Last week, I read a text titled How to Make Sense of Any Mess by Abby Covert. Although aimed at people that are interacting with stakeholders, fellow employees, and users, it’s a text relevant to anyone that has to craft a piece of information and deliver it in a way that’s clear and accessible. We are all information architects, as we all have to convey ideas on a daily basis.
As someone who’s spent the last bit of her career focused on content marketing, the sections around language are what really jumped out at me. The book itself is such a quick read because every page is a miniature lesson, allowing you to select areas of interest. Here are some of my favourite lessons in the text:
- Intent is language. This lesson affirms that words matter, and are needed to convey ideas and make plans. With words, ideas move from being concepts to actual things.
- Who matters? This lesson urges consideration of intended users (e.g. colleagues, employees). In looking at your user base, consider who needs to be involved, what language will best serve them, how open they are to change, and how the idea(s) at hand will affect their lives in a tangible sense.
- Language matters. This lesson highlights the importance of language in collaboration and determining how to move forward when solving a problem.
In short, I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking to become a better communicator and more agile it comes to shifting between different contexts.
Khadijah Plummer Consulting 