Simplicity Lens #1 - Ban Jargon

Talk so people understand you. Imagine explaining what you do to a child. Would they understand it?

Jargon has been invented in order to make understandable things seem difficult and unattainable. There are certain business areas where jargon is used as a protection mechanism against entry and communication.

If you want people to engage with you then start communicating with them clearly. Go through your documents, website, speeches etc. and remove any jargon that you find. Replace it with words that are understandable and easy to remember. Getting people to buy into what you do is a difficult task, why do you want to make it tougher?

It will be tough at the beginning as you are used to speaking this way. Day by day, ban jargon and speak clearly with terms that people understand. Don't forget that acronyms are the same or even worse than jargon. Wherever possible use complete and clear terms.

This post is part of the Simplicity Lenses series. Simplicity Lenses is a tool that will help you eliminate complexity one card at a time. Subscribe to this blog to get a lens every week and the downloadable PDF when it becomes available

Posted by Harry Mylonadis 

BLUFing Your Message Across

I learnt about BLUFing from someone that had served for a long time in the US army. A BLUF in this case stands for Bottom Line Up Front and is one of the most effective ways to get your message across.

At school and university we learn about how we need to build up our arguments and ideas until we reach a conclusion. In this case the conclusion is the only place where we can communicate our ideas. Since that's how we've been taught, a lot of us continue communicating in this way after we leave school.

BLUFing turns this on its head. You start with your conclusion, strong idea, belief and then work on explaining it. This way you get your message across faster and more strongly. You have complete freedom to talk about your beliefs first and then move to the details if you have time. Your busy audience will also thank you for this as they can get the value first and will be more engaged.

Learn to BLUF and deliver value quickly.

Posted by Harry Mylonadis 

Laconic Speaking

I must have been in primary school when I first learnt about Laconic speaking. The best definition for Laconic speaking (which was a way of speaking in Ancient Greece) is to speak tersely. Which means to speak briefly, neatly and be effectively concise.

As a kid I was fascinated by the idea and tried to practice it, to the confusion of my family and friends. Still, I thought it was one of the best ways to speak. I still think that it has a lot of merits when it comes to communicating ideas and thoughts with others.

It forces you to basically stop beating around the bush and get straight to the point. Doing it by just communicating what is necessary to make your point, no more no less. I think it was the Ancient Greeks' contribution to the simplicity practice. Having this practice in mind really helps in communication. If you want to confront me, you have to say it to my face. If you didn't like what I did, you need to tell me what it was. If you disagree with what I said, you have to say it briefly.

Imagine how many long meetings, phone calls, conference calls and coffees we could avoid if we all practiced Laconic speaking. I'm not saying that we should embrace it 100% but practicing it can help us become better and more effective at communicating. It also gets us into the practice of boiling down our thoughts, simplifying them and clearly communicating them.

Posted by Harry Mylonadis 

A Message from the CEO

For 5 days in December, chaos took over London airports. Almost no one was going out or coming in. Flights were cancelled, people were frustrated and everyone was looking for someone to blame.

After things started moving again, I received an email from British Airways with an apology and statement from their CEO. Their decision to make an apology was a great move, however I haven't flown with BA for more than 6 months. The only reason that I received the email is because I'm signed up to their loyalty program. So in reality I wasn't at all affected by the snow disruption, I was outside playing with the snow.

Given that they have all my information,  know when I'm going to travel  and monitor all my choices (that's the purpose of a loyalty program, to gather information) they should have known if I was affected by the problem. 

The lesson learned is that your communication, no matter what the subject is, needs to be targeted and relevant. Don't tell me that you are sorry for something that didn't affect me.

Posted by Harry Mylonadis