Thought Picnic: Unnecessary Power-Plays

Much to the muchness

I know that in my writing I take the time to be lucid, to expatiate and explain my viewpoints with great care and determination.

Obviously, the attention to such detail is to eliminate any doubt as to my premise and purpose. Inadvertently, I find that even if I need to develop any part of that thinking any further, the original write-up always seems to have the completeness I have intended even though the reader might not have fully comprehended by reason of glossing over the minutiae.

Unnecessary power plays

When it comes to writing for business and dealing with thorny situations, one is even more thorough and exacting to ensure that what one needs to be understood is properly understood.

I dare say I sometimes get caught up in traditional English expression where the obvious is in the understated, there is no reason to be direct if you can be nuanced and still quite effective – that is the beauty of expression in writing.

I remember times when I have been caught in unnecessary power-plays of email atrocity that sap me of all energy and if I were of a feebler disposition, I might probably lose the will to live. In such cases, I find that the end to all conflict is contained in the brevity of a one-liner or at most two sentences.

In one such instance, when I finally got fed-up with the correspondence and at the same time had put in place the action to support the view I was about to express, you grab the best attention by first switching to formality and then delivering the line, which in this case was, “Apparently, this matter has moved on from personalities to delivering a solution.”

Do not forget to add your thanks and close with formality too. That was the end of the matter.

The subtlety of persuasion

So, recently, I found myself in the middle of one those email atrocities where I was determined something get done despite the reluctance if not truculence of the other party. With just the right people copied in on the email, there could be no argument against this and full acquiescence came within a day.

“The issue here is simply one of improving the User Experience, which is why it was put forward as a suggestion - I don't think that the quest for greater ease of use should generate much debate apart from seeing if it is reasonable or not.”

The art of persuasion is more in its subtlety than anything else, I have learnt over time.