Introduction | 289

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Lynda Harris WRiTE

How to overcome daily sabotage of your brand and profit

The essential guide for CEOs and managers

who understand the price of

words

Excerpt from Part 1

As plain-language consultants and advocates, we’re haunted

by the short-lived results of our work. The beautifully crafted

copy that succumbs to top-management ‘edits’, the hours

of staff training that have little or no impact because the

boss—who was too busy to attend the course—doesn’t

support their efforts. We know that enduring change requires

the whole organisation to understand the value of clarity

and commit to it. And yet, we rarely manage to persuade our

clients to take this step. Rewrite will change that. It packs

the arguments, the tools, and the stories we need to make

our case and guide our clients through a real organisational

change process.

Sandra Fisher-Martins Executive Director, Português Claro

Rewrite is a wake-up call for all

organisations to examine their

writing style—in terms of their

bottom line and the impact on

ordinary people’s lives.

Gregory Fortuin, Former Families Commissioner and Race Relations Conciliator

write

Lynda Harris

How to overcome daily sabotage

of your brand and profit

© Copyright Lynda Harris 2015

All rights reserved.

Lynda Harris asserts her moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be produced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or information storage and retrieval

systems, without permission in writing from the copyright holder.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of New Zealand.

Published by Write Limited, Level 7, AMI Plaza, 342 Lambton Quay,

PO Box 5938, Lambton Quay, Wellington 6145, New Zealand

www.write.co.nz

ISBN 978-0-9876659-2-8

First edition May 2015

www.rewritebook.com

www.facebook.com/WriteLimited

www.twitter.com/WriteLimited

Design: redinc. book design, Auckland, www.redinc.co.nz

Printed in China through Asia Pacific Offset Ltd.

ContentsFirst words—about your bottom line 6

Part 1—Rethink 10Words make the world—and your organisation—go round 11All words have a price 17Put your words to the test 29A simple answer to reducing the price of words 39Name your style 47Link your motive for plain language to your organisation’s purpose 50Decide to make plain language a business strategy 63

Part 2—Reboot 65Recognise the challenge 66Create the Path 71Use the Rewrite for Change™ Model 74

Part 3—Reinvent 84Aegon: Achieving plain language is all about patience and process 88Cancer Society of New Zealand: Writing to empower vulnerable people 105Castalia: Plain English as a business advantage 114Commerce Commission: Determination fuels a major turnaround 125Creative New Zealand: Freeing up staff to make a difference in the arts 135Jacobs Ohlman: Solid evidence for clear legal writing 142Office of the Auditor-General: Parliament’s watchdog makes sure the message is clear 156Pure Botanical: A plain English project across continents 170Statistics New Zealand: Giving numbers a voice 182

Part 4—Replay 196Success leaves clues 197Have a strategic focus 199Start well 205Use your leaders and hire in experts 210Keep people engaged 215Rise above resistance 219Measure and celebrate 222Keep calm and carry on! 224

Part 5—Reinforce 227Getting buy-in at the start and throughout your project 229Gathering the right people 236Creating your systems and resources 249Useful resources about plain language and writing 268

Notes 274Acknowledgements 279About the author and Write 281 Index 283

6 | Rewrite Introduction | 7

First words— about your bottom line

A book to change your mind—and your bottom line

Does it really matter how well people in your organisation write? If you think clear writing is just something ‘nice to have’, this book will change your mind.

Rewrite highlights the tremendous cost of bad writing in business and government—and offers practical solutions for change.

It’s a handbook for improving bottom-line results by changing the way writers think. The stories in Rewrite show, unequivocally, that high-quality writing is one of the most important determiners of organisational success. Yet its importance is least likely to be recognised!

At Write, we’ve been helping organisations improve the way they write for over 2 decades. We’ve seen over and over again that good writing leads to better decision-making, and saves organisations time and money. The benefits of a radical shift in writing style can be dramatic.

But getting everyone in an organisation to change their writing, and making the change stick, can be a challenge. So, once we’d figured out a way to help organisations be more successful by transforming their writing, we wanted to share it. At the heart of Rewrite you’ll find stories—stories of organisations that focused on changing writers’ skills and attitudes, and reaped the rewards.

Rewrite also includes a model for success and many practical tools. Our overall goal has been to create a really useful handbook about how to transform organisational writing style to meet a compelling business need. We hope your copy will become dog-eared through use!

Who this book is forThis book is for CEOs and senior people in businesses and organisations—people who live by their words. It’s for managers who know that the way their people write really matters, because writing is at the very heart of their organisation’s reputation and effectiveness.

n It’s for organisations that write and rewrite too much.

n It’s for people who believe it’s possible to change writing culture—and for people who don’t.

n It’s for people who run large organisations and small ones.

Rewrite includes stories from people like you in law firms, government agencies, financial organisations, international consultancy companies, and more.

Rewrite highlights the

tremendous cost of bad

writing in business and

government—and offers

practical solutions for

change.

Introduction | 9

A betterbottom line

Awareness

InvestigationAction

QUALITY

COMMUNICATION

The bottom-line impact of better writing—from awareness to action

What’s insideRethink Recognising the link between your organisation’s writing style and your bottom line

Reboot Planning a radical change in writing style

Reinvent Listening to the stories of others who reinvented writing style

Replay Learning and applying the lessons from the stories

Reinforce Borrowing ideas and practical resources from others

How to use this bookThis is not a book you’ll read in one sitting. It’s a book you’ll dip in and out of.

I hope you’ll recognise aspects of your organisation in at least one of the stories told here. Your organisation may work in a similar sector, be a similar size, or have a similar management style. You might recognise the barriers and challenges they faced.

Most of all, I hope you’ll move from awareness to action!

