Page 151 - The Voice of Authority

Prefer Substance over
Shine in a Crunch Do people receive so
much trivial, unneces-
When faced with a time sary, or related informa-
crunch, make it a habit to get tion from you that they
the information out today ignore the vital?
in less-than-perfect form
rather than wait until to-
morrow for polished prose.
Wait too long to let people know what’s going on behind the
scenes and you set up the same disappointment that movie-
goers experience when reviewers have already given away
the ending.
And besides that, polishing the prose to perfection cre-
ates the perception that you’re varnishing the truth.

Send Information at the Point
of Relevance—or Not at All

I know, I know—this seems like an obvious point. But for
some people, teams, and organizations, it must be harder
than it looks. Otherwise, you and I wouldn’t get:

Customer satisfaction surveys so long after the ser-
vice was performed that we don’t even remember
what the survey refers to

Items so long after our request that we toss them
upon arrival because we can’t remember why we
wanted them
Calls from people who e-mailed or wrote to say
they’d be “following up” and we have no recall of ever
having heard from them before

Is It Current? 139