Booher BanterBusiness Communication Consultant

—“As we discussed when I made you aware of the problem with X…”

—“As you may recall on May 4 that issue surfaced and no decision was announced at that time, so the assumption seemed to be that…”

—“To follow up our phone conversation in which you instructed me to…”

If your documents and those of your colleagues are sprinkled with these phrases, chances are there’s little trust among you.

In our research within corporations, we have asked, “What kind of documents do you write that you think could be eliminated?” We anticipated answers such as status reports, trip reports, meeting minutes, or any number of other particular organizational reports.  What the overwhelming majority mentioned, however, was “CYA reports.” People generate paperwork upward, laterally, and downward simply to cover themselves in case there’s a problem. They want to “go on record.”

So what can you do in your cubicle or corner office to combat the “CYA” compulsion?

Let people know they can trust you. If you say you’re going to call, call. If you say you’re going to send out the proposal, send it. If you say you’re going to attend the meeting, show up.  If you say you’re going to troubleshoot the system, check things out and correct it. Once you build the proverbial bank account of trust, then bosses, peers, and customers won’t always demand that you cover your tracks for every conversation or action in writing. Blame won’t be the focus on their interactions with you. When there’s confusion or a misunderstanding about an issue, they’ll be ready to move beyond it and give you the benefit of the doubt.

Second, stifle the urge yourself to blame others when things go wrong. Instead, focus on the corrective action. The attention to solution rather than blame will go a long way in stifling others’ urges to “put it in writing” where you’re concerned.

Then watch those emails and discussions grow shorter and more substantive than before.

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Posted at 2:12pm in Communication—Written | Permalink | Add Comment » |

The “information should be free” controversy has been raging for the last several years with no signs of resolution. Big money rests on the outcome. Google argues their right to collect it, categorize it, archive it, and grant admission for others to get to it. A decade ago newspapers claimed they owned electronic rights of articles they’d published, authors kicked and screamed about copyright violations, and the courts refereed and ruled.

Today, social network sites and their users are bickering about who owns personal data dumped there, and the government may again have to weigh in.

Those who create information have no clout because they can’t agree. The determining viewpoint (as in many things) comes down to money:  Is the information that someone wants for free depriving its creator of money? That’s not easy to determine.

Some examples…

Bloggers or article writers may or may not care if you reprint their information as long as you leave the copyright line intact. Their goal is readership and publicity. The wider their distribution, the better. With a large readership, they have opportunity to sell other products or services, or raise awareness for other viewpoints, causes, or organizations (whose supporters pay them for their blogging time).

I get that.

But book authors make their living from royalties. When people download pirated copies of books and recordings for “free,” they are stealing products and depriving authors of income in the same way as those who buy designer knockoffs or jewelry off the black market.  No doubt, these same people would report a robbery if someone broke into their garage and stole their manufacturing plans for a new boat model, broke into their architectural firm and stole house plans, or broke into their restaurant chain and stole secret recipes.

Yet they think nothing of stealing information downloaded as books, articles, audio or DVD recordings at pirated sites.

If the creator of information (blogger, book author, article writer) hangs a sign out that reads, “Free—take one,” by all means, I’m first in line. (Just like my husband on Saturday mornings in the grocery store—pop that sample in his mouth, and he munches away.) But I don’t consider free access to another person’s creative works and personal information a first amendment right.

As an author, I’m cautious about what I “publish” to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Are you?

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Posted at 3:23pm in Books, Communication—Written, Publishing Keys, Social Media Communication | Permalink | Add Comment » |

I’ll admit it right upfront:  I’m not the best at parallel parking. Mark me down for at least two or three tries on each occasion. But when it comes to thinking, I show marked improvement.

Why’s this so important? Parallelism leads to comprehension. Without it, confusion reigns.

Yet, otherwise very bright people make parallelism errors often in their speeches, in their slides, in their emails, and in their client proposals. Such errors are as jarring as misspelled words—and far more dangerous. Readers and listeners recognize and “auto-correct” misspellings for you. But with parallelism errors, the audience often doesn’t know there has been a miscommunication until later when something goes awry.

Unparallel Sentence in a Speech or Document

“I want to thank you for consulting with us on the project, the ZRT implementation plan, discussing marketing strategy for the new product line, and setting goals for our technical team.” (Question:   How many things is the speaker here thanking someone for? Three? Four?)

The pesky problem here is parallelism. Is the “ZRT implementation plan” a reference to the project? Or is that a separate item the speaker is referring to? If it’s a separate item, the structure should match the other items in the list:  “consulting,… reviewing the ZRT implementation plan, … discussing, … and setting….

Parallelism simply means that equal ideas should get equal weight. That is, a speaker or writer should present them in a similar way so that they match.

Unparallel Structure on a Slide

You can take advantage of these benefits as a new member of our organization:

• Networking opportunities with your peers
• Complimentary webinars and teleconferences with experts in the industry
• Learn new skills at monthly educational sessions
• You will gain visibility with your own management team as a dedicated professional interested in your own career development.

Granted, no one would misunderstand the benefits on the slide above with the four bullet points. They just look “mismatched” as a list of two noun phrases, a command, and declarative sentence.

But this list looks like the person who comes to work wearing a brown shoe, a black shoe, red socks, and purple shirt. This “mismatched” list is hard to skim quickly and suggests lazy thinking.

Okay. So much for helping you with parallelism in presentations and writing. Any tips for me on parallel parking?

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Posted at 7:30pm in Communication—Oral, Communication—Written | Permalink | Add Comment » |