Thanks for the feedback. I’ll be sure to do something with it.

A few weeks ago, I found this Crime Prevention notice on the windshield of my car from the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia. [For those out of province, ICBC is the Crown corporation responsible for insuring the majority of vehicles in BC, as well as being responsible for driver licensing, vehicle licensing and registration.]

Having been a victim of auto crime more than once over the past few years, I thought it was great that someone was taking the time to provide me with feedback about what I could to do to make vehicle more secure. Maybe I’d not locked my car and this was a reminder to remember to do so in the future. Maybe I’d left something on the seat – a temptation to car thieves everywhere.

So what had I done, and what could I do differently?

I’m still not sure. Because, whoever it was who wrote the notice didn’t tell me.

“Are there any personal belongings in plain view?” “No.”

“Have you taken all suitable steps to prevent auto crime?” “No.”

And that’s it. The date, the street address, and those two boxes checked. No comments or suggestions. Nothing.

I don’t think I could dream up a better way to illustrate a really bad piece of communication (irrespective of how irritating I find this waste of my provincial tax dollars):

• It’s unclear, in that it doesn’t tell me what the problem was and leaves me scratching my head.

• It doesn’t provide feedback and an action request, so that I don’t do the same thing next time and can do my bit to prevent auto crime.

• It’s a waste of time and resources. Maybe someone from ICBC can explain the value add in this service?

Let this be a reminder to us all. If you’ve got nothing to say, don’t say it. And if you have got something to say, make sure it’s clear, meaningful and useful.

Getting hitched to See Hear Talk

I didn’t get married until I was almost 36. Until that point, a lot of people had told me I was either (a) looking for the perfect man; and/or (b) was unable to commit.

I don’t know if they were right or not; probably safe to say there was a bit of both in my hesitation to get hitched. But why am I telling you this?

I think I’m doing the same thing with the See Hear Talk blog.

I can’t speak for Michelle or Sarah, but I think I’ve been waiting for the perfect blog to just appear, and have been afraid to commit to the great ideas I have.

Just like I used to be with the guys I dated, pre-Hootie.

I wanted a relationship (substitute: blog) but I just wasn’t sure if it’d be worth the hassle and if I’d be any good with one.

Michelle, Sarah and I started our blog collective because we all felt we had something to share. We weren’t sure exactly what, and I think we were all nervous the blog would become a self-indulgent forum for unoriginal ideas about communication. But we wanted a blog and we said we’d do what it would take to make it work.

So enough with wishing it wore different shoes. Or took more than four shirts away with it any time we go anywhere. It’s my blog, and I’m responsible for my part in our relationship.

The engagement is over. I’m getting hitched.  Today.

let the concept do the talking

You don’t need me to tell you that you are living in a world of information overload. Organizations of all shapes and sizes are yakking at us all day, every day. “Buy my widget!” “Donate to my cause!” “Join my group!”

The trouble with so much noise? We just filter it all out. We have to; otherwise our brains would explode!

In a crowded marketplace, simplicity always stands out. To illustrate my point, I present these two ads from, of all companies, Wonderbra.

(Publicis France)

No product shot; no copy. Just the company name and a great photo. Really, we have absolutely no doubt what these folks are staring at!

(Saatchi & Saatchi)

Again, no copy. No product shot. Just the company name… adjusted to accommodate a typographic double entendre.

Ads like these respect the intelligence of the consumer, which in turns help to build the relationship between the consumer and the advertiser. A message that is grounded in a strong concept does not need adornment to sparkle!

(You can see the rest of the ads in this series at davidairey.com)

Employee Engagement: why it’s not about HR

There is a lot of material out there telling us HR professionals that we need to engage our people. We need to keep the good guys motivated and help move the dogs out. EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT IS KEY, HR! MAKE IT HAPPEN!!! Really? Good HR people can keep employees engaged? I don’t think so. True employee engagement comes from your people connecting with your Company, your CEO and your executive team – not an HR program.

If your ship’s captain is taking everyone on a sporadic course towards a giant iceberg, all the wonderful training and team building activities you organize for the passengers are going to be nothing more than a cheerful distraction from the abysmal course your leader has charted for everyone. I mean really. Let’s be realistic, here. If you’re on a ship like that (and many of us are – in varying degrees – strong leaders are hard to find) you as HR can rearrange the seating, you can put out little fires, you can tell the odd rowdy that he has to walk the plank, you can keep your captain out of legal hot water, you can facilitate, you can have little wins with individuals…but none of these things change the fact that you are still heading towards that iceberg, or you’re still sailing in circles, or whatever it is that you’re doing. HR’s efforts to improve life on the ship might make people feel good. They might even make YOU feel good (hey, I like helping people, too), but at the end of the day, your boat is still pointing in the wrong direction and everyone knows it is. Or at least, everyone perceives that it is. And people don’t usually feel much like getting fully on board when they don’t have any connection with (or agreement or understanding of) the direction they are heading.

