Don Hewitt and the power of people-focused business writing

It’s axiomatic that good writing is writing that spends more time expounding on people than objects, issues, institutions and other inanimate things. You would never know that in the cubicles, offices and executive suites occupied by business people.

Business writing is too often devoid of the human element.

How odd. Business is all about people. It’s all about serving people with better products and services, yet we too often write reports, memos, case studies, web copy and marketing brochures that emphasize the non-living, the inorganic, rather than the human buyer, end user and beneficiary.

Don Hewitt, the late creator and long-time producer of 60 Minutes, had it right when he reminded his team of all-star reporters: “We don’t do stories about issues, we do stories about people swept up by the issues.”

That bit of advice is as old as time, he said, and referred to The Bible and the wisdom of its storytelling.

“The people who wrote The Bible were smart enough to write stories about people,” Hewitt said.

People-focused writing is more effective than writing that leaves people on the sidelines for a simple reason. Readers are people, and people relate to other people (and other living things) more readily than the inanimate.

So how do we infuse our business writing with people? Very simple. Always look for the actor. Any action taken by a business, any product or service it produces is the result of human motivation and action.

The difference can be enormous. Compare this stock-style newspaper lead with the one written by the Wall Street Journal.

Stock lead.
Airbus announced that its new A380 super-jumbo jetliner, the world’s largest passenger plane, was several tons too heavy to meet its strategic goals but the problem has been solved.

Engineers for the $12 billion project say the extra pounds threatened to ruin the plane’s selling points. Airbus has been touting the efficiency of the A380 to potential customers, but the extra weight meant the plane would have guzzled fuel and driven up operating costs.

Wall Street Journal lead.

Charles Champion had a major weight problem. He urgently needed to lose several tons.

It was early 2001 and Mr. Champion, a top engineer at Airbus, had just become project manager for the A380 super-jumbo jetliner, the world’s largest passenger plane. The $12 billion project was only weeks into its five-year schedule and the aircraft was seriously overweight.

The stock lead is flat and bloodless. The WSJ lead is lively, amusing and, above all, filled with human interest. There’s no comparison.

Then again, that’s a newspaper lead. Though instructive it isn’t, strictly speaking, a business document. So here’s another take.

Imagine company executives ask you to write a report about how your new customer relations program is achieving its goal of improving customer satisfaction. You could write about the mechanics of the program and enumerate the improved survey scores. Or, you could spotlight a particular customer by name, explain the complaint they filed, tell how the issue was solved and what the customer had to say before, during and after the program asserted itself. In other words, tell a story from the customer’s point of view. You might even do this with two or three customers, each showcasing a different aspect of the new customer service program’s ability to effectively respond to various situations.

Which do you think would make more interesting reading, the people version or the bloodless rendition? This doesn’t mean you exclude an explanation of the program or the improved scores it’s racking up. But an explanation of the logistical details of “how the program works” might be best treated as a tightly crafted sidebar. The improved scores could be displayed in a chart or graph, freeing you to write about people rather than numbers and procedures.

Another example. Let’s say you’re writing a report about how the company training protocol for new recruits is failing to improve their performance. Write about a specific recruit who struggled with the program, failed to attain the proficiency required and had to be terminated. If you’re queasy about using a real person in this case, use a composite character, one that is emblematic of the training protocol’s deficiencies. (Just be sure to tell your executive team the character is a composite with a pseudonym.)

The point is to bring your writing to life in ways that communicate with more power, clarity and humanity.

Doing so will ensure you stand out and get the recognition you deserve.

 

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