I love the island of Guernsey… but when I first visited I saw notices everywhere telling you what you can and cannot do – don’t sit on a wall in case you fall off, don’t throw stones on the beach, don’t park here, don’t walk along the seawall when there are waves. Don’t do that.
I’m sure they are well-intentioned (as a means of escaping liability rather than being helpful advice). But after a while, the plethora of notices become meaningless.
How can we tell when they are warning us of a real risk of serious injury or when it is pettifogging nonsense?
Focus on the positive
The difficulty with constantly telling someone what they can’t do, is that it doesn’t actually make it clear what you actively want them to do.
If you yell ‘stop shouting’ at someone (the irony!) are you asking them to talk normally, whisper, or shut up completely?
Clarity is critical in all our communications – ‘don’t do X’ is not the same as ‘please do non-X’.
When we are simplifying contracting – whether that is the process or the content – we adopt a positive approach to terms where possible. So we minimise the warnings. Any that are needed are marked with a warning icon to ensure they get noticed.
Restrictions on use
Recently, we worked with a consultant who was sharing their unique process with their client and its staff as well as a range of resources such as video content.
There are two ways of addressing the restrictions on using that content:
- What the users can do with the resources and when (‘go on, fill your boots’)
- What they cannot do and also the dire consequences if they breach those restrictions (‘I’ll send the heavies round’).
Of course, which party hosts that online content has a huge impact on the ease of enforcing these restrictions but that’s another story… Not all the suggestions that we make to our clients are based on legal terms!
What should you do?
Grab your existing terms, and consider how you can reframe the restrictions and constraints into positive obligations.
Positive obligations are easier for our brains to process and comply with, as well as being much nicer to read.