The second of two posts by Al Lunsford on cutting through the clutter with clear, concise, visionary communication.

If you want your communication to capture and hold people who are paying attention to what’s going on in the world, treat us the way you want to be treated. Unless, of course, you enjoy having people ply you with vague talk about poorly defined objectives and activities.

If you’re on the receiving end of communications that fail to move the needle, write back and identify what you need to know if you’re going to remain engaged. Who knows…maybe you’ll get better mail.

I got a newsletter from a person who asked us, his readers, to pray for him as he prepared the agenda for a conference, and that he would have God’s wisdom and leading as he made important decisions about the future. I wrote back, asking:

What are some of the agenda items . . . and what are these important decisions that are before you. You certainly could provide us . . . particularly those who have donated to your work . . . an understanding of your focus at this stage, the trends that are beginning to develop, new facets to the work that you are beginning to realize, opportunities you think may be materializing. You get the idea! Tell us that and we can pray in way that is more targeted and useful.

What I didn’t say but might have is that I would never respond to a business proposal that was as nonspecific as his “prayer request.” Picking up the thread:

So you are planning a conference . . . with myriad details. No offense but, Big Deal. I am working on a 25 year development project in the billions of dollars . . . there are myriad details in the legal documents alone . . . before we even start. We have to think ahead 25 years, identifying the variety of scenarios that might emerge and crafting responses to protect all the parties and enhance the usefulness and profitability of the enterprise. Now that needs “God’s wisdom” . . . But I don’t think about it at that level of generality. I think in specific terms about the issues I know we will encounter and I pray with specificity about those issues. I’m an expert, so I know much of what I need to pray for. The thing is, when it comes to this conference, so do you — because you’re an expert. If you want me to pray for your preparation, tell me the logistics you have to plan for, the subjects you want to have expert speakers for, the types and levels of workshops . . . the processes you want to introduce to generate a creative thinking environment. You say you want “many” to attend this conference . . . Why? Who are you trying to reach . . . “thought leaders” . . . or the “ground troops” . . . or will your conference be so generalized that you are going to try to reach everybody with one type of conference (now there is a task that will certainly require prayer!).

You ask us to pray for “wisdom” with “creativity” . . . about a website to be used as a strategic tool in your mission. How about asking us — your emailed constituency — what we know about websites? Do we happen to know any of the best people in the world for developing websites? Is this going to be a “brochure” website, a blog, an interactive website . . . what are you considering? Do you know what you’ll need to keep your website feeling “fresh” on a daily basis so people will return often to discover all the things you feature. And . . . what will you feature? What will you offer that can’t be found anywhere else? What is the business plan for this website . . . or is this a case of everybody has a website and in order to accomplish what we’re trying to do we need to have one too?

Revisiting my response to this newsletter, I’m afraid I sound like a crank. But my friend asked for feedback and he thanked me for being clear and direct.

And that’s what so few people bring to the table these days: Clear, direct writing that communicates what they want a reader to know and what they hope a reader will do as a direct response — whether it’s praying, attending a meeting, donating money or time . . . whatever.

If you specify or imply that your readers are somehow “partners” in what you’re trying to accomplish, then treat them as partners, not late stage investors. I see my partners weekly … if not daily. The communication between us is constant. If what you want is passive investors, that’s fine. Say so. Just don’t expect us to be interested much more than once a month, when your newsletter lands on our desktops.