Good Deeds vs Bad

Benjamin Franklin, once said that it takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, but just one bad deed to lose it.

Everything we do in our daily life is communication. We communicate all the time, whether it be by word or by action.

That's my short post for today -- just a reminder!

Diane

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How to deal with change...

Socrates had some good advice for how to deal with change... he said that the secret to dealing with change is to focus on building the new, rather then wasting energy on fighting the old.

Makes sense.


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Life is all about communicating with one another

It doesn't matter what area of life, whether it is our simple individual life, family life, society, local, municipal, regional, national, global – it's all about communicating with one another.

Let me begin with an example of a local situation...

I'm always amazed at how bad people are at communicating and/or at realizing how they communicate with others.

For instance, I like to help people. I give a lot of my time to volunteer activities in various organizations, etc.

One of the things that I often see is that when someone offers their services for free (volunteer) to an organization, they are often – too often – received nonchalantly (indifferently, detached, unappreciatively). And then they wonder why they have a hard time getting volunteers.

Case in point:

I joined a seniors group some time ago.  After hearing they needed some help in a particular up-coming event, I went up to the activity organizer and offered to help out. The woman brought me to the person who is supposedly in charge of that event and who would show me what I needed to do, etc.

She told me to be there at 10 am on the day of the event, the following week.  So I scheduled this time on my busy calendar and showed up on time (5 min. earlier as I usually do – another communicating issue I'll talk about next).

I looked for her and didn't see her around. I then checked with the receptionist and she told me the lady wasn't in and whe didn't expect her until 11.  So I indicating that I was asked to be there at 10 and had put that time from by business aside for them. She told me to talk to another person, pointing to the vice-president of the organization in the center of the hall.

So I proceeded toward her who was at this time totally immersed in a hot discussion with a senior member.  I waited, and waited, trying to get her attention, but she wouldn't budge. After about 10 minutes of this, I left, letting the receptionist know that I would try and come back later.

Of course, my time being money, I never go idle for long, so I proceeded to do some business while I was in that area. One thing led to another which got me into other issues and next thing I knew I was back in the office taking care of pressing matters that followed. So, I never did get back to them, but had they been there as planned, they would have had my time for a couple of hours of my business time given to them for free.

Have a great day,

Diane

For the Kindle E-book series, please visit this link:

http://communicationverbalnonverbal.blogspot.ca/p/blog-page.html

Meetings and Communication – “Regular” is the Key

In meetings and communication – “Regular” is the Key.Often, the remedy for many problems in miscommunication is to hold simple regular staff meetings, where people sit down together and talk about the plans or the challenges.

But the key is to sit down with a goal in mind, a planned agenda and an organized leadership. The question "Why is there so much material waste in the production area?" requires listening to those who work with the material: "Here, come with me and I’ll show you". Then go and listen. Then brainstorm together.

Truly, a few minutes of meeting time will prevent hours and days of destructive staff and customer dissatisfaction.

After the hiring, one important ingredient of good communication in personnel management is for managers/supervisors to provide regular meetings to discuss performance and expectations.

"Regular" is the key word here. It is mind-boggling how few places do that. I personally do not recall anywhere I've worked at where this was done. There were meetings, but not regularly.

But when I've operated my own business, no matter how small it was, I learned to have meetings with even the people of the lowest levels, even trainees on government sponsored programs. It created an atmosphere of openness and trust and understanding. This was the time for anyone to talk about what troubled them, what frustrated them over coffee and donut provided by the company.

More on holding meetings in the next blog.

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"Effective Communication - Understanding the Word 'Argument' "

Many people have the wrong concept of the word "argument".  I remember counseling someone on a marriage problem.  The husband was debating some points presented to him.  When I mentioned his "arguing" the point, he straightened up and defensively said, "I'm not arguing" and expressed his feelings about his interpretation of the word. To him "argument" was akin to fight.  His understanding of the word triggered a misinterpretation.

When two people argue, it is not fighting.  At least it shouldn't be.  Scientists argue; they present arguments all the time.  So do lawyers.  Arguments are a perfectly healthy part of communication. However, we have misunderstood "arguing" for so long because of our poor communication practices, that we have made it a misnomer.  We don't know how to argue anymore. Argument is based on logical debate. 

There is an excellent tape, "How to Argue and Win Every Time," (Audio Renaissance), by  Gerry Spence, who has been practicing law for over forty years and who is widely regarded as one of the most skilled courtroom advocates in America.  The author shows how to apply his techniques at work, in court, everywhere, every day.  He says that the success of a good argument lies in the preparation. 

Often, the one presented with an argument does not want to give into it because he or she knows that on the basis of logic his/her argument would lose.  To avoid interaction with "argument" the Receiver either agrees, gives lip service or terminates the discussion.  If the discussion does not terminate (i.e., the Sender continues the argument dialogue), the Receiver may then lose control, because of the lack of communication ability and/or facts, and start a word fight -- or even a fist fight -- which is where the word "argument" gets its bad reputation.


Tip:

The success of a good argument lies in the preparation.  So, next time you face an argument with someone, hold off and go prepare first!  In other words no one can jump into an argument without having some facts and realities on hand. This process would eliminate a lot of problems in marriage as well as in business. /dmh


For the 296 pages Hard Copy book

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Inter-department Meetings

The Tips Article for today:

"A Few Minutes of Inter-department Meeting Time Will Prevent Hours and Days of Destructive Mistakes."


Most financial communications are done in the language of figures.
Figures don't lie and have no interferences from past experience and current environment!  Communicating with figures is the easiest way -- it's black and white.  It has its own contextual element.

But when it comes to the people who work with these figures through meetings and discussions and personal relationships, even though all of the elements of the communication process apply in the same way, communication is not as straight forward outside of the figures quoted.

In other words, if I say the bottom line figure is $953.00, that figure cannot mean anything else. However, the person delivering that figure might have meant bottom line before tax but did not mention this and everyone listening in the meeting "thought" it meant bottom line after tax.  This would be a big communication problem. The figure is not wrong, but the place on the operating statement is mis-communicated.

The contextual part of communication is the same as in all other departments: to recognize the surroundings of every word spoken or financial figures quoted in order to avoid communication disasters.

The other challenge in a financial department is the communication to and from other departments. Often, outside department representatives do not understand why accounting "nags" them about precise numbers and reports, which need to be crunched daily, weekly, monthly and yearly. 


Tip:
Hold regular inter-department meetings to discuss both sides of these communication needs, so that every one is aware of the vulnerabilities. Train people through examples. This will help eliminate many misunderstandings.  Truly, a few minutes of meeting time will prevent hours and days of destructive mistakes.


Till next time, have a great and wonderfully successful week,

Diane

Check out my Amazon Kindle Book Author Page at


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