Execution Special: Did you really mean to say that?

He said what?!

When Dennis Muilenburg took over as president and CEO of Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, he made the headlines in The Boeing News:

Muilenburg emphasizes execution, ‘people first’ strategy

I used to work for Boeing – I got laid off about 10 years ago. So there’s a part of me that (sort-of) believes that Muilenburg is speaking a corporate truth. But, seriously folks, this botched header is a classic example of poor editing.

What happened here is that two completely separate ideas (one hopes!) got linked by a measly comma. And then the editors didn’t do their job of editing for clarity and content. So they pulled the publish trigger…and yanked the headline from the website about a day later.

Quick Fix:

* Mind your punctuation.
* Mind your metaphors – A misplaced word can also skew the best-planned message.
* Read your work out loud. A verbal shout-out here would have caught what the “eagle-eyed” editors did not.

…and, before you execute, think twice. Are you saying what you really mean to say?