Even IT Can Speak Plain English
The CIO at Kimberly Clark is working to eradicate tech speak and requires every word of the department email missives to be found in Webster’s Dictionary. (What have we come to that this is revolutionary news?!?)
As reported in the Wall Street Journal’s Tech Blog this week, acronyms must be translated into something meaningful for the recipient.
The time it takes to write with clarity and full explanation, multiplies your effort.
Time saved by your readers X Number of readers being addressed = Value of your time spent editing for clarity.
When sending a proposal, the importance of the clarity is multiplied by the dollars involved in your proposed contract.
He also uses the same template I teach for mass email. Begin the message with “ACTION NEEDED:” so the responsible parties know whether they are personally holding up progress or just being informed of progress. In the case of Kimberly Clark, they begin with: If you use this system (fill in specifics here), Please read on.
Reader (RSS)
Email