Words For Hire

Business, PR, Marketing, Social Media 586.461.2103

Are You Touching All the Bases in Your Communication Game Plans?

by

If you are deaf or hard of hearing, you can read the transcript of this skit here.

In this classic comedy skit by comedy duo Abbott and Costello we witness the hilarity that can ensue from communication errors. Real life communication errors can also be funny and may even serve as a bonding moment between the parties involved. But communication errors can also cost us time, money and relationships.

Abbott assumes that he has established that the players have funny names. From this assumption he communicates that “Who” is on first base. Costello, however, did not understand the assumption and does not understand that “Who” is a funny name.  Versions of “Who’s on First” are playing out across corporations today.

Leaders assume that they have “communicated” to their teams yet team members miss the objectives because they did not know they were given. Consumers are frustrated by instructions that fail to instruct on the basics and support lines buzz with complaints.

No one hits a home run on communications 100% of the time but you can reduce your failure rate and minimize errors when they occur with just a few simple steps.

  • Assume nothing. Assumptions can get you into trouble when attempting to communicate.  Whenever possible, check the understanding of your audience. In a live interaction, ask. If sending an email, simplify as much as possible and include explanation for items that may not be mutually understood. If you are preparing for a meeting, keynote or presentation, verify the depth of understanding in advance.
  • Invite questions. Ask if there are questions but do so in a way that truly makes it comfortable for people to admit a lack of understanding. There is nothing worse than making someone feel bad for not “getting it.”
  • Listen. Costello asked the question but Abbott was not really listening. It’s easy to become impatient when we are misunderstood but this heightens the error.
  • Be patient. I once had a frustrating days long email exchange with a web designer about the color blue. I was working with a client and the web team was based in another country. I got up in the middle of the night to communicate real time and desperately tried to find a way to communicate I wanted blue. An example and a little more explanation finally bridged our communication gap. Ideally, I would have hashed it out by phone but that is not always possible. When I let go of the frustration, and focused on finding ways to be understood we quickly moved to resolution.
  • Check Understanding. Confirm that the other party understood with simple check statements such as: To make sure we’re on the same page, let’s confirm what was discussed, Does that make sense to you?, I want t make sure I got everything, may I confirm what we talked about? You can do this in live conversation or via a quick confirmation email following a meeting.

Please feel free to share your tips, or feedback in the comments section. And if something was not clear, please do not hesitate to ask. 🙂

Enhanced by Zemanta

5 Tips to Instantly Improve Your Communication Skills

by

This is the third post in a series on communications in the digital age. You can read Part I and Part II here and here.

I ran across a statistic at the HBR website that drives home the need for being able to communicate well. According to a recent survey of 120 blue-chip American companies poor writing costs businesses $3 billion a year to correct. This is the result of only two-thirds of employees being able to write well.  Is poor communication costing you money? Are you spending time mitigating the fallout from a poorly written email? Are you being perceived as a poor leader because you are unable to convey clear expectations to your team? Have you been passed over for a promotion because of your communication style?

Great communicators rise to the top in corporations. It is a valued skill to be able to articulate ideas, messages and thoughts clearly and succinctly. This translates well in our personal lives as well. How many family disagreements arise from communication failures?

Communication
Image by elycefeliz via Flickr

Communication IQ is comprised of the ability to:
• Clearly convey thoughts and emotions
• Listen actively
• Demonstrate empathy
• Recognize emotions
• Walk the talk
• Use conflict constructively by being solution focused
• Gain respect through ethical and respectful behavior

Source: Effective Communication & Communication IQ | eHow.com

Improving our communication intelligence is not as complex as it may seem. The tips below will help you instantly improve your communication.

