Donald L. Heymann Plays Word Inflation: Amazing, Epic, Disruptive Innovation

Released on: July 14, 2014, 7:51 am (EDT)
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Industry: Entertainment

Mr. Heymann, a well known business writer and popular Adjunct Instructor of Writing at NYU, has released his third article in his series regarding cultural changes that impact our language and communications. These articles uniquely address the cultural gaps so common in business communications affecting companies of all sizes.

Fairfield, CT, July 14, 2014 -- /EPR NETWORK/ -- Donald L. Heymann, well known business writer and Adjunct Instructor of Writing at NYU, has released his third article in his series on cultural and generational writing.

“One of the goals of good writing in general, and business writing in particular, is to be persuasive”, says Mr. Heymann who feels that writers need to pay more attention to fast paced cultural changes. "If you’ve ever thought about how fast our language – and therefore our culture – is changing, you only need a handful of random examples to prove the point. Writers, especially, must be keenly sensitive to these changes to remain relevant, or risk being dismissed outright. That's what I was writing about. Pay more attention to these changes and many businesses would be more successful in their communications.”

Word Inflation: Amazing, epic, disruptive innovation

“I’m mixing metaphors, but many communicators in the U.S. (Sorry, I don’t get to read Der Spiegel or Paris Match), are getting out of hand – and way over the top – with word inflation.” says Don Heymann
“If every product change or new idea is amazing, epic, and disruptive, what happens when something really significant takes place? Yes, iTunes truly disrupted the music business, which is still trying to figure out how to respond. And yes, Amazon and e-books truly disrupted the book industry. But really, how often do these kinds of revolutions come along?”

Mr. Heymann continues, “That’s not stopping marketers and publicists. Today, every business conference has a line-up of speakers promising to show business leaders and entrepreneurs how to develop “disruptive innovation” in their markets. Come on!”

“The fact is, most innovation is incremental – a car with a new GPS system, a new drug with fewer side effects, a snack with no trans fats. These are good things. And there are strong word choices to express how important they are.”

“In the public sphere, we also go too far by describing people and events as amazing and iconic, and we describe squeaky voiced 20-year old pop singers as divas. If we dig a little, I’m sure we can find complimentary words that are a little more down to earth.”

“Just look at the definitions of some of these words and you’ll see what I mean:

Amazing: Causing wonder and astonishment. Is the food at that great taco place really astonishing and a cause of wonder, or is it just delicious?

Iconic: Having the characteristics of an icon – a symbol of a belief, nation, community, or cultural movement. Gandhi, yes. Donald Trump, no.

Diva: From the Latin for “goddess.” A highly distinguished female singer; prima donna. Aretha Franklin, yes! Beyonce’, maybe. Katy Perry or Miley Cyrus, not so much.

Epic: Heroic; majestic; impressively great. An episode in which heroic deeds are performed or attempted. In our culture, we’ve gone from fabulous, to excellent to awesome to epic. What’s next, God-like? Going into a burning building to save a child is epic. D-Day was epic. Winning a billion dollar political campaign or hitting a home run? I don’t think so.

Disruptive: Creating turmoil or disorder; interrupting the progress of a movement or meeting; breaking or splitting something apart. First of all, is this something we really want to do all the time, as hyped-up conference speakers seem to encourage? Of course not. We just like the way it sounds. Disruptive innovation is a lot cooler than garden-variety innovation. But the fact is, incremental innovation that improves our lives, our economy, our security, or our planet is plenty good, and there are lots of beautiful adjectives and metaphors to describe it.”

Mr. Heymann advises, “So, communicators, be careful. Describe great advances boldly and creatively, but keep it real. Because the next time you’re really faced with amazing, epic, disruptive innovation, you may not be able to find the right words.”

About Don Heymann:
Don Heymann launched his business in 1985, drawing on his broad communications experience as a writer, consultant, corporate official and agency executive.

Before then, Don served three Fortune 500 companies in senior corporate communication positions — GAF Corporation, Lone Star Industries and Chesebrough-Pond’s Inc. (now Unilever Personal Care).
Earlier, he was an account supervisor with Burson-Marsteller, one of the largest public relations agencies in the world, developing and managing PR and marketing communications programs in a wide range of fields.

In addition, Don has a solid foundation as a writer and editor, having worked for McGraw-Hill Publications and other business journals. He has also taught writing courses at Western Connecticut State University and is currently an adjunct instructor at New York University’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies.

Elected to Phi Beta Kappa, Heymann is a summa cum laude graduate of Ohio University with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English/Creative Writing.

Mr. Heymann’s clients include GE, IBM, Montifiore Hospital, New York Blood Bank, Johnson and Johnson, among many others.

Contact Don Heymann Directly: Donald L. Heymann & Co., Don Heymann, Fairfield, CT 06840, 1 203 366 7525, http://www.donheymann.com/contact/

Contact-Details: Catherine Stone
Chroma Sites
PO Box 732,
Westport, CT 06880
1-203-292-3605
info@chromasites.com
http://www.chromasites.com

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