Make those comms cut through

It's summer time on the southern part of the globe here in Melbourne, Australia. Living by Port Phillip Bay and Station Pier we see the shiny white cruise ships coming and going. People heading off on the cruise of a lifetime.

I imagine there are blue and white striped deck chairs on the top deck, with passengers snoozing and dozing enjoying the sea breezes and blue skies.

Look around your office or workplace and you'll see team members on their 'desk chairs' enjoying the air conditioning, the internet, and if lucky, a view out a window. Hopefully they're not snoozing and dozing but they certainly aren't sitting there, highly alert, waiting on your message or communication. Sorry, you're not the captain saying 'abandon ship' nor the activities officer announcing Happy Hour has started!

When you launch a communication effort - for a project, a piece of work or a new service or idea - your audiences are ..... snoozing. They're 'latent' or dormant. And before they'll take in any of your communication, you'll need to wake them up so they're 'aware'. Once they're aware, you'll be able to guide them towards being 'active' and engaged.

1. Latent.
2. Aware.
3. Active.

It's a three step process and failing to take it into account is one of the 9 reasons why project communications don't cut through - my new project whitepaper on the just launched project engagepage of my website. 

With a new calendar year and many new plans and projects getting underway, think ahead and make sure you've got some phases of communication that wake up dozing team members, stakeholders, sponsors and target audiences.

That way they'll be all primed and ready to receive that stunning cocktail of communication you've been creating behind the bar! 

Hey, it looks like this...

In a meeting with a client team this week, we were strugglig to understand the crux of a project, the keystone of a piece of work.

Then one of the managers jumped to his feet.

"It looks like this!" he said. His energy and enthusiasm shifted up a level. He stepped to the whiteboard, picked up a marker and drew a circle with two lines leading to it... he finished off with some smaller circles around the edge of the larger circle.

With this quick image, the talk and questioning of the previous 20 minutes were crystallised. So little effort yet with such a huge impact. The power of helping people see what you're thinking.

You've stepped up to a white board or flip chart before, but when you do, there are problems lurking.

My new whitepaper 5 Ways to more engaging flip charts and whiteboards explains how to avoid the problems and make your visual solution more engaging.

Download the whitepaper here and this week, step up, jump up and help people really see what you're thinking.

Mints, water, agenda. Where are the outcomes?

There's coffee on arrival, mints in little bowls, jugs of fresh water and an agenda on the tables - a gathering of the team for a strategy or team session. Perhaps it's a day or two, or you're fortunate enough to escape off-site in an effort to get fresh perspective and avoid workplace distractions.

The strategy or team session is a big investment of people, time, preparation, accommodation, travel, catering, audio visual support, time away from your role .... and on and on.

But simply getting people in the one venue and heading into the agenda doesn't get the best out of the group or that investment.

There are 7 problems I see with strategy and team sessions and they can all be avoided with pre-planning, creative input and the right resources. When I'm facilitating high-value strategy and team sessions for clients and providing input into agenda design before the event, there are key things I work to avoid. The difference in the feel and running of the session is certainly noticeable ... but the impact on outcomes achieved can be extreme.

The problems are in my new whitepaper - The 7 Problems with Strategy and Teams Sessions... and what to do about them.

Read it and act on it before you get the team together.