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Offensive reasons for
lying
• To obtain a reward that’s not otherwise easily attainable.
• To gain advantage over another person or situation.
• To create a positive impression and win the admiration of others.
• To exercise powers over others by controlling information.
Defensive reasons for
lying
• To avoid being punished or to avoid embarrassment.
• To protect another person from being punished.
• To protect yourself from the threat of physical or emotional harm.
• To get out of an awkward social situation.
• To maintain privacy.
You probably recognise many of these, as I do, and you may be able to
think of examples from your life where, with the best of intentions (or
sometimes not!) you have intentionally ‘misspoken’. I wonder if there has
ever been a completely honest human being. The truth can hurt, and I am
certainly not advocating brutal honesty at all times: “You look terrible
today!” is neither kind, nor necessary.
Despite the prevalence of lying, we value honesty highly, and many
people say it’s the most important value they seek in their key
relationships. I want to emphasise 2 facets of honesty that I believe are
critical if your speaking is to land with power.
Be
clear
Many a book has been written on plain speaking, and for good reason. In
business, government, the legal professions and academia, a combination
of pomposity and hubris (in particular, the desire to appear clever,
expressed by using long, complicated and obscure words) have given rise
to millions of documents, speeches and conversations that have left the
recipients more confused at the end than they were at the beginning. I
remember being turned off the entire subject of sociology during my
economics degree at Cambridge when the first lecture included words
such as ‘systemativity’ and ‘performative conception’.
In their entertaining book
Made to Stick
, which investigates why some
ideas stick and others evaporate, Chip and Dan Heath reflect that, had he
been a CEO, President John F Kennedy might well have said in 1961:
“Our mission is to become the international leader in the space industry
through maximum team-centred innovation and strategically targeted
aerospace initiatives.” Instead he said: “I believe that this nation should
commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a
man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth.” That level of
clarity was inspiring enough (and precise enough) that the almost
impossible goal was achieved 8 years later. Governments seem to be
learning this lesson: on October 13, 2010 President Obama signed a Plain
Writing Act requiring that federal agencies use “clear government
communication that the public can understand and use.” In the UK, the
Plain English Campaign has its international Crystal Mark, which
rewards well-written documents, as well as an annual Foot in Mouth
Award for baffling spoken language, such as the 1994 winner by then
Shadow Chancellor Gordon Brown, who gave a speech about “the growth
of post neo-classical endogenous growth theory.” My own bugbears are
the classic corporate words provide, utilise and facilitate (what’s wrong
with give, use and help?).
Of course, written language is even worse than spoken in most instances,
and, although it’s not the subject of this book, the Plain English
Campaign’s Golden Bull awards offer a salutary pool of examples of how
not to write. One insurance survey asked the recipient:
“When you changed your retirement date, did you intend to align your
lifestyle switching strategy to your revised retirement date?”
They didn’t explain what on earth a ‘lifestyle switching strategy’ is.
Lawyers, of course, rule the roost when it comes to incomprehensible
written language. Most people who have had to deal with legal
agreements have struggled with passages like this single sentence from
the winner of the 2016 Golden Bull award:
I do hereby for myself, my heirs, executors, administrators and assigns
guarantee to you and your heirs, executors, administrators and assigns
and the owner of the premises for the time being the punctual payment of
said rent now payable by the Tenant or as same may be varied or
permitted to be varied by law and for mesne rates that may accrue due
until full clear and legal possession shall be delivered up to you and I
agree for myself, my heirs, executors, administrators and assigns to
indemnify you and your heirs, executors administrators and assigns and
the owner of the premises for the time being from all loss or damage done
to the said premises by the Tenant or through his negligence or by reason
of non-fulfillment of any of the stipulations and conditions on the part of
the Tenant contained in above agreement and for all costs of any
proceedings for the recovery of the rent or possession of said premises
and should Notice to Quit be served by the Landlord or Tenant, or
ejectment summons issued or eviction decree obtained in respect of said
premises and afterwards withdrawn or waived by either party with or
without my knowledge.
Unnecessary complexity, vagueness and indirectness tend to be
confusing. Keep sentences short wherever possible, avoiding too many
subordinate clauses. Try to avoid the passive tense unless it adds strength
or clarity; it usually does neither – for example, “We will achieve this by
the end of the year” is much more powerful than “This will be achieved by
the end of the year.” Always check for that little self-aggrandising imp
that lurks in us all: ask yourself if there’s a simpler word you can use, a
plainer way of putting this. If you set goals for anyone (or for yourself),
make them SMART, as President Kennedy did: specific, measurable,
achievable, realistic and timed. Remember, the objective is to be
understood, not to be impressive: this is about getting the ball over the
net and keeping the rally going, not hitting a crowd-pleasing winner.
In sum, make your speech simple, easy to understand, logical, plain,
direct, complete and specific, and you will generally find it effectively
received.
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