The Chancellor George Osborne set out the spending cuts which are likely to impact on every business and household over the next few years.
However you view the spending review, Osborne is at least having the decency not to hide behind a barrage of economic jargon, acronyms and doublespeak.
Politicians don’t always have the leeway to speak as plainly as their constituents might like but, from what I’ve watched of Osborne’s speech so far, he isn’t mincing his words.
His cuts will sharply divide opinion but he is showing the public the respect they deserve by making a clear and unambiguous statement of his intentions.
It’s an approach that could pay dividends for any number of businesses.
Writing for This Is Money, Ruth Sutherland sets out a compelling argument for clear communications with employees, clients and the wider public.
Her theory is that people in business employ jargon and evasive language for a number of different reasons.
According to Sutherland, these range from wishing to appear up to date or in the know to hiding the truth or outright lying.
Of course, using jargon or distorting the truth with tricky language is in no way confined to the business world.
Her point is that business people have more to lose.
The examples of poor and even deliberately evasive turns of phrase that she picks out are fun but her central message is much more useful: using language that obscures what your business actually is or does will destroy people’s trust in it.
