I wrote 19 football articles the past half year.

I have 3 things I learned through it, useful in my work. And yours, if you’re in anything that involves telling people about your work.

1. Commitment

After game 1, I decided to write about every game I’d be in. 19 games later, that’s what I did.

It wasn’t always the first thing I wanted to do that weekend. It wasn’t always the easiest, most enjoyable writing.

But I committed, so I sat down, opened the computer, put down some basics about the match, then typed and re-typed and hit Send.

This week, I did exactly that, if not about football.

I didn’t feel the energy to write about our training last week. But I sat down, opened the computer…

Telling people about our work is one of the most important parts of it.

It’s about why we do it, how we do it.

It’s about showing what people and organisations do for inclusion.

We must use every opportunity we get.

2. Opportunity

Writing about football is kind of easy because the game’s every weekend. But in our work, what are we supposed to write about all the time?

Events (organised, attended) are an obvious opportunity. That’s why so many posts and articles are about being there (“Today we are happy to be at…”).

What’s interesting to the audience, I think, is to talk about the topics discussed, to share what you learned, to add relevant quotes and useful resources.

It’s an opportunity to remind people of your key messages.

3. Structure

It helps that a football match has a start and a finish, two halves (usually), and a result. All there’s to do is put this on a page.

What structure can I use writing about work?

I think it’s about the key message, about people, and about offering the audience something they may have not seen yet and could find useful.

This means:

• some facts from our work (Inclusion indicators findings about situation of people with intellectual disabilities and families),
• some quotes (from speaker, audience),
• and some examples and links to what others do (reports, programs, services…).

Plus, it’s good to show personality.

The writer’s a human. The audience are humans.

A human touch to a serious issue is something that’ll help us understand what it’s all about, to connect to it.

Show some personality, with your own thoughts on the subject, or with a specific way of writing, a turn of phrase you like.

But why all this, you may ask

Because it helps you, it helps your readers, and it helps the cause.

It helps you to express things in different ways, to hammer home a key point or two.

It helps your audience to understand the work you do, to get closer to the game, see it from a different angle.

It helps the cause because people learn about it and because they can feel a connection to it. It builds a community. It gets your support going.

And with these tortured football references, I think let’s end it here.

See you at the next game