Keeping it simple
1st Oct 2007 @ 9.46amThe Sunday Times published a great article which underlines the need for businesses to keep things simple. Chris West, a business advisor and author, says that business needs to speak in a language that ordinary people can understand, and avoid “management-ese”.
Put yourself in the customers’ shoes. Often they just want a problem solved, not a blow-by-blow account of how the product does it. I think of the situation when I go in to have the exhaust on a car fixed - all I want is for the job to be done. The mechanic doesn’t explain to me that he will use a so-and-so spanner and a special sort of sealant. Thank goodness!
A good way to see if you have created a simple business is suggested by John Thompson from Baker Tilley. He asked 13 directors of an established business to explain in one sentence what their company was all about. He got eight different answers.
Our point of view is that this also applies to employees. In the example above, if the directors can’t express what the business is, what chance do the employees have? How can they be expected to perform in the best interests of the company they work for?
posted by Paul Honeywell
filed under Misc
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The key thing for me on reading this article was John Thompson’s line: “You need to have a clarity of message and clarity of purpose so that everyone in the business understands what they’re doing and how they’re doing it. If you keep it simple, your staff will understand what’s expected of them and they’ll work more efficiently”.
Says it all really.
It’s a funny old world we live in - on the one hand I don’t think anyone would argue with keeping language as clear, simple and concise as possible, but on the other hand our working lives are so often littered with ‘business-speak’ and ‘corporate-isms’. I wonder why that is?
Shouldn’t we speak business like we speak everything else?
After all, it’s only when employees have complete clarity about what you’re asking them to do, do they understand how they can contribute.
‘So how do we keep it simple?’ I hear you ask…well, we find stories help!
I think that we develop “business-speak” as a shorthand for complex concepts. This develops into a language for those in the inner circle. That’s fine, as it’s efficient for those people.
The problem comes when it migrates outside this group. It becomes a barrier, rather than an enabler. It means that some people understand, and others are excluded. Those excluded will not admit that they don’t understand, and even worse may start to adopt this language to indicate to others that they are included - and the whole thing becomes a mess!
I often think of us oldies trying to use teenage-speak - we just sound daft, and get quizzical looks from those that really understand…