Lynn GrasbergHow High Is Your FCR

How High is Your FCR (Fluff-to-Content Ratio)?

By Lynn Grasberg

Hey, Fluffy! If you're laughing already, you owe one to Mike Pearson, a Denver area software engineer who, as far as we know, coined the term. The Fluff- to-Content Ratio is ridiculously high in meetings, advertisements, political speeches, and all manner of day-to-day communications.

As a speaker and writer, I'm constantly cutting the fluff in my communications and coaching others to help them lower their FCR's. But some people are tough cases! They've made their way in adult life according to Snoopy's Dictum: "If you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, baffle 'em with BS."

Sigh. Let's look at a few problem situations and possible remedies.

Stalling: The Scared Approach
Sometimes, people pad their sentences because they're nervous and just stalling by adding extra words, hoping to calm down by the time they get to the meat of the message.

I had one speech coaching client who was clear and direct in one-on-one conversation. But as soon as she got in front of an audience, her mouth spewed extra words and sentences. "What I mean to say is that . . ." or "I would say that the point we're discussing is . . ."

She used lots of preamble words, meandering around like a lazy brook, when she was in high power meetings with a bunch of people who wanted to shoot the rapids. Verbally. We practiced a new speech pattern that allowed for pauses (instead of filling in with extra words). Her communication got a lot clearer (and was MUCH better received).

Waffling: The Overly Polite Aproach
Some people just don't want to come to the point because they're afraid that if they say something definitive, they will hurt someone's feelings. "I would suggest that perhaps you might consider the possibility that . . ." Unfortunately, the other person IS getting annoyed because there's nothing to connect to in the conversation.

I had a client who was stuck in this way, so I had her practice being "rude" (saying things directly, with no softening embellishment). After much laughter, she modified her speech and found that including some direct statements raised her results at work.

Lying: The Camouflage Approach
Scott Adams refers to this as "weasel talk". For example, "My boss is a king weasel. He doesn't lie to customers; he calls it "nonfull disclosure."

Weasel talk is the coin of the realm in most of our politics and advertising. Still smells bad. Luckily, lots of us have developed good BS detectors. (Adams has a hilarious book full of this stuff: Dilbert and the Way of the Weasel, NY:HarperCollins, 2002.)

What can be done about the epidemic of rising FCR's? First of all, check your own speech and writing. If you're using extra words you're probably stalling, waffling, or lying.

Or maybe you're just too busy. You remember, what Lincoln said, right? ("If I'd had more time, I would have written a shorter speech.")

So, hey, take time to streamline . . . but only if you WANT to be understood. (And see a good editor or speech coach if you have a persistent problem with unwanted words.)