Back to school … for what, exactly?

There are plenty of back-to-school-looks-different-in-2020 posts. I’m not writing that. My thoughts here are the same with the start of every new semester. Not just in September. Not just when the classroom is a computer screen and the teacher is wearing pajama bottoms. My biggest challenge with university students at the start of term is to convince them that mastering clear communication matters. It gets harder every year.

It doesn’t get harder because they don’t understand the value of communication. They do. But everything around them reinforces the idea that a popular Tik Tok video or an emoji-laden text is all you need to “communicate.” And you can build a career – or at least a current revenue-generating source – from that. Now, every generation has its examples of wildly successful people who built empires out of nothing save the masterful creativity in their heads – no formal education in sight. So, what do we tell youth about the value of learning?

I’m not going to slide into the discussion about whether or not today’s university degrees are worth it (student debt aside). In recent years, many major companies have eliminated their employment requirement for a college degree. And it’s not just tech giants like Google and Apple. Now, Ernst & Young, Bank of America, IBM and Penguin Random House are among those who erased the “degree earned” from their employment applications. That’s a different conversation.

Rather, when I’m faced with another 30 undergraduate faces wondering why their institution requires them to take this 3000-level course in business communications, I ask myself the same question they’re asking: Why? And the follow-up: Who cares? (And, tangentially: How can I slide through this course with minimal effort?) Answer the first question honestly and the others take care of themselves.

Answer: Because the business world today – for all its creativity and terrifically disruptive initiatives – will always need people who can write a few simple sentences and make their point. Even influence and motivate. At the very least, inform. You will not deliver the quarterly financials to the board of directors via Instagram. WeChat may very well be the best platform to grow your business, but you still have to pitch potential investors via a live Zoom call (or someday, in person). And you only have 15 minutes.

Jeff Bezos has banned PowerPoint presentations at his senior executive meetings. Bezos is easy to hate but I love him for this. And I emphasize clever presentation graphics less and less.

Jason Fried, founder of Basecamp says his top hiring criteria is writing skill. “You have to be a great writer to work here, in every single position, because the majority of our communication is written, primarily because a lot of us work remotely but also because writing is quieter. And we like long-form writing where people really think through an idea and present it.” Be still my writer’s heart.

And then, this summer – published the same week as World Emoji Day! – an interview with Automattic founder and CEO Matt Mullenweg where he, too, talked about hiring practices a bit out of the mainstream: The majority of roles are hired via chat. The (written) cover letter gets attention. A chat conversation happens instead of a traditional interview. “I think clear writing is a sign of clear thinking,” according to Mullenweg.

Once again (at least for one more semester) I am vindicated. I can justify the rewrite exercises and grammar quizzes and rubric categories on clear, compelling writing. Whew. Back to school indeed.