(Or how I embarrassed myself in front of a room full of people.)
I’ve been at a negotiation seminar all weekend when during the last day I went up on stage to share my 30 second escalator speech. I delivered it only to be told I was insulting my client! I said, after several edits, “Who I work with is IT Managers who has the problem of unorganized web architecture. I help them attain more clients and build loyalty.” It sounded good to me!
However, the leader of the seminar pointed out to me that it is very likely that my client is someone who created that system and consequently would be quite put out by that statement.
After some work I ended up with, “Who I work with are web based businesses who would like to work with the customers they didn’t know they had.”
Much better right? Right. The experience taught me something though. As professionals we often talk in the language of the people we work with. We need to remember when engaging our audience(s) that they may not always known or understand what it is we do. We need to always keep in mind our audience. Consider it user experience within language…
There was a time in my life when I didn’t care for language. I felt that as long as I made my point who cares how I said it. Admittedly this thinking often found me and the party to whom I was speaking frustrated as I wouldn’t make my point.
Interestingly though, going through the thesis process and giving presentation after presentation of my thoughts on my project has forced me to be a critic of everything I (and others) say. (This is a good thing.)
My opinion now is language is everything! Whether we look at language from the visual perspective of a designer to the spoken and written language of the world, it is how you express yourself that becomes what people see and think of you. Thus we wouldn’t expect to see someone of the upper class speaking like someone of a lower class. (Perhaps that is what confounds some of us when we think of Paris Hilton.) A business person making a pitch will not use the language of a plumber to sell his item unless he is speaking to plumbers. A loan officer at a bank will speak in terms of finance such as a 30 year amortized loan. The rest of us may look very confused by this term. Therefore taking the time to consider the audience and adjust your language accordingly will get you further ahead in the long run.
As an aside, this reminds me of Sun Tzu’s, Art of War. There is as much strategy in language as there is in war.
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