Consultants are expected to know something useful. Managers can decide what happens to another person’s work. A teacher judges a student. A doctor speaks while the patient is worried.
At home, a parent or partner may also hold the stronger position in a discussion.
The words do not arrive as equals.
Hard language can make the speaker look important
Orwell warned against using a long word when a short one will do. He also warned against jargon when ordinary language can carry the meaning.
This is not an attack on knowledge.
Some work needs exact terms. I would not ask an engineer to replace a correct technical word with “that metal thing over there”. Plain language must remain true.
The problem starts when hard words add status but no meaning.
A consultant says the company needs “a strategic realignment of its operating model”.
What must change on Monday?
A manager asks for “greater ownership and cross-functional alignment”.
Who should do what differently?
If the speaker cannot answer in ordinary words, the large phrase may be covering a small thought.
People may be afraid to ask
Influence changes the discussion.
A client may assume the consultant understands a term everybody else should know. An employee may nod because the manager seems certain. A student may keep quiet rather than expose what feels like ignorance.
The speaker leaves the room believing the message landed.
It may not have left the runway. Communication usually fails, except by accident. (Osmo A. Wiio)
I have spent much of my working life in management and consulting. The longer I work, the less impressed I am by language that makes the listener feel small.
The job, everybody’s job, is to help people see the matter. If my words make the matter harder to see, I have not shown expertise. I have shown vocabulary.
Vague kindness may not be kind
People also hide hard messages inside soft language.
A manager says, “There may be some room to improve the way you engage with the team.”
What happened?
Perhaps the person interrupted a colleague and dismissed her answer. Say that. Now there is something to discuss.
The same issue appears in personal relationships.
“You have changed” can carry blame without naming one act. “I felt ignored when you read your phone while I was speaking” exposes more of the speaker, but it gives the other person a real event to answer.
Plain speech can feel harder because it removes the mist around the complaint.
It may also be fairer.
Clear language must leave room for an answer
Influence is not a licence to become blunt.
I can state what I saw and still listen. I can explain what I need without pretending that my view is the only one. I may hold the higher position and still be wrong.
This matters when giving advice.
A consultant should keep fact apart from judgement. If I am making an assumption, I should call it an assumption. “I do not know” is available in plain English and remains badly underused. In fact, you can probably find that short statement in every language in the world.
A manager should say when something is a decision. If it is a request, call it a request. Leave room when the question is still open.
At home, the other person should not have to decode whether “fine” means fine, angry, a night on the sofa, or the start of a more pleasant evening.
The listener carries part of the test
Clear language is tested by what the other person understood.
A nod is not proof.
Ask the person to explain the decision in their own words. Invite the question that may feel foolish. Watch what happens after the discussion.
If the action is wrong, the message may have failed. Saying it again in a louder voice will not repair the first attempt.
Orwell wrote about political language, but the warning belongs anywhere words carry power.
The more influence I have, the less I should use language to make myself look important.
My words should make the matter clearer.
George Orwell, Politics and the English Language: https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/politics-and-the-english-language/