Less Chatter, More Matter: The Communications Podcast

#84 Communicating like a human in the corporate world

• Mel Loy • Season 1 • Episode 84

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Welcome back to another episode of the Less Chatter, More Matter podcast!

This week, we're teaching you how to communicate like a human in a world of robotic, corporate jargon. We talk about the importance of clear, human-centric communication and how that influences your audience. We share some key tips and strategies for influencing others to adopt clearer communication practices, alongside some ways to help clarify your messaging.

Tune in to learn how to transform corporate jargon into meaningful and impactful messages.

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Mel:

Do you remember a time when you were in a meeting or an event or even just a conversation and someone was speaking but you had no idea what they were saying? Maybe they were using a lot of buzzwords or jargon or just meaningless phrases. How did that make you feel in that moment? For me, I remember many such instances. And in my younger years, honestly, I felt pretty stupid and I didn't have the guts to speak up and say, I didn't understand. And that was to my own disadvantage, as much as it was to the person who was speaking. It's a problem as old as power and politics, people not communicating to humans like humans, but in a corporate world, this can be hard to do because of ingrained habits and But also because sometimes we're dealing with stakeholders who can't see why they need to change the way they communicate. So how do you get out of robot speak and into human speak? That's what today's episode is all about. Hello, and welcome to another episode of Less Chatter, More Matter, the communications podcast. I'm your host, Mel Loy, and I'm recording this podcast on the lands of the Yuggera and Turrbal people here in Meanjin, Brisbane. So today's episode is one that is close to my heart because it's the one thing I wish everyone would do more of in their communication. If I could wave my magic wand and make anything happen in communications, It would be this communicate like a human to humans. We are talking to humans, not to robots. And yet so many of the comms I see, especially internal comms in the corporate world are not written for humans. They're written for corporate robots. And what I mean by that is they typically use a lot of buzzwords and phrases that actually mean nothing. Or. They're so vague, they are incomprehensible. Or they use a lot of jargon. A term that I've recently heard is jargon monoxide, which I love. Or they use a lot of technical language that very few people in the audience would ever understand. When we continue to use this kind of language and communicate in this kind of way, it shows that we don't care about our audience. Because if we truly put people at the centre of our communication, then we'd speak like humans. It's also just a bit lazy. Put the effort in, people. Make it human. But it also completely contradicts what you want to achieve with your comms in the first place, which is to get people to understand you and perhaps even do something. If we speak like humans, the benefits far outweigh any cons. So for example, when we speak like humans, we ensure most of our audience understands what we're on about. And it also helps us build connections with people because they understand you and that builds trust and alignment. It improves your chances of getting things done. So how do we get there? I'm going to share four top tips with you today, along with a bonus section on how to influence others to write like humans. So make sure you hang around for that. Let's get into it. Tip number one, think of the barbecue chat. So this is where we do our very best to avoid jargon, corporate speak and gibberish and just speak clearly and plainly. So take a piece comms that you might've written or maybe you're editing it for somebody else right now. Something that is technical and potentially full of corporate speak. Now ask yourself, if I was explaining this to somebody I just met at a barbecue who had no idea what I do or what this project is about, how would I explain it? Now, apart from helping you to avoid the jargon monoxide, it also forces you to think about how you could explain some of the complexity in really concrete or tangible ways that make sense to that person. So this is where metaphors and analogies can really help. So let's say you're at this fictional barbecue and you're talking about implementing AI in your business. Now, instead of talking about risk profiles and governance and blah, blah, blah, boring, boring, boring. Maybe you could point to the barbecue and say something like, See that barbecue over there? Anyone can use it really. It's not hard, but using it well and safely so it doesn't blow up in your face or hurt anybody else. That's something that needs to be taught. That's kind of what our AI policy and guidelines are about. We're not saying don't use it, but we're saying make sure you get educated first. Okay. I realize that's a terrible analogy, but hopefully you get the drift. So that's tip number one. Tip number one, use the barbecue chat. Tip number two, use empathy and use it genuinely. Here's the thing that humans will always have over AI generated content. We have the ability to genuinely express empathy. That empathy is what connects us with our audiences and it shows that we see them as people with real and valid emotions and thoughts, not just as a batch of workers on a production line. Empathy in your communications means you acknowledge people's feelings, whether that's joy or sadness or anger or stress or whatever it might be, showing that you understand how they might be feeling. It also means explaining the why behind a message and making it meaningful and personalised to your audience. It means allowing space for questions and comments and feedback. And if you're delivering your message verbally, it means using eye contact, thinking about your body language and the tone of voice that you're using. All of these things add up to one big thing, showing that you care. Remember, people don't care what you know until they know that you care. The biggest thing to remember is that empathy has to be genuine. We all have a bullshit radar. Right? And we all know when someone isn't being genuine and authentic with us. So putting nice words in an email and then ticking the empathy box isn't going to cut it. So don't rely on ChatGPT to write those emails that need the extra care and attention. And really put yourself in the shoes of your audience and ask how might they be feeling. Tip number three, keep it simple. And here's my biggest takeaway for you. Keeping it simple is not dumbing it down. Keeping it simple is being smart. It's smart because as a communicator, you want to reach as many people in your audience as possible in the most effective way. If you are overcomplicating things, you are not going to achieve that. And if you're writing long, waffling emails without getting to the point or waffling on and on in a meeting, you're not achieving that communication goal. Instead, you're probably turning people off. There is a great paper that I've mentioned in this podcast before. And in an experiment run by researcher Daniel Oppenheimer back in 2009, he asked two groups of people to read a document. One version of the document was written in the original academic jargon filled language. The other version was written in plain English. Now he then asked both groups to rate how smart they thought the authors of that paper were. The plain English group rated the perceived intelligence of the authors as 13 percent higher than the group that got the jargon filled waffle. So keeping it simple is about a few things. Like we said, keep the language clear and simple. According