Having a clear direction, clear messaging and strong, consistent, respected leadership is what engages people. All the HR programs in the world are not going to help you if your leadership team isn’t leading. All the fantastic recruitment you do isn’t impactful if your CEO doesn’t give your people a reason to stay. So what is HR’s role when it comes to employee engagement, then?

My answer: coaching your CEO and management team on why clear, consistent, communication and decision making is key. Explain what you mean by leadership. Work with them closely so you can help them do it right. Explain the value. Explain the rational. Explain the cost – NOTHING! And have no ego about it. If you can make your CEO look like a star, that’s good for everyone. None of your people may know how or why he/she started becoming someone they could connect with and understand. It doesn’t matter. All that matters is that they did. Because, as I stated at the beginning of this post, employee engagement is about people connecting with their leaders and what the Company stands for as a whole, not how many people came to your team building event or how nice an HR person they think you are.

Annoying people are everywhere. Even on Facebook.

This past week, I’ve experienced a couple of instances where I’ve been really irritated by comments people have made on Facebook. In one case, the comments were on a friend’s personal page and had been made by someone I didn’t know. I chose to ignore one comment that bugged me, and commented on another that bugged me more.

In the second instance, there’s a particularly vocal detractor of an industry I work in who likes to share his views on the business page I manage for one of my clients, and on other industry-related pages I track. I’ve got no problem with him having different opinions. But I find the way he shares them objectionable.

Facebook is supposed to be fun. If it wasn’t, it wouldn’t be the time-sink it is for many of us (did you know that in April 2010, the average American spent almost seven hours on Facebook?). So why then is it that some people seem to leave their sense of fun, and humour, at home, when it comes to commenting on other people’s content? And why does it make me so crazy?

I think it comes down to the same issue I blogged about last week: we’re not all born communicators.

Some people are diplomatic. Others, not so much. But I think many people just don’t realise how they come across when they comment. Passion and conviction are great, but a healthy dose of diplomacy helps convey a message more effectively. Isn’t that obvious? Apparently not.

Thinking specifically about the determined detractor I mention above, I usually find myself writing posts on my client’s Facebook page, anticipating how the detractor might respond. I should do that because what I do for a living involves having a good think about the way I communicate and the response it will elicit from my audience. However, there needs to be balance. I don’t want to have to edit my thoughts in order to avoid an annoying comment from someone who seems to have more time than I do to write long, preachy posts mocking the opinions of others. And he’s one vocal opponent, on a page of people who are fans and supporters. Who’s my primary audience? Am thinking not the loudmouth.

Chris White tells a story in a presentation we give on social media about when she first started commenting on blogs. One blog had a very active core group of commentators and Chris got flamed so much when she started posting, her feelings were hurt and she stopped commenting all together. However, what she realised after a few days was that the opinions espoused by the people flaming her were not the opinions held by everyone reading the blog. So, the way Chris saw it, she had a communication opportunity and she donned her flak jacket to share factual, relevant information with those who were open to hearing what she had to say.

The person who shouts the loudest shouldn’t win (the exception to this being when I am yelling at Hootie. Obviously). But, kidding aside, when every business fan page seems to have at least one really vocal sceptic and/or zealot and these fervent (almost rabid) advocates or detractors are often really annoying, there’s one thing we all need to remember: if we were all the same – same appearance, same attitudes, same views, same everything – life would be boring.

So, accepting that we all have the capacity to annoy the heck out of someone else at some point in time helps me to stop focusing on particularly frustrating comments and commentators I see on Facebook.

Repeat after me: I can be really annoying too.

It works. It really does.

let your business cards do the talking

I remember when I got my first personal digital assistant (or PDA. And it was a Palm Pilot… gosh that was a long time ago!). As an early adopter, I was a mini-celebrity in my group of colleagues and friends. Everyone wanted to use it and submit their contact information. I had a great time telling folks that PDAs would be the death of the business card.

Clearly I was wrong. Good thing I’m not in the technology forecasting business.

The fact is, even with the plethora of digital tools we have at our disposal, business cards are still as popular as ever. But… and there is a but here… popularity does not equal effectiveness. That’s because most organizations think of business cards as portable address cards. And yet, used correctly, business cards can be one of our most useful communication tools. That’s right – I said communication.

Let me give you some examples of what I mean with some “before and after” business card designs. I’m going to base them on real-life cards I’ve collected, with company and employee names changed to protect the innocent.

Here’s the guiding principle: never miss an opportunity to tell your story.

