Relive the learnings 1 – Say more in less.

By Rajesh on May 1, 2008

I have, over the last week or so, been sharing some of my business (added later) communication learnings with a younger colleague. These sound very simple, but aren’t, and can make all the difference as I found, sometimes after having paid the price for overlooking.

  1. Say more in less.
  2. Close the loop.
  3. Don’t presume, ask instead.
  4. Make things idiot proof.
  5. Your tone will decide the results.

In this post, I am taking up “Say more in less” and will try and complete the entire series in this week. Hope this helps some of my other younger readers.
There are several different mistakes that all of us make in our business (added later) communication:

  1. When writing, we like to ramble on, write so much text that even we can’t remember where we started. What was the message again? Hmmm, it got lost somewhere.
    I found, and have made it a standard practice, to edit all text after writing it and if possible, share it with someone else who I could trust with further editing. I find that 20 percent less text, without losing any value from the content, is not very difficult and even less when you then hand it over to another editor. Try it, you will find message clarity and retention will be far higher.
  2. Similarly, Open-ended sometimes prolongs the process. Think through and then communicate. Sample this conversation over text on a mobile:
    Q: Can we meet sometime?
    A: Sure
    Q: How about next week?
    A: Sure, should be possible.
    Q: Ok, thanks, how about Wednesday?
    A: I am out of town on Wednesday.
    Q: Oh, how about Thursday then?
    A: Yes, that should be fine.
    Q: Ok, where do we meet?
    A: You say.
    Q: Costa, GK?
    A: Ok
    Q: What time?
    A: You say
    Q: 3.30?
    A: Ok, what is the context?

Phew. Of course I am exaggerating a bit, but you get the point.

How about this instead?

  1. Q: Hi, I was wondering if we can meet sometime next week. Need some business advice from you. Does Wednesday, 3.30 p.m. Costa at GK work for you?
  2. A: Hi, sure we can meet. I am traveling Wednesday but Thursday same time, same place should be fine.

Write in your best learnings.

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  • Nisha: Of course, your comments always add value to the conversation. That's why I hold comments and commentators as really the value of a blog. Keep writing.
    Cheers
    Rajesh
  • Well the addition of the word Business now lends all the sense to the article :-)
    I think the point i was trying to drive got explained with the comments and subsequent changes to the text :-)
  • priya: thanks. Keep writing
    Nisha: thanks for the inputs.the writing/ communication being discussed is business writing/ communication. what you are quoting as the unrelated example is in fact A different point altogether. Even an sms, thats not thought through has its negatives in business interactions against being fun/ welcome between lovers :)
    Cheers
    Rajesh
  • Well the thought expressed is indeed powerful.However, i think in an attempt to be pithy(read as using less text) ,the writer forgot to tell the audience what type of communication is being mentioned here. For if it is a novel,a classic so as to say,pithiness generally scores a Thumbs down ,for in such writings The God lies in details :-) Hence,the thought of being less on the word count cannot be generalized for all sorts of communications.Also editing should not be confused with running a scissor on the text.
    Further,the example cited seems a bit unrelated.SMS by very definition means Short messaging service, i.e. when we SMS we do not want to ponder on propriety of writing style.Having said that, I do not intend to advocate incompleteness or haste but only the fact that when people SMS they do it instinctively,without musing over the fineries of the text.That I think is best left for the novels.When we SMS we simply pen (or type in this case) thoughts AS WE THINK hence no would shell a shilling thinking about being open or closed ended.
  • very true :)
    Thanks for sharing this great peace of knowledge - will look forward to the rest of the series
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