does. See it for yourself.
Clarifying is not the same as explaining. Let me explain. No, wait: let me clarify that...which is it? When I hear the word 'explain', I envision multiple paragraphs of additional text that may not be necessary. Whereas the word 'clarify' evokes a beautiful landscape of writing where every word means something and no word can be left out. In the meantime, yes, 'clarify' and 'explain' are synonyms, which means they are similar, not exactly alike. In the context of writing well and writing to engage, I recommend clarity over too much explanation; perhaps that's a better way to put it. If anyone needs me to clarify that, let me know.
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