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"The Wall Street Journal, " March 1, 2005
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Unless a businessperson gets cornered into speaking directly to live people-say English teachers bearing assault rifles-we know what to expect: an indigestible main course of catchphrases and endless prose, with not a lot of substance for dessert. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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The irony is that business people speak like idiots because they want others to think they are intellectual giants. They throw in all kinds of big words, engage in self-congratulatory nonsense, faithfully adhere to CYA principles, and basically try to impress their audiences with their incredible intellect. They walk away from the podium feeling as if they really poured it on, while the audience walks out (after waking up) taking nothing the speaker said with them.
The authors identify four traps that cripple the effectiveness of business communication: the Obscurity Trap, the Anonymity Trap, the Hard-Sell Trap, and the Tedium Trap. They make very valid points about each one. Obscurity comes from the desire to show everyone how smart you are. Even the simplest concept must have the fanciest of names, and the result is mindless jargon, meaningless phrases, and an alphabet soup of acronyms. It's the ability to say nothing in as many words (especially big words) as possible. Anonymity seems to be bred within the corporate environment, making business people little more than invisible cogs in the great business machine. You're not supposed to think for yourself, do anything the slightest bit out of the ordinary, and heaven forbid you should actually have a personality and let even a tiny bit of it show in your work. The hard-sell is almost the equivalent of lying. This creates the used car salesmen of the business world. Ideas and proposals are promoted as if they were heavenly edicts; the product is nothing short of perfect, even better than perfect, and any potential or known problems are swept under the rug. People see through the hard-sell; if your business is on the brink of bankruptcy, a big speech about how well everyone is weathering the storm inspires only negative reactions. Tedium comes from an ingrained fear business people have of putting something of themselves into their presentations. Speakers tell audiences what they want to tell them; they don't consider what the audience itself wants or needs to hear, and in this PC world of today, people are so afraid of offending someone that they would rather drown their audiences in monotonous drivel than to inject anything spontaneous or remotely interesting into their speeches or writings.
I think it is true that the authors sometimes go a little too far in terms of their advice and suggestions, but their real point is delivered in a wonderfully effective manner. It all boils down to being yourself; you should be the same person at work that you are on the weekends. Put something of yourself in your work, allow for spontaneity and flexibility in your business speaking and writing, engage your audience by showing them you are actually a human being just like them, be honest about problems and take responsibility for identifying and correcting them, etc. The book is just chock full of extremely helpful advice, and I think anyone - not just professional-types - can benefit immensely from reading this entertaining, extremely helpful little book.
Fugere, Hardaway, Warshawsky are three consultants, "addicts" if you will, who have decided to get off the jargon-riddled bandwagon. They detail how generic corporate atmospheres have mutated business from one of communication and meaning to one of faux intellectual elitism. Those deriding this seemingly overwhelming problem have found that speaking to the masses is much easier when one tries NOT to speak Greek.
The three authors, in an effort to spread the word virally, have created a software program called, appropriately, Bullfighter. The purpose of the program is to scour MS Word and PowerPoint documents to rid them of "jargon-mania."
Every profession creates its own jargon so insiders can discuss their livelihoods in a form of esoteric shorthand. However, jargon becomes a problem when it is used to lord over others or make them feel inferior, Warshawsky said.
The authors have studied the reception to their concept by setting up shop in an ever-busy Starbucks to take a simple survey. They showed patrons one of two actual company writing samples: one was jargon-less, while the other was the typical junk-filled jargon-based smoke and mirrors. The authors asked the patrons to assign adjectives to each communiqué. The jargon-laden sample consistently earned words like "rude and obnoxious" while the clearly written one was called "energetic" and "friendly." 'Nuff said.
In sum, this book cuts directly to the chase of the confusing, mind-numbing rhetoric, and offers an alternative. As one who reads legal and financial documents for a living, this book fits the bill, and none too soon. If you read these types of documents in your work or are just tired of the insanity of double-speak, pick this book up and read it.
Highly recommended.
BUSINESS-DOUBLESPEAK:
"The historical trends have led me to conclude that by doubling or even tripling our efforts of efficiency on the domestic front, it will yield a new entity of massive synergistic proportions. I therefore wish to present to you this exhibit (a composite of metallic and mineral elements) acquired from licensed retail channels as a symbol of our new alliance. Your acceptance of this strategy would launch a series of initiatives culminating in an event that would be in compliance with local and national authorities and internationally recognized by virtually all foreign governments. Your prompt feedback in this matter is in the best interests of all stakeholders."
PLAINTALK:
"Will you marry me?"
If you think the above example is absurd, think again because it's exactly how lots of business people write their emails, PowerPoints, and reports. It's also how graduate students write their research papers. It's also how lawyers write their legal briefs.
Ironically, I think the very people this book could help are the same people that don't recognize they have a problem.
For those people that already write in a plain concise style, this book is a very entertaining review of business writing nonsense. Sadly, genuine people thinking hard about real solutions to problems are outnumbered by pretenders just blowing smoke.
Listmania!
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