IN-DEPTH IN-DEPTH

THE STRANGE DEATH OF

PLAIN ENGLISH

56 _ PROFESSIONAL MANAGER _ Winter 2015 managers.org.uk/insights _ 57

THE CHALLENGES AT THE COALFACE REQUIRE SOME BLUE-SKY THINKING, SAYS BLAYNE PEREIRA

ILLUSTRATIONS BY Nate Kitch

IN-DEPTHIN-DEPTH

“There are no wrong answers” – but you can bet there will be – Andy Davies

THE TAXMAN COMETHHMRC HAS LAUNCHED AN INTRIGUING INTERNAL CAMPAIGN TO ENCOURAGE ITS TEAMS TO SPEAK TO TAXPAYERS IN A LANGUAGE THEY UNDERSTAND – CLEAR ENGLISH

The Taxman, once widely lampooned for its habit of using bureaucratese where simple words would do, has launched the It’s how we say it five-point plan. Alongside wise advice like “put yourself in the shoes of your colleague or customer”, the plan contains some sage communication tips, such as:

Get rid of acronyms and jargon

Write short sentences

Use active verbs – ‘we decided’ not ‘it was decided’

Use verbs not abstract nouns – ‘prepare’ not ‘preparation’

Choose familiar words – ‘need’ not ‘require’

Use pronouns to show who does what

“Have a clear goal for communication,” the guidance says. “What do you want people to know, feel and do?”

Corporate speak, management jargon, complete rubbish – call it what you want, it is plaguing offices everywhere. From meaningless phrases spoken in meetings to

nonsensical idioms that bamboozle employees, businesses are wasting time and money every year.

But where does this practice stem from? Who is responsible for this continued stream of mumbo jumbo?

Culture club“Sometimes it’s down to the culture of the company,” says Steve Jenner of the Plain English Campaign (PEC). “If managers speak to their employees in the next tier down like this, then everybody within the pyramid of this particular organisation thinks it is acceptable to talk to everybody else like that. It becomes a self-perpetuating vicious circle of garbage.”

He adds that employees could feel the need to use jargon as they assume that emulating the example of more senior staff will help them progress through the company.

The PEC has spent the last 35 years campaigning against gobbledygook, jargon and misleading public information. “Some people use jargon to self-aggrandise and to make themselves look good,” adds Jenner. “Others use it to baffle people and make themselves appear to be a superior being. In reality, it’s just a frustrating waste of time.”

Sir Cary Cooper, distinguished professor of organisational psychology and health at Lancaster University, says the creep of management speak is, to some degree, a way of mimicking the patois prevalent elsewhere in the economy.

“Managers try to professionalise their job,” says Sir Cary. “Other professions, such as law, medicine and psychology, have their own jargon which looks really technical. In management, you can use simple English to say things. But, rather than do that, managers want to exude professionalism, so as to make it look like things are not quite as simple as you think.”

American influence Another reason, according to Sir Cary, is British managers’ habit of copying their US counterparts. “We used to talk about job redundancies,” he says. “Now we talk about ‘rightsizing’ or ‘downsizing’ or an ‘involuntary career event process’. Americans will do anything to avoid talking about job losses. It’s seen as cool for managers in the UK

to be using this American jargon, which they’ve heard from gurus and consultants, and it makes them appear as if they are au fait with the international language of management, which tends to be American English.”

The dangers of using excessive corporate jargon are clear: “They just end up becoming empty phrases,” says Jenner. “You have people sitting in a boardroom who end up playing buzzword bingo, spewing all kinds of phrases. And what happens? People doze off. How much are we paying these people?”

“No blame culture” – Peter Elliott

“This is the start of a journey” – Nick Griffiths

“Let’s take this offline” – every time I hear this gem, I die a little inside – Hendrik Lai

“During this period of consultation” – meaning: ‘We have decided what we’re going to do and we really don’t care what you think but we know that we have to do this communication thing, so here it is’ – anonymous via email

“Silo thinking” – David Haslam

“Nothing set in concrete” – Ian Cockburn

The one I really dread is the one that starts: “You are uniquely positioned to…” – somehow that always leads to more work and no more pay – Ian Brooker

“Low-hanging fruit” – Katie Perkins

If managers speak to their employees in the next tier down like this, then everybody within the

pyramid of this particular organisation thinks it is acceptable to talk to everybody else like that

You have people sitting in a boardroom who end up playing buzzword bingo, spewing all kinds of phrases. And what happens? People doze off. How much are we paying these people?

