By Marjan Bradeško
Tim Berners-Lee, known as the inventor of the web, long considered language-to-language translation of web content—and simplification within the same language. His goal was to “open difficult material to a much wider audience: non-native speakers, young people and even the newly literate,” according to his book, “It Is for Everyone.”
Berners-Lee had this vision long before AI became common. Now, with AI, we can achieve all these goals easily: AI translates, simplifies, and summarizes, instantly making material available to a much wider audience.
Yet there is a problem, especially when AI generates content from scratch. More and more often, when AI writes (or at least drafts) the content of our messages, it seems we understand less and less. Here, I am speaking from my personal experience; I use English as a second language. But I am sure we can generalize the point.
AI generates a lot of text, often too much, and as a consequence, people don’t validate it. Also, depending partly on the default settings of various AI tools, AI uses “big” words that many of us struggle to understand and structures messages in ways that can make them hard to understand. The reason is that Large Language Models (LLMs) were trained on “all the text of the world,” including marketing and sales messages—and content that is poorly written.
The common goal though—and especially the goal of leaders—stays the same: The messages should persuade and lead to action. To achieve that, recipients must understand them.
Just imagine my article starting this way: “Are you thrilled to eliminate the corporate babble and leverage the everyday language? Honestly, I am. I want to disrupt the practice of using vocabulary for which no one has the necessary bandwidth to process … Believe me, we are all in the same boat, and we have to step out of the comfort zone to enhance our communication …”
The point of that entire paragraph is that I want to help you improve the clarity of your communication. And that is what we should all strive for: Language that is clean of hype, clean of buzzwords, and shares concrete messages!
What I typically see, in addition to complex, wordy messages, as obstacles to better understanding, are:
- Excessive use of clichés
- Use of “strong” words with unclear meaning
- Unneeded words
- Careless use of conventional metaphors (ouch!)
- The so called “leadership babble”
- Over-structured messages
Using AI, you can end up with “sterile” text, where everything looks and sounds alike, because it uses a too-rigid structure.
On the other hand, some of these language constructions, if properly and carefully used, can strengthen your message.
Clichés
Clichés are so widely used that we sometimes do not even notice them anymore. A cliché is simply an expression that has lost its original meaning due to its overuse to mean something else. Let’s inspect some common clichés and find alternatives:
- Out of the box (thinking, ideas …): Why don’t we say innovative or original ideas, unconventional thinking, or fresh perspective?
- Comfort zone: To anyone who suggests that I step out of the comfort zone, I respond: “I have never been there.” Let’s talk about usual way of doing things, or about a familiar environment or safe space!
- At the end of the day: Think about it: It is not yet end of the day in some other time zone. We can say in summary instead, or putting everything together, or simply in the end.
- Not having enough bandwidth: This is a technical term, and people know that the lack of bandwidth means a slow response. Yet, in terms of resources, we can simply not have enough time or capacity.
‘Strong’ Words with Unclear Meanings
I am “thrilled” to write this paragraph. Well, let’s be concrete and explain some of these common “strong” words that have clearer alternatives.
- Thrilled: We are excited, delighted, or happy. At least for non-native speakers, these words sound more familiar.
- Fostering: We are moving forward, advancing, or just nurturing something, maybe promoting it.
- Disrupting: Too often we are “disrupted” by seeing this word. We can replace it with breaking, ruining, shattering, or simply with changing a routine.
- Leveraging: I never really understood this word until I saw that we can just use exploiting, deploying, or simply using instead.
- Addressing: Aren’t we dealing with something, handling it, managing it, or resolving it?
- Closing: You close the (skills) gap, right? Or maybe you close the doors? In essence, in L&D, you resolve the issue, build or improve the skills, you provide the solution, or you simply fix the problem.
Unneeded Words
These “extra” words appear more often in conversation than in written format. Since they do not have alternatives, you can simply drop them from your language. Less is often more!
- Honestly: Aren’t you honest all the time? Don’t ruin your reputation by stressing that you are honest only in the moment.
- I must say: Who forces you to say? Just say it!
- Believe me: Why are you asking me to believe you? Persuade me with what you say.
There are cases where these words contribute to the drama: In storytelling, sharing your personal experience, for example. Once, I said, “Believe me! It was a bear, this size, white, the polar one, sleeping just below the fence. I could hear its snoring. I froze!” (Fortunately, it was in a zoo.)
Careless ‘Leadership Babble’
Leaders too often use conventional metaphors to get sympathy from the people they lead. Unfortunately, quite often, these words have just the opposite effect. Let’s examine two common examples of leadership babble:
- We are one big family: Maybe you can use this in a family-run business, but you should certainly avoid using it in large corporations. Why just not replace it with “We are professionals, working together on a common goal.” This will also strengthen the sense of belonging.
- We are all in the same boat: Here the response I heard once was clear: “You, in the top leadership, certainly have more power and resources to change its course.” So, it is better to invite teams to help as much without putting them into the “same boat.”
Over-Structured Messages
It is great to see structure in an email, in a report, or in a book. But when the structure is so rigid that the reader gets annoyed, something is wrong. One example is the so-called “curse of four bullets”: I agree, two bullets may not be enough; and five bullets are already quite a lot. But is four really that great of a number? Repeated over and over again?
Or take the size of a paragraph. In two books I read recently, most of the paragraphs are the same length! I am sure that some variance in the number of bullets and in the size of paragraphs would help keep readers’ attention and increase their motivation to continue.
So, when your AI results use such an approach, revise the text, preferably by yourself.
In Summary
We need to use simple language, especially in business. Simple language can reach a broad audience and help diverse teams to align on the meaning. We might deviate from these guidelines when we want to establish an emotional bond, make things dramatic, or differentiate ourselves from the crowd.
We must carefully polish our—or our AI-created—content, with simplification in mind, removing doubt and making it concrete. Let me conclude with a quote:
“Employees trust leaders less when they overuse clichés and buzzwords … Why use these work buzzwords when we can just use plain English?”
Emily Gianunzio, research analyst at Korn Ferry
Yes, why can’t we just use plain English (or your native language): The human language!
Image credit: patpitchaya
