This blog is about the relationship between organizations and the people who work for them. And, it’s dedicated to the millions of people around the world who go to work every day wanting to do a great job.
Communication
Do you know the 3 best headline writing tricks ever … anyone can do, guaranteed!
Today, I was reading an article in IABCs Communication World – “What can we learn from the ‘real world’” – by Steve Crencenzo. Steve advises companies on how to write headlines so employees, customers and other people they want to influence will read what they have to say. He suggests that you write your headlines the way newsstand magazines like Cosmopolitan do. Cosmo, he explains uses three basic tricks to hook your interest: use lists, directly address your audience and use dot, dot, dots.
For example:
- 10 sure-fire ways to have the best sex ever!
- You can be a sex goddess now!
- Admit it … you definitely need more great sex!
Wow, I thought that sure beats the typical headlines you see in corporate writing, such as:
- Speed and disintermediation
- Reputation management is strategic management
- Local values, global view
Granted, as Steve points out, Cosmo has got a big advantage. It’s selling sex. Most companies have a less appealing product. But as Steve also points out Cosmo doesn’t rely just on sex to sell their magazine. Afterall a lot of magazines are selling sex. Cosmo uses a far more powerful weapon: the headline hooks.
The big question is: should you try to use these hooks in your business writing? My take is if you do be careful. If you have something important to tell people great. If not the hooks are not a substitute. And you may turn people off using them even if you have something to say because, let’s face it – they’re manipulative. And that’s not sexy.
What’s your take?
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You have a presentation to make
You get there just in time, find the room, and grab an empty seat. The event begins and you sit patiently listening to the other speakers and making small talk with the people at your table. Finally, after an hour and half of waiting, it’s your turn. You look around the room as you’re being introduced. The applause begins. You take your time getting to your feet, shake hands with the people at your table, and make your way in slow measured steps to the lectern. Taking out your notes, you straighten your jacket, clear your throat, and looking back at the screen where your PowerPoint slides are flashing you begin: “I hope everybody can hear me. These don’t look like the right slides.”
What do you think is the single greatest mistake made by this presenter? There are a great many, but one might you might have missed is: “you sit patiently listening to the other speakers and … .”
Recently I had a conversation with my friend Mitch Joel, the marketing guru who wrote the book Six Pixels of Separation, and writes the newspaper column and blog by the same name.  Mitch is president of the Montreal-based marketing agency Twist Image and makes a lot of high-profile keynote presentations. Anything he says about presentation I listen to. You might want to as well. What does he do before the presentation begins? He said that in the time immediately before he goes on he focuses entirely on what he is going to say, his message, and getting his energy up. Pacing up and down. Rehearsing before a mirroir. Whatever it takes. You might not give many keynote presentations, so you might not think you have to go to all this effort.  After all it takes alot of dedication, concentration, and discipline, to be a professional speaker, but then again you might want to give it a try. It just might be what you need to do:
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Shocking news!
The shocking news on the internet is that presentation coaches have been telling you a lie: Mehrabian’s so-called “55 - 38 - 7 rule” is a myth.Â
How shocked should you be? My take as a presentations coach is - not very. The rule as it is usually presented in presentation workshops and seminars is that only 7 percent of the “impact” of communication depends on the words used compared to 55 percent on facial expression and 38 percent on voice, a  discovery reported by Dr Albert Mehrabian, a psychologist at UCLA in the late 1960s- early 1970s.
Hold on say the myth-busters doesn’t this mean words are unimportant. Have you ever tried to communicate without words? How far has that got you? And what about the times you got the words or word wrong (Sascha rather than Tascha, Danny rather than Donny). Besides, they continue, the rule applies only in very particular situations: one-on-one, face-to-face conversations where someone is expressing their feelings (I would love to see you later, I really do want this job, Trust me, the check is in the mail) and the other person is making up their mind on whether or not to believe them. Clearly there is a lot of wiggle room for error.
