Deming quote and my version – about whether or not you know what you’re doing
The quality leader W. Edwards Deming is quoted as saying, “If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing.” I feel the same way about phrasing. If you can’t put your process, teaching or ideas into phrases, you don’t know what they are. And if a phrase author reads your work and can’t figure out how to translate your words into phrases, your information isn’t clear.
Not everyone spends their days writing phrases, so I don’t assume others have the skill developed in the way that I have – or care to. However, my efforts to translate information into phrases often reveal the fuzzy areas. If I can’t hone from someone’s writing how to put their recommendations into action via language, those who don’t have the experience with phrasing that I do are likely to be at a total loss. That’s where the conversation with some of the experts I work with gets really interesting. They may have no desire to ever write phrases, but helping me write them often clarifies what they know.
So don’t just think about phrase scripting as a communication tool. Think of it as a way to get really clear about what you know.