Should one use cliches? (#Humor)
Cliches are cliches for a reason. But that is not a license to overuse them and they never, ever, make someone sound smarter than they really are. They are filler and, often, not so different from just saying ‘um’ or ‘ah’ and so… A few days ago I read a spammy email from a ‘friend’ of mine — I am still not sure how I got on his list — and I was shocked at the amount of non-speak there was in the email. The sheer number of words that, frankly, meantnothing at all surprised me. It reminded me that some years ago a good friend of mine (we will call him John, here) had posted similar concerns on Facebook about coaches offering to take people to….. wait for it: The Next Level. And so, tongue-in-cheek, I wrote this reply. Get a few lines in and, well, I think you will enjoy it…
Dear John, I don’t think you are being fair. I mean, seriously, what about those speakers that are helping people make quantum leaps and have paradigm shifts? Let’s wrap our heads around this and create a win-win situation — then we can all have a great ROI. Lets blue-sky it and put a pin in it while we consider out-of-thebox options. We are all visionaries here so I am sure we can circle back and take this offline for a deeper conversation. Look, John, this is where the rubber hits the road. The net of it is that if you don’t have the bandwidth to take it to the next level then perhaps you are simply not a team player. In that case, I suggest we sharpen our pencils and see if we can find any outliers or try to predict the tipping point. We have an opportunity here for a next-gen solution; let’s manage the optics and right-size our thinking! Do we have enough boots on the ground? That is the $64,000 question! This is all about synergy; how else can we protect the cash cow? Look, I am just trying to square the circle. Let’s get some housekeeping done, dust off home plate and knock one out of the park. And, if we can strategize a way to incentivize and monetize the situation, that will get us into the end-zone. But to get there, we will have to reconnect as a team get a SWOT done and start drinking our own damn Kool-aid. At the end of the day, if we can complete the pass then we can create the perfect storm. John, I know you are picking up what I am putting down because you are a customer-focused and results-oriented guy — so what if our Q3 results are a bit fuzzy at the moment. Facing financial headwinds is par for the course. We are agents of change. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity; we have to step up to bat now. Normally, I say that we should avoid ready, fire, aim but right now he who hesitates is lost. Let’s
make the play and pass on the baton. I mean, it’s not like we want to leave money on the table or show them our cards! John, HOPE is not a strategy (unless you are running for president) so we need to be thought-leaders here. Let’s take the 30,000-foot view and get real about where we are. Look, its the old 80/20 rule — if we don’t act on this now, we aren’t going to move the needle. If we can manage expectations and control the deliverables while keeping an open door policy going forward, we are going to rock it. But, if we have too many chefs in the kitchen… well, we are all going to burn our fingers. John, I know this is a lot to take in and that you have been burning the candle at both ends but I think it is time to wake up and smell the coffee — we are all about value-add and we need to figure out our go-to-market before someone beats us to the finish line. I know this is a bit like drinking from a firehose but if we do a basic level set — sure we might get pushback — we can create a scalable and best-of-breed solution for everyone. Let’s get our game face on; after all, this is a soup-to-nuts solution that can save the game at the 11th hour! We go after the low-hanging fruit and get a few quick wins and we will be off to the races! First, however, we have to address the elephant in the room and size this situation up. This time things are different because we have put together best practices and we know our deliverables. I will loop you in as soon as I have put all the pieces together. I really need to peel back the onion and understand the layers before we can properly compare apples with apples. I want you to run with this; let’s get the re-org underway and, to close the loop on this, I want to know, what are the next steps to take this to the next level. Sincerely, Eric Edmeades
PS: I hope this didn’t pop your circuits; if you can just wrap your head around it, it is not that bitter a pill to swallow!! Originally Appeared on LinkedIn
Humor
Humorous
Cliches
Copywriting
Communication Continue Here - https://medium.com/@ericedmeades/should-one-use-cliches-humorf1772f6363c1