What can you learn from this? (1) People will try to use academic research to sell you something. (2) People will also try to put down academic research to sell you something else. (2) Words do matter. (3) Far more than words matter. If you want to be believed pay attention to what you say, how you say it and how you look when you say it. And remember, there are more than three elements at work in any communication; pay attention to context too. And, yes, you might want to think about what your actions say about what you’re saying. (4) If Mehrabian had a nickel for every one who tried to make a buck putting him down or puffing him up, he’d be giving Donald Trump lessons on prime time. The big take away is that if you want to be believed you’re going to have to put some effort into persuading people. Shocking, isn’t it?
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Shining eyes
“A [symphony orchestra] conductor doesn’t make a sound. Â His job is to awaken the possibility in other people.”
This is what Benjamin Zander, conductor of the Boston Philharmonic, says.Â
And, how do you know you’re doing it? Â
“If their eyes are shining, you know you’re doing it… It’s about how many shiny eyes are around us.”
As a leader, how many shiny eyes are around you?
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Why oh why do presenters put so, so much text on their PowerPoint slides?
Recently the LinkedIn HR discussion group I follow asked the question: “PowerPoint slides loaded with paragraphs of text … is this laziness? Lack of awareness? Do people really think this is good visual support? What do you think?”
The answers:
they don’t know what they’re doing
they don’t know they don’t know what their doing
they’re lazy and they don’t know any better
it used to be ok, but not now. The world has moved on, but they haven’t
they don’t have the time to do it right
many companies want these kind of slides
people who are afraid of public speaking do this in order to hide behind text-heavy slides
they have no respect for the audience
they’ve never heard of Pecha Kucha, the 6×6 rule, Prezi, the drop the slide at your feet and if you can’t read it it’s got too much on it rule …
they’re consultants
they think it makes them look smart
they don’t know the material
Great fun and a good way to let off steam. Given that you’re not an academic or a consultant, the question is, “Why do you do what you do on the job?”
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Be aware, be very aware
Dale Carnegie once said people will judge you not only by what you do, but also by how you do it, and what you say, and how you say it. In other words, words and speech matter. True, but strong and silent men and women have even more problems. Because in the real world people will judge you not only on what and how you do and say it, but when, where, why, and to whom you do it and when, where, why, and to whom you say it. Not to mention, who said and did what immediately before and after you did. In other words, words, speech, action, and context matter. This is why communication is so difficult. The lesson for communicators in organizations is “be aware be very aware.” A lesson everyone else would also be wise to learn,too.
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If the US Army is embracing social media, you can too!
Imagine this paragraph from the opening letter to the US Army’s social media policy - Army social media – Optimizing online engagement - written for your organization:
The US Army isn’t embracing social media as a nice to have. It’s a critical element of their operational strategy.
If the US Army is embracing social media, isn’t it time you did too! And not as a nice to have but as key to your operational strategy.
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Why communication fails
The other day I ran across a question on an on-line discussion group for people in Organizational Design and Training: “Why do you think communication fails in organizations?” If you’re tempted to say “good question” think again. It is, I think, a bad question. Bad because there is no such thing as “communication” in organizations, only particular people trying to make themselves understood in particular ways for particular purposes in particular circumstances. The question “why do you think communication fails in organizations” invites mistaken one-size-fits-all answers: sales never listens, people are too sensitive, too little too late. It would be nice if there was a simple answer. Unfortunately, there isn’t, which means the next time you want to “communicate” you’re going to have to do the inescapable hard work of figuring out precisely what you want to say to whom for what purpose. If this is a formula, it certainly isn’t a simple one, which is perhaps why “communication fails in organizations.”
And now you know what you have to do if you want success.Â
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What do we do?
Good question.
“I’m an internal communications specialist.”  Silence. ”Oh you mean you do employee newsletters?” Sigh.
“I work at the intersection of the brand, human resources, and business strategy. I help my clients involve their people and achieve the goals they are after.” Silence.
