Be Succinct: Before and After
February 4th, 2013More winning materials for you.
My blog series, 7 Tips on How to Win Awards*, is now a colorful, engaging guide, available SOON for digital download.
Creating this guide, and preparing to speak about it at the 2013 Training Conference in Orlando, has inspired me to revisit it here.
One topic near and dear to me is Tip #6: Be succinct.
A great way to understand this maxim is by way of example, so here’s a favorite. These are annual goals for a corporate learning organization:
BEFORE
- Develop learning and performance support interventions to drive towards $2 billion goal
- Align service line and industry learning strategies with related revenue goals
- Determine business opportunities, in collaboration with service lines, to deliver learning solutions to external market place for profit
Let’s see how we can say the same thing in fewer words, with less business jargon and more plain English.
AFTER
- Drive towards $2 billion goal with innovative sales training
- Help service line and industry groups meet revenue goals
- Generate revenue through external learning solutions
In my experience, corporate environments do not invite simplicity. In fact, back when I worked at a large marketing agency with Microsoft as a client, it was noted that Microsoft employees seemed to feel that the more white space they had on a PowerPoint slide, the less intelligent they would look.
But award judges want you to get to the point, quickly, clearly and compellingly.
Be succinct, my friends.
* Be a rebel. Start with Tip #7 and work backwards from the links at the bottom of the page.
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