Talking Internal Communication...

Police blow the whistle on 10 codes

I've just stumbled upon a great story about jargon at work.

Earlier this month state police in Virginia, US, abandoned their much loved ‘10 codes’ in favor of plain English. Used by generations of officers, firefighters and other emergency personnel as shorthand during radio conversations, 10 codes had begun suffering from multiple meanings. In Arlington, for example, the code “10-13” means “officer in trouble”, but in Montgomery Country, Maryland, it means “request wrecker". You can see the danger. 

The system worked fine until the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon at which point emergency crews from different states discovered they were speaking a completely different language. Firefighters from one state were using one set of codes, while police and paramedics from elsewhere used another. Just imagine the mayhem.

So, to clear up the confusion 10 codes have just been banned in Virginia and, in its place, they've introduced the new ‘common language protocol’ (ironically that’s jargon for plain English). So out goes "10-4" and in comes "message understood". Makes sense to me.

Here's what the Washington Post had to say.

And finally, here's my own little selection of 10 codes for internal communicators, just in case you feel like cranking up that old CB radio...

• "10-4" - ok, message received (when you're doing your job properly)
• "10-11" - talking too rapidly (when you're sending out to many emails)
• "10-28" - identify your station (when underground newsletters start appearing)
• "10-42" - traffic accident at (when messages collide due to bad planning)
• "10-75" - you are causing interference (for use with any meddling board member)

That's it for me from today, over and out.

Jargon damaging trust

The BBC reports today on an interesting survey carried out by Investors in People, which underlines some of the negative consequences corporate jargon and gobbledygook can have on employees. 

The poll of 3000 UK workers found that over use of jargon can result in employees feeling inadequate and may undermine their trust in managers and leaders. 

In Scotland, more than two-thirds of respondents said they wanted to see an outright ban on jargon in the workplace.   

Now that is something I would like to see.

Gunning for gobbledygook

I've been working on a strategy document for one of my clients today. This has basically involved taking the output from various workshops, meetings and discussions and translating it into something that will ultimately make sense to employees.

Much as I champion the use of Plain English and abhor jargon and management-speak, I sometimes find myself slipping into it. Every now and again I have to pinch myself and remember what I’m paid to do.

Jargon is essentially lazy and is often used to create a veneer, an impression of technical or intellectual superiority, or simply to blind people to the truth.

As communicators we shouldn’t stand for this. We should put our bullshit radars to good use and do all we can to simplify and clarify communications.

The word gobbledygook, incidentally, was coined by Maury Maverick, a Texan lawyer and Congressman. It first appeared in an internal memo in 1944, when Maverick complained about the obscure language used by his colleagues. He stated, “anyone using the words activation or implementation will be shot". I can’t help but smile. There are few words that are used more frequently by professional communicators than implementation.

We should all be shot!