When Dallas ISD communications chief Jennifer Sprague created a list of "power words and remarks" for administrators to use with parents, I'm sure she meant well. Arming employees with facts and figures about all the ground DISD has gained is, in itself, a good thing.

However, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

By placing only positive statistics and talking points in an employee brochure, it's hard not to see the document as propaganda, aimed to trick and pacify the masses.

The last thing you want to do in a communications position is be perceived as manipulative. Dallas ISD is tap dancing on the line of positive thinking and propaganda.

Employees should be knowledgeable about the state of the district, but that means being able to talk about the good and the bad. Rather than engaging in honest conversations, Sprague has instructed administrators to use her cookie-cutter phrase book — which, by the way, doesn't include a single negative statement.

If parents or community members express concerns, DISD employees are supposed to redirect the conversation via an "acknowledgement phrase" such as "it depends."

If you want your employees to be truly empathetic, try letting them use their own words, not shoving pat phrases into their mouths.

What was Sprague's best-case scenario here? That principals would suddenly turn into Oscar-worthy actors and deliver her lines with uncanny believability? Or that parents would find the predictability of employees' answers to be comforting, not concerning?

Perhaps what's most disturbing about Sprague's plan is that it actually works really well when done behind closed doors. No, I'm not comparing DISD to the Third Reich, but I am acknowledging the alarming accuracy of the power of repeated messaging.

If Sprague had been a little more savvy with her power phrases, we might have been in danger of falling prey to them.

Lucky for us, Sprague is hardly a dictator. She's just a poor communicator.