Simplify Language

Course Description

Over 1,000 CU employees have participated in this training since 2022. Learn why simplifying communication is essential and deceptively complex.

Discuss when it matters, the impacts of language exclusion, and your audience's needs. When communicating, your audience may include donors, chancellors, or students and colleagues from diverse backgrounds. Effective communication is fundamental to collaboration, trust, and success.

In this interactive workshop, you will learn and practice 10 skills to improve spoken and written communication. Make changes that allow your audience to quickly and easily understand your website, emails, applications, presentations, job postings, and more. Learn actionable skills to make CU a more language inclusive place.

Learning Outcomes

  • Reduce text by 20-80% without impacting content or tone.
  • Better organize writing and improve readability.
  • Check for comprehension and shift the responsibility of understanding.
  • Choose words that are 100% clear and transparent for your audience.
  • Avoid words and phrases that don't translate well to other languages.
  • Improve sentence structure, lists, acronym use, and accessibility.

Testimonials

"I truly believe this particular training would benefit any/all employees who email or speak to other humans. Seriously. This was a very useful and comfortable session where you could easily get immediate feedback and grow your professional confidence."

"Trainings like this are one of the reasons I like my job."

"This training was incredible. It really shifted my way of thinking and I am excited to implement these tips to be a more effective communicator."

"I loved everything about this training! I consider myself a good writer, but I learned so much I can use in practice to improve even more."

"I learned that brevity is helpful to understanding, which builds trust and access. That simplifying does not mean dumbing down."

"I loved this training! My "word of the year" is "simplify" so this was perfect for me. I struggle with being concise, so this was great practice. The mix of breakout rooms, practice questions, and discussion kept me engaged for the full two hours—which is rare for me."

Who should attend

Anyone who communicates with people who prefer clear, brief communication. This training is beneficial to all communicators, and some of the content is essential for interacting with English learners.

Please be prepared to leave your camera on and to do activities in small groups.

Cost

There is no cost for this course.

Upcoming Sessions

Stay tuned! If you click the "Register" button and login to Percipio, you can select "Get notified when new classes are available."

Register

screenshot of Percipio registration page for Simplify Language. This shows where you can find the button "Get notified when new classes are added".

 

Contact Lee Shainis to request a custom Simplify Language training for your team.

CU Boulder main campus with leaves changing

I loved this training! My "word of the year" for 2023 is "simplify" so this was perfect for me. I learned great strategies for making communicating simpler for all involved. I struggle with being concise so this was great practice. I also really enjoyed hearing about diverse experiences from other participants and their struggles with language barriers. I also enjoyed the mix of breakout rooms, practice questions, discussion, etc. It is often a struggle for me to pay attention and stay truly engaged for a two-hour training, but I feel like the time flew by and I was genuinely interested throughout.

View of campus by Glenn A

This is the most engaged/invested/together I have ever seen my team at a meeting in 4.5 years. In the past 10 minutes, 4 people contacted me to express their thanks and appreciation. One wrote: "Lee was wonderful! truly was so beneficial. I honestly was dreading a 2-hour meeting and I felt it could have been longer. I'm so thankful we had it!"

tulips in the foreground with a fence and flatirons in the background

I like that the training was collaborative, inclusive, and simple. I learned a lot of valuable information. What stood out to me the most was learning the implications of overcommunicating and having email communication that isn't effective because it is too lengthy and hard to read. This causes your reader to either miss information or skip your email all together.