What I have learned about people and organizations...so far.

Thursday, November 26, 2015

Tips on being a better communicator:
No matter if we have an audience of one or thousands, whether our communication is spoken or written, take care in how you communicate so our message is received.  It is critical to know the audience, balance what we have to say with what they want to hear, use simple language, use the right method of communication, share personal antidotes and illustrations, begin strongly and end with emotion, tell them, tell them, tell them and make it memorable.
Doing so will help achieve our desired result: Message Received and Understood.

Food for thought:  We are all communicators.  Take steps to assure that your message is getting through.

Thursday, November 19, 2015

Tips on being a better communicator:
Make it Memorable. 
One of the best ways to help people remember your message is through using a word picture.  Winston Churchill did this when he described a communist world that lay behind an “iron curtain.” Hillary Clinton speculated about a “vast, right-wing conspiracy.”  President George W. Bush spoke of an “axis of evil.”   Word pictures are effective because they grab and direct attention and lock thoughts into our memory.  A call to action can be greatly enhanced by the creative use of a word picture.

Other visual devices are also effective in helping us communicate.  An often repeated statistic states that: people remember 40% of what they hear and see, 30% of what they see, 20% of what they hear, and only 10% of what they read. Always reinforce your spoken or written message with something that evokes a mental memory, either through a word picture or a visual image.
 

Thursday, November 12, 2015

Tips on being a better communicator:
Tell them, Tell them, Tell them.
A savvy public speaker once shared his formula for effective communication with me.  He said, “Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them you told them.”  In other words: 

  • Preview the message.  Summarize what you have to say and why it is important.
  • Present the message: Give the body or details of your message.
  • Recap the message: Briefly repeat your message and restate its importance.
Repetition is critical to effective communication because, even though we have two ears, we still miss a lot.