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| Opportunities & Exposures: Industry |
Wise to the Words
Chelsea Hardaway and Jon Warshawsky
07/01/2005
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Son, it is imperative that you optimize your newspaper delivery methodology to
maximize its value-add and generate significant cash reserves, which you can
then earmark for the bicycle procurement initiative.
Imagine if we used our workplace voice to tell our kids about the real world.
They would think us even bigger idiots than they already do. In fact, it would
be impossible to get them to do anything. Yet this is the way many business
leaders communicate with employees, customers and shareholders. From bloated
jargon and monotonous memos, to syrupy slogans and deadly dull presentations,
bull has become the language of business.
A quick glance through the bulging Unread Deleted Items folder of our email box
confirms this: “Total Value Initiative” reads one subject line. “Enterprise
Realignment,” another one cheers.
Of course, there are reasons we talk the way we do. Fear of litigation inspires
a shield of disclaimers, caveats and legalese. Fear that internal documents will
wind up in the hands of a journalist (or posted on the Internet) inspires an
impersonal corporate drone that is long on generic language and short on
specifics.
The main reason we talk this way, however, is that we learn to do it in business
school, and then we become immersed in a corporate culture that reinforces it.
Yet there are companies large and small—Google, Apple, Amazon.com, Flickr and
Berkshire Hathaway, to name a few—that manage to avoid all this pressure and
instead speak with a voice that is candid, loaded with personality and sprinkled
with humor. People listen when the message is clear, while bull-laden language
only turns them off and makes them want to tune out.
Speaking bull is not an easy habit to break, but we have seen it done. It starts
with hearing ourselves from the listener’s perspective. Consider, for example,
these common traps that ensnare well-meaning leaders on a daily basis:
The Obscurity Trap
This is the kind of synergistic, customer-centric, out-of-the-box, best-of-breed
thought leadership that will help our clients track to true north. Let’s fly
this up the flagpole and see where the pushback is.
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