Jon Moon
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Campaign for WiT at work
In September 2008 I launched a Campaign to make work pointless. I hope to rid bullet points from documents and slides and replace them with "WiT" ("Words in Tables"), my alternative that has three times more impact. Click here for the press release - it includes quotes from the Plain English Campaign, the CEO of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, the CEO of a FTSE 250 group and more.
"Dots are for Dalmatians, not documents"
Scroll to bottom of this page for bigger photos
Below is more on WiT and the Campaign. Also, this website also has free WiT downloads - over 1,000 are done a month, covering slides, reports, KPIs and more. So check out the fantastic WiT-based CV layout or even "Bullet Bingo". And let's all make work pointless.Why we need a Campaign
What do we use these black dots for?
Who uses all these dots?
But what's so wrong with bullets?
Why WiT is the seriously better alternative
What others say about WiT
Redos - WiT v bullets: a slide, report, CV & Cabinet paper
How to wean yourself off bullets in just one hour
And after you've detoxed…
Frequently asked questions
Should we banish all bullets?
Why does this website have bullets?
Three times more impact - how's that worked out?
Why's there not much WiT on this website?
Isn't imagery an effective alternative to bullets?
Gosh, why don't you trademark it?
Who did the photo and the suit? Are they your dogs?
Why we need a Campaign
Bullet points don't impress people; they depress people. They don't break up dull text; they are dull text. We've all suffered Death by Bullet Point in Presentations. We've all felt our heart sink when faced with yet another report crammed with bullets.
Yet, we all use bullets because everyone else does, because we don't know what to do instead and because many people aren't aware just how bad bullets are.
This Campaign is to remedy these problems - and to introduce WiT, my seriously better alternative to bullets.
What do we use these black dots for?
Everything. Got a slide to do? Bullet points will do nicely. Got some findings to list in a report? I know – show the findings as bullet points. Got a line of argument you wish to progress from point (a) to (f) and onto a conclusion? Here's an idea – list every step of the argument as a bullet point. Got to show the pros and cons of different alternatives (out-source, go in-house or do a joint venture)? Hey, guess what? List the pros and cons as bullet points. Bullets really are the snake oil of modern business.
Who uses all these dots?
Almost every function in every company in every sector uses them. Public, private, quoted, educational, charitable, not-for-profit, regulatory and more. Banking, construction, software, insurance, consulting, FMCG, investment, healthcare, media, oil and gas. Sales, marketing, compliance, IT, finance, R&D, actuarial and so on. I know. I've seen them all.
But what's so wrong with bullets?
OK, many documents with bullets are bad - but is that the bullets' fault? After all, we don't blame the biro for bad writing.
Granted, but unlike other better ways of showing information, bullets almost seem to encourage poor writing. Many bullet lists are incomplete, inconsistent, in the wrong order and grammatically jumbled - see the Cabinet Papers for an example. Also, bullet points aren't good at making your key points stand out, nor at helping readers compare alternatives or see inter-relationships between facts.
Which means most bullets aren't just bad. They're really bad.
Why WiT is the seriously better alternative
First, WiT helps ensure completeness and consistency and visually lifts your points from the page. Next, WiT really sharpens the writing, forcing readers to think hard about the key point of each paragraph. If that's not enough, WiT also makes your words easier to read.
All of which means: WiT triples impact.
Don't just take my word for it though. Read what others say.
What people say about WiT
"Stunningly simple, yet mould-breaking. You’ll never look at a bullet point the same way" Michael Izza, Chief Executive ICAEW (Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales)
"Simple ideas can change business forever. WiT is one such idea" Dominic Burke, Group CEO, JLT Group plc
"Jon’s new approach (WiT) gives documents real clarity. It visually lifts ideas from the page and gives work a clean slick look" Plain English Campaign
"We use WiT when presenting to our clients' Managing Directors, and it's dramatically improved what we thought was unimprovable" Malcolm Durham, Chairman of City-based part-time CFO company FD Solutions
"Bullet points don’t give impact. WiT does" ‘Business Executive’ magazine, May 2008
"Out, out, damned spot" Lady Macbeth (William Shakespeare)
Redos - WiT v bullets: a slide, report, CV & Cabinet paper
How WiT gives more impact - some "before" and "after"s:
A slide: click here (a one-page pdf, 62kb)
A report: click here (a one-page pdf, 72kb)
A CV: see the Downloads part of this site
The Cabinet paper: click here (a 3-page pdf, 164kb)
Background to the Cabinet paper: on 13 May 2008, Gordon Brown's housing minister, Caroline Flint, exposed the Government's fears over the falling housing market when she accidentally let photographers glimpse a "top-secret" note as she walked into No 10. The one-page note was in bullets.
