Meaning the third principle
Writers can significantly increase their rapport with readers if they move from describing what something ‘is’ to explaining what something ‘means’. This is a vital but often forgotten step in the writing process.
Your task as a writer is to make sense of what is happening in the organisation in a way that people can relate to and act upon. To help you tackle this challenge, previous chapters of this book advised you to write a brief and outline, and to develop a writing strategy based on organisational goals and purpose. In this chapter, you will learn how focusing on meaning will further improve your writing.
How does the concept of meaning relate to the organisation? Meaning is the translation of goals and purpose into something to which a reader can relate. Translation in this case can mean two things: it can either be the clarification of a word or phrase, or it can refer to the effect that something has on the organisation as a whole. Let’s look at both aspects in more detail.
Clarify yourself
At first sight, people in the organisation appear to be communicating with ease, using everyday words whose meaning is assumed to be understood. But delve deeper and it becomes clear that organisational language is really quite ambiguous. The widespread use of business jargon – words like synergy, leading, key, and competitive field – has created a pseudo-language that people believe conveys real meaning. Employees assume they know what such words mean to others, but in reality they don’t.
Take for example a word like ‘performance’, something senior management and the HR department love to increase in the organisation. But what exactly is performance? What criteria are used and who says they are right for the organisation? Performance during what period of time? Compared to what or whom? Merely talking about ‘increasing performance’ and arguing people and processes need to change isn’t necessarily in the best interests of the organisation.
This is not an attack on jargon per se. As long as all organisational members interpret jargon in the same way, its use can strengthen the organisation’s culture and speed up communication. Unfortunately, business jargon tends to be so vague that people have vastly differing interpretations of the same words or phrases. Because of this, jargon does major damage to a corporation’s ability to convey meaning to its members. If this causes staff to feel alienated, there can be a breakdown in communication.
What should you as a writer do to communicate clearly? First of all, be aware of the fact that the process of interpretation is terribly complex. People interpret words in a variety of contexts, such as upbringing, society and the organisation’s culture. Communication with stakeholders, particularly those with widely differing interests, needs and emotional states, makes your job as a writer all the more challenging. It is your responsibility to critically evaluate what you write and how that can be interpreted.
In particular, you should constantly ask – and answer – a very simple question: what does this mean? Ask this of every word, every sentence, every paragraph and every chapter, until it becomes second nature. This question helps you to step outside your own frame of reference and critically evaluate the words, structure or style used. If such a simple technique were used consistently, business jargon would be used less frivolously.
Another way to aid the process of interpretation is to take the reader by the hand with constructions like ‘which means that’ or ‘as a result of which’. It also helps to start a sentence with constructions like ‘This leads to’, ‘That contributes to’ or ‘As a result of this’. These constructions create bridges between a previous sentence and an explanation or elaboration and helps the reader – and sometimes yourself - make sense of what is being communicated.
The meaning of goals and purpose in organisations
You just read how the principle of meaning can help you to be more precise in your use of language. This principle can also be applied to the organisation as a whole, specifically when you want to explain how something will affect the organisation. For example, the introduction of a performance-based pay system will change the way people are motivated and how they relate to each other. Outlining the strategic rationale for such a change – say, dealing with increased competition – targets stakeholders at an intellectual level and helps people see the logic of change. This helps people understand the underlying business case and how it impacts their own plans and targets.
But winning the hearts of people, which is needed to get them to change their attitude and behaviour, requires you to address the meaning of such change in terms of their values, beliefs and ambitions. Rather than just dealing with the needs and interests of stakeholders you should relate to your readers’ identity as well. This requires you to connect change and its desired outcome to meaning.
Now, meaning on an organisational level can be clarified by asking simple questions like
- What does this mean to the organisation?
- How does this affect our stakeholders and the way they do things on a day-to-day basis?
- How will this change our ability to achieve our goals?
- How will this change our ability to relate to others inside and outside of the organisation?
- How will this change our culture?
- What will this do to our market position?
As a rule of thumb, the more significant the organisational change, the more the change means to people. Identifying and addressing this gap in communicating with people is crucial to the success of the change process. Answering the question ‘what does X mean to Y’ for each of your stakeholders is a simple yet effective way of connecting with your readers. If you are looking for a simple way to put this into writing, use the ‘[Statement], meaning [consequence] format. For example:
- We are facing more competition, meaning we need to develop new products.
- We have incurred higher costs, meaning we will have to lay off staff.
- This team has met all its targets, meaning team members have earned a bonus.
Instead of using only this construction throughout the text, you can use the following alternatives:
- as a result of which
- which translates into
- which leads to
- as a consequence
- this causes
A final note of caution: do not see the principle of meaning as a tedious and simplistic step in the writing process. It does not mean helping readers less perceptive than you understand what you believe is painfully obvious. Rather, you should see it as a very subtle, yet highly powerful way of influencing your readers’ mindset.
Describing an event or labelling an emotion, forces your readers to consider things from your perspective. It’s like telling people “not to think of a pink elephant”, when you know most people will not be able to think of anything else. Whether readers agree with you or not, the very act of determining meaning gives you as the writer unprecedented influence over your reader. Use this power prudently and humbly.
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