I don’t know about you, but I’m not great at jotting notes on folks’ business cards when I collect them. You know, stuff like “this person would be great to talk to about X” or “this company makes the best Y for my needs.” So when I get back to the office after an event, I dump the business cards I’ve collected onto my desk and sort through them trying to remember why I collected them in the first place. Here’s a good example:

In this case, the company name really doesn’t give me any clues. XYZ Widgets: hmmm…. And the logo, which is all letter forms, doesn’t help either. I’ve got all the contact information, and a URL, and if I have time, I can go ahead and look it up. But I don’t have a lot of time. Wouldn’t it be great if the card served as a potent reminder to help me remember why I wanted to connect with Michael?

Maybe something like this?

Clearly, I’m not talking about aesthetics, here. I’m talking about effective communication. All of a sudden it’s a lot easier to find my contact’s name and email address (the two most important pieces of contact info I need). And the company’s value proposition is right there in black and white (or blue and yellow, as the case may be) to remind me why I thought it was important to get the card in the first place.

Here’s another example:

This card has twice the amount of real estate as my first example (really, if you’re not printing double-sided cards, give your head a shake. It’s a false economy.) However, it’s presenting the same amount of information. The company is so concerned with telling me all the many ways I can contact John that it’s forgotten to tell me why I should do so.

What if if looked like this, instead?

Now we’re talking! I remember what the company does — it’s delivered its value proposition — and the most important contact information for John is easy to find, right under his name.

Because I believe in walking the talk, I’m going to use my own business cards for my third example.

Here’s what they looked like before:

Ack. I’ve violated my own rules. Where is the story? How are you supposed to remember why you thought I might be a good designer for your project? Well, I’ve tried to fix that. Here’s what they look like now:

On one side is my contact info and my value proposition; on the other is my company name and a little bit about me (the same descriptor that you’ll find on my website and social media profiles). Hopefully folks who collect my cards will remember my story much more clearly!

Maybe it’s time for your organization to take at second look at its business cards so that the next time you’re out networking, your business cards can do the talking.

See Hear Talk now offers downloadable resources

Just a very quick note to make sure you’ve noticed our new Resources and Downloads page. Take a peek and you’ll find great tools such as our Audience and Opportunity Analysis worksheet, our Key Message Development worksheet, our Top 10 Tips to Make your Communication Count, and our guide to conducting effective orientation for your new managers.

We’ll be adding more resources over the coming months, so be sure to check back often.

we’re not all born communicators

For the past couple of months, I’ve been thinking about presentations almost non-stop as I’ve been preparing (with Michelle and Chris White, a great client of mine from the California Fuel Cell Partnership) to give a talk at a conference down in California. I’ve posted about planning for opportunities, preparing content, and why it’s important to practice for the performance. I’ve visited Garr Reynold’s blog and read my well-thumbed copy of Presentation Zen, daily. And I’ve become intimately familiar with David Peoples, Cliff Atkinson, and Chip and Dan Heath (they’re great fun in the bath, by the way).

Why the almost-obsessive preoccupation with storyboards, scripts and slide decks?

We were speaking about giving more effective presentations and, needless to say, none of us were interested in standing up and giving a bad presentation on that topic.

Our venue was the expo show floor of an energy and technology conference and we figured our audience would comprise mostly marketing and sales types, given the location of our talk and how it was marketed to conference attendees. I’d be lying to say we weren’t secretly hoping for some hardcore techies to join us too but, given we were presenting at the same time as sessions covering “The Potential of Using a-SiC:H as the Photoelectrode for Water Splitting” and “Fabrication of Dual Layer Ni/Ni-YSZ Hollow Fibers for Anode Support via Phase Inversion and Sintering Method,” we knew we’d be lucky to attract even one PhD with a pocket protector.*

We got the lovely audience we anticipated: people interested in learning how to develop their own communication skill set, and those hoping to find ways to influence what is going on in their own organizations when it comes to communication. The best bit was the great discussion afterwards with a number of people facing some really tough communication challenges in their workplaces.

When it comes to employees going out to give external presentations, why do so many corporate communicators face such resistance when they try to improve the way things are done? Most companies won’t put just anybody in front of a journalist, especially if they’re unprepared and not media-trained. So why would organizations send employees out to give presentations at conferences without giving them support and training, and adequate time to plan, prepare and practice for their speaking opportunities?

A lot of times, people think we’re all born communicators because we can read, speak and write.  It’s an attitude I’ve come up against time and time again, and one that a couple of the people we met last week seem to be enduring.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it’s as easy as ‘you’re a scientist and you can’t communicate; and you work in marketing and, therefore, it’s a given you can.’  I’ve worked with amazing technical people who are brilliant at explaining really complex things in compelling and easy-to-understand ways; and people in marketing and sales who couldn’t talk their way into or out of a p**s-up in a brewery.

