Winners make it simple
Almost every day several examples remind us how simplicity can be a major (and the hardest to get) key for success. In communications, too.
The day after day, more and more increasing number of people accessing information (including specific, technical and complex information) forces man, machines, products and services to become as simple as possible, to win a vast competition. The goal is not only to spread one’s own messages to improve people’s knowledge and drive opinions, but also to gain enough market shares to impose one’s own standards and devices or merely sell expensive advertising spaces.
Think of gifted teachers and professors or lecturers who can speak about – say – Einstein’s Theory of Relativity with such simple words that also a boy can understand. They are winners and the prize is silent and attentive scholars – a rare circumstance – or the esteem of the academic community.
On the other side, the results of a recent survey show a growing demand for simplicity among end users of investment products and services. Winners – best sellers in this case – are those who will design friendly products and specially train their salesforce (private bankers and assistants) to meet this need.
An elegant and sophisticated language is certainly fascinating but it limits its audience and saleability. When overly-ornate, wordy or excessively formal, it can often induce the suspicion it is papering over a lack of substance.
Simple language does the same, too. But on the opposite side. Think about the latest elections in France, that many experts interpret as the victory of a widespread sentiment against Europe. On a communications level, easy and catchy phrases one can use to briefly blame Euro for the current crisis are much more effective than any official and well-structured speech on what difficulties the whole world economy would have faced if a common currency haven’t ever been adopted by 18 of the 28 member States of the European Union.
This simplicity issue is nothing new, actually. Galileo Galilei, for instance, in his “Considerazioni al Tasso” (late XVI) wrote: «Parlare oscuramente lo sa fare ognuno, ma chiaro pochissimi.» (Anyone can speak obscurely, but a very few clearly). Still no solution is in sight!
Personally, I prefer going with George Orwell who, in his 1946 “Politics and the English Language”, wrote: «The great enemy of clear language is insincerity.» (read the full quote)
