Smart Talk has No Place in Utility Communications

I recently read a Harvard Business Review article focused on the “smart talk trap.”  It struck a chord with me as I read it, mainly because I have had the misfortune of dealing with this behavior regularly for the last 30 or so years!

What is the Smart Talk Trap?

According to the HBR article, which was based on 4 years of research across nearly 100 companies, smart talk essentially refers to the purposeful use of buzzwords or jargon when speaking with the goal to sound more intelligent.  The downside of this, aside from being annoying, is that it can paralyze organizations from taking action.  In a sense, the talk serves as a substitute for action.

I have seen this phenomenon time and time again during outage restoration situations.  Engaging in purposeful smart talk can easily cloud the message and create confusion and misunderstanding.  This confusion often hinders productivity, or worse, leads to critical errors.

In order to prevent these issues, smart talk must be avoided or at least minimized.  This is done by focusing on short, clear and to-the-point communications.  If smart talk is pervasive within your company, changing this behavior might require training and reinforcement from above.

Unfortunately, we are taught in college, and then we see in corporate environments, that talking is the most effective way to climb the corporate ladder.  Therefore, despite best efforts, there will always be smart talkers within your organization.

But you can only control what you can control, and that is YOU.  Take it upon yourself to ditch the smart talk.  Become an evangelist for clear communication.  Lead by example. You never know, it just might start to rub off on your coworkers.