Click on the 3-page pdf to see Flint's original note and read about some of its mistakes and problems. Then see it transformed by my WiT redo.
How to wean yourself off bullets in just one hour
It'll take just one hour to properly wean yourself off bullets - one hour reading Chapter 1 of my book (39 pages) or one hour doing the WiT online Course. Learn why WiT is better, and how and when to do WiT. And, believe it or not, hear five conditions when bullets are OK... they do exist (note 1) (albeit they're not that frequent). And learn my "SOS" of bullets to make them as acceptable as possible.
So, just one hour to learn how to triple impact.
Note 1: I've been told that the Plain English Campaign ('PEC') "tends to recommend bullets in the type of documents it works on". I hope to compare notes with PEC soon to see under what circumstances it recommends bullets, just to see where our thinking overlaps and where it differs. Watch this space.
And after you've detoxed…
Check out the downloads - try Bullet Bingo too.
Spread the word. When someone says: "we've a report and slides to do for the client… blast out some bullets", tell them you'll "blast out some WiTs" instead.
Keep in touch. Email me examples of particularly bad bullets or particularly good WiTs.
And watch this space for other redos I've got planned.
Frequently asked questions
Should we banish all bullets?
Why does this website have bullets?
Above, I said there's occasions when bullets are acceptable. Which means I've been rumbled - I don't want to ban all bullets. Just 96% of them. Maybe the Campaign should be: "make work 96% more pointless". But it's not such a good Campaign rallying cry, is it?
Three times more impact - how's that worked out?
I dummied up a 'before' and 'after' of a report and slide – very similar to the examples above - and over a few months, asked over 100 people to mark them between 1 and 10 for impact. Ten is good, 1 is bad. The WiT slide increased impact 2.7 times, the WiT report increased impact 3.1 times. So on average, WiT increased impact 2.9 times - and that's near enough for me to say that WiT "triples impact".
As it is, I could have been like the ads for beauty products ("Up to 7 times more thickness for eye lashes!!!" they purrrr). Given that some people gave 1 for bullets and 10 for WiT, I could claim it "gives up to 10 times more impact" and then add "because you're worth it". Or up to infinite more impact (someone gave 0 for bullets). But if I did, it would undermine the real message.
And that is: WiT triples impact.
Why's there not much WiT on this website?
Two reasons: I'm poor at web technology and I tinker a lot. Let me explain. I can't do tables on my website – my webchap has to set them up and type words into them. And he has to make all changes to them, even if just a single word. So I mostly avoid tables on this site.
Isn't imagery an effective alternative to bullets?
Some books suggest imagery as an alternative to bullet points, e.g. to highlight the need to change, show on your slide a picture of an ostrich with its head in the sand.
Yes, a good picture conveys a "big vision" well (the ostrich isn't a good picture though - but that's another story). But pictures struggle in reports - your report can't just be 20 pictures.
Any serious alternative to bullets must cope with words and detail. WiT copes. In fact, it more than copes. It delivers beautifully.
Gosh, why don't you trademark it?
I have. If interested, the trademark number 2459719 was granted on 28 June 2007 in the name of Jon Moon. It is class 41 and is for: "reporting writing training; teaching people a way to structure their documents so they can write reports and slides without using bullet points". And the font of my trademark is Gills Sans MT. There you go.
Who did the photo and the suit? Are they your dogs?
Photos by Mark (www.markbasset.co.uk). He took exactly 101 photos, I kid you not.Suit by Barbara (www.barbaratobias.com). She covered an old work suit and did a brilliant job.
Umbrella from designsbysazz@yahoo.com. Sally stuck black dots on a white brolly for me.
Dogs hired from www.petlondonmodels.com .
