HR Communication Lesson: You’re the Executive Editor

Cliff’s NotesHe can compress the most words into the smallest ideas of any man I ever met.
–Abraham Lincoln

Have you ever spent a bunch of time creating a presentation — okay, I’ll say it, PowerPoint — feel really good about it, and then have one person make a comment that you should completely reorganize it? Then you do that, show it around again, and another person says, “It should have more lead in.” Then you show it to a group and two others give their opinion and you end up changing it even more?

STOP!

Here’s what I know about employee communication after having done it for the last 150 years: Group editing doesn’t work. Neither does responding to every comment as if it has to be responded to. It’s funny, there are people who are creators, and then there are junior editors. In fact, everyone thinks they’re an editor. They’re not. You’re the executive editor. Take feedback. Make decisions. Get outta there.

You have to stick to your guns if you want your writing to be good. That includes, yep, PowerPoint. Your PowerPoint presentation isn’t War and Peace. Heck, it’s not even the Cliff’s Notes. Don’t let pseudo-editors try to wedge every last idea and slide into your presentation. Stick to your guns. As Davy Crockett said, “Know you’re right, and then move ahead.”

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Posted on March 27, 2008 by Frank Roche 
Filed Under Communication

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