Want to be an extremist? Stick to sports, religion or economic forecasting. Please stay out of the professional communications field.

Why? Extreme communicators do themselves and others a grave disservice, especially from the perspective of LEAN Communications. They don't add value, they waste our time and they disrespect our smarts.

Take these three examples, culled from recent experiences. As usual, I'm protecting the guilty and keeping them anonymous.

Example 1: Preoccupied with Extreme Minutia

How would you answer this query? "Writers: What's on your bookshelf?"

A director of a global company answered the question with a 600-word article (or more) about all the grammar, punctuation and references books she can't live without! This is how she spends her time, energy and resources??? She's stocking up on dead-tree editions of The Chicago Manual of Style, AP Stylebook (both of which have online versions), and dictionaries galore. Not that I don't appreciate and advocate good writing, spelling and syntax. But let's practice moderation.

The director's obsession with this degree of details is a crime to her company. Her priorities are all mixed up, especially in a time of high anxiety, limited resources, and concerns about the future. She's focusing on whether a period should go inside or outside of a quotation mark, instead of whether her CEO and other leaders are having robust dialogues with key customers, employees and vendors.

As Richard Carlson advocates, don't sweat the small stuff at work. And grammar and punctuation can be microscopic elements these days. Instead, follow the advice of the The LEAN Communicator and the Copyblogger. Brian Clark writes this wonderful blog on copywriting tips for online marketing success. Many of his suggestions apply to all types of writing. Check out these posts:Do You Make These 7 Mistakes When You Write?, Five Grammatical Errors That Make You Look Dumb, and Ernest Hemingway's Top 5 Tips for Writing Well. The point is quick, simple, user-friendly ways to make your communications easier to understand to ensure your messages get through.

Example 2: Extreme Casualness

The other extreme is playing fast and loose with facts. Recently a well-respected blogger referred to an IABC colleague in one of his posts as being from ABC. Even the character Goofy would acknowledge that Disney's TV division has nothing to do with a global association of business communicators.

Bloggers may not always view themselves as professional communicators, but they do need to respect their subjects and their readers—unless they're writing fiction. So focus on the core story, write clearly and check facts.

Example 3: Extreme Cheerleading

Yet another extreme is misdirected cheeriness. Common culprits are PR agencies, branding firms, and marketing consultants who believe they are also authorities on employee communications. In December, one of these firms advocated on its website to "create a fun, innovative theme" through a "branded 2009 communications plan."

After reading that, I wanted to do what Dorothy Parker wrote in her "Constant Reader" column for The New Yorker: "Tonstant Weader fwowed up." Parker was reviewing A.A. Milne's House at Pooh Corner, which many of us have loved over the years. But fiction is different from facts—especially in our current work environment. We all need hope, inspiration and something to believe in. However, to be credible, leaders and the messages they're delivering need to be grounded in reality. Forced fun, rah-rahs (as one of my clients used to call its motivational meetings) and sing-alongs aren't the pat answer these days—especially for GM, Chrysler and Circuit City.

So be LEAN, not extreme. By being LEAN, you'll maximize people's time, money and resources. Plus you'll gain their respect and trust.

As your teachers told you, the three R's—reading, writing and 'rithmetic—are fundamental to learning.

Now that you're out of the classroom and in the work world, you still use the three R's every day. But how are you dealing with the clashes they can cause—especially when everyone's skill levels are drastically different?

In the past few weeks, I've come across three situations regarding the third R: 'rithmetic. It's also like a third rail for some savvy workers. They aren't necessarily the most senior or highest paid. But they are pivotal to company operations. And they do know that the language of business is numbers, and everyone needs to do the math. Plus they also know what they don't know can hurt them. And in one situation, they also know that their co-workers' lack of basic finances is financially hurting the company and the salespeople.

Situation 1: Managers Who Know Technology, Not Finances. This fall in a survey of global tech company managers about communication practices, a number of managers made a strong plea for help. In an open-ended question about "What improvement would you most like to make in your communications skills?" a number of managers requested help in increasing their knowledge on a variety of topics, but especially financial matters. Some representative comments were "I want to be comfortable talking about financial results." "I need more knowledge on financials on how we're doing on our goals at the corporate level" so "I can talk with my employees" about our performance.

