Tag: communication

Communication matters

FabrizioLeave a comment

A message we got this week about a coronavirus infection at the school where our elder kid goes (roughly translated from Finnish).

Sender: the principal

Subject: Some of the school’s students and staff have been quarantined for exposure to the coronavirus – a separate message has been sent to those quarantined.

Dear guardian,

The Helsinki and Uusimaa hospital district has confirmed new coronavirus infections. One of the infections happened in the school areas. Not all students and staff have been exposed. The City of Espoo Infectious Diseases Authority has quarantined the students and staff who have been exposed.

Your kid has not been quarantined. They can go to school and meet other people normally.

According to current information, the symptoms of coronavirus infections remain typically mild in children and adolescent.

For further information, visit …

Best regards.

Espoo Infectious Diseases Unit

Communication matters.

Few thoughts.

Before I get to what truly is relevant for me (my kid is fine), I have to read 72 words (a bit more than 450 characters), including a very lengthy subject line. What matters to the reader should always be the opener.

The whole communication is vague, and the feeling is similar to being on a roller coaster. Some have been infected, one at school, not all have been infected, those infected have been quarantined, your kid is ok, kids generally are. One clear concept is more than enough for a message this short.

There are four institutions named (the principal, Helsinki and Uusimaa Hospital District, The City of Espoo Infectious Diseases Authority, and The City of Espoo Infectious Diseases Unit). The reader rarely cares about a chain of command, and showing some empathy (the name of a person, a phone number) in such a message in this period could be a good idea.

And finally. Perhaps this message was truly necessary, parents need to know. In general, though, a good rule of thumb is to communicate only things that have a tangible impact on the lives of the audience.

Tension

FabrizioLeave a comment

Feedback often creates tension.

I want it this way.

I am not sure what, but something does not work.

Your piece of content misses the bigger picture.

Can you change that part and make it more professional?

I am sorry, I really do not like it.

Tension might eventually take you to a better place, but there are two problems.

First, tension takes time to resolve. Time that could actually be employed improving the outcome, doing something more valuable or even just going for a walk. Tension is difficult to dissipate, it actually tends to escalate. Particularly when the first unclear comment is followed by additional unclear statements that make the whole feedback situation a mess.

Also, tension sticks. When the job is eventually done, tension is still in the air. It does not matter at this point if the outcome is better, something has broken. And that is difficult to recover, even more difficult considering the fact this way of giving feedback is rarely a one-off.

Prepare before giving feedback.

Never let it be the first thing that comes to mind, never let it be an instinctual reaction to you seeing the work of others for the first time.

And if after you have done that, there is still vagueness in what you want to contribute, shut up and ask.

If you would have more time, what would you work on to make it better?

Guide me through your creative process.

What parts of it you do not like?

What would you need to make this the best of your blog posts?

What type of input are you seeking from me?

Changing behavior

FabrizioLeave a comment

Marketing is about changing behavior.

And what marketers often fail to grasp is that the change is not about a transaction. It is about a connection.

When you make it about a transaction it is the here and now, this is what we have, this is what you need, take it, here is how much it costs. Next.

When you make it about a connection it is about giving, this is for you, take it and enjoy it, and perhaps think about us the next time you need what we do.

Here is a brilliant example.

Stand out

FabrizioLeave a comment

The faster way for you to build a story is to record what you do.

Do it daily and consistently, and after a while, as you look back, you will find threads that already are the seed of a narrative. Put them together, water them, double down on recording, and you have everything you need to stand out from the masses.

Again.

The best time to start doing this was yesterday. The second best time is today.

Connection

FabrizioLeave a comment

There is a very powerful idea behind the story of Sitka’s remote off-site, described in details in this worthy article (full of tactics that are also applicable to meetings, all-hands, 1-1s and any other way your company has chosen to kill employees motivation).

The idea is that when you gather a number of people in one room (physical or virtual) the easiest way to make them fall asleep or continuously check their phones is to short-list some gatekeepers of knowledge (managers, teachers, experts) and let them speak for hours on end. And then we wonder why the message did not get through, why not everybody is working towards the agreed goals, why our purpose is not shared across departments.

Even assuming that the one-to-many form of communication ever worked, it does not anymore. People do not care about targets they did not contribute to plan, or about achievements they do not understand, or about buzz words that contrast with their day-to-day experience.

Design your events for connection, engage people in conversations and ask what the expectations are. Be flexible enough to not have everything under control. And remember who your end-user is.

At Minerva, we ended up banning lectures. They’re a great way to teach — but a pretty lousy way to learn. Good for the product builder, but bad for the end-user. Same goes for events. Big retreats are an easy way to convene a large group, but a bad way to facilitate connection.

Mike Wang