Business Communication Without the Bizspeak
Want to inspire your customers to buy, encourage your employees to work harder, or communicate with associates and peers? Learn how to write and speak effectively.
Probably five times a week, I’m asked to review somebody’s business communications. Probably four times a week, I have to hang my head and cry.
It’s not that it’s awful (OK, sometimes it is), but that it’s often so...well...corporate. For some reason when people sit down to write communications, they stop being human and start to sound like some kind of bizspeak-spouting android.
OK, if you’re a captain of industry, maybe you can hire a communications person to handle your writing chores and actually let them translate for you. But more likely you can’t.
So please (please, please, please) resolve that in 2011, you’re going to start speaking like a human being and not an MBA textbook.
To that end, here are some tips for writing (and thinking) like a human being:
1. Talk to people who want to hear
If you’re writing for customers, doesn’t it make sense to write in the way they communicate? So why are you sending them a mish-mash of corporate buzzwords when they really want to hear a simple what’s in it for them?
2. Why should they care?
What’s the purpose of this communication? And why should anybody listen? If you have an objective, you can communicate much more clearly. Want to sell something? Then say so. Cut out the bull. Nobody has time for it today.
3. Get in the facts
Some people write sparkling copy, or some version of it, but forget to put in essential information. People read for information, not to give a thumbs up or down on your writing prowess. So don’t skip the little stuff that’s important, like your address or your contact information.
4. Junk the jargon
Speak human, not robot. Every specialty group has its own jargon and it can be hard to avoid. Because I hang around with consultants, I occasionally lapse into consultant speak (i.e. “metrics-based management”) when I’m with non-consultants. The looks on their faces or their sharp retorts tell me instantly that I’ve been guilty of spewing jargon. Since we all do it, we have to try constantly to avoid insider jargon.
5. Eliminate the fuzz
Writing and speaking are really manifestations of thinking. So overuse of bizspeak usually means you haven’t really thought through what you want to say, or are trying to hide fuzzy thinking behind a blizzard of clichés. Can you say “stake in the ground” with a straight face if you’re not a miner? If so, you have a bizspeak addiction. Write it in bullet point form first.
6. It ain’t Shakespeare
“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day,” is romantic, but a more than a little unsuited for normal business conversation, which should tend toward the straightforward and efficient. Perhaps that’s why many people find more safety in delivering marketing messages instead of saying what they mean. There’s nothing wrong with dropping in an interesting word or two occasional to liven things up, but it’s unlikely you’ll match Shakespeare’s panache. Generally, you should strive to be clear.
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