Help Your People

I recently was emailing back and forth between our team and a client to solve an issue. (In my business, "customers" are "clients.") It wasn't a complicated issue, but I had to reinterpret every bit of team-speak into client-speak. It's was cumbersome and annoying.  And I do this constantly.

While it always is important to relay information intelligently and succinctly, it is also important to know with whom you are speaking.

I'm a plain-speech girl. Tell it to me simple, and I'll interpret it as meaningfully as I can.

But to speak above my client, the one who is paying me, comes off at worst haughty and at best completely unintelligible for them. It's ignorant. And in the ignorance system, the concern moves away from solving real problems to defending one's intelligence. And that's unproductive and ridiculous.

To flip the table: if my client is very good at something I am not, I want them to teach me through it, not to assume I understand.

Solve real problems and do the hard work (take the time) of connecting with the people who help you (clients, counselors, team members, etc.) They may not know or appreciate the time you spend doing it, but the reward of a giving relationship is always worth it.

Communicating the Message (Repetition) - 5 of 5

"Look with your eyes and not with your hands!" I used to tell my toddler nephews over and over.. and over again. I would make myself the example, putting something on the table, zeroing in on it with my eyes and dropping my arms behind my back. I'd let them try. Fail. Try again. Almost. Fail. Try again.

Every mom and childcare giver understands the principle of repetition:

- Say it once, they hear you said something. And maybe the sentiment, if you're serious.

- Twice, they acknowledge the first 50%. And that's usually only if they think you're serious.

- Three times, they're starting to tune in to the blurry figure standing in front of them. They hear you. Finally. Maybe.

- By the fourth time, if you've stood your ground, made the boundaries clear and locked all the doors til the task is done, you may get the satisfaction of seeing the response you're looking for. And guaranteed, this is not the last time you'll say it.

How many ways can you give away a message? That's the last tier of communication - generously giving away the message again and again.

One of the cool things that has happened over time is that it's become standard for interactive media to have a metrics option, so that you can watch reactions, influence and dead weight media. It's becoming easier and easier to figure out what is and isn't quality information for your public.

Tell it. Watch. Refine. Repeat.

Communicating the Message (Action) - 4 of 5

I've recently broken this cardinal rule when trying to write this blog: Action!

Where do I start? What do I emphasize? How can I make it helpful? It's taken me forever to start this one.

Planning is only half the fun in communication. The other half is seeing messages take flight and generate influence, hopefully for the greater good.

I had the recent privilege of working alongside a friend and client, Eleatta Diver, as she did a "graphic recording" for a regional health summit. Her doodles were not only helpful and a work of art in the making, as they unfolded throughout the day, they emphasized all the activity surrounding the discussion. (Follow the transformation from doodle to painting here.)

What they came away with at the end of the summit? Ideas. Ideas should lead to a strategic plan. A strategic plan should lead to strategic action.

My favorite phrase in the whole thing (lower left of the photo): "We must move from passive concern to strategic action."

How are you taking the risk, taking the leap and moving your fantastic communications plan into action?

Communicating the Message (Context) - 3 of 5

Context in communication is what essentially I'll call "the frame". It's the piece that was missing when you started the story that nobody understood. It's actually the fun piece, the artful masterpiece of communicating your message.

Imagine you need to create an on-ramp for selling an amazing, life-changing perfume. And your audience is a large group of 40 year-old men. What is the story?

Context is often the clutch player in making a hit or miss piece of work. 

Would or should the story take on a different feel if the group were 40 year-old women?

Of course. And this is context. It can influence everything about your communication - how and where it's communicated, who your most likely audience may be, and how to talk to them.

You have an idea. Great, who knows and who cares?

Answering the questions who knows (or who needs to know) and who cares (or why they should care) are your key starting questions to getting your ideas heard.

Next up: action.

Starting Small

When I start a new project, I often feel just like this. Very small. Never as cute.

I saw this photo, and besides being completely undone by my friend's child, I saw myself, sitting in front of my computer, feeling exactly like this -- a little confused, a lot intimidated and extremely curious.

And I'm reminded that this is what I feel like every time I start a project that is worth doing - intimidated, ignorant and curious.

How do we cross over into the world of wonder from the world of fear? We get curious. We allow ourselves to move forward, gain wisdom, and we follow the gingerbread trail to its glorious end.

Stay small. It's a gift.

Communicating the Message (Idea) - 2 of 5

So, you have an idea. Or don't you?

This is one of the first questions you must ask in your communication: is my idea clear to me?

Can you explain your big-picture idea to an 8 year-old? or in one sentence?

If not, then you're probably a little confused about your idea.

You should be able to reduce your idea to a simple sentence. You may need to have other points to support your idea, and that's okay. But you should have a good handle on your basic point.

Next up: context.

Communicating the Message - 1 of 5

"Where is the feection?" my professor belted again and again in his strong Spanish accent, "Sell me the teecket!"

As a part of a dance program one summer, I took an elective class on voice and gesture. The premise of the course was to stretch dancers to learn how to use the added medium of their voices in their art. (If you're a dancer, you understand this challenge!)

My professor was looking for the story in our art, what he called "the fiction," and he knew he needed us to give him everything we had to get the story to him, to our audience.

What I most appreciated about the class was that it was never enough only to have words. We would take a sheet of words and chop it up to work on inflection, gesturing, song, pace, tone.

And then we would perform the words. And his point was always clear: you are telling a story, engage me.

It's the same in any communication, traditional and non-traditional. Your ideas are important. Tell the story. Engage me.

In the next few blogs, I will uncover some basics of great communication: idea, context, action, and repetition.