Blog - Business Writing Advice

Clear Writing for a Complex World: Bridging the Complexity Gap

Our clients wrote a new tag line for us a few years ago: “Clear writing for a complex world.” They foresaw a trend that is spinning all of us ever more quickly out of control—today's world is more complicated than ever. With globalization, increased interconnectivity, and new technologies constantly changing how businesses operate, one pillar of business success must hold fast: clear, actionable communications.

IBM recently released its fourth Global Chief Executive Officer Study. The results are in—CEOs from over 1,500 companies worldwide report that complexity is the number-one challenge they expect to face in the years ahead. IBM identified a large gap between CEOs who named complexity as the biggest challenge and those who felt prepared to face it: “the complexity gap.”

So, what does it take to beat the complexity gap and stand out in a complex world? IBM reports that CEOs of successful “standout organizations” are turning complexity to their advantage by

• reinventing customer relationships
• building operating dexterity
• embodying creative leadership.

At Better Communications, our focus is on reinventing customer relationships through good writing. Good writing is, in fact, one of the best ways to help companies move forward and face the complexity gap head-on. Today, customers have more options than ever before. Given new suites of technologies, changing business models, and increasingly crowded markets, it is more important than ever to connect with clients and customers.

If you're looking to reinvent relationships, focus on your communications with the customer. Put yourself in the customer's place—what would be most helpful to you if you were the customer? Whether you're writing e-mails, executive summaries, or reports, the following principles always apply:

• Use informative subject headings.
• Highlight important information with bullet points.
• Tell the customers what you can do for them.
• Use a friendly tone that puts the customer at ease.
• Include only necessary information.
• Edit for correct grammar and punctuation.

If you always use the strategies above, your customers and clients will better understand your proposals, respond to your e-mail more quickly, and experience greatly enhanced levels of satisfaction.

Remember, it's a complex world! The people you work with will appreciate everything you do to help simplify it.

Download the IBM Study (http://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/ceo/ceostudy2010/index.html) or preview our Business Writing Solutions (http://www.bettercom.com/business-writing-courses/).

Executive Summaries: How to say it all in one or two pages

Nothing challenges our analytical skills more than attempting to distill a report, proposal or presentation into a compelling executive summary. Many times all our ideas seem vital and equally important. We invest time fleshing out every concept and persuasive point until the document hangs strategically together, and then we have to reverse the process and capture its essence into one or two pages. Not easy!

What is the best way to make sure you hit the mark every time? You can avoid the nagging voice of your internal critic if you use a planning tool that guides you through the process. While not every question will apply, the process below will give you a strong framework for an executive summary.

First answer these questions:

1. What is the situation, challenge, or opportunity?
2. What is your key message?
3. What are the benefits of your offering to your audience? Include logical and emotional reasons to buy or agree.
4. What is the cost? The ROI?
5. Why choose you over the competition? Or, why go with your alternative over another?
6. How can you make it happen?
7. How will you measure success?
8. What other points do you want to include in your executive summary?

1. After you write your answers to each question, select the sections that most strongly support your key message. Your executive summary needs to stand alone and sell your point of view-you may not be there to present it.

2. Once you select your priority sections or answers, write specific headlines for each section. Here is an example of a generic headline rewritten to tell a more detailed story:

General: Recommendation

Specific: Convert from the current manual system to a custom-designed digital imaging system.

Your reader should be able to get the essence of your proposal or recommendation just by reading the headlines.

3. Write one or two short paragraphs that support one of your headlines.

4. Repeat this process for each headline. Don't be tempted to add new information that is not already in your document.

5. Sequence your executive summary to match your presentation or proposal's sequence.

6. Resist editing until you have a complete draft.

7. Take a break and come back to it with fresh eyes for the final edit.

Now you are ready for any agenda surprise or the failure of your biggest influencer to show up at the meeting. Any executive summary you write using this process will be strategic and effective--a must when it's the only thing circulated after the meeting.

Visit our Before and After samples to see more examples of specific or expanded headlines: http://www.bettercom.com/before-and-after-samples/.

A Secret Weapon for PowerPoint Presentations

There have been 701 comments in response to the April 27th New York Times article by Elisabeth Bumiller about the military's use of PowerPoint. There's a note at the bottom of the article from the New York Times saying, "Comments are no longer being accepted." Enough!

The article "We Have Met the Enemy and He Is PowerPoint" hit a nerve for every victim of bad PowerPoint presentations. Many of the comments rail about the misuse of slide presentations as a substitute for other types of documents. In our business writing consulting company, we've seen everything. There are some companies that write presentations for almost every type of communication except e-mail. We agree-this is not smart.

Thinking back to 1987, when Microsoft created PowerPoint, makes me want to ask Bill Gates if he ever imagined that it would be so misused, loathed, and derided. But fortunately, it's only the medium and not the message. We humans are responsible for the quality of its content. The most interesting comment in the article was the following:

"‘[PowerPoint is] dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control,' General McMaster said in a telephone interview afterward. ‘Some problems in the world are not bullet-izable.'"

Perhaps General McMaster is saying that the structure and design of a presentation can misrepresent how much strategic understanding is behind the presentation.