And as you encourage your organisation to start gaining the benefits high-quality writing will bring, you’ll find it useful to learn from those who have been through the process before.

So please use this book in whatever way is most useful for you. Make it your own. And make your organisation’s move towards better writing and greater success start now.

Lynda Harris

The stories in Rewrite show,

unequivocally, that high-

quality writing is one of the

most important determiners

of organisational success. Yet

its importance is least likely

to be recognised!

10 | Rewrite Part 1 Rethink | 11

Part 1

Recognising the link between your organisation’s writing style and your bottom line

Words make the world—and your organisation—go roundn Your success as an organisation depends on words. How your people write

can affect your reputation, your costs, and your profit.

n Words have an important job to do—to deliver information. If your delivery system fails, so can your business.

n Smart organisations recognise that words make their world go round. Is it time to rethink the way words are used at your place?

think

Document-driven processes are

critical information arteries that

drive organizations’ financial

results—both top line and

bottom line.

Boyd, Pucciarelli, Webster

12 | Rewrite

Your success as a business depends on wordsEvery organisation relies on words to connect with its staff, its customers, and its stakeholders. A large percentage of those words are written down, ready to be interpreted and reacted to, for better or worse, by one or many readers.

If your organisation offers professional or advisory services, or manufactures or distributes goods, or if you’re a government organisation, words are critical to your success.

Given that in most offices most people write every day (some for 80–90 percent of their time), you’ve got a lot riding on the ability of your people to write clearly and effectively. Collectively and individually, your people affect reputation, and profit or costs, at almost every moment.

Words have an important job to do

Here’s a new way of thinking about words. Words and writing don’t exist as an end in themselves—they have a job to do. That job is to convey information.

Just as a factory manufactures and distributes products, writers in every organisation ‘manufacture’ and distribute information. Information becomes the product. The product is distributed, internally and externally, through papers, reports, letters, bulletins, emails, web copy, user manuals, newsletters, briefings, and so on.

In this sense, writing and other document processes are simply a distribution and delivery system. In the same way that a manufacturing company fails if its delivery system is ineffective, so organisations can fail when they rely on ineffective writing to get the message out. The good news is that failure of this kind is entirely avoidable.

raw materials ideas/facts

manufacturingprocess

writingprocess

distributionprocess

‘publication’channel

product to customer

informationto reader

When information is your product

job de

scrip

tions

reports

procedures

emails

brief

ings

newsle

tter

s

white papers

proposals

webpagesinvoices

artic

les

brochures

annu

al re

port

s

policies

board papers

contra

ctsmedia r

eleases

audit

s

minutes

training materials

template letters

specifications

terms and conditions

Words make your world go round

Your people + their words = your success

Why did Statistics New Zealand invest several years in a project to

make their writing clearer and more effective?

Because, as a government department, Statistics NZ uses words to

transform data into useful information for all New Zealanders.

It produces information that helps government and citizens make

good decisions by understanding trends, patterns, and changes in

our society.

Statistics NZ staff had found that the value in their information

was sometimes lost in technical jargon and through media

misinterpretation.

After the project had been running for several years they said, ‘It’s

the way we approach what we do, because we know it works . . . we

have seen our customers and the media experiencing the difference.’

Like it or not, the way your people write affects your organisation’s reputation, effectiveness, and profit or costs at almost every moment. Smart organisations recognise that words make their world go round.

16 | Rewrite Part 1 Rethink | 17

Time for a rethink?Given that words matter so much, maybe it’s time to rethink the way you and your people use them. With a rethink, they (and you) can do better.

Each of the organisations featured in Rewrite did recognise the consequences of ineffective writing. That realisation started them on a journey of rethinking everything about the way they wrote. All words have a price

n Words come with a price tag—even if you’re not aware of it. Poor writers waste your money and sacrifice your profits.

n Poor writing can also cripple your organisation’s effectiveness, stress your people, and reduce your productivity.

n Everything your clients or customers read from your organisation—from your website to advertising to emails—can strengthen or damage your reputation and your brand.

n Poor-quality documents are a major risk and cost to business. The less care your writers take, the more it costs you.

The reality of your

employees’ writing habits

could be costing your

company dearly.

Bill Kozel

Introduction | 291

Rewrite advances the simple proposition that clearer

companies will be more profitable companies. Not a new

idea, of course, but the book expounds it in a fresh and

systematic way—‘What oft was thought but ne’er so well

express’d’, as Alexander Pope said—and supports it with

case studies from organisations that have shifted their

writing culture from obscurity to clarity. Showing how to

create and apply a plain-language strategy, the book tells

a powerful and instructive story. I strongly recommend it.

Martin CuttsAuthor of The Oxford Guide to Plain English

Rewrite is a one-of-a-kind book that highlights the tremendous cost of bad writing in business and government—and gives practical solutions for change. Rewrite offers valuable advice on harnessing the power of effective writing. Rewrite describes the challenges and triumphs faced by organisations pursuing this goal, and shares inspiring stories from the ‘plain English coalface’.

Drawing on years of commercial experience working with many organisations, Write CEO Lynda Harris and her colleagues have produced a handbook for improving bottom-line results by changing the way writers think.

Chief executives, managers, communications teams, writers, analysts, and plain language practitioners—anyone who understands the price of words—will immediately grasp the value of the lessons offered in Rewrite.

It’s hard to see why anyone would oppose plain English, so why isn’t it universally used? Like everything that’s done well, clear writing needs time and commitment, so organisations need to be convinced that it’s worthwhile. This book is packed with ‘war stories’ from real organisations that show how they did it, and how their investment paid off. It’s an inspiring read for anyone who feels they are alone in the fight against gobbledygook.

Rob Waller The Simplification Centre

WRiTE