The ABCs of communication
by Cape Business staffIt is so basic in business that we tend to ignore it. But how you communicate with your customers, employees, vendors and business associates can make or break your company. Whether it is that one-to-one elevator speech or a presentation you must make around a conference table or in front of a large audience, your communication skills can prove the competitive advantage.
Cape Business and Curry College are proudly partnering to present the best thinking of Curry’s distinguished business faculty – not only in our magazine, but as part of a continuing series of hands-on, practical seminars for our business readers.
Our discussion with Dorria DiManno, Curry College Associate Professor of Communication, launches this series.
Why should a small business with so many pressing priorities focus any resources of time and money on communication?
Communication is at the heart of everything we do. Lee Ioccoca said it best: No matter how great your idea, if you cannot communicate it, no one will ever know. Whether it is relating to a coworker or boss, whether you are at the highest level of business or a salesperson or marketing representative, everything begins with communication.
It also is selecting the right communication medium. A PowerPoint presentation may work for one audience, but you may need another approach for a different target. If you have 50 employees in your company, you may need five different approaches to communicate with them all.
No matter the medium, you must prove both effective and affective. By affective, I mean, did it cause the desired behavior.
And think about it: those who are most successful in a company are those who effectively communicate.
You teach around what you call the ABCs of communication, but we understand there also are a D, E and F. Take our readers through your alphabet to appreciate these basic principals.
A stands for audience. What do they know about your field and your topic? What is their education level? What do they have in common? What is their knowledge of the topic? What attitudes or biases do they bring with them? What is their WIIFM – What’s in it for me?
B stands for behavior objectives. In short – what do you want people to do? What are your expectations when people walk out of the room after your talk or when they finish reading your document? Do you want them to be educated? Do they need to understand how to implement a new procedure or system? Know how to run a forklift? Be trained in a new software program? Donate to your charity? Whatever it is, you need to design your remarks or proposal with measurable desired behaviors in mind.
C is for content. What are the data points, what is the actual information that must be included? Do this first as a simple list, then revise and craft it later as your outline of the content and flow.
D is for design. Only after the ABCs can you do this. A: I know whom I’m talking to. B: I know what I want them to do. C: I know the information I need to convey. Now I can see the best way to accomplish that. For example, designing a presentation when you want to excite and motivate someone about a new system design is very different than designing a presentation to introduce new order processing software, or to train the entire customer service management team on the latest version of your tracking software. This also is where you think about and choose distribution channels and vehicles. How will your audience get the information?
E is for evaluation. What mechanism have you built in to see if your presentation worked? How will you know if you were successful? If this is a training session, will you do before-and-after testing? If it’s a marketing presentation, will you survey your customers, track sales figures, count Web hits? Did you achieve your behavior objectives? How can you tell?
F is for feedback. This is often tied to your personal success criteria. Did you ask a respected friend or colleague to read your proposal before it went to the client or vendor or department? If it’s an oral presentation, are you adjusting as you’re presenting your speech? Is the audience engaged? Will you ask your audience for face-to-face feedback immediately? Have them fill out anonymous forms?
How can I apply all this not just to a single communication, but a continual approach?
Just as you build and modify your business plan, construct at least an annual communications and public relations plan around your A-to-F list. Build it out as a matrix so you can follow it easily and communicate it to others.
How can I leverage your educational opportunities around both my schedule and budget?
That is one reason we created a hybrid course that combines classroom and online education. The certificate program understands and respects the pressures inherent in the lives and careers of both bosses and managers on the one hand and staff on the other. Several courses that I teach at Curry College may be of particular interest – public relations and managerial communications.
I am happy to connect with any business person reading this article to give them guidance.
Dorria DiManno, a Dennis resident, has worked at the ABC network and in public television before founding a strategic marketing and communications company in Norwalk, Connecticut, that targeted the New York metropolitan area Fortune 500 community. She has taught at Curry College since 1995 and is currently completing work on a Ph.D. One of her courses, Principles in Public Relations, is taught partly in the classroom and partly online. She can be reached at ddimanno@curry.edu.
Published in Cape Business Sept/Oct 2007
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