to the Australian government style guidelines, it's most effective to write to the level of a 14 year old. At that level of writing, you will reach 80 percent of your audience. That's huge. And after that, it's all downhill. So keep it simple and keep it short. So we know from dozens of eye tracking studies that most people skim read, they don't actually read your long, beautiful emails or intranet articles. And also we know people are very time poor. They are being inundated with emails and text messages and teams, messages, et cetera, all day long. So keeping it short and simple helps time poor people to get to the point of your message quickly and be discerning in what's actually relevant. It can be tempting to include all the things that you think... are interesting and important, but I guarantee probably only about 10 to 15 percent of that is actually relevant to your audience. Just stick with what they need to know. So that's tip number three, keeping it simple. Okay, tip number four is about writing from the reader's perspective, not your perspective or the perspective of the company. Now, again, I've spoken about this before at length, so I won't go into the detail on this one right now, but writing from your reader's perspective is largely around that WIIFM principle. What's in it for me? This is a problem I see a lot in corporate comms, and it's just a habit we've gotten into where we talk about the company's perspective on a message, not what the audience might care about. So for example, let's say you're implementing a new customer management system, and your message could be around how this new system will save the business money. It'll allow for better reporting of our data, stronger governance, et cetera, et cetera. But Caroline in the contact centre probably doesn't give a crap about that. Your message for all the Carolines should be about what this new system means for them and the benefits to them. So for example, is it easier for Caroline to put the data in and to get customer data quickly when she needs it? Does it mean that instead of using three systems, she only has to use one now? That's the difference. It's about her perspective, not yours. And again, it shows that you see your audience as humans, not as corporate robots. What they care about is very different to what you or your business leaders might care about. So that's what you need to speak to. It shows you understand their role. and what they do and what they care about. Okay. So they're the four steps, but you might have listened to this and gone, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know all of that. I already do it religiously, but there's one last piece of the puzzle and that's how do you get people on board with human communication? Let me tell you a story. I've done a lot of work in corporate comms in the childcare industry over many, many years. And in many of those places, we've had to work with people who are education experts, and they are amazing at what they do. They know so much. They really care about children, but the language they use does not speak to families a lot of the time. And often it doesn't even speak to educators in the childcare centres. So it has been a constant struggle to help them understand that for some pieces of communication, we have to use the language that the audience understands. So for example, parents are probably going to go onto Google and search for childcare centre, not early learning centre. And yes, we can start to use the language of early learning and educate people, but that's a huge shift and that's not going to happen overnight. And similarly, in describing learning programs, they would try and use words like pedagogy that, again, many parents would not relate to. This isn't just a challenge in early learning, mind you. It's a challenge in any sector with specialised knowledge, which is pretty much everything. So how do you get those others on board? Firstly, have a conversation and explain why you want to use clearer plain language. You might need to negotiate to weave in some other language, but if they're reasonable, they'll get it. Secondly, you can ask coaching questions like, if you were Maryanne the mum, whose first language is not English, and you're looking for early learning centres, what would you be searching for? Or a question like, how would you explain this or describe this to someone who is new to our sector and you just met them for the first time? Or another question, what does this actually mean for whoever the audience is? So it's coaching questions is another way to get people thinking differently. But if they still don't agree, perhaps you could use some A B testing. So for example, if you send emails out to a large database, One group could get an email with early learning in the subject line, another with childcare and just see what the open rates are or use data from Google searches to help make your point. And again, you might need to negotiate to do some education comms, but at the end of the day, you've got some strategic goals that you've got to meet. So stick to your guns. Okay, I've got one more bonus tip for you. I know this one might feel like a bit of a, I guess, contravention to what I said earlier around using chat GPT and AI. But, if your clients or you are really stuck with how to make things simpler, why not use a tool like Google Gemini or BARD, uh, or ChatGPT to help you do that? So the way you do that is you put that paragraph or whatever it is into Google Gemini, BARD, whatever, and you just say, can you rewrite this in plain English? And see what it spits out. Now, it might not be perfect, but it will be a really good starting point. And for those people who really struggle with being able to make things clearer and simpler, this can be a great tool for them. So that is one top tip there. Okay, It's time for your episode recap. So let's go back today. We talked about talking like a human, not a robot and why that is important. And I gave you four tips. Number one, think of the barbecue chat. If you were just explaining this to somebody, you just met at a barbecue for the first time, had no idea what you do or why you do it or how you do it. How would you explain that to them? And use analogies and, uh, other tools that you can use to really point to concrete ideas that help people understand complexity. Number two, use empathy, but use it genuinely. Show that you care by showing that you understand how people might be feeling, but also using tools like good body language and tone and eye contact. Number three was keeping it simple. Remember, keeping it simple is not dumbing it down. Keeping it simple is being smart. So keeping it simple means making sure you're using clear language and clear words, but also keeping it short, keeping it concise. And tip number four was write from the reader's perspective, not the writer's perspective. Think about that WIIFM principle. What's in it for me. And then finally, we spoke about how you get others on board, particularly when they're not used to writing in clearer language. And some of those tips included, A, just having a conversation, B, using coaching questions, and C, perhaps doing some data pulling or testing to show why what you're saying matters. Okay, folks, that's all we've got time for on today's episode. Thank you so much for those of you who continue to reach out and offer feedback, who've rated and reviewed the show. I really appreciate it. As per usual, all links and things are going to be in the show notes. Make sure you sign up for our fortnightly email. It is packed full of value. I make sure of that every fortnight to go over it with a fine tooth comb and make sure there's going to be loads of resources and tools and upcoming events for you in that - you don't want to miss it. In the meantime, keep doing amazing things and bye for now!