Watch Out for Jargon and Business-speak

 

Wikimedia Commons, North American X-15 at the National Air and Space Museum, Dec 2017, by Mys 721tx, cropping and blurred background added, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:North_American_X-15_at_the_National_Air_and_Space_Museum,_Dec_2017_1.jpg

I visited the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC, some time before all the remodeling and renovations. (That’s one of my favorite museum memories.) Our group ended up on the mezzanine alongside the North American X-15. We had an excellent guide that day. She gave us the historic dates and performance records broken by the plane in its time.

In the course of our conversation, I asked, “Since it’s a rocket plane, does it use liquid or solid fuel?” The guide dived in to give me a correct and accurate rundown of the fuel properties, including its chemical make-up. “Great,” I said. “Is that liquid or solid?” She laughed and said, “It’s liquid.”

Clear and concise communication, even elegant messaging, cuts through the overload. As professionals, we have to be conscious of overshooting the target.  How many meetings have you attended where someone got carried away?

I asked Gemini AI to create some important sounding but meaningless business-speak.  It did a great job creating a non-example:

“To effectively leverage our core competencies and achieve a holistic paradigm shift, we must proactively synergize our cross-functional deliverables to ensure maximum scalability across the entire ecosystem. By pivoting toward a client-centric, data-driven framework, we can facilitate a deep dive into our vertical integration strategies, thereby optimizing our value-added touchpoints without compromising our agile methodology. Ultimately, our mission is to disrupt the status quo through hyper-local innovation and strategic alignment, creating a seamless interface for stakeholder engagement that translates into actionable insights and best-in-class operational excellence.”

As writers and instructional designers, we are in the communication business. So, communicate!

 

Use Graphics to Remove Obstacles

 

Graphics do more than “make pretty.” In an eLearning situation, they need to carry their own weight, instructionally speaking. Infographics can convey something in seconds, if they’re designed right. In this example, graphics indicate that the link navigated to the correct page, reducing cognitive load on the learners. They can think about the content since they’re not sidetracked.

In Support of Being Nice

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. But few people practice this. Until we become nicer people, there will be no peace in this world.

Kirk Douglas

A Triumph of the Spirit: a Tribute to Kirk Douglas, June 2002

YouTube.com From the “Sunday Morning” archives: Hollywood Legends 40:30

...and where did we put the emphasis?

 

Focus Attention

No self-respecting presenter or instructional designer would ever willingly overload a slide. And yet… somehow, we all get roped into it. Maybe we’re only allowed a single slide in a shared presentation or something. The single slide gets five points to cover. (Here’s my sarcasm showing: just try and tell me it’s never happened to you.)

There’s the presenter droning on for ten minutes displaying a slide with nothing happening on it. And the audience’s attention? It’s wandering all over the slide trying to find its place. Or… it’s wandering off the slide trying to get away from this place.

It’s a clunky hack (but worth it) to highlight the point you’re talking about. The highlight could be a box or an arrow or anything to point out what the current topic is. Yes, we’d rather have separate slides for each segment, but we have to make do in the real world.

 

 

Being nice is a superpower!

Recently, we had a company-wide town hall webcast. It was a video call from headquarters. We noticed that each of the executive speakers had a popular song playing as they approached the stand. So, in our team’s follow-up conference call, we indulged in choosing our own “walk-up songs” for when we’re called up to speak. I blurted out “You’ve Got a Friend in Me,” from the Toy Story movies. After the initial laughter, my colleagues seemed to agree that it was a suitable song for me. “Great,” I thought sarcastically. “I just revealed myself as being NICE.” (Though that’s no big revelation.)

But niceness is not a weakness. It’s confident, supportive, civil, and persuasive. It’s also pleasant and friendly. I made informal observations of my educator/instructional designer colleagues. Along with their high organization and creativity traits, a lot of them have mentoring/shepherding traits.  I suppose it helps to be nice when you’re teaching something. (I know that’s not a hard and fast rule. Some content demands a disciplined mind for it to be learned.) Being nice doesn’t exclude me from my career crowd, though. It seems to go with the territory.

So, don’t shy away from being nice. It’s a superpower. And, by the way, you’ve got a friend in me.

 

There's an up-side to job searching?

We all know how putting our best foot forward can tie us into knots. At times, it's simply discouraging. We also know that the main goal is landing that role that fits. We focus on that at the expense of all else.

But wait, there's more. I'm way impressed with the caliber of the people I meet along the way.  Whether or not I land the position, there are people I want to associate with. I may be some kind of weird social butterfly, but I've connected with folks who have turned me down for jobs I was applying to. (Surprise! You thought you were done with me!)

Sometimes that has paid off in the long run, leading to future roles. Mostly not. But having friendships and positive contacts are their own reward. They enrich both my professional and my personal life.

But wait, there's more. I'm way impressed with how my current friends and colleagues rally around to alert me to openings that I may miss otherwise... besides enriching both my professional and my personal life. You get a huge, heartfelt thank you!

Maybe I'm stretching to see a silver lining, but I think I found a couple.