120
DELIVER THE EXPERIENCE
like. Isn’t it incredible [emotional]? It’s the world’s thinnest notebook [simple]. It has a gorgeous 13.3-inch wide-screen display and a phenomenal full-sized keyboard [emotional and concrete]. I’m stunned our engineering team could pull this off [emotional].”10 Table 10.3 lists even more examples of specific, concrete, and emotional phrases from the Jobs repertoire of language. This is just a small sample. Every Jobs presentation contains similar language.
Jargon: A Sure Way to Upset Jack Welch Jack Welch made the observation, “Insecure managers create complexity.” During his twenty years as GE’s top executive, the conglomerate grew from $13 billion in revenue to $500 billion. Welch was on a mission to “declutter” everything about the company, from its management processes to its communication. He despised long, convoluted memos, meetings, and presentations. In his book Jack: Straight from the Gut, Welch describes meetings that left him “underwhelmed.” If you wanted to upset the new CEO, all you had to do was talk over his head. Welch would say, “Let’s pretend we’re in high school . . . take me through the basics.” He recounts his first meeting with one of his insurance leaders. Welch asked some simple questions about terms he was unfamiliar with. He writes, “So I interrupted him to ask: ‘What’s the difference between facultative and treaty insurance?’ After fumbling through a long answer for several minutes, an answer I wasn’t getting, he finally blurted out in exasperation, ‘How do you expect me to teach you in five minutes what it has taken me twenty-five years to learn!’ Needless to say, he didn’t last long.”11 Speaking in jargon carries penalties in a society that values speech free from esoteric, incomprehensible bullshit. Speaking over people’s heads may cost you a job or prevent you from advancing as far as your capabilities might take you otherwise.