Guidelines for Clear Communication in Policies

If we truly want to do more than preach to the choir, we must speak the language of the lay public. Unless you've had formal media training, you’re often left to figure this out on your own. So here are a few guiding principles: 1️⃣ Less is More When we write papers, we love every detail. But when communicating to the public, keep it short and sweet—just the essentials and a clear call to action 2️⃣ Avoid Defensive Writing We live in an age of “caveat overload.” Scientists often hedge every statement to preempt criticism. That doesn’t work in public communication. 3️⃣ Use Simple Language Aim for a 6th-grade reading level. Big words aren’t badges of intelligence—they’re barriers to understanding. 4️⃣ Make Statistics Human-Friendly Avoid percentages when you can express them more intuitively: ✅ Say: “8 in 10 people…” ❌ Don’t say: “80% prevalence” Also, instead of saying ❌ “The odds of XYZ were 1.80 times higher among group A than B in the cross-sectional study,” simplify as: ✅"Group A was 80% more likely to report XYZ than Group B based on survey data." Clarity sometimes requires sacrificing a little scientific precision. That’s okay—impact trumps jargon. 5️⃣ Visuals Work—Just Keep Them Simple Stick to: 👉Pie charts 👉Bar graphs 👉Trend lines 👉Or use illustrations—e.g., highlight 8 out of 10 stick figures. 6️⃣Stick to your Single Overriding Communication Objective (SOCO). Especially with journalists, don’t stray into speculation or personal opinion. If you're representing an agency, remember: 👉 “CDC shocked by results!” could become a headline even if you didn’t say it directly. Always circle back to your SOCO. 7️⃣ Don’t List Personal Contact Info In press releases, always refer inquiries to your organization’s press office. Let them manage engagement—even if you move on, responses will still be handled. 8️⃣ Simplify Without Sounding Unprofessional Using accessible language doesn’t mean becoming casual or sloppy. Don’t say: “Half the kids were smokers” Instead: “One in two adolescents reported smoking in the past 30 days.” Professional tone matters—even when simplifying. 9️⃣ Use a Hook Your title should draw people in. In scientific journals, we avoid declarative titles. But in media communications, you want your title to pop: 🟢 “Youth Smoking Reaches Decade-High” 🟢 “Progress in Tobacco Control Stalls in 2024” 🔟 Emphasize Results Over Methods Scientific audiences love methods. But for public-facing content, highlight the results first. Keep key methodology minimal: 🧑🧑🧒 Who was studied? 🌎 Where? 📅 When? Leave the regression models, weighting techniques, and confidence intervals. You can always link to the full article. 🎯Final Word Effective science communication is a skill. Done well, it builds trust, bridges knowledge gaps, and brings the public closer to science. Let’s do the work to make our message clear—and make our work matter. #PlainLanguage #PrecisionVsClarityTradeOff #PublicHealth #HealthLiteracy #MediaTraining

One of the biggest problems I find when helping companies such as Meta, Apple, and Intel with their written comms is excessive jargon use. The dictionary says that jargon is “special words or expressions that are used by a particular profession or group and are difficult for others to understand.” Kind of like wearing a three-piece tuxedo to a backyard barbecue. The wearer thinks they’re dapper and dandy. Everyone else thinks it’s desperate and overkill. Let’s unpack the four biggest problems with jargon: 1. Jargon Self-Defeats If your goal is to move your reader from "I need to understand this" to "I understand this," jargon is like throwing hurdles in their way. It defeats the very purpose of writing, which is to convey ideas clearly. 2. Jargon Annoys & Reduces Engagement Jargon makes users feel excluded and irritated. This not only stops them from reading but also discourages sharing or discussing the content, leading to missed business and innovation opportunities. 3. Jargon Kills Productivity When people don’t understand what they’re reading in a business setting, they either give up, spend too much time trying to figure it out, or disrupt someone else to ask for help. 4. Jargon Lowest Trust In 2016, the SEC fined Merril Lynch $10 million for misleading investors in their writing. Excessive jargon use can come off as "We're hiding something, or we would put it in plain language." Now that we’ve established why jargon is so problematic, let’s look at 8 ways to avoid it: 1. Tailor your language to the audience's expertise. 2. Use simple, common words when possible. 3. Define specialized terms clearly. 4. Have an outsider review your writing. 5. Use analogies and examples to bring complex ideas to life. 6. Spell out acronyms on first use. 7. Provide concrete details instead of vague jargon. 8. Edit ruthlessly, focusing on clear communication over impressive language. Conclusion: Don’t be the person wearing a fancy three-piece suit at a backyard barbecue. P.S. Ok, let’s have some fun. Craft your most ridiculous jargon-filled sentence and drop it in the comments section. I’ll go first: “In our quest to synergistically leverage cutting-edge lexical optimization protocols, we must hyper-contextualize our mission-critical verbosity reduction initiatives, thereby quantum-leaping our linguistic ROI while simultaneously future-proofing our omni-channel communication matrix against disruptive jargon-centric paradigms in the ever-evolving logosphere of next-gen ideation exchanges.” 😂😂😂

