Fight the Bull

Having great ideas is easy.

Getting them heard and adopted is a very different thing indeed.

There are many things you need to do put yourself in a position to get your ideas acted upon.

But the entry stakes is to communicate and sell your ideas in clear and compelling way.

It always amazes me how some people actively resist this insisting that “sounding smart” will impress people who will think they are more business-like, experienced, or smarter. There is sometimes even a kind of arrogance. “Well I understand this perfectly, so they should too”.

You can find these people easily.  You have been in meetings with them (long ones) and have got emails from them (long ones). These people use words with lots of syllables, long sentences, provide way too much background, and create lots of abstractions.

They confuse sounding smart with action.

And you are left wondering what happened or what is expected to happen next.

Clarity drives action.

Sounding smart only drives more talking.

Never confuse being clear for not being smart.

Invest in tuning your communications to be as straightforward as possible, and set an expectation with your team, that obtuse and verbose emails and presentations will not be accepted.

Two of my Favorite Resources to drive effective communications:

1. To Read:

The Smart Talk Trap (an oldie, but a goodie – from 1999)

This is an HBR article by Jeffery Pfeffer and Bob Sutton which preceded their book the Knowing Doing Gap.  Both talk about how to bridge the gap between ideas and action.  I am a big fan.  Bob Sutton also writes a great blog, and there is a particular post I like called Business Language that Makes me Squirm.

2. A tool to download and use:

Bullfighter which you can find at www.FightTheBull.com

Bullfighter is a free utility available for download which embeds itself into PowerPoint and Word and analyzes your writing for, well, Bull.

It picks out all the big, pretentious words that you shouldn’t use, and judges whether your sentences are overly verbose and too long.  It scores your writing on a scale of 1 (impenetrable) to 10 (completely clear).

I describe how Bullfighter works below, but I want to get back to this concept of action vs. ideas, and how you can use these tools to build your credibility and develop a broad base of support for your ideas.

1) Be clear and straightforward yourself. Use Bullfighter on all your communications and make sure they score a minimum of a 7.5.  Run it on your website text too.

2) Change the culture of your organization. Require Bullfighter to be used on all internal and external communications.  You will be sending a message to your organization that you value and expect clear communications, and your organization will become more straightforward, compelling and trusted.

3) Watch out for the Smart Talk Trap. Remember, all success comes from action.  Be on the lookout for people who want to talk without ever getting to the So, here’s what we DO part.  Call them on it.  “That’s interesting, what do you recommend we do?”.  When they reply, “I’m just making sure everyone knows this important information”, say, “We are discussing achieving specific outcomes and planned actions, do you have a recommendation?” Don’t tolerate smart talk instead of action.

4) Present actionable information. For example, if your boss asks you for data on something, don’t just go get the data.  Ask questions like, “What decisions will you be making based on this data?”, or “What action do you need this data to inform?”.  Then do the analysis and present the actionable answer, and offer the data as backup.

The more you are known for clear communication, focus on action, and actually taking action, the more credibility you will build.  You will build trust, and a stronger base of support for your ideas.  You will be able to sell your ideas as they will stand out as ones that actually make things happen.

How Bullfighter works:

Bullfighter embeds itself in Word and PowerPoint.  If you use Word as your email editor, you can have Bullfighter analyze your emails really easily.  When you finish writing, just “check for bull” and it gives you a score and quite pointed  and funny feedback.

Bull Word Search:

Example:
World class: “A tired expression that has lost its meaning. Give it a rest. Whenever someone says something is world-class, it isn’t.”

Bull writing analysis:

Bullfighter scores your writing overall on a scale of 1-10: 1 being completely impenetrable, and 10 being a bit too simple.

Example #1:
See spot run.
Bull Index Score: 10

Example #2:
From a legal document (OK, so this was an easy target): The General Partner shall execute and cause to be filed the original or amended Certificates evidencing the formation and operation of the Partnership whenever required under the laws of any other states in which the Partnership determines to do business.
Bull Index Score: 2.7

Example #3:
I went to 4 enterprise software websites and processed the lead paragraph of their primary offer.
Bull Index Scores: 4.3-4.5. (Check your website.)

Bullfighter also gives you a commentary written in the style of your scored writing.  At a 4.4:
You like to hear yourself write. Despairing of the thought of bringing a sentence to a close with something as demeaningly ordinary as a simple period, you shower readers with gratuitous, interminable and often weighty if not impossibly labyrinthine prose. Meaning lingers, albeit awash in a thick tide of metaphor and exposition that threatens to drown the writer’s message. Seek help.

How do I fare?

I make sure that all my writing scores at least 7.5. It is usually over 8.0, rarely over 9.0. I do use words that Bullfighter hates: Stakeholder and Alignment – I haven’t found good replacements for these words.

Before including the bull-examples, this post scored 8.8. Adding the offending words and legal example lowered my score overall score to 8.4!

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You can find Patty at www.AzzarelloGroup.com, follow her on twitter or Facebook, or read her books RISE and MOVE.


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