I’ve erased my first two postings due to either a change of heart or mind. The first one was a detailed account of my trip to Chennai. It may or may not be obvious but I hate that type of writing. Hate to read it; hate to write it so after falling asleep twice during writing it hit the skids.
The second post was going to be about my first interview for my new projects. Summary: I was a little cranky due to not feeling well and the guy being 15 minutes late. On average I did okay but when he asked if a first draft would be ready tomorrow, my answer was no. The stunned silence was a give-a-way that maybe I should be more diplomatic.
The final post is more about conversations we have in a day and the conversations a company can have with its clients. Some are good; some are bad. When it’s business writing, the bad is really bad. For instance, earlier today I was reading a prep document on my first call. The challenge was that I understood the definitions of each word but didn’t understand the actual sentence. This is a major problem since the whole point of a sentence is communication.
The funniest (and saddest) moment was when I approach another person in my cube and asked him what a particular sentence meant. He went to answer it and then said,’ I better not, my definition may be different than the author’s. My recommendation is that you only skim this and don’t try to read it too deeply.’ At this point, I muttered an obscenity.
Read but not too deeply? Don’t think this is a shot at my current employer or anyone in the company because it isn’t. In fact, one of the things I like about Infosys is that they really want to be different. They behave differently as a company; they charge differently (lower) than competitors and they really value a relationship. If they didn’t want clear writing, they wouldn’t have hired me as an intern.
The challenge in clarity is knowing when to be blunt and when to be subtle. Use the wrong one at the wrong time and it’ll harm a relationship through either anger or confusion but when perfectly aligned the outcome is spectacular.