Just reviewed your procedures, …and – well – they’re not good… ->they’re either too detailed, turning into a novel, or so vague they leave the reader scratching their head. The secret? Tailoring your procedures to your audience and hitting that "just right" level of detail. Here’s how I try to strike the balance… ->Write for the people executing the procedure. Are they experienced engineers, junior analysts, or cross-functional (HR, Accounting, etc.) teams? Use language and concepts they’ll understand. ->Avoid unnecessary theory or deep background and PLEASE assume a baseline of competence. Outline clear, actionable steps someone ->skilled in the art<- can follow without needing extra guidance. ->Include enough detail to prevent confusion or missteps, but not so much that your procedure becomes heavy to follow or maintain. ->Use concise, active language. Focus on tasks, tools, and outcomes. Every word should add clarity & value to execution. ->Have someone unfamiliar with the procedure try to execute it. If they ask for clarification, refine it. If they finish without questions, you’re close to “goldilocks.” When procedures are done right, they empower your team to act confidently and consistently. Start by writing a procedure to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, then have someone follow it and provide feedback. Iterate and improve. #ciso #dpo #MSP #compliance #procedures

In response to a recent post, Matt Strusinski asked if I could recommend "steps an organization could implement to ensure that their policies aren't too 'aspirational.'" See https://lnkd.in/eN2MWFzP. Of course! Here are my thoughts: 1. PURPOSE: It is important to remember the purpose of security policies. Typically, those are (1) to promote consistency within the org over time; (2) to document what you are actually doing (which can be important if you end up in litigation). For both reasons it is important policies reflect what the org is CURRENTLY doing. 2. POLICIES v. ROADMAP: The purpose of a policy is not to be aspirational. Future plans should be documented in a separate "roadmap." See https://lnkd.in/eHAqvUzr (better roadmaps). 3. POLICIES v. PROCEDURE: A policy explains WHAT the org does, whereas the procedure explains HOW it does it. Thus, the policy may to "conduct quarterly access reviews." The procedure would explain whose responsibility that is, when they do it, how they do it, and how it is documented. Having the team that will actually perform the procedure prepare the first draft of the procedure will tend to make it more useful. 4. DOCUMENT EXCEPTIONS: Emerson once wrote that "a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds," so there will be exceptions to almost every rule. It is important, however, that there be a procedure for documenting these exceptions. 5. DISLAIMERS: After an incident, an org may be accused of failing to live up to its own policies. Thus, policies should contain disclaimers, such as to make clear that the org understands the particular policy or control may not be appropriate or feasible in every situation. 6. FEEDBACK: After you have drafted or updated policies, get feedback from the relevant teams. If they tell you that the policy is not currently achievable, adjust the policy so it is not just aspirational. 7. TRAINING: This may come as a shock, but many of your employees won't actually read the policies. Thus, it is important to regularly train your employees on the policy. 8. TRANSLATION: It is even less likely that employees will read policies that are not in their language. Global orgs should have their policies translate into the different languages that their employees read. 9. ANNUAL REVIEW: Policies, Procedures, and Exceptions, should be reviewed and updated at least annually. 10. COMMON POLICIES: Larger organizations commonly have policies such as the following: • Overall information security policy • Identity and access mgmt. • Threat and vulnerability mgmt. • Log mgmt. • Patch mgmt. • Configuration mgmt. • User account mgmt. • Security awareness training and employee obligations • Software/application development security • Bring your own device (BYOD) • Data classification • Data privacy • Data retention • Cloud security • Physical security • Insider threat  Thanks for the suggestion, Matt Strusinski! Appreciate it!

Pro tip here - As you strive for accuracy with #GenAI, it helps NOT to have narrative in tables. While gen AI is getting better, random tables introduce a higher level of interpretation error hurting both performance and accuracy. Unfortunately, #banks love tables, particularly in policies and procedures. Even if you are not using gen AI now, you will, so start making your documents, to include PowerPoint and data visualizations, clear and concise. This means: ✔️ Limit tables to only where you want to add structure to data. If you have a bunch of numbers, a table is preferred to narrative. However, narrative in tables tends to be difficult to classify. ✔️ Use bullet points as a replacement. #AI loves bullet points. ✔️ Make ample use of headings and subheadings that are descriptive of the content. Gen AI loves when you include "Key Findings," "Recommendations," or FAQs. ✔️ Be consistent with definitions, date formats, job titles, and similar data. Nothing confuses AI more than blurring definitions within a document. Instead of saying "This policy goes into affect this month," say "This AI Use Policy goes into affect June 2025." ✔️ More use of definitions in documents, or at least define acronyms once. AI will tend to default to the most common definition which may not be what you mean. ✔️ Avoid pronouns - Don't say "they" when you mean the "Director of Operations." ✔️ Use metadata to better describe graphics ✔️ Use AI to review documents for readability before finalizing For more #banking insight, sign up for our newsletter: https://lnkd.in/gYgyRYWh