What Not to Do When Speaking Human

ADC-based writer friend, James Barrat, author of Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era, tells me writing is the next thing to be mechanized. Robots, he says, will be smart enough to do some of our writing work by around 2020. A company called Automated Insights is already using artificial intelligence platforms to sift through large database sets observing patterns, trends, and insights. It then turns findings into plain English—prose so good it mimics human communication in tone and personality.

Following up on Barrat's lead, I called Robbie Allen, Automated Insights's CEO. He admits that he has the technology to take data and turn it into content that reads like a human wrote it. His service will be especially important to people doing financial or sports analysis—people who can benefit by a summary of data written in prose. This will make it easier for them to understand big data at a more human scale. The beauty of Automated Insights's product is that “nine out of ten times,” says Allen, people can't tell whether what they're reading was written by a person or by artificial intelligence.

The “speak human” style isn't a fad, nor is it an idea that will go away anytime soon. As life gets more complicated, the marketplace seems to find new ways to humanize the intimidating world of big data and bring it down to human scale. As our world gets more technical and increasingly complicated, our inner-cavemen will seek out content that feels natural and unprocessed.

How much of yourself should you reveal when trying to “speak human”? How “real” do you need to be? There's a fine line between emitting humanlike qualities that audiences adore and coming across as narcissist no one wants to associate with. Don't fall into the trap of droning on about your life and your personal quirks. And…most certainly never brag. Ego-driven behavior distracts from learning and alienates people.²⁰ Your readers are more likely to respond to you if you show them your human self…show them an experience that helped you learn or grow as a person. Don't go on about your perfect academic record or list of awards received. The trick is to give the right amount of social clues that humanize you but don't become the focus of your effort. This is harder than you may expect. Logically, you might think it would be easier to “be yourself” when communicating. But it's not. Becoming the voice of your content requires finding the right balance between human and professional—and it's no easy task.

Many best-selling business books become bestsellers because their author has figured out how to explain their subjects while guiding you through a journey in a friendly, personable way. The author wants you to feel connected to him. In his book To Sell Is Human, Daniel Pink offers up a few bits and pieces of his life to his readers. We learn that his nine-year-old-son, for example, hates showering after baseball practice. Pink doesn't brag about his work as Al Gore's speechwriter or about his time at Harvard; he gives us “slice of life” nuggets of what is real. His readers connect with him because he shares experiences we can all relate to…like a stinky boy.

Pick up a few popular business books and see how much the author chooses to reveal. Pay deliberate attention to what they choose to say about themselves and what they omit. Notice how long they spend discussing items of a personal nature or an experience. You'll see that they give you a quick glimpse into their world—enough to make them real—but never too much to invade their privacy or distract from the point of their book.

NOT FOR EVERY AUDIENCE ON EVERY OCCASION

We've learned that you'll be far more approachable and engaging if you lighten up. However, there are still plenty of occasions where a free-spirited, humanistic approach doesn't work.

Many academics and technically minded folks still think humanization, especially when authors use words like “I” or “we” in professional or scientific circumstances, is still taboo. It's easy to find formal, densely written text in these elite circles. Many professors and high-level researchers eschew a casual tone, insisting on text that reads more scholarly. But the tide may be shifting. Penn State University Professor Joe Schall did an informal survey of forty journals pulled from his university's technical library to see if the authors of serious academic articles dared tread into the less formal territory of first person. He checked a range of less-than-blockbuster journals such as European Journal of Mineralogy, Spray Technology and Marketing, and Water Resources Journal and came up with some surprising results. He discovered that in thirty-two out of the forty journals he surveyed, the authors “made liberal use of ‘I’ and ‘we.’”²¹ Schall concludes that this principle of third-person-only is either outdated or is in flux.

I still exercise caution with technical reports intended for official or legal purposes. There were several situations at NASA—like a research paper I ghost wrote—where a relaxed, first-person tone would have been lethal to the project's future. Too much of a human element could have been perceived as amateurish. Attitudes toward formality are changing, even in academia. But caution still needs to be exercised. The breezy approach I suggest to explain content more clearly isn't always the optimal choice with the button-down folks. Let me be clear: Audience awareness is crucial to determining just how human you can become with your style. Understand who's on the receiving end of your communication effort when deciding how humanized you want to be.

Format can also influence the formality of your document. White papers, somewhat authoritative reports used to understand problems or solve issues, are usually long, formal, linear, data-centric documents where you feel experts talking down to you. White papers were the standard communication tool for thought leaders like management consulting firms to help clients understand complicated issues while showing off their intellectual prowess. But busy executives no longer are interested in reading thirty-page papers. Digitally driven media, like e-books, e-articles, and other multimedia creations, are freer, easier, visually appealing communications broken down into small chunks for easy skimming.²² Overwrought executives are more inclined to peruse documents in this format in our new digital age. Generally speaking, they find the e-book a friendly read versus the white paper's formality.