Meet the Dark Angels who’re taking firms on the path to enlightenment

We are high in the mountains of Spain’s Sierra de Aracena national park, 100km from Seville, amid scents of olive, orange and fig trees.

If business people cannot unleash their creativity, free from the constraints of work, family and routine, the participants at courses here are given space to explore how to use language to improve business communications.

The workshops are the brainchild of John Simmons, co-founder of Dark Angels who left his position as a director at global branding consortium Interbrand in 2003 to pursue a career in writing and training. A meeting with Edinburgh-based Stuart Delves led to the first residential course in Devon, where it was clear to Mr Simmons that there was a real demand for creative writing skills in a business context. In 2005, with a second course in the pipeline, Scottish writer Jamie Jauncey stepped in to complete the Dark Angels triumvirate.

Mr Simmons and Mr Jauncey are leading the course at Finca El Tornero de Abajo. It’s an environment conducive to breathing, eating and dreaming ideas and words. But while the atmosphere is relaxed, the writing exercises are the mental equivalent of tightrope walking.

Mr Jauncey says that language has once again returned to the foreground. “We live in an age where big brands are looking for an emotional connection with their customers. It’s not just that the customer likes the product but connects personally with something the product represents and you can’t do that with just imagery. You do need language to get a warm human connection.

“Stuart, John and I feel so much of the communication that goes on in the business world is inhuman and inhumane and that if you’re communicating in an impersonal, distancing way, you stand less good chance of getting anyone to listen to what you have to say.”

Mr Simmons adds that the more seriously companies think about brands, the more they have to go into language. “When I worked at Interbrand I started asking people: ‘How do brands communicate if they don’t use words?’ A question that made a lot of people in that world shuffle their feet in embarrassment as they hadn’t been asking that question. We can’t do anything if we don’t use words.”

One of the most thought-provoking exercises Simmons sets the group is to write a six-word story. This is inspired by Hemingway’s response when challenged to write an extremely short story – ‘For Sale: baby shoes, never worn’. The less is more message is one Fiona McLean is keen to take to her job as head of corporate communications with educational computers and software suppliers RM.

“I’m trying to encourage my colleagues to write less, it doesn’t need to be War and Peace but they’re not good at deciding what to tell people so they tell them everything. Businesses don’t give enough credence to writing, you’re trained to sell/service/install a product but they don’t tell you how to talk or write.”

This approach struck a chord with Zoe van Zwanenberg, chair of Scottish Ballet who set up Zwan Consulting. “So often you go back and look at reports you’ve written and think: what a lot of baloney. It’s about capturing the essence of something in a short period of time along with the discipline of making a decision as to what the focus is and how to get the message across quickly.”

Simmons sees many companies who maintain their people are their greatest asset but “treat them like s***’. “You really have to draw people and their creativity out as there is an unwritten contract at work that goes beyond the legal contract you sign which says: ‘You come and work for us and we’ll do our best for you as well.’ There are enlightened brands and employers who genuinely believe that and are looking at ways to follow through on that implied, if not openly stated, promise and language is an important part of that.”

Mr Jauncey says: “It’s very difficult to start looking at the language you use without looking at yourself and asking ‘am I respectful? Am I truthful?’ Once you open that door it’s rather hard to shut it again as it starts to permeate how you write, and how you communicate.”

This is true for those attending this Dark Angels course. Many participants feel the need to continue and ask: ‘What next?’ The advanced course started after those on the basic and foundation courses asked this question and there is now a masterclass, too.

Despite the Dark Angels spreading their wings further, it’s likely that ‘What next?’ will be a continuing refrain from those keen to develop their creative language and writing skills.