One thing we strive for is to keep away from jargon, empty phases and spin. Lovers of clear language will have come across former speechwriter and “campaigner for plain talking” Don Watson’s book “Weasel Words”. Sadly, the supporting website (www.weaselwords.com.au) is to be shut down – “downsized”.
In memorium, here are a few classic corporate-speak examples:
‘OTIS AT YOUR SERVICE – RE-ADJUSTMENT PROGRAM’ To enhance the performance of the vertical transportation at 222, Exhibition St, we wish to advise that the lifts are going through a re-adjustment program. Please excuse any inconvenience that the process may contribute to the lift services during this period.’
‘Are you being impacted by a Reduction-In-Force (RIF) within your agency?’ Washington State Department of Personnel
‘Also as promised, I did speak to the High Performing Organisation Project Manager (Kathy). She stated that the progress needs to be on bedding down the design prior to then going about any assessment or implementation. Kathy mentioned that from a resourcing standpoint, currently it is only set up with 1.5 FTE to deliver the design work. Following the design signoff an assessment will need to be made around how to resource up for the site gap analysis … The purpose of the end user workshops is to validate and test the design. They will involve National reps from across the DC network from DC Manager to Team Manager…’ Email from a Change Management Advisor, Coles Myer Ltd (thanks to Rebecca who says, ‘if you can decipher what it means, please let me know.)

Since the first edition of Weekend Reading went off without incident, welcome to the next instalment.

In Weekend Reading Edition 1 the theme was the down side of our wired ways – how email addiction and the ‘crackberry’ phenomenon contributes to the breakdown of interpersonal communication. This week, Melcrum give us the good-grief guide to meetings.

Melcrum reports that most employees prefer meetings as a means of communicating despite the drawbacks of poorly planned agendas, politics and power-plays:

http://www.internalcommshub.com/open/news/meetings.shtml

Weekend Reading is an occasional information email newsletter I use to share knowledge or tips with colleagues or clients. Following is a copy of the first edition:

Weekend Reading Edition 1
This is the inaugural “Weekend Reading”, an end of week note from Internal Communication covering some aspect of business communication – hopefully useful. It is going to be my attempt to indoctinate you to current communication thinking, issues and best practice, and to think about some of the ways we communicate within and beyond Human Resources.

As this first note is coming to you prior to the long weekend, I thought this story might be timely advice. And since there is so much football to be wathced or avoided depending on your preference, I’ll keep this first issue short.

Enjoy the ‘Weekend Reading’.

“Emails responsible for a drug-like grip greater than that caused by cannabis,” reports Melcrum.

The report states that trials among 1,100 people a 10 point IQ loss amongst heavy prolonged use of email. This loss is over double the average loss of four points in studies of cannabis users.

Read the full story:
http://www.internalcommshub.com/open/news/meetings.shtml

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