‘Going forward, we need an action plan.’ This is a

phrase that should be uttered only in fictional works. Time travel

hasn’t been mastered in real life, so the phrase is irrelevant. As for an

‘action plan’, would you really come up with an inaction plan?

YOUR WORST EXAMPLES

managers.org.uk/insights _ 5958 _ PROFESSIONAL MANAGER _ Winter 2015

WHAT’S RÉMOULADE?Think about it this way: you decide to get dinner at a new restaurant rumoured to serve mouth-watering dishes. You open the menu and start to browse. If you are like most people, you’re looking for dishes you either already like or would like to try. The menu’s job is to be your guide, to serve as a resource that helps you make a decision with confidence. You narrow the choice to three dishes, and ponder the elements of each:

Sea bass with wild rice and greensRibeye steak with garlic mashed potatoes and grilled asparagusCrab cakes with mushrooms and a French rémoulade

Although they all sound delicious, the third option feels like a risk. You have never seen the word ‘rémoulade’ before, so you are not sure if you would like it. Therefore, you decide against ordering the entire dish because this one word made your confidence wane. You know that you love crab cakes and mushrooms, but the third part – rémoulade – moved you from interest to disinterest. In reality, rémoulade is a lot like tartare sauce, but sounds much more appealing and sophisticated on a menu. However, for the uninformed, it represents a reason to disregard an entire dish.

Lee LeFever – The Art of Explanation

IN-DEPTH

“Comparing apples with apples” – Marie Aston

“Synergy” – Daniel McIntyre

THE ART OF RONSPEAK

Ron Dennis, chairman and chief executive of the McLaren Group, has gained notoriety for his verbosity: “When I came into motor racing, so many things were a black art. But black art was a cloak for ‘we don’t really know’. It was intuitive engineering. I decided to make it a science. We will develop science to take away uncertainty to make winning a certainty.” Truly a quote for an ‘answers on a postcard’ competition, his way with words has become affectionately known as ‘Ronspeak’.

“It’s colourful and amusing, but Ron expresses himself very carefully because he’s a perfectionist,” says Stuart Codling, executive editor of Autosport and F1 Racing. “When you read the stuff he comes out with, he is very precise because he doesn’t want to be misunderstood. It’s the exact same neatness you see when you go to the McLaren Technology Centre, and it’s been the same since he was a mechanic a few decades ago.”

Perhaps it’s that final point which is key to deciphering the underlying reason for Ronspeak. “In fairness to Ron, he’s just trying to make himself sound a little bit more educated, having started out as a mechanic and then progressed as an entrepreneur,” adds Codling.

Of course, even Dennis can fall foul of over-thinking his vocabulary. While discussing contract negotiations with Ayrton Senna, he said: “Fiscal competition reared its ugly head.” As Codling points out, this slight malapropism brings Dennis off his pedestal. “He’ll often talk about fiscal matters when he means ‘financial’,” says Codling. “Fiscal is to do with tax. Are you taxing him, Ron?”

The continued use and naturalisation of buzz-phrases in the business environment have led to their spilling into everyday life, afflicting the general population.

The death of plain English is leading to widespread confusion among a public that, by and large, remains less than semi-fluent in the code.

Excessive management lingo in product terms and conditions, or in warranties or government literature (see box on page 58, ‘The taxman cometh’) has now resulted in the need for call centres to sort out problems or to provide help in translating their terminology.

PR nightmare “A single word can make your explanation fail,” says Lee LeFever in his book, The Art of Explanation. “It has the power to move someone from interest to disinterest.” In other words, if you describe a product using a relatively obscure term to add a lyrical flourish, you could ultimately

end up losing customers (see page 59, ‘What’s a rémoulade?’).

Perhaps the most common example of written corporate speak is the press release. Even the most mundane of products find themselves being described in the most exaggerated and glorified terms. PRs assume this florid language makes it more likely that their product will be featured in the press. Not so, says Tony Hodson, editor of weekly magazine Sport.

“The art of the press release has almost become a self-fulfilling prophecy of its own,” says Hodson. “We end up receiving press releases of 1,000 words that waste the first 500 of them in QUIRKY! AMUSING! ATTENTION-GRABBING! nonsense that is irrelevant at best and plain irritating at worst: too many words, too much drivel, too little relevance. Your average modern journalist is overworked, underpaid and inherently still quite lazy – they don’t have the time to play detective through paragraph after paragraph of superfluous garbage.”

YOUR WORST EXAMPLES

managers.org.uk/insights _ 61

“Pick your cherries from the top, middle and bottom branches” – Keith Flanagan no, we have no idea either

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