Written by Guest Blogger, Mark Brewer, Experienced Talent Development Professional and 2018 SEWI-ATD VP of Special Projects.

Do you listen to yourself?  Our family of professions is sometimes (rightly) accused of using jargon, HR-speak, Consultant-speak or psycho-babble. I suspect it doesn’t exactly open our clients’ hearts and minds to us. I saw an example this week. A bullet in a training slide read “Cognition precedes behavior.” The audience was a mixed group of managers from a variety of professions.  One of a hundred bullets on dozens of slides, I’m betting that one flew right over their heads.  Not because they aren’t smart enough to get it, but because the author made it unnecessarily difficult to get it. A simple and important idea fell by the wayside.  Why throw up barriers?  I’d like to think I would have gone with “Thinking precedes action,” or maybe even “We think before we do.” But I’m better at critiquing others than myself.

Big words don’t impress. They build walls. Feel free to tell me I’m wrong.  Just use little words please.

(Oh yeah, and turn off the lights when you leave!)