  1. Communicate to be understood. You can instantly improve your communication skills by focusing on the listener, rather than broadcasting a message or making a point.
  2. Be attentive to the spaces between the words. We have the ability to say much more than the words we speak or write. If you’re angry, calm down before sending that “professional” email.
  3. Two ears, one mouth. Listen twice as much as you speak and you will boost your communication skills overnight.
  4. Match the message to the medium. Save long, layered messages for real interaction. Use email, text and other short form communication for easy to communicate messages, ideas and updates.
  5. Receive with grace. We can avoid communication conflict by managing our own emotional reactions. Rather than respond in kind to a terse email, leave the emotion out of it and respond with grace. Remember that not everyone is a skilled communicator.

Do you have tips to add to the list above? Have you ever been on the receiving end of poor communication? What was the impact and how was it resolved?

Enhanced by Zemanta

Say What? – Age of Communication Part II

by

This is part II of a series on communications in the digital age. If you missed the introduction you can read it here.

As often happens I wrote this series and communication issues rose up around me. In the past several days I have read and heard so much on communication and miscommunication that I could fill volumes. We are communicating more than ever but also misfiring at rapidly increasing rates. The rise of digital combined with multi-generational perspectives have added complex layers to not only the content and methodology of our conversations but how we interpret them.

What is communication?

In my ninth grade English class we were asked to write instructions on how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. We were to write the instructions for someone who was from a foreign country who had never made a PB&J sandwich. Many giggled and called the assignment stupid but with each question the depth of the assignment became clear. The challenge of communication is not simply getting the words right but putting them in the right context and making them accessible to those who may not share our same set of experiences.

Communication: a process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, or behavior (Merriam Webster Dictionary)

The goal of communication then is obviously to not only be heard (or read) but understood. Note that the definition is not limited to language but includes behavior.

Our capacity to communicate has expanded but our exchange process has transformed. The danger of an over reliance on digital short form communication is the fractured nature of exchanges, the absence of other signs and behavior and the other subtleties that allow us to communicate and be understood in voice to voice and face to face interactions. Language, whether written, spoken or signed is enriched by behaviors that deepen the communication with feeling. Yes, feeling. At the heart of communication lies emotion, even when we communicate facts there is intent to evoke a response that is both intellectual and emotional.

Digital communication does not always strip communication of emotion but there is a greater risk when there are no other signals to validate intent. It is for this reason that I often advise business professionals to address complex issues via phone or face to face rather than email. Far too often I have witnessed an unnecessary and ugly protracted email exchange that could have been resolved in a 10 minute phone call.

The lack of human interaction for some gives them “textual courage” leading them to say things that they would temper in a face-to-face or voice-to-voice exchange.

The solution is not to refrain from digital communications but to become proficient in all forms of communications and that includes choosing the right channels.

Do you have a preferred communication channel (email, text, phone or other)? Have you found that there are times when your preferred channel is not the best channel for communicating?

Please stay tuned for the next post in this series. Your feedback and suggestions are warmly welcomed. If you have specific questions or ideas you’d like to see addressed please let me know.


Related articles by Zemanta
Enhanced by Zemanta

The Age of Communication?

by

"Kellogg" brand "candle stick&q...
Image via Wikipedia

I had an interesting conversation with a client the other day about etiquette and the art of conversation. Like me he is a baby boomer, fully immersed in current technology yet aware of its shortcomings. We both still write real letters, phone our friends to chat and talk to people minus a blackberry when we are face to face. We use technology and take leadership in driving change but also reflect a generation that is desperate not to lose the personal touch of the past as we march forward into a tech driven world

It is no secret that internet communication and the continuing evolution of tools and platforms that facilitate conversation have changed the way we communicate. In many ways, the changes have been exciting. The ability to communicate with ease across global time zones exposes us to a wider diversity of cultures and traditions. This has also eased the ability for businesses of all sizes to expand internationally.

The internet has expanded everyone’s appetite for information. Not everyone was excited about reading the encyclopedia or spending hours in a library but the world it seems is fully ready to Google anything from anywhere.

All of this should mean that we are more literate than in the past and far savvier at the art of conversation. It should but does it?

Join me this week as I explore the issue, and please share your thoughts in the comments. What do you think of our communication skills? Any personal victories or horror stories to share?

