New Corporate Communication Jargon Takes Us Back to Basics
Communicators are being called to the carpet. When is the last time you met with a client in person? Talked and listened to a coworker rather than emailed a response? Returned a call via phone rather than texted while you were sitting in a meeting multitasking?
There is a new phrase in corporate communication that aims to get us back to the basics of communicating offline. And that phrase is…wait for it …human-to-human communication. I have to admit it is a bit archaic. Truth hurts but that doesn’t mean we can’t poke fun of us multitaskers in the digital age. In a gem of an article by Jessica Levco, entitled “The freakiest new phrase in corporate communication,” she highlights five reasons why this new phrase is a nightmare for you and your business.
1. When you say “human-to-human communication,” I instantly assume the other option would be talking to an alien. “Klaatu barada nikto.”
2. If you’re tweeting or posting on behalf of your business and you use the phrase, “human-to-human communication,” you don’t sound at all human. Why? Because humans call it talking.
3. “Human-to-human” sounds like a bizarre translation on a menu at a Chinese restaurant in Idaho.
4. H2H doesn’t have the charm of B2B or B2C. At least human-to-octopus would give you H2O.
5. When you Google “human to human,” the first auto-fill option is “human to human rabies.” Yikes! That should end this conversation right away.
Maybe we should change the phrase to brain-to-brain communication. It is easy to poke fun of but I get it. It is time to talk, listen, and respond while making eye contact. Relationships are the key to success in our business. That’s why many of us got into the field in the first place.
