Considering the examples of bad writing in Monday’s and Tuesday’s posts it’s obvious that much of the problem comes down to a lack of clarity.

No surprise there, but other than confusing everyone, bad writing easily morphs into no writing, which can be a disastrous to product development, especially in tech.

As the image above shows, lack of writing skills impact every part of a sale, but lack of documentation is probably the worst.

Think about it. Things go wrong with equipment all the time and when it does you go to the manual to see how to fix it.

Software is even worse.

With minimal-to-no documentation, fixing bugs, iterating and keeping legacy software running is extremely difficult, especially if the primary developers leave the company.

No matter your education or experience, if you can write coherently you will have a serious edge over other candidates.

Image credit: Jhayne

I read an article in ADWEEK explaining why any content a company creates should be considered marketing and the importance it all has to building the brand.

Content is marketing, we all know that. But marketing is also content. So are HR manuals, social media policies, annual reports, analyst reports, research studies, customer evaluations, product reviews, employee testimonials, customer testimonials, videos from conferences, CEO blogs, tweets, updates and check-ins.

The article reminded me of something I wrote last year that dovetails perfectly.

Why are so many blogs and biz books overwritten; saying the same thing over and over as if repeating the message for an extra hundred or more pages will make it more powerful?

Even fiction often follows the same pattern.

Why is so much content garbage?

Why do people insist that more is better?

Why do they assume that using a word with multiple syllables will make them sound more intelligent and impress the reader?

Websites are worse, both B2B and especially B2C.

Way overwritten and in long dense paragraphs with the vital information buried.
Has it gone completely unnoticed that almost nobody reads anymore?

The majority scan and in a hurry, spending 5-10 seconds to decide if they want to spend the average of 30 seconds on that page.

And those of us who do read are easily annoyed by bad design and the garbage that passes for content.

The problem, of course, is that a healthy ‘data-ink ratio’, which means saying a lot clearly in as few words as possible, is hard work.

I probably shouldn’t complain since I offer a service called Clarity REwriting that contributes significantly to my revenues, but still.

It’s easy to avoid dense, opaque, overwritten books and blogs, but when I need information from a website I am stuck.

So do yourself (and me) a favor.

Think about the data-ink ratio when you develop your content; doing so will improve your business.

I’ll add that consideration applies just as much to your internal docs.

Some of the worst examples come from HR, but it’s often not their fault, since so much HR content is developed by lawyers and very few of employees are fluent in legalese.

DISCLAIMER: What follows is an ad.

If you need assistance with the clarity of your content call or write me (the contact info is in the right hand column); you’ll find I’m fast and more affordable than you might imagine.

Flickr image credit: 10ch

You founded your company on a vision; a vision of how your product/service would change the world.

Your vision attracted people; people who can turn your vision into reality.

If that doesn’t happen it’s on you.

If you share, explain and clarify your vision, listen to input from all sources as you refine it and keep it flexible you’ll be a long way to succeeding.

But if you proclaim your vision, hoard the details and adhere to it come what may you’ll shoot yourself (and your investors) in the foot.

SUBMIT YOUR STORY
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Share the story of your startup today.
Send it along with your contact information and I’ll be in touch.
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A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read all If the Shoe Fits posts here

You’re a founder and you have a vision.

You tell people about your vision with an eye to recruiting them as investors or employees or customers.

While it’s important that your vision be enticing it’s more important that it dazzle with its clarity.

Clarity is not easy, which is why elevator pitches and tag lines are so difficult to do.

Most people start with a highly embellished description and work to reduce/clarify it.

The reverse is often easier.

Start with a truly bare bones version, such as this description of a restaurant.

“We buy food. We fix it up. And we sell it at a profit.” – Celebrity Chef Mario Batali**

Then add embellishments slowly, one at a time and get feedback with each iteration.

But avoid getting all the feedback from the same audience.

Each time people hear it they add knowledge and reference, and context to their unconscious database, so in time they start interpolate and filling in the blanks just as you do.

Hence you need to constantly refresh your audience to achieve viable feedback, but that unconscious database is the bane of working with anything over the long haul,

The point of all this is to remind you to clarify your vision before you start to sell it.

Option Sanity™ is plain-spoken and direct.
Come visit Option Sanity for an easy-to-understand, simple-to-implement stock allocation system.  It’s so easy a CEO can do it.

Warning.
Do not attempt to use Option Sanity™ without a strong commitment to business planning, financial controls, honesty, ethics, and “doing the right thing.”
Use only as directed.
Users of Option Sanity may experience sudden increases in team cohesion and worker satisfaction. In cases where team productivity, retention and company success is greater than typical, expect media interest and invitations as keynote speaker.

**Hat tip to Wally Bock for the Mario Batali quote.

Flickr image credit: HikingArtist

Can you sum up your life in just 6 words?

Clare Booth Luce, according to columnist Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan, once told President John Kennedy that “a great man is one sentence.” Noonan writes that Lincoln’s life could be summed up as “He preserved the Union and freed the slaves.” –Bloomberg.com

Smith Magazine just published its second collection of six word memoirs by, as they say, “the famous and obscure.” They also continually collect them on their website.

Forcing yourself to boil down your current situation or a specific aspect of it is a great way to bring clarity to often smoky or downright opaque feelings.

I love this idea and would like to invite all of you to post your six word summation in comments. I’ll then create a permanent page in the right-hand column to make it easy to post updates as often as you choose. I’ll start off.

Option Sanity™ success is my future

Your comments—priceless

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You may be a tweeting guru, but can you sum up your life, career or tell a story in just six (real) words?

When challenged to tell a story in six words, Ernest Hemingway came up with “For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn.”

Starting in 2006, Smith Magazine challenged readers to write their memoirs in six words and the effort is still going strong. Here are three examples from the Smith site,

Ecstatic, elastic, eccentric, electric, ever-changing existence!

Dreams diverted; life proceeds. Embracing detours.

Lesser people would’ve given up already.

I wrote Birth, death, fun and happiness in-between because that’s always what I wanted and got from life—including obstacles and detours.

The great advantage six words have is to force clarity of thought upon the subject.

It’s easy to set up a place on your intranet for people to post their six-word thoughts—not once, but many times.

You can use it to explore your group and company culture, clarify projects and goals and for individual team members.

• Invite everybody to post their six word description of the culture.

• A biographical section gives people a place to document their growth professionally and personally along with specific struggles and triumphs.

• Boil down the essence of each project to six words. You may be surprised at how different the descriptions are reflecting the different visions of the project team—six words helps to get everybody on the same page.

• Provide a truly anonymous section for complaints. The six word limit forces clarity on descriptions of problems and can often give you a heads up before the molehill becomes a mountain.

Please take a moment to add your six word memoir, thought or description of Leadership Turn here!

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Image credit: ZedBee|Zoë Power on flickr