Some organisations continue to publish text that contains complex sentences and lots of big words. Managers tell their people they need to communicate in a formal, or bureaucratic way.

They think this makes them sound more professional or competent or authoritative. They claim ‘we need to say it this way so that others can see we know our stuff’, so that readers will be impressed.

But this pompous style gets in the way of good communication – it is a pretense. It reminds me of the old story by Hans Christian Anderson of the ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’.

A truly knowledgeable person can explain complex ideas simply so that others can understand with little effort.