Reflection Shorts - "Win that Communication" - episode #1
Convey a clear message
Have you ever sat in a conference or presentation with perfect intentions to understand the presenter yet feel guilty about not learning stuff and getting lost and bored?
Most probably, Yes! Here’s what I can tell you to save some guilt: “It’s not you, it’s the speaker.”
Key takeaway
It’s your responsibility as a communicator to make the audience understand what you want to convey:
in a short, simple yet engaging manner,
such that the audience has gained some value.
Most of the time, we only have an impact if the person to whom we are speaking can convey our message to someone else. - Jay Sullivan
Keep it Short, Simple yet Engaging
“Everyone participating in these activities would develop cohesiveness, the pursuit of inclusion, and help us develop quality decisions to make meaningful progress towards long-term goal of shooting for the moon. Who knows you may see some bombshell gifts!”
could be simply said:
“Please attend as many activity sessions as possible to contribute towards a long-term goal and get surprise gifts.”
Get to the point, your goal isn’t to be smart, cute, or clever. It’s to communicate clearly. No one has time to read ‘long BS jargony’ messages in their busy lives.
Focus on the needs of the Audience
Most of the time we have a tendency to communicate what we understand. Bummer, that doesn’t necessarily mean others understand what you want them to know.
Give them a clear action item, key takeaway, or something valuable to apply in their lives as a gift in return for the time they spend reading or listening to you.
For example, the message below is confusing, sending mixed signals and conveying feelings rather than action items:
“ok Josh, I think adding logs to the service is the right move, but we need to wait for logs to make progress. Our goal remains the same to meet the deadline, I am feeling it’s gonna drag a bit and that might be bad, isn’t it?”
and could be simply said:
“I am worried we won’t be able to meet our deadline. I am concerned about us waiting on added service logs to debug this. Josh, can you please find an alternative to make progress?”
References
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👋 Hey there, I am Gourav. I write about Engineering, Productivity, Thought Leadership, and the Mysteries of the mind!
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