What can you do to ensure that you never end up in this position? Write an executive summary for every presentation! This might be a prose handout or up to two slides at the end of your presentation, but it should stand alone as a document. If you have trouble writing an executive summary from your deck, then you may have missed some key points.

Consider the following typical sections of an executive summary:

• a concise statement of the purpose or challenge
• recommendations and action requests
• benefits and conclusions
• next steps
• a brief overview of the background or context needed to understand conclusions.

If you take the time to write this final preview or overview for your busy readers, you will never leave them thinking, "so what?"

This practice is a lifesaver if you find yourself at a sales meeting, expecting to have one hour to deliver your presentation and you are told that you only have TEN minutes. Haul out your secret weapon: an executive summary.

In another post, I'll get into more detail on how to write an executive summary.

The four stages of assessment for Reader-Centered Business Writing™

 

Can you be a 6 in grammar, or do you have to be a 10 to survive?

The assessment process for becoming an in-house Reader-Centered Business Writing facilitator goes something like this:

Better Communications^®

1. reviews your writing samples.

2. asks you to complete the Editing Inventory, an array of questions that challenge your knowledge of grammar, punctuation, and style. If you don't know the difference between "its" and "it's," you may want to quit while you're ahead. We call it the "kiss of death" question.

3. sends you three strategic editing exercises and gives you two hours to complete them. This tells us how you would respond as a coach when someone puts a document in front of you. You have 20 minutes to give constructive advice.

4. asks you to facilitate a 15-minute segment of our workshop using our materials. We instruct the audience in advance to role play a typical group from your company. Sometimes the audience throws curve balls at the presenter to test his or her handling of the unexpected.

I've been ramping up new facilitators for over 25 years, so I may make it sound too easy. To give you an on-the-ground perspective, I called one of our facilitators at a software company and asked her about her certification experience.

What were you worried about that turned out to be insignificant?

"In the writing world, both in business and academia, being published is everything. I have never been published, and I was worried that my colleagues would not take me seriously as an expert. My fear was unfounded because as soon as learners realized that the program was about them and THEIR daily documents, my role as an expert became less important. At the end of the day, when they sent out an e-mail that they wrote with the new writing process-and actually got quicker responses-they no longer cared about me and my credentials."

What should you have been worried about that you weren't?

"Even though the Better Communications program is very strategic, people will still ask you grammar questions. Most facilitators don't realize just how specific grammar can be. I thought I knew everything about grammar, but I really had to brush up. I've always been the go-to person for grammar at my company, but as I started teaching business writing, I relived learning all the nitpicky rules and exceptions that you just need to know. If you don't check everything twice, you are at risk of appearing to be not very smart."

Remember, if all else fails, we tell our facilitators to use this response: "Let's look it up together!"

What does it take to be a facilitator for business writing courses?

"Is it hard to teach the Six Steps to Reader-Centered Business Writing in house at my company?"
I get this question a lot in our business. So many companies are struggling to deliver the best possible learning experience within a tight budget and are considering taking the program in house. A resident expert can be a valuable resource--someone who can train without extra travel costs, assist team writing projects to speed up business, and offer ongoing coaching and editorial advice.

However, developing subject matter expertise in writing can seem formidable. It doesn't have to be--success is all about the process. If writers follow our quality process, they get a consistent outcome. A well-designed train-the-trainer program eliminates the mystery.

We have found that the attributes of a great business writing facilitator consist of the following:

1. a PASSION for writing
2. a LOVE of grammar and editing
3. a DESIRE to help people write their personal best
4. a PRESENCE in the classroom that leads with warmth
5. the great FACILITATION skills of a classic adult educator
6. the ENERGY and EMPATHY of a great coach
7. OK, so you also have to be a hawk-eyed strategic editor.

You may have the skills to deliver our programs, and we are happy to help you find out if you do. Contact us any time if you are curious to learn how you stack up. Next week, we'll be explaining in more depth how our assessment process works.

Communicate to keep your team: business writing for leaders

I came across a new report by Deloitte that is compelling, but not surprising: poor communication is damaging employee morale—and undermining business success. Failing to connect authentically with employees, especially when the chips are down, can cost a company everything from lost business to lost talent.

What I didn't expect was the magnitude of the statistic reflecting tough times and poor communication: almost half of respondents said they are tuning up their resumes for greener pastures when business improves. Yikes.

The Deloitte Special Report on Talent Retention, “Managing Talent in a Turbulent Economy: Keeping your team intact” (September 2009), states the following:

• 49% of employees plan to seek alternate employment when the talent market heats up.
• Of those surveyed employees who intend to leave, 76% report a drop in morale and 62% fault lack of communication from executives during the recession.

Could a few e-mails make a difference? Those who use writing successfully to empower and motivate their people always

• write personably and nonjudgmentally
• get their point across the first time
• deliver sensitive messages with tact
• turn negatives into positives.

Since we communicate so much now in writing, building trust and unsnarling communication tangles in the process can be done with some easy-to-learn writing strategies.

Download the Deloitte study or learn more about Writing for Leaders