Then a conversation last week with a client who’s worked with me three times before – once as a colleague, and twice as a client. “You know what you do for me isn’t communication. It’s OD or change management or something. Â It’s not really communications… ”
This shouldn’t be so hard. Â I’m a communications professional after all.
Apparently I’m not alone. Just this week, the PRSA launched an initiative to update the definition of public relations.  They set up a website where people can submit their definition and see it in a word cloud.  Cool.
And then, Richard Edelman’s address to the IPR crossed my desk. “Re-imagining our profession. Public relations for a complex world” sheds some light and reinforces a view I’ve been trying to express – badly: Â ”…policy and communications cannot be separated… both are tied to operating reality. Communications must be a core element in the business planning process.”
I’d go further. Â Communications is core to doing business. Strategy and operations must be aligned and the only way to achieve that is through communications. Â Relationships with employees, customers, suppliers and vendors, governments and shareholders need to be built and sustained over time. Â And the only way to do that is by communicating.
Edelman goes on to say that “PR needs to create coherence out of complexity. Â As the stakeholder discipline, we are the profession that pays attention to the broad interests of the corporation… one foot planted on the policy side and the other on the communications side.”
The best of us [and as organizational leaders you should be demanding nothing but the best] think about the world from that place where the interests [and point of view] of key stakeholders, the operation and the strategy come together to create an institutional experience. That’s where I live and work [with a particular passion for employees].
Whatever it’s called it’s ….it’s what I do. Â And as my clients will tell you it helps them achieve their business and professional goals. Now I guess I need to find a better label than communications! Be seeing you!
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Let’s say goodbye to “collaboration”!
Words really do matter. Â I’ve been noticing something interesting lately. The word “co-creating” seems to be showing up everywhere in corporate conversation. Â I’m not sure, but it’s seems to be taking the place of “collaboration” and for me this change couldn’t have come soon enough.
Collaboration appears in almost every corporate value statement. Â In fact, collaborate has been paired with innovate to become a kind of institutional mantra, a rallying cry, of the past decade!
But, for me, the word collaborate has always missed the mark. Â It’s a process-focused word by definition. Â It’s about “the how” not “the what”. We’re going to collaborate to do what? Â And what are we doing when we collaborate?
Let’s revisit the definition. Collaborate means to: “1:Â to work jointly with others or together especially in an intellectual endeavour;Â 2Â :Â to cooperate with, or willingly assist, an enemy of one’s country and especially an occupying force; 3Â :Â to cooperate with an agency or instrumentality with which one is not immediately connected.”
There’s a pretty dark side in this definition [like "execution" another favourite business buzz word] and an implication. Collaboration is circumstantial – working with the enemy, connecting where there’s no obvious connection – and except for the first definition it’s ‘forced’. More problem-solving than creating. Maybe we should be thankful that most organizations are so bad at collaborating!
Co-creating is different. Â The focus is on both the process and the outcome, the creation. Â So here’s hoping that this change in the use of language is signalling more than a superficial label change and the latest flavour of the month. Â Here’s hoping that as leaders we can now get down creating and co-creating what matters in our organizations.
I leave it to you to decide whether Knute Rockne was talking about collaboration or co-creation in his famous team speech!
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Recent Posts
- Do you know the 3 best headline writing tricks ever … anyone can do, guaranteed!
- You have a presentation to make
- Shocking news!
- Shining eyes
- Why oh why do presenters put so, so much text on their PowerPoint slides?
- Be aware, be very aware
- If the US Army is embracing social media, you can too!
- Thriving in chaos
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Recent posts
- Do you know the 3 best headline writing tricks ever … anyone can do, guaranteed!
- You have a presentation to make
- Shocking news!
- Shining eyes
- Why oh why do presenters put so, so much text on their PowerPoint slides?
- Be aware, be very aware
- If the US Army is embracing social media, you can too!
- Thriving in chaos
- Rest, renewal & the global situation
- Learning from the Bishop’s wife