photo by moonlightbulb

If you’re interested in effective communication, I’m sure by now you’ve read Chip and Dan Heath’s Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. One of the most compelling concepts explored in this fascinating book is the Curse of Knowledge. Here’s what the Heaths have to say about it:

People tend to think that having a great idea is enough, and they think the communication part will come naturally. We are in deep denial about the difficulty of getting a thought out of our own heads and into the heads of others. It’s just not true that, “If you think it, it will stick.”

And that brings us to the villain of our book: The Curse of Knowledge. Lots of research in economics and psychology shows that when we know something, it becomes hard for us to imagine not knowing it. As a result, we become lousy communicators. Think of a lawyer who can’t give you a straight, comprehensible answer to a legal question. His vast knowledge and experience renders him unable to fathom how little you know. So when he talks to you, he talks in abstractions that you can’t follow. And we’re all like the lawyer in our own domain of expertise.

Here’s the great cruelty of the Curse of Knowledge: The better we get at generating great ideas—new insights and novel solutions—in our field of expertise, the more unnatural it becomes for us to communicate those ideas clearly. That’s why knowledge is a curse. But notice we said “unnatural,” not “impossible.” Experts just need to devote a little time to applying the basic principles of stickiness.

JFK dodged the Curse [with “put a man on the moon in a decade”]. If he’d been a modern-day politician or CEO, he’d probably have said, “Our mission is to become the international leader in the space industry, using our capacity for technological innovation to build a bridge towards humanity’s future.” That might have set a moon walk back fifteen years.

Every industry, every field and every endeavor has its secret language: the jargon, the technical terms, the acronyms and shorthand that enable us to communicate quickly among our peers and colleagues. But what about the poor schmuck who has no clue what the hell you’re talking about? That poor schmuck may be a customer, prospective donor or other would-be stakeholder you’ve made feel inadequate, confused and slightly stupid.

If you want to communicate with the outside world, the first step is not assuming anyone knows what you’re talking about. If I don’t live in your world, you’d better make it simple for me. Lose the jargon. Break down the technical language into something anyone can grasp. If you’re not ruthless in identifying and eradicating everything that stands in the way of my understanding you, then your “communication” may be a wasted effort.

photo by pink sherbet photography

David Meerman Scott and HubSpot have introduced a cool tool for evaluating written content for poor language choices: gobbledygook, jargon, cliches and overused hype words.

The Gobbledygook Grader scores your copy based on your use of these words and phrases and suggests how you might improve it. This is a great reality check on whether you’re communicating in a non-B.S.-filled manner.

Meerman just completed an extensive analysis of gobbledygook words and phrases in 711,123 press releases put out through the major online distribution channels (Business Wire, Marketwire, GlobeNewswire and PR Newswire). He used Dow Jones Insight, a media analysis service that I’m sure is far beyond my modest budget.

The top 25 gobbledygook words and phrases in 2008:

1. Innovate
2. Pleased to
3. Unique
4. Focused on
5. Leading Provider
6. Commitment
7. Partnership
8. New and improved
9. Leverage
10. 120 percent
11. Cost effective
12. Next generation
13. 110 percent
14. Flexible
15. World class
16. Robust
17. High performance
18. Scalability
19. Proud to
20. Optimize
21. Outcomes
22. In terms of
23. Value added
24. Easy to use
25. Metrics

I predict “monetize” will make the list sometime in the future. Repeat after me: “How I’m going to make money off this thing” is better than “How I’m going to monetize (fill in the blank).” And I was a little surprised not to see “state of the art” on the list. I still see plenty of people trying to slide that one into descriptions of the most mundane of offerings. Of course, who needs it when we’ve got “next generation” and “world class” to overuse?

I just might end up using the Gobbledygook Grader as frequently as Flesch-Kincaid. I used it on my F-K post and got a 71 out of 100 and zero gobbledygook words used. Hey, not bad!

For a comparison I ran this post, list and all. No surprises there … I got a -56.

Many thanks to The Book Design Review for turning me on to Schott’s Vocab, Ben Schott’s column on the “words and phrases that encapsulate the times in which we live or shed light on a story of note.” I’ve added it to my RSS reader.

If you’re wondering about Elephant Flyovers, Clouds of Evil or the great Coca-Cola Drought, check it out.