A new study suggests that simple language may be the key to career success.
Five-minute read – 100% written by humans
Our instinct is to select words that we feel will convey sophistication and intelligence, but the evidence suggests that using clever-sounding words often has precisely the opposite effect. Over the last twenty years we have been teaching business leaders that their choice of language matters.
In fact, our attitude to language is so revealing that a new study suggests organizations may increasingly use it to evaluate the calibre of candidates. So, what does the hard evidence tell us about choice of language and the impression that that creates?
Link with intelligence and analytical skills
In a paper recently published in Personality and Individual Differences entitled The Corporate Bullshit Receptivity Scale: Development, validation, and associations with workplace outcomes, the academic Shane Littrell and his colleagues present strong evidence that a propensity to be impressed by corporate bullshit correlates inversely with cognitive and analytical skills and fluid intelligence. The paper argues that on the strength of the evidence, this could provide a reasonably robust method for assessing whom to hire and whom to promote. In the spirit of putting things simply: if you’re dumb enough to be taken in by this bullshit, you’re too dumb to work here.
Fertile ground for the spread of bullshit
Littrel differentiates between bullshit and jargon. Jargon can be baffling to outsiders but as a shorthand between professionals it often serves a purpose. Bullshit on the other hand, is that form of language that is vague, overly complex and intended to sound clever. What’s more “Organizational environments provide fertile ground for the spread of bullshit.” It seems that in corporate life there are many occasions when it suits us to sound vague but impressive. There is a wealth of hard evidence that suggests the smartest minds tend to see through this.
We tend to slip into bullshit when we feel we are on shaky ground or have something to hide
In their book Why Business People Speak Like Idiots: A Bullfighter’s Guide. (Free Press), the authors analyse CEOs’ shareholder letters using the Flesch Reading Ease test and found substantially higher readability scores among leaders of admired companies than among companies later associated with major corporate scandals.
The Flesch Reading Ease test assigns a score out of 100, whereby the closer to 100 the easier a passage is to read. Nursery-school books with which very young children learn to read, will typically score something close to 100. A well-written quality newspaper will typically target a score of around 50.
When a leader speaks with honesty and conviction
What happens when a leader speaks with absolute straightforward honesty and conviction? We ran two of the most famous speeches of the 20th century through the Flesch test. The first is Churchill’s Fight-them-on-the-beaches speech, the second is Martin Luther King’s I-have-a-dream speech. What’s striking is how highly they score for clarity and simplicity: 67 and 82 respectively. Both leaders understood the power of simple language. In both contexts, their words inspired people to act when the stakes could not have been higher.
Why bullshit proliferates
So why does bullshit proliferate? It seems we tend to use it when we are unsure of ourselves or what we are saying. When the stark message is uncomfortable it’s tempting to use bullshit to create a bit of smoke screen. Littrell and colleagues define it as the use of “abstruse corporate buzzwords and jargon in a functionally misleading way.”
Let’s test out this hypothesis. The passage below is from a PWC publication seeking to persuade clients to replace staff with AI agents. In this context, we might predict a temptation to deploy those ‘abstruse corporate buzzwords.’ PWC like many advisory firms is seen as highly AI-exposed. (Its competitor Accenture’s share price has halved in recent years.) What’s more, like so much communication about AI, it faces a double bind. There’s a need to convince the C-suite of the money-saving potential through headcount reduction; while not alarming the wider audience about the risk of job decimation. You might expect a prime candidate for corporate bullshit. Here’s a typical passage from the document:
A centralized agent management hub, built on PwC’s proprietary framework, enables orchestration, scale, cross-channel consistency and oversight for customer-facing and backend operations. The AI agent-enabled, omnichannel contact centre is just the start. With PwC’s help, this company is standing up enterprise-wide Responsible AI, including AI governance. It’s giving its workforce new skills and fostering a culture of innovation and continuous learning. The company plans, as an enterprise, to leverage the augmented intelligence that can come from integrated human-AI teams.
The score was 18. It’s dense with corporate buzz-phrases and painful to read. It may sound superficially impressive, but it doesn’t do its job as a piece of communication.
More complex language rarely makes us seem more intelligent because people tend to see through it. The Psychologist Daniel Oppenheimer carried out five experiments, in which participants read passages that conveyed identical underlying ideas but varied in the complexity of language they used.
Unnecessarily complex language associated with lower intelligence
Some passages used straightforward language; others replaced simple words with longer, less familiar alternatives. Researchers found that writers using unnecessarily complex language were generally rated as less intelligent. The effect appeared consistently across essays, translated passages and admissions-style writing samples. The study concluded that readers associate clarity with intelligence.
Simple does not mean plain or dull
Simple however, does not mean plain or dull. Simple language provides far more opportunity to be creative or funny. Warren Buffet – someone who has earned the right to be reasonably confident – uses famously simple language in his regular letters to shareholders. But they also tend to be very witty and people look forward to reading them.
Take the following example: “When a management team with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact.”
It works because it takes a moment for us to get what he’s saying and then it clicks. Simple but clever.
Or think of the phrases that have endured and lodged in the public consciousness:
“We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” (Kennedy)
“In the long run, we’re all dead” (Keynes)
“Speak softly and carry a big stick.” (Roosevelt)
Simplicity is part of your craft
We could go on. Here’s the point. As a leader and a communicator, simplicity is part of your craft. Simplicity provides clarity but also far greater scope for wit, imagination and emotional content. And there are several simple but effective things that you can start doing straight away.
- The Express-vs-Impress Test.: We recommend that your starting point is to put your words through the Express-vs-Impress test. Are you choosing words because they are the best way to clearly express a thought or because they sound that little bit more impressive. Be brutally honest with yourself. If it’s the latter, it may well have the opposite effect.
- Look at role model publications: It helps to give yourself a role-model style. Make a point of familiarising yourself with well-written newspapers or journals. We typically suggest that The Economist, the FT, or the Guardian are great examples. How would one of these publications write about the topic or subject that you’re working on?
- The Intelligent Friend Test: Or imagine you’re explaining the concept to an intelligent friend who has never worked in the corporate world.
Your newfound simplicity and clarity will not only make you a better communicator, but it will also very likely enrich your creativity too.
To find out how we can help leaders in your organisation to be more impactful, influential and persuasive visit www.threshold.co.uk