Related articles by Zemanta
Enhanced by Zemanta

Exploring the Heart of Writing

by

happy valentines day - pink gerbera with a hea...
Image by Vanessa Pike-Russell via Flickr

Last week, I read a post by Joanna Paterson at MidLife Journal on Facebook in which she distinguished writing with a capital “W “from writing. The phrase resonated with me and I found myself thinking of it, turning it over, and journaling about it.

Joanna wrote:

“…writing doesn’t need to start with a capital W. There’s a role and a place for that kind of writing, of course there is, and I know many of us dream of getting our work ‘out there’, published, and read.

But there’s a whole lot of other writing that isn’t ever going to end up on someone’s bookshelf.” (Writing and Pathways of the Heart)

We all have our capital W writing – business communications, proposals, presentations, white papers, emails and more. It is the writing that is defined by the intended reader. We craft it with carefully chosen words and phrases with the knowledge that it will be read and in essence will be a reflection of our knowledge and talent.

While the capital W writing certainly has its place the professionalism of it can actually get in the way of the words.

Small w writing for me most often happens with a pen. It is “soul writing,” that comes from a place deep within where raw honesty supersedes style and content. My pen functions as a pipeline to my inner being where thoughts, ideas and feelings drain freely onto the page. In this haven of uncensored thought, the inner critic does not exist. There are no rules and thoughts are allowed to shove their way in uninvited even if the result is a page of seemingly fragmented nonsense.

If you have ever written a letter with no intention of sending it, or poured your heart out in a journal then you know the intensity and satisfaction of small w writing.

Some small w writing should remain private, a safe haven where you can work through the inner complexities without over analyzing the content of your message. Yet, I can’t help but wonder how much better we would communicate if we allowed at least a little of this into our public writing. Would we see posts and articles that were passionate and pure? Would we forgive less polished writing for writing that was heart felt and intense? Would we move past convention as we focus on communication?

I am convinced that writing from the soul always has a place whether is it done with a capital W or small w. How about you?

Enhanced by Zemanta

March of the Illiterati in E Flat

by

Written by Karen D.  Swim

Two weeks ago, my Grandmother retired her old school TV Antenna for a digital converter box. If the FCC had not mandated that the US switch to digital on June 12th, my Gran would have kept using the rabbit ears.

In the world of early adopters one might say my Gran is a no bloomer. Yet, her diehard dedication to “rabbit ears” is not unlike those who hopelessly cling to the notion that social media is worthless and digital media is solely for the illiterati.

In a recent conversation with an erudite writer, I listened to what has become a familiar litany:

People who publish on the internet are not real writers. I am a noted journalist/writer/editor and accustomed to spending 6 weeks, writing 15 drafts before publishing.

My crowd is very literate and will not possibly be on Twitter. ( I pull up Twitter screen) Oh, look there’s Bill /Jane/ Buffy, they’re on Twiter?

I do not have time to waste engaging in urbane conversations with plebian strangers.

Internet publishing is for hacks.

Overlooking the fact that I had just been called a moronic hack who spends time on inane platforms talking to a motely bunch of idiots, I patiently explained this new world that has “killed newspapers” and made superstars out of the unknown.  I politely declined to point out that a truly impressive insult would have described “my people” as having brains as dry as the remainder biscuit after a voyage.

Alas, we no longer use insults such as: “Away!, Thou art poison to my blood.” Yet, in spite of the evolution of the English language we have managed to make amazing discoveries, and advances.  Who’da thunk it? (See what fun online writing can be?)

Those who view online writing as a dumbing down of provocative thoughts and ideas are missing the point entirely. It is an expansion of creative thought, discussion and collective collaboration. While other forms of publishing aim to “talk at” digital publishers “talk to.” It’s the sharing and exchange of ideas and information in real time.

Literature, and great writing are not dying, we are simply evolving in the way we communicate. Many will hold on until the bitter end, until change has steamrolled over them leaving no other choice but the truly erudite will not only embrace the change but lead the way.

What do you think? Are we diminishig the art of writing with online publishing?

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]