Here’s the thing: I don’t presume to tell people about sintering methods or photoelectrodes for water splitting, or even how to run a business (remembering a particularly communication-challenged CEO I once worked with). So, please… when a communication professional is trying to talk to you about how to persuade and inform an audience more effectively, listen to what they have to say.

One of the most important things a good communicator can do is understand how to tailor and deliver messages in ways that resonate with audiences. Why does that matter? Doing this can help you – that’s right, YOU – achieve what you want to out of the speaking opportunity. And this is just one of many things we communicators can help you with. So, next time someone is offering a hand, take it. Please.

* I love all my engineering and science-geek friends, ink-stained shirts or not. The reference to the water splitting and sintering method presentations is for light comic relief only, and in no way is meant to disparage the content or the presenters of these sessions.

New Beginnings: Avoiding Constructive Dismissal

Constructive dismissal, in very basic terms, means that the nature of the employment terms have been fundamentally changed without notice or pay in lieu of notice, to the point where the employer/employee relationship is effectively broken.  Companies, business, the world itself changes and evolves all the time, so how do organizations deal with responding to these changes without running into constructive dismissal issues?  How do you make significant changes to a variable pay structure, a pension plan, or a job description after a corporate re-org without constructively dismissing your staff?

The key is communication.  Of course it is!  This is See Hear Talk – we’re all about the communication.  Whether you are whacking your benefits plan or putting in a policy about taking personal phone calls at work, you should communicate and give people notice.  Not only because of these nasty constructive dismissal issues, but because people need time to understand the change, ask questions, accept the change, and possibly modify their behaviour in order to fall in line with the change.  If we stick to the example of implementing new policies, here is a guide on how to do it without getting into constructive dismissal hot water:

• Involve your people in creating the policies.  If you have buy-in at the outset, you are less likely to be greeted by an angry mob when you go to implement.  It is important that your people understand why you are doing what you are doing if they are going to accept the change.  While this isn’t a legal requirement, it certainly is a practical one.
• Communicate the change in writing.  You know.  Us HR folk love our documentation.
• Provide sufficient notice of the change.  What is sufficient notice?  Well, it depends on the change.  Think of it this way – is anyone going to consider quitting as a result of your change?  If the answer is yes, maybe, or I’m not sure, make sure you provide at LEAST 30-days notice.  If people are going to shrug their shoulders and accept your new policy on how to conduct, say, performance reviews, just give people at LEAST enough time to understand the process before you put it in place.
• Think about your notice period being like the working notice you might provide if you were phasing out a position.  A constructive dismissal is the same as a termination when it comes to the notice or pay in lieu of notice you need to provide.  If you are essentially changing the terms and conditions of employment, your staff need to decide if they want to accept the new terms, or move onto another job.  Examples of changes that fall into this category might be: reducing salary, significant changes to job title and job description, significant changes to level of authority or responsibility, omitting things like a company pension or benefits plan or another significant component of your total compensation package.
• Have each employee sign off on the change to indicate that they understand it, that they accept it, that they were provided with the opportunity to provide feedback and ask questions, and that they were given sufficient notice.

 Good luck!  Even though the term constructive dismissal sounds scary, it is easy to get around if you engage in good, responsible business practices.  Involve your people, communicate with your people, give your people a little time to understand and accept, and for the love (or hate) of all thing HR-related: document it when they do!  You CAN make changes to your business.

For those of you living in British Columbia, Canada – this is great article for you to read for more information on Managing the Risks of Constructive Dismissal.

simple visuals and compelling copy are winning combination

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the great marketing communications campaign implemented by the Vancouver YMCA. The other day I saw some of the campaign’s print advertisements, and I continue to be impressed. Why? Because I firmly believe that simple visuals and compelling copy are the winning combination that can make your communication count.

Let’s take a look, shall we?

This is a full page ad, so if the image wasn’t already going to draw your eye with its content, it will by virtue of its size. Just two short lines of copy sum up the YMCA member benefit “The one place she absolutely can’t be reached on her Blackberry.” Aaah, peace and quiet — don’t we all crave that in today’s busy world? At the bottom of the ad there is a short note telling you when the new YMCA opens, and a URL for more information. Love it.

Here’s a second ad.

Here the focus is a little different: The YMCA is a place where we can find community. But, again, just a little bit of copy is needed (because the photograph is so incredibly expressive)… “A waste of time. It took their lives to learn there’s no such thing.” Aren’t we all longing for a little play-time, no matter how old we get?

The more I see of this campaign, the more impressed I am. It follows so many of the guidelines that we think are important for effective communication:

• It has one central message … the YMCA builds community for the modern world
• it communicates via story-telling… whether those story are visual, or video, or web-based… even the print ads tell me a story
• it is emotional… it reaches out to me on a human-level

What do you think? Do you agree? Have you seen other campaigns that you think are similarly effective? We’d love to hear about them.