Content professionals have an opportunity to play a central role in creating value.
But not on their current path.
Imagine…people who can find and amplify great ideas that drive growth and change. They would be at the center of everything that matters to an organization, wouldn’t they?
Senior leaders would trust them innately, seek out their partnership.
But being the person who shows up at the end complaining about acronyms, playing jargon police…that’s not constructive behavior.
It’s subtractive behavior.
Trotting out imaginary and generic best practices without understanding the subject matter or the intended audience doesn’t help anyone. It becomes obstruction for its own sake. Meanwhile, publication of timely expert insights gets delayed.
It also erodes trust.
A case in point—a recent experience I had with this obstructionism. It’s only the most egregious of many, many similar experiences. “It could confuse readers that some numbers have hyphens in front of them and some don’t. It’s not consistent.”
Pretending not to understand or pretending your own misunderstanding could be someone else’s confusion is not a way to build relationships with leaders in your organization.
When you slow down a writing project because “it could confuse readers that…” instead of honestly admitting, “I don’t understand this,” you become a necessary evil.
That’s what happens when you reduce ideas to “content” in the first place. That’s what happens when you work for the love of the process (bureaucracy) over outcomes.
But something so much better is possible. Imagine even three things you could do differently next time to help business leaders not just tolerate you but welcome you. Not just welcome you but actively seek you out.
Imagine what it would be like if you were the first resort instead of the last hurdle.
