Selling bullshit

I used to be a writer. Fiction, theater, bad angsty poetry. For years I wrote every day, and when I look back at my free-written musings, I am surprised to find little nuggets of who I used to be. Vivid and digressive. Sometimes so obsessive it makes me cringe. But real.

Then I got a day job and learned the language of corporate communications: obfuscation, grating positivity and lots of words ending in “ize.” Socialize, maximize, optimize – all the stuff that filled up your buzzword bingo card a decade ago.

At the same time, I had my own incredibly positive experiences working with other people. If you spend most of your life in a practice room or staring at blank computer screens waiting for words to appear, the time you get to play with other people is precious. And I was lucky. I landed at a professional services firm with a day job as a writer.

Professional services – a term meant to distinguish between the classes of service workers. Professional services are the ones you pay big bucks for; not the ones you pay just enough to keep them from unionizing. Professional services workers are measured by billable hours and sales. Other service workers are measured by whether their labor made your life better, cleaner, safer, more convenient.

The truth is, I love my work. I have not always loved my job or my company. But I have mostly loved my colleagues. They are smart, thoughtful and kind. Except when they’re smart, manipulative and political. But how surprising is that if you keep in mind that we’re pack animals in business casual.

I do change management consulting. But that vague descriptor doesn’t mean much. One guy who leads change management at a huge services firm tells me they do change management in the cloud. So very modern, I think. Does that mean they use visual cues – beeping light, a pop-up ad on everyone’s computer? Or does it mean they have bots a Siri-like bot who will tell you what to do and correct you when you’re wrong? And will that make people change their behavior or just cede control?

But when I got my first job as a corporate writer, I discovered one of the best perks. I wrote lots of speeches and presentations for the senior leader – the managing partner. By the time my role had been elevated from “do what’ you’re told” writing to strategic communicator and advisor, I often wrote what I wished he would say. And sometimes he would actually say it. That would floor me. At first, I wondered if he had taken enough time to think through the speech before he said it. But after a while, I realized that he counted on me to push him.