Break the Padding and Piling-on Habit

The quote "I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time” is attributed to the French mathematician Blaise Pascal back in 1657.

Yes, even 360+ years ago time was a valuable commodity. Pascal recognized this and understood that editing and brevity, hallmarks of good writing, require time. He apologized to his recipient for not taking enough of it, thus wasting theirs.

Today, when time is so precious it’s measured in nanoseconds, and valued in dollars, let’s not make the costly error of wasting our readers’—sending them on verbal scavenger hunts to figure out what in god’s name we’re talking about. Or worse, quickly losing their interest.

Not taking the time to write concisely isn’t the only culprit needlessly lengthening our communications. It’s the misguided notion, or insecurity, that more is better.

When you’re being paid by your employer, client or audience for your insights and analysis, you may have a tendency to pad your emails, memos, reports, and presentations with useless filler to make it seem like they’re getting their money’s worth.

Once succumbing to that habit, there’s no stopping you. Stretched-out sentences become bloated paragraphs, which become voluminous decks of mind-numbing prose. Or agonizingly lengthy speeches.

Warning. They’re on to you. Today’s information consumers like their whiskey neat. No watered-down meanderings. No hazy conceptualizing.

They don’t appreciate being taken on a verbal joyride. So indulge them with clear, crisp writing. Lots of meat, easy on the potatoes. Or incur their wrath.

Consider this excerpt:

BUSINESS BLATHER: Given today’s challenges, many companies have turned to advanced information solutions to provide significantly more value to their customers and differentiate themselves in the commodity-based market. In order to continue to grow in this rapidly changing environment, these companies are proactively adapting to market conditions by examining and addressing each opportunity to improve operational efficiency and enhance their customers’ buying experience.

This passage is the poster child for suitably constructed, grammatically correct, they-sound-like-they-know-what-they’re-talking-about…gobbledygook.

It strings together a series of vague concepts, never digging below the surface to give you a foothold of understanding through example or explanation what “challenges,” “solutions,” “value,” “conditions,” “opportunity,” and “efficiency” they’re alluding to.

Thus, rather than being informed, you’re left to process a laundry list of indistinct ideas on your own—uncertain, unfulfilled.

Sure, you could argue this is the precursor to a more detailed discussion to follow (one I’d be inclined to pass on). But why subject readers to an incoherent prelude that serves only to flaunt the communicator’s self-importance when they could easily have gone straight to the crux with something like this:

BETTER: To keep pace with rapidly-changing consumer demands, companies are engaging on social media, mining digital data, and using advanced research techniques to bring the most wanted products to market faster, preempting their competition. To further profitability, they’re applying powerful digital tools to improve production, distribution, marketing, and the customer experience.

Even if the reader doesn’t read another word, you’ve given them real substance to chew on, things to relate to their own situation.

Which brings us to this critical inflection point:

Why in this era of shrinking attention spans even risk a paragraph laden with indeterminate statements that mystify more than illuminate?

If you want to break from (or never get started on) business blather, corporatese or whatever the heck you want to call it, you can begin right here.

Don’t equivocate. Don’t tease out your main points or package them in the verbal equivalent of Styrofoam peanuts. Be succinct, forthcoming, direct.

You've got a week to incorporate this tip into your communications before the next one arrives. Take advantage of it, share it with a colleague. Write like your career depends on it. (Because it does.)

? 2024 Jerry McTigue

Based on the book Business Blather: Stop Using Words That Sound Good But Say Nothing! Available on amazon in both print and Kindle editions.