123 School Work

Executive Summary the Smart Talk Trap

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       In today's business climate, companies are plagued with an inertia that comes from knowing too much and doing too little - a phenomenon the authors call the knowing-doing gap. The gap can be traced to a basic human propensity: the willingness to let talk substitute for action. When confronted with a problem, people act as though discussing it, formulating decisions, and hashing out plans for action are the same as actually fixing it. After researching numerous organizations of all shapes and sizes, the authors concluded that a particular kind of talk is an especially insidious inhibitor of action: "smart talk."
       The authors describe smart-talk as a roadblock to action. People who can engage in such talk generally sound confident and articulate. But the authors indicate that such people focus on the negative, and favor unnecessarily complex or abstract language. The former lapses into criticism for criticism's sake; the latter confuses people. Both tendencies can prevent action from ever occurring. The authors discuss five methods that successful companies employ in order to translate the right kind of talk into intelligent action...