What Do You Mean?

Over the past few weeks I’ve had the interesting experience of ploughing through a whole bunch of paperwork required by the Government for a large project I’ve been working on.  It could have been so much easier if only the "intellectuals" had not gotten in the way.

They've asked me to produce an evidence matrix, compare competencies, design clustering matrices, contextualise benchmarks, use formative and summative criteria, utilise supportive and confirming language to secure prospect commitment, and my personal favourite, communicate effectively.

It might, at first glance, look like a very clever person wrote all this stuff, but when you start to read it, you quickly come to the realisation that the person who wrote all of this indecipherable gobbledegook is a complete idiot. You need to translate it before you even begin. The language seems to come between the reader and the message.   

Sure, they can use all those ten dollar words they found using the thesaurus in their word processing programme, but unless the person they’re trying to impress also has a degree in gobbledegook, they’re just not going to get the message across. It’s a bit like reading a foreign language you don’t speak then trying to remember the translation while you assimilate the gist of the message.  If delivering the message is the point, using all those impossible words is really not so clever after all.  

How many people do you know who use contextualise in everyday conversation?  Forget trying to impress people with big words and imposing sounding phrases.  They’re more likely to be impressed if they can actually understand what you’re trying to tell them. You’re far better off speaking the same language they speak. If your aim is to get people to listen to you, why make it harder for them by making them translate everything you say? Forget the ten dollar words and stick to the small change. Everybody will understand you and that’s really what it’s all about.

Just in case you were wondering, “utilise supportive and confirming language to secure prospect commitment” actually means “close the sale.”