“The Corelone Family had a lot of buffers,” testified Willi Cicci to a Senate Sub-Committee investigating the criminal activities of Michael Corelone in the movie, The Godfather, Part II. Cicci was a “button-man” (hitman) for the Corelone family, and a “buffer” was someone who passed on instructions from higher-ups to “execute” orders. This was to protect the higher-ups from prosecution, since they avoided direct implication.

This approach may protect crime bosses from jail time, but it does not protect our clients, or ourselves, from creating misunderstandings or circulating misinformation in our business—the communications business. We writers, the “button-people,” need direct access to our clients when receiving input and feedback so we can “execute” our writing assignments efficiently—and we are all protected as a result.

Writers should insist, whenever possible, upon direct input and communications with the client at every opportunity, rather than relying on a buffer—in the form of an account person—to communicate the client’s ideas.

–Byron