Making the business case for Plain English

Lynda Harris

 

Enthusiasm isn’t enough!

You’re an enthusiastic proponent of plain English and its benefits for readers and organisations. And you can see that you or your client organisation needs it! But how do you educate and convince those who control the purse strings?

Whether you’re an employee trying to persuade others to adopt plain English, or a professional trying to sell plain English to clients, you need to present a convincing business case for change and a clear return on investment.

The discipline of writing a business case will clarify your thinking, get the facts and benefits down on paper, and greatly increase the chance that your proposal will be taken seriously.
After years of writing proposals for plain English projects, and helping clients write their own business cases, we’ve found a formula that works for us.

 

Getting your plain English project paid for

Identify your real proposition

It’s all too easy to think that ‘plain English’ is your proposition. It isn’t. Plain English is simply a means to an end. Your real proposition is about creating a great leap forward in your organisation’s ability to connect and communicate, and therefore fulfil its business purpose.

 

Identify the scale of what you are proposing. Are you proposing complete organisational change? Or a pilot project with a division or specialised team?

 

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Find the compelling ‘why’

No proposal will succeed without a compelling ‘why’. Think of the ‘why’ as the ‘problem’, with the benefits of your plan being the solution.

 

Linking your proposal to the achievement of your organisation’s mission and purpose is critical.

We can borrow a useful analogy from the manufacturing sector. A manufacturing firm sells products and needs a distribution system to deliver its products to customers. If the delivery mechanism fails, the company fails.

 

For most of the organisations we deal with, information is the product and writing is the delivery mechanism.  In this context, a poor document (failed delivery mechanism) means that an organisation fails to connect and communicate. Albert Joseph, author of ‘Put it in Writing’ (1983) says it beautifully …

‘The only purpose for cultures to create language is to transport ideas. Then it is simple; we cannot afford a transportation system that damages its cargo in transit.’

 

Attaching the ‘why’ to an organisation’s fundamental purpose is vital. But your proposal will be even more compelling if you identify some very specific gains that can be made by adopting a plain English writing style. Several winners in New Zealand’s annual WriteMark Plain English Awards expressed their ‘why’ this way:

 

‘Plain English … motivates clients to approach us and helps us provide a more efficient service.’

New Zealand Trade and Enterprise

 

‘Nothing could be more frustrating for people with injuries … than having to wade through incomprehensible gobbledygook.’

Accident Compensation Corporation

 

‘Team-Up aims to help parents get more involved in their education by providing practical, easy-to-follow tips in plain English.’

Ministry of Education

 

‘BRANZ was very aware of the need to promote the science behind sustainability in an accessible way.’

Building Research Association of New Zealand

 

‘Overly complicated communication serves only to deepen the divide between client and advisor.’ …it is our job to know the technicalities behind our advice. It is equally important to demonstrate the value of it. Communicating clearly is the first and most vital step.’

Deloitte

(Found at www.plainenglishawards.org.nz)

 

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Show ‘how’

Be very clear that that your proposal isn’t seen simply as ‘business writing training’. You are proposing a comprehensive project that that will require a new way of thinking. Show exactly ‘how’ you will solve the problems raised in your ‘why’ section.

 

Converting an organisation to a plain English writing style is not for the faint-hearted. You need a long-term plan that is sound, achievable, and believable.

 

Our first step is almost always to establish an agreed, documented plain English standard for the organisation. We then plan a range of strategies and activities that will all work together to publicise and gain enthusiastic compliance with the plain English standard.

 

Always include measures to monitor success. These will give confidence to your decision-maker and indicate that you expect a measurable return on investment.Most often our proposal will recommend many tasks that the organisation can do internally — and the proposal will always aim to make our services redundant over time.

 

Include realistic costs

Decision-makers need to know exactly what a proposal will cost, over what time period. Most critically they need to be able to see the expected return on investment.

 

While some aspects of your plan may be hard to cost, you need to be as specific and realistic as possible. Don’t forget to factor in opportunity cost when fee producing staff members are taken off the job to participate in project activities.

 

Use existing case studies to help calculate potential return on investment—even if you have to generalise. And remember to include gains in client or employee satisfaction — these gains are real and immensely valuable.

 

Try to calculate the cost of doing nothing. How much is poor communication hurting the organisation? Link your statements back to your ‘why’ section.

 

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Itemise the deliverables and milestones

Your proposal should set out the specific items or tasks that will be created, delivered, or achieved — and when. For example, you might propose that a project committee will be set up by 6 May, a writing standard agreed by 4 June and a senior management training session held by 18 June, and so on.

 

Anticipate the risks

No proposal for a significant project is complete without a thoughtful assessment of any potential risks involved.

 

Taking time at the start to identify what could go wrong, and planning accordingly, is your best form of risk management.

 

In all the years that we have been involved in large plain English projects, we have never seen any significant problem caused by a move to plain English.

 

However, as the project sponsor and leader, you do face the risk of losing funding if you cannot demonstrate some early and ongoing success.

 

Obstacles to success can include lack of management support, unanticipated demands on staff time, insufficient motivation to change old habits, and continued use of old precedent material.

 

Paint a clear picture of success

Success is not merely about achieving deliverables and milestones. Your proposal should set out clear indicators of success that link directly back to your proposition, your ‘why’ statements, and the plans to measure progress in your ‘how’ section.

 

Your success indicators will be both tangible (x hours saved by each call centre staff member amounting to $x saved in wages, x% increase in response rate to survey) and intangible (fewer queries from clients who received legal advice, unsolicited positive feedback about the new application form, higher ratings in annual quality audit).

 

In our experience, even a little success is a great motivator — plan for it and it’s more likely to occur.

 

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Getting serious pays off

So the bottom line is, ‘get serious’. The notion of plain English may be dear to your heart, but to turn your passion into reality you need a solid plan and a clear head.

 

You also need tenacity and determination. Others have walked this path before you and have some stunning success stories to share. Do your research and learn from others.

 

Transforming the way an organisation communicates is not easy. But the value of the possible benefits far exceeds the cost of the project. Making that value clear is up to you.

 

References

Joseph, A. 1983. Put it in writing. Cleveland: International Writing Institute Incorporated.

 

WriteMark New Zealand Plain English Awards 2009. [Online]. Available: http://www.plainenglishawards.org.nz/ [13 January 2009].

 

Lynda Harris is founder and director of Write Limited

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