While I applaud Ezra Klein’s notion (Making transparency into a reality, Ezra Klein’s Washington Post blog, January 7, 2009 at 12:15 p.m.) of disseminating the plain English documents that are created as the underpinning of Senate legislation, rather than the Bills themselves, why doesn’t anyone ask why the final Bill must be unintelligible? Why are we going through a two-step process to complicate and mystify if we have a source document which is straightforward and intelligible? Perhaps it makes more sense to rethink the structural outline of Senate legislation.
Archive for the ‘Transparency’ Category
Jan 7th, 2010 by Irene Etzkorn
Legislation that starts as plain language, should stay as plain language
Jan 2nd, 2010 by Fred Burt
Clarity for competitive advantage: a business opportunity
There was further coverage this weekend in the UK in The Times of the systematic sharp practice shown by the large UK utilities, in this case British Gas (Buyer beware or be fleeced, TimesOnline, January 2, 2010). In essence, the trick goes something like this. Write a polite letter informing customers that there will be some changes to their account, keep the terms vague or obscure, and tell them that everything is OK and that they don’t have to do a thing.
The sting in this tail is that British Gas was, in fact, proposing to hike the customer’s gas rates up by 42%…and then when they were challenged by the customer, they instantaneously reduced the price raise down to a mere 0.4%, calling into question just how ‘necessary’ the price rise was in the first place. Indeed, it raises the wider question of whether British Gas has been getting away with unnecessary 40%plus rises across a wide and unsuspecting swathe of its customer base.
This is, of course, terrible practice and relies on customer ignorance and inertia on the one hand, and a lack of a decent alternative on the other. The journalist concludes that the only way around this is to switch and switch frequently.
However, this situation provides a huge opportunity for British Gas’s competitors. Tell the customer what they currently pay, what they’re going to pay, why the changes are occurring and what they need to do next. As consumers become more and more aware of just how much they are being gouged they will look to a more trustworthy alternative. If one of British Gas’s competitors can be consistently clear, they will be the warm embrace that customers turn to.
In fact, Ofgem, the regulator, could be stepping in here. Require the utility companies to be transparent and let’s see whether they try and get away with raising prices by 40% plus at a time. The Financial Services Authority’s Keyfacts initiative has started the process of requiring financial services providers to be clear and easy to compare. Why not introduce similar requirements for utilities, which surely must be simpler to implement. This has got to be in the interest of the customer.
In the meantime, the opportunity remains clear for the utility providers: clarity for competitive advantage.
Nov 20th, 2009 by Alan Siegel
Alan Siegel on CNN Situation Room
Siegel+Gale Chairman and CEO Alan Siegel provides a clear, simple solution to complex credit card agreements on CNN’s Situation Room.
Watch “A rush to simplify credit card ‘gobbledygook’“.
Nov 5th, 2009 by Gail Nelson
Transparency makes a comeback in Washington
Judging by the standing-room only crowd from government, academia and the private sector at last week’s Center for Plain Language Symposium in Washington DC, transparency is again a major focus in government. Siegel+Gale was the exclusive sponsor of the Symposium entitled “Achieving transparency through plain language” on October 30, 2009, which featured an impressive roster of speakers on information design, plain language initiatives in government, and clarity and transparency in financial communications.
Jodi Patterson of the IRS presented a major IRS initiative to clarify taxpayer correspondence. Dona Wong, Strategy Director of Information Design at Siegel+Gale presented “The grammar of graphics,”a primer in effective information design techniques. Other highlights included a study on how plain language at the ballot box impacts election results and a fascinating and important Harvard Business School study on how educational information graphics on credit card bills can positively influence consumer credit behavior. The keynote address was given by Congressman Bruce Braley (D-Iowa), sponsor of the Plain Language Act of 2009, which is making its way through Congress.
The fact that plain language legislation is being introduced in 2009 illustrates how far we still have to go to make clarity and transparency the standard in Washington. It’s been 28 years since President Carter ushered in the Paperwork Reduction Act in 1981. Back in the early 1980s, no one would have predicted that such a common-sense idea – making information accessible and understandable to American citizens—would still need to be debated and legislated almost thirty years later. As Alan Siegel stated in his opening remarks at the symposium, “Clarity cannot be legislated, just like common sense cannot be taught.” But legislation can serve as an important guidepost to lead us on the path to clearer communications.
While there is still much work to be done, it is heartening that there is a renewed focus on transparency in Congress and in the White House, and growing recognition that clarity is the surest path forward to rebuild trust in many of our most important public and private institutions. The Plain Language symposium was one small step in the right direction. Siegel+Gale plans to be involved all along the way.