When I was traveling for a living, I was a member of a corporate team. Many locations. I finally got in front of a contractor at one of the locations who got a belly laugh when I told him I was corporate. He said he forever had always wanted to be able to use my opening line: "Hi, I'm from corporate and I'm here to help." He just thought that was so funny, and in some cases it is.
I'm a rare case, I went from local to corporate and then back to local. So I've seen it, been in both roles.
I was called today to help edit a broadcast memo from corporate, for our local audience. I found that if the We and the You and the Us are removed, it becomes a much more palatable message for the audience. Picture this: "We" have done a lot of stuff already that "You" don't know about. This is an informational email/broadcast. So already, it's neurolinguistics, there's a line drawn - there's "Us" and "We" (corporate) and "You" (the folks who are lesser than "Us.") And "You" don't know as much as "Us," so we're deciding it's time that "You" should know at least a little bit of what "We" have known forever, apparently..
So the local lady and I took out all of the We and You and Us and the same message became more informational without trying to (maybe unintentionally) declare who, with the use of words, is actually in charge. The use of words, and the effect they have... It's powerful, doing it right or wrong, it's powerful and a lot of it is subliminal. "We" fixed it for the newsletter. Without "Their" approval. After all, it's "Our" newsletter. And the message was the same without all of the inferred social ranking.
I'm a rare case, I went from local to corporate and then back to local. So I've seen it, been in both roles.
I was called today to help edit a broadcast memo from corporate, for our local audience. I found that if the We and the You and the Us are removed, it becomes a much more palatable message for the audience. Picture this: "We" have done a lot of stuff already that "You" don't know about. This is an informational email/broadcast. So already, it's neurolinguistics, there's a line drawn - there's "Us" and "We" (corporate) and "You" (the folks who are lesser than "Us.") And "You" don't know as much as "Us," so we're deciding it's time that "You" should know at least a little bit of what "We" have known forever, apparently..
So the local lady and I took out all of the We and You and Us and the same message became more informational without trying to (maybe unintentionally) declare who, with the use of words, is actually in charge. The use of words, and the effect they have... It's powerful, doing it right or wrong, it's powerful and a lot of it is subliminal. "We" fixed it for the newsletter. Without "Their" approval. After all, it's "Our" newsletter. And the message was the same without all of the inferred social ranking.
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