These comments tracked with two of the survey questions in which managers rated their knowledge of the company's financial performance and their interest in the company's financial performance. The gap between the two? 49%! Only 33% said they had a high knowledge, while 82% said they had a high interest level.

Helping managers brush up not on their Shakespeare but on facts and figures has two benefits. First, it makes them more knowledgeable and confident managers, as they themselves suggested. And second, it gives them critical skills they need if they want to advance into leadership positions. When it comes to numbers, you've got to be able to do more than put together a budget, monitor expenses and forecast revenue and other key numbers. You've got to know your organization's financial statements inside and out, and also understand what the financial analysts are saying about your situation.

Situation 2: Managers Who Don't Want to Hold Up Their Weight. Another organization decided that the leaders at one of the larger sites should conduct monthly business debriefs with all the front-line managers. The leaders decided they would rotate responsibility to lead the debriefs to share the load and give everyone exposure to the managers. Well, turns out the HR leader was suddenly missing in action every time it was his turn. He was traveling on business, recruiting off site, or attending a meeting off campus. Turns out, he didn't think he knew the financial information well enough to explain it. Rather than admit this and get remedial help, he deserted his fellow functional leaders.

Situation 3: Salespeople Who Get It; Buyers Who Don't; and Salespeople Who Suffer. A high-end retail store (which will go nameless to protect the guilty) is having a tough 2008, as is the entire industry. The store—and especially its salespeople—have been dealing with a double whammy. The store imports a significant percentage of its merchandise from Europe. Earlier this year, when the Euro was so much stronger than the dollar, the store was facing almost daily price increases—at least in what its Italian, French and British suppliers were charging. Now with the financial meltdown and credit crunch causing consumers to cut back, the store is facing decreased demand. It's trying a number of customer incentives to try to salvage the holiday season.

So what's the connection between these two issues? The prices customers pay, the salespeople's commissions and the store's margins. According to the salespeople, the buyers keep the computer system updated with all the product pricing information. However, the buyers don't bother to revise the price tags posted on the merchandise. So anytime there's a discrepancy between the price tag that the customer sees on the merchandise they select and the price listed in the computer, the customer pays the amount on the price tag. That's almost always lower than the price in the computer. The commission the salespeople earn is based on the price customers pay. And the store's margin is related to the price customers' pay. The salespeople and the store's managers are realizing they're getting the short end, but that's the extent of it. No one is fixing the problem. Believe it or not, no one is assigning the buyers or anyone else the responsibility for updating the price tags on the merchandise!

According to my sources, the problem is getting worse now that the holiday season is well underway and the store is handing out discount coupons to customers to encourage them to spend. For example, one coupon provides $100 off if you buy at least $300 of merchandise. One customer selected a handcrafted bowl with a sticker price of $325. The current computer price was $425. Nonetheless, the customer paid $225 ($100 off of $325) for a $425 bowl, basically a 47% discount instead of 24%.

The buyers may have exquisite taste for the finer things in life, but their business knowledge—especially around financials—should put them in the poorhouse.

Meanwhile, the salespeople are getting crankier and crankier as they and the store lose money on sales.

The Case for Business Literacy. In situations like this, business literacy is not just a nice-to-have skill; it's imperative if you want to avoid financial losses and try to eke out a profit in difficult times.

And how much time and money would it take to teach people some basics? The investment is miniscule compared to the return. And one more point to consider. With LEAN Communications, we're always striving to add value to customers—but not at the expense of the employees or the organization. Otherwise, the system can't sustain itself.

So ask yourself, do you have any skeletons like this in your work closets? If so, it's time to take them out and teach them how to dance and do the math.

The Is have it! The LEAN Communicator has 5 Is critical for effective communications—inform, inquire, instruct, involve, and influence. I'm inspired to know I'm in good company. Dean Ernest J. Wilson III of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California has 3 Is— internationalization, impact and innovation. He's using them to take Annenberg to the next level for communication education.

Dean Wilson shared his 3 Is and other perspectives at a special Nov. 13 event for Annenberg alumni, parents and friends. We met at the SF home of Eleni Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis and Markos Kounalakis. Markos, who holds a graduate certificate in international journalism from Annenberg, is a member of the Annenberg Board of Councilors, and is the President and Publisher of The Washington Monthly, hosted the discussion. The other featured guest was Geneva Overholser, the new director of Annenberg's School of Journalism.

Dean Wilson is not your typical communication school dean. His areas of focus include the convergence of communication and information technology, public policy and the public interest. He's well suited for Annenberg, which isn't your usual communication school.

Annenberg has wide breadth and depth. The communication school includes programs in journalism, PR and communication management. It grants bachelors, masters and PhD degrees. The school is part of an influential research university. And Annenberg is partnering in journalism education with a number of media institutions in the Middle East and Africa, as well as continuing its relationship with the London School of Economics & Political Science. (Deans Wilson and Overholser wryly noted that the international agenda is still limited to the English-speaking part of the world.)

Some of Dean Wilson's pithy observations and promising plans to have impact include:

• Starting an entrepreneurial journalism program for practicing journalists.
• Encouraging students and working professionals to create a new business model for newspapers.
• Requiring students to take at least one class in economics.
• Building stronger partnerships with other programs and schools.
• Serving the public good, including strengthening the role of citizen journalists.

(Dean Wilson is even more convinced of the importance of economics in formal education after the appalling coverage of the financial crisis. According to him, the mass media has demonstrated little leadership and expertise in explaining what has happened in the financial markets.)

While Dean Wilson is an accomplished and educated individual, he's hardly finished learning. After the event, he told a colleague and me that he needs to learn more about PR. And he spoke several times about his interest in spending more time in Northern California, the hotbed of innovation, his third I. He wants to meet with technology companies and venture capitalists to understand how Silicon Valley works. He's also curious about knowing what skill sets executives anticipate needing from new hires. He said he believes faculty need to be innovative too, not just students. In this way, he can bring sustainable innovation to Annenberg.

As an alum of Annenberg (MA, Communication Management), I found Dean Wilson's remarks energizing. He's leading the school in a visionary manner. Plus he's following some important tenants. These include including recognizing that communication professionals must be leaders as well as technical experts. For too many years, communication professionals viewed their role as staying on the sidelines, being objective and reporting on what happened. While professional journalists have an ethical responsibility to be fair, those of us who work in other settings need to be players, not bystanders. And we need to be grounded in important fundamentals, including economics.

My undergrad degree is from a journalism school too—the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University (BSJ, Newspapers). Medill continues to have a narrower focus than Annenberg (print, broadcast and digital journalism, not broader communications except for the integrated marketing communications program in partnership with the Kellogg School of Management). Yet Medill has always valued a broad liberal arts education. In fact, I was almost an economics major too. Then I became stymied by the level of math needed to excel in economics.

From a LEAN Communications perspective, Dean Wilson and the rest of Annenberg are being responsible stewards. They're adding value to their key customers—students, their parents, employers, and the public at large. Dean Wilson also is committed to the LEAN Communications principle of continual improvement.

Aye, aye to all the Is!

3.   Publicized their achievements.

On the technology front, the first-place winner, Stacey Homan, Marketing Communications Manager of AtriCure, Inc., teamed up with Prolifiq Software to create an application. Yes, a communications professional helped build a software solution and then communicated it!  

Thanks to the ingenuity of Stacey and her team, sales reps can now order and send marketing materials electronically from their BlackBerry® devices. This solved two problems. First, Atricure meets the complex FDA regulations for marketing materials. Second, the sales team can now respond faster to their customers, primarily medical professionals, with more targeted marketing materials.

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It's truce or consequences time! Communications needs to declare a truce with HR and start to build a strong relationship. Otherwise, we're hurting our credibility and even more critically, harming our ability to provide our customers–employees, managers, executives and everyone else–with quality services and products. Our customers could care less about our turf wars! They expect and deserve excellent communication, especially on HR topics. 

This is an interview with Ragan Communications. 

And, here  is a feature I wrote for Melcrum's Strategic Communication Management on "Functional Fortitude: do you have it?" It's all about working in harmony with other departments to strengthen the organization.

•  Use lots of bullets (or steps); avoid flowery prose and dense paragraphs
•  Keep the language clear; drop the jargon and the complicated terminology
• Be short; try to use no more than 500 – 600 words
• Make things (articles, podcasts, videos, etc.) easy to find  
• Explicitly state what actions people need to start doing, stop doing and continue doing.

Use as your mantra: Be clear, be quick, and be gone. Those of us who want time to think will thank you.