Delivering plain language: structure and responsibilities : Plain Language: beyond a ‘movement’ - Part 9

Although there is neither the room, nor the need, to say much here about causing organizational cultural change, there are two points worth making because they are particularly related to communication.


9.1 Someone to take responsibility for how the audience receives the message

In most organisations, a team of people contribute to the style and content of a document. Between them, those people have a range of roles. For example, in a financial services organization, those roles typically include: a product manager, a lawyer, an actuary, someone from marketing, someone from customer service, someone representing the distributors who actually deal with potential customers, a designer, someone responsible for some research, a project manager, someone from IT, a printer, … and often a few more.

Yet there is no one whose job is to take responsibility for how the audience will receive the message.

Organisations need to give someone that responsibility. There needs to be someone representing the document's audience who is prepared to sign-off (after any necessary testing):

• that most members of the document's audience will be able to use the document to do what they need to do—that is, that the document works for its audience and its purpose; and
• that the document will enhance the organisation's brand.

The questions then arise: Who should that person report to? How do they fit into the team?

9.2 Structuring an organisation to show the importance of communication

In my experience, the person that coordinates the creation of documents is usually the Product Manager. That seems to be a mistake to me.

Instead, the various contributors to the document should be coordinated by the person responsible for how the audience will receive the message. This is particularly so for documents relating to intangibles.

This matters because for so many intangibles the customer "sees" the product only through the organization's communications. Therefore, the communications are of the utmost importance.

Consider a customer trying to choose a financial services product. There is nothing for the customer to "see" without the documents that describe the product. So the key to achieving "customer focus" is to get the documents right for the reader.

Therefore, the person who "takes responsibility for how the audience receives the message" needs to be in charge of the document's development.

It is that person who should be deciding:

• what's in and what's out;
• the order in which information is to be presented;
• what the headings are going to be;
• the style and tone of the language;
• the look and feel of the document.

The other people involved should be merely contributing material, and checking for accuracy etc.

This structure will also help to emphasise internally the importance the organisation places on the clarity of its communications. By itself, that emphasis will generate energy and momentum that will help the organisation produce clear documents that enhance its brand.