ions. Good business writers offer you that "translation" ability, that awareness of another perspective and the skill to turn what you say into what others need to hear to understand you and follow you.

Sure, it helps if they have some familiarity with your industry. But given the choice between communication skill and detailed technical knowledge, go for the skill.

You've already paid for the knowledge at least once, through your employees, product developers, procedural consultants, and other experts. Paying for it twice will not add any impact to your message, and you'll probably find that you have short-changed the ski

When you are trying to spread best practices throughout your organization, you may realize that you need help in communicating those practices effectively. Wise managers understand that sharing best practices in ways that truly impact employee performance takes highly specialized skills.

Unfortunately, once they start looking for external help, these same wise managers can become a little forgetful. They forget that the problem they identified was a lack of skill, communication and writing skill. And they start focusing almost exclusively on finding someone who already has detailed knowledge of their industry, their methods and processes, or their products and services.

Why pay for the same expertise twice?

Remember, you started out by identifying a gap in capabilities, an obstacle to spreading best practices among your team. The gap was in the skills to get the message across, not in the knowledge that goes into the message.

You can easily waste a lot of money by hiring someone who knows everything you know, without the writing and communication skills you actually want.

It is easy to see how this happens. Generating a quantity of clearly explained content, easy to read and understand, with a real impact on employee behavior . . . well, that's something you may find enormously challenging, even stressful. You'd rather focus on other activities you're more comfortable with, more confident about.

Then you discover that some business writers bring a little different perspective to your topic, trying to "translate" your content into more digestible form for people who are not intimately familiar with your products, services, or procedures. You find it easier to talk to the writers who are more keenly interested in the facts, specifications, and details of your topic than in the writing end of it.

After all, two experts don't need any "translation" to talk to each other. You feel more at home dealing with someone who already speaks your language fluently.

That makes your project meetings more comfortable. But how does it help you influence your real audience: people who do not already speak your language? How does another helping of the knowledge you already have help you connect to the cautious, unaware, unconvinced employee, prospect, or customer?

You really do need someone who thinks a little differently, who is focused on communication methods rather than precise specifications. Good business writers offer you that "translation" ability, that awareness of another perspective and the skill to turn what you say into what others need to hear to understand you and follow you.

Sure, it helps if they have some familiarity with your industry. But given the choice between communication skill and detailed technical knowledge, go for the skill.

You've already paid for the knowledge at least once, through your employees, product developers, procedural consultants, and other experts. Paying for it twice will not add any impact to your message, and you'll probably find that you have short-changed the skil

ustry, their methods and processes, or their products and services.

Why pay for the same expertise twice?

Remember, you started out by identifying a gap in capabilities, an obstacle to spreading best practices among your team. The gap was in the skills to get the message across, not in the knowledge that goes into the message.

You can easily waste a lot of money by hiring someone who knows everything you know, without the writing and communication skills you actually want.

It is easy to see how this happens. Generating a quantity of clearly explained content, easy to read and understand, with a real impact on employee behavior . . . well, that's something you may find enormously challenging, even stressful. You'd rather focus on other activities you're more comfortable with, more confident about.

Then you discover that some business writers bring a little different perspective to your topic, trying to "translate" your content into more digestible form for people who are not intimately familiar with your products, services, or procedures. You find it easier to talk to the writers who are more keenly interested in the facts, specifications, and details of your topic than in the writing end of it.

After all, two experts don't need any "translation" to talk to each other. You feel more at home dealing with someone who already speaks your language fluently.

That makes your project meetings more comfortable. But how does it help you influence your real audience: people who do not already speak your language? How does another helping of the knowledge you already have help you connect to the cautious, unaware, unconvinced employee, prospect, or customer?

You really do need someone who thinks a little differently, who is focused on communication methods rather than precise specifications. Good business writers offer you that "translation" ability, that awareness of another perspective and the skill to turn what you say into what others need to hear to understand you and follow you.

Sure, it helps if they have some familiarity with your industry. But given the choice between communication skill and detailed technical knowledge, go for the skill.

You've already paid for the knowledge at least once, through your employees, product developers, procedural consultants, and other experts. Paying for it twice will not add any impact to your message, and you'll probably find that you have short-changed the ski

sy to read and understand, with a real impact on employee behavior . . . well, that's something you may find enormously challenging, even stressful. You'd rather focus on other activities you're more comfortable with, more confident about.

Then you discover that some business writers bring a little different perspective to your topic, trying to "translate" your content into more digestible form for people who are not intimately familiar with your products, services, or procedures. You find it easier to talk to the writers who are more keenly interested in the facts, specifications, and details of your topic than in the writing end of it.

After all, two experts don't need any "translation" to talk to each other. You feel more at home dealing with someone who already speaks your language fluently.

That makes your project meetings more comfortable. But how does it help you influence your real audience: people who do not already speak your language? How does another helping of the knowledge you already have help you connect to the cautious, unaware, unconvinced employee, prospect, or customer?

You really do need someone who thinks a little differently, who is focused on communication methods rather than precise specifications. Good business writers offer you that "translation" ability, that awareness of another perspective and the skill to turn what you say into what others need to hear to understand you and follow you.

Sure, it helps if they have some familiarity with your industry. But given the choice between communication skill and detailed technical knowledge, go for the skill.

You've already paid for the knowledge at least once, through your employees, product developers, procedural consultants, and other experts. Paying for it twice will not add any impact to your message, and you'll probably find that you have short-changed the ski

of it.

After all, two experts don't need any "translation" to talk to each other. You feel more at home dealing with someone who already speaks your language fluently.

That makes your project meetings more comfortable. But how does it help you influence your real audience: people who do not already speak your language? How does another helping of the knowledge you already have help you connect to the cautious, unaware, unconvinced employee, prospect, or customer?

You really do need someone who thinks a little differently, who is focused on communication methods rather than precise specifications. Good business writers offer you that "translation" ability, that awareness of another perspective and the skill to turn what you say into what others need to hear to understand you and follow you.

Sure, it helps if they have some familiarity with your industry. But given the choice between communication skill and detailed technical knowledge, go for the skill.

You've already paid for the knowledge at least once, through your employees, product developers, procedural consultants, and other experts. Paying for it twice will not add any impact to your message, and you'll probably find that you have short-changed the ski

ions. Good business writers offer you that "translation" ability, that awareness of another perspective and the skill to turn what you say into what others need to hear to understand you and follow you.

Sure, it helps if they have some familiarity with your industry. But given the choice between communication skill and detailed technical knowledge, go for the skill.

You've already paid for the knowledge at least once, through your employees, product developers, procedural consultants, and other experts. Paying for it twice will not add any impact to your message, and you'll probably find that you have short-changed the skills you needed most. Hire help that complements, rather than duplicates, your team's capabilities.

Get help that truly contributes to your success, and not just to your comfort level!

© 2007 Best Training Practices -- Will Kenny