Consulting Journal: Words - 'Harness' and 'bring to bear'

Words: 'Harness' and 'bring to bear'

by David Blakey

Before using words that are intended to put an image into the reader's mind, consultants should check whether the image will be appropriate.

[Monday 3 March 2003]

When they are writing proposals, some consultants like to end their introduction page with a single sentence that will give their prospects confidence in the consultants' determination to use their best efforts on the proposed assignment. They may use sentences like the following

We shall harness our joint expertise in the [prospect's] sector and bring it to bear on the assignment.

This is short and, the consultants like to think, powerful.

Unfortunately, it can build negative images in the client's imagination.

The word ‘harness’ can make the client think of a team of horses, constrained by the traces of the vehicle that they are pulling, controlled by reins in the hands of a single driver, focused by being blinkered, and heading in a predetermined direction. This is an unfortunate image for consultants. We want our clients to know that we shall use our expertise to tell them about ‘best practice’ in their sector and to help them to move in new directions. We want our clients to know that their assignments will remain under their control and that we will give them advice and guidance. We want our clients to know that we are aware of possible new directions and that we can give them our expertise to help them decide whether they want to move in those directions. We want them to know about our flexibility and our willingness to consider new ideas.

We do not want our clients to imagine that our assignments are like a stage-coach, on which they are merely passengers.

The same problem can arise with the phrase ‘bring to bear’. Originally, it applied to guns, especially big guns. Actually, it may be older than that, and battering rams may have been brought to bear against their targets. They would literally have been brought (positioned) in order to bear (apply pressure) against defences. There is certainly an element of destruction in the phrase. Later, it was applied to search-lights, which were brought to bear upon targets so that weapons could destroy them. It is this later image that consultants may want their prospects to have: that their resources will be focused, like searchlights, upon the objectives. The image may still be destructive, in some prospects' minds.

If a consultant was bidding for an assignment that did involve destruction, without replacement, then the image might work. Most consulting assignments involve either changing current systems and processes or introducing new ones. Some prospects might be worried by the image of destruction. Even if parts of their current systems and processes are not working well, they will not want to destroy the current systems and processes entirely.

The aim of this article is to persuade you to consider phrases like ‘harness’ and ‘bring to bear’ very carefully before you use them. If you write anything that is intended to invoke an image in your prospects' imaginations, then make sure that there are no alternative images that could have a negative effect.

My tips follow.

Use dictionaries to see what the original meaning was.
Refer to reference books like Fowler's Modern English Usage and Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.
Ask someone else to read them and ask them what impression they formed.
Build a list of words and phrases to avoid.

A longer sentence - or even a paragraph - may be clearer and less ambiguous than a brief, powerful one. It may be that consultants want their reports to be like advertising copy and think that they should end their introduction with something short and ‘punchy’. In fact, copywriters usually avoid this, preferring length if it adds clarity.

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