I had last week a baffling conversation with a comms person from a vast organisation.

The organisation has a substantial website with hundreds (or maybe thousands) of information-filled pages. Its style guide is a tome that details every aspect of language use, grammar, punctuation, and style.

The visitor stats of that website show very poor engagement, with sky-high bounce rates and viewers typically spending just seconds on a page before escaping as if they are afraid of being paralysed by boredom. However, every story follows the style guide with almost religious rigour (or, shall I say, rigor mortis).

When I asked the comms professional if the tight rules and absolute lack of any colour, imagination and creative use of language were to blame for the poor performance of the site, she responded: "The style guide is there to make it easier for the reader to understand the content".

When I asked if they would attract more readers by untightening the belt, the response was: "We know how to write for these people, and we also expect contractors to follow the rules".

When I asked if the comms team prefers pizza with no fillings over one with some tasty ingredients, the comms professional said: "Your attitude is not very professional".

So, I was put in my place.

Then, I decided to test the waters.

I sent to the comms professional an article written by the ChatGPT. I prompted it to follow the style guide and bullet-pointed the content. Seconds later, I got 700 words (exactly as expected) of dull, odourless and tasteless mediocrity. A few minutes later, I got a response from the comms professional, who congratulated me for being so creative and faithfully following her instructions and the style guide.

In my mind, I bid farewell to the communications professionals and embraced the era of AI entering large organisations. I envisioned significant savings, as just $20 per month could replace the entire group of nay-sayers while maintaining the same dull, ineffective, and arrogant status quo.

Luckily, my customer is not in the communications department but holds a higher position in the hierarchy. This allows us to publish content with a bit more creative flavour using alternative channels. However, I can't help but wonder how many organisations have these arrogant, know-it-all individuals in their communications (and HR) departments, making it almost impossible to explore different and more effective approaches.

To my great relief, the director of my customer told me on a call, "Jussi, we publish first and ask for forgiveness later, so keep up the good work".

So the world is not yet ready, but for creative people, AI can find a way to satisfy zombies while we can please real people with a human touch, wit and wicked wonderfulness.

So, that's it for this week. Do you have similar thoughts or experiences, or am I alone with my personal biases?

Ngā mihi

Jussi

This week’s book, How to Do the Work?

"How to Do the Work" by Dr Nicole LePera is your Swiss Army knife for self-healing—no therapist required!

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For the first time, a self-help book was helpful – at least for me. Get it from Apple Books or Amazon.

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