The people changing business
When we write a report about something, our task is not to write a text but to inform the reader.
We must not stop at correctly and completely describing all aspects of the topic at hand but lead our readers to understanding. It’s vitally important that the reader of our report understands that the product will fail if we don’t manage to bring the tolerance down to .03%. It’s not sufficient to simply describe what we see. We must make sure that our reader sees it, too.
It’s always about the reader, never about the paper. The goal of a report is not to be written but to be understood.
The same is true for communication in general. Our job is not to write a speech, design a website, or create slides but to change people’s minds.
We are in the people-changing business, not the text-writing, website-designing or speech-giving business.