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Communicate Well

One magic question that will help simplify your communication

Sarah · Mar 29, 2018 · Leave a Comment

How many times have you been the newbie in a certain situation where someone throws out terms, acronyms, perhaps even topics that are completely foreign to you?

Did you feel lost? Confused? Like an outsider?

It’s a painful experience.
It’s also an experience that can be easily avoided.

In the last year, one of our children has had some significant behavior challenges. In the process of sorting that out and getting him the help he needs, we were dumped into a whole new world. A world involving the school system, various therapies, specialists, doctors and more.

On top of being an overwhelming, highly emotional process, there were more basic communication barriers than I expected. I was surprised just how often I felt like I was speaking a foreign language.

In one conversation, on a service that was entirely new to me, a kind gal rattled off a whole string of things, and I was lost. I finally stopped her on roughly point number 5 to say, “I need you to explain to me the subtitle, then point 1 before we can get anywhere near point 5.”

It was a great reminder to think through how I communicate to others.

I never thought of looking at simplifying communication this way before!

Keep your communication simple.

We’re all guilty of communicating in overly complicated language and using jargon and terminology that’s not nearly as common as we think it is.

How do you communicate new information to your employees, team, and customers?

Do you make assumptions about their baseline knowledge and what they already know? Are there acronyms that need to be explained? Is there terminology that may not be broadly familiar? What about systems, tools, departments or teams that need to be explained or put in context?

I was recently conducting training sessions on a new software rollout, and realized that I was going way too fast for the audience. It’s a technology that I’ve used for years, and a process that I’m incredibly familiar with. Because the users are familiar with the process, I forgot just how new the technology was.

It took a passing comment about how fast I was flying through the information to remind me that I needed to slow down, explain more thoroughly, and remember what it was like to be new.

Don’t assume that everyone is starting from the same place.

How many times have you gotten through an entire conversation with someone, thinking you were talking about the same thing, only to realize you had an entirely different frame of reference as a starting point and weren’t talking about the same thing at all?

When you are communicating any information, I recommend a magic test that I call “the mom test.”

Simplify your communication: The mom test

The mom test asks one simple question: “Would my mom understand this?”

The intent is “Would anyone not at all familiar with this subject be able to understand my communication?” My mom doesn’t work in the business world, so it’s a perfect question. If your mom does, change up the test to ask the question of anyone else who is unfamiliar with the world in which you are communicating.

If the answer is “No,” simplify your communication. You may want to add definitions, explain acronyms, clarify statements and generally slow down.

It’s entirely too easy to share information at a master’s degree level when the audience is still in metaphorically elementary school. Use the mom test to simplify your communication and share the right level of information with the right audience at the right time.

The one thing that can make or break your meeting

Sarah · Mar 24, 2018 · Leave a Comment

How many times have you walked into a meeting without really having any idea what the meeting was about, what you were supposed to prepare, or what would be expected of you in the meeting?

Yep, same here.

A meeting agenda is one of the most critical components of a meeting, and often one of the most overlooked. I’ve seen (and sent!) far too many meeting invites that have nothing in the body of the meeting invite and often have rather cryptic subject lines.

Clearly identifying the meeting agenda before a meeting starts can make or break the success of a meeting.

A meeting agenda should be planned and articulated before a meeting is scheduled and included in the invitation to a meeting.

If there are valid reasons that you need to schedule time for a meeting before you have an agenda finalized, one easy solution is to include in the body of the meeting invite, “Meeting placeholder. Agenda to follow.” Then follow up with the agenda as soon as possible.

What goes into a meeting agenda? Let’s look at the questions a meeting agenda answers.

How a meeting agenda can make or break the success of your meeting | strategysarah.com

Seven questions a great meeting agenda answers:

1. Who really needs to attend this meeting?

In a company with a meeting-heavy culture, it’s common to be invited to meetings that overlap, and to be invited to so many meetings that there is no time left to get actual work done.

For volunteer groups, the line can be even blurrier as meeting invites can be a shotgun approach to attract anyone interested in a topic.

As a meeting owner, a well thought out agenda helps determine who should be included on a meeting invite in the first place. While it is important to ensure the right people are in the room, don’t fall into the trap of over-inviting anyone who may happen to come to mind.

There are likely potential attendees who need to know the information coming out of the meeting but don’t need to be present at the meeting. They are perfect candidates to get a written meeting recap.

As an attendee, a well thought out meeting agenda can help you take ownership of your time and attendance by giving you critical information about the importance of the meeting to you at this time.

2. How long should the meeting last?

An agenda should spell out what needs to take place in the meeting and how long each segment of the meeting should take.

Yes, meetings are scheduled for set blocks of time, but it’s common for meeting schedulers to be unrealistic with the time they have allotted. Has someone scheduled an hour for a conversation that should take 20 minutes? Or scheduled 30 minutes for a topic known to take 2 hours?

As a meeting owner, think through how long a meeting should actually take first, then look at available times to meet. Do you have a meeting participant known to be long-winded? Is it a complex topic? Is it a simple topic? (If it’s super simple, does it even need to be a meeting, or can the outcome be accomplished via email or other technology?)

As a meeting attendee, trust that the meeting owner has adequately allotted time for the topics that need to be covered in the meeting. If you don’t, consider suggesting an adjustment to the meeting owner prior to the start of the meeting.

3. Will the meeting start on time? Early? Late?

The company culture may dictate whether all meetings start exactly on time, or it may be common for meetings to start 5-10 minutes late. If external partners are attending a meeting, they may arrive 10-15 minutes early and the meeting scheduler should account for that when planning schedules. There’s also always that person who you know will be late.

Particularly when you’re running from meetings scheduled back to back, that 5-10 minute swing to start early or late can have a big impact on the flow of your day.

Meeting owners, review your schedule and ensure that you have adequate prep and setup time before a meeting starts. Depending on the format and formality of the meeting, you may want to consider scheduling yourself 5-15 minutes before a meeting specifically to set up.

Meeting attendees, find regular time to review your schedule and ensure you are planning enough time to get too and from each meeting that you need to attend. Proactively make a plan for tight transitions.

4. What is the type and format of the meeting?

There are several distinct meeting types that include topics like brainstorming, information sharing, alignment and decision-making, formal reviews, training, team building and more.

Meeting owners, are you clear what type of meeting you’re conducting? If not, getting clarity on this can help shape the agenda.

Meeting attendees, the type of meeting likely won’t be explicitly stated, but should be implied and give you clarity on your role in the meeting.

5. How formal will the meeting be?

The number of attendees and who those attendees are can change the tone of a meeting dramatically. A meeting with 2-3 peers to brainstorm is a completely different thing than a formal review 15 people in the room including senior leadership or external partners.

Meeting owners, understand how the meeting attendees will impact the formality of a meeting. If you want a meeting to be more or less formal than naturally indicated by attendees, proactively address this and set expectations accordingly.

Meeting attendees, pay attention to who else will be in the room and act accordingly.

6. Where and how will the meeting be conducted?

Will the meeting be in person? A teleconference? A video call? A text-based chat using a technology solution? A mix of multiple types?

Meeting owners, have you booked the conference room or reserved and set up the call line or video technology? Do you know how to operate a presentation screen or any other tool needed to run the meeting? Do you have a backup plan in case your technology glitches?

Meeting attendