It is not particularly easy to reach agreement on things across a group of people. It takes time and effort to reach consensus. But as you struggle through the process, it is important to gain agreement without loss of clarity and to resist the siren lure of ‘Fat’ words.
‘Fat’ words are words which appear to represent something we can all agree on, but which in practice leave so much scope for ambiguity and individual interpretation that they are effectively vacuous. For instance, you may have seen the following words used in vision statements and advertising materials:
“… are the leading producer of …”
“… producing the best equipment …”
“… be the most successful company in this area…”
“… is the foremost supplier of …”
But what do “leading”, “best”, “most successful”, and “foremost” actually mean in practice?
The problems of fat words
Nobody is really going to argue against them, but imagine your goal was to be the best supplier of Electrical Equipment, how would you then set about prioritising the following: New computer systems, Market research, Initiatives to improve customer facing skills, Employee motivation programme, ISO 9000, …
The danger of ‘Fat’ words is that they appear to offer agreement. However, what they actually do is move the real debate downstream to where people are far less well positioned to have the debate. And, as a result, we multiply the consequences in terms of wasted time and resources.
Avoiding fat word ambiguity
To avoid ‘Fat’ words, use the SMART tool as a checklist to ensure you remove all scope for ambiguity and conflicting interpretations. SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Agreed, Realistic and Time-based:
- Specific – A detailed action plan – define precisely what is to be achieved
- Measurable – Clear criteria by which we can check whether we have been successful
- Agreed – Owned by both the person who is to meet the objective, and the customers for it
- Realistic – Practically possible given the constraints and resources available
- Time-based – provide clear milestones and dates to be met
See also Improving Information Quality
Track your progress to ensure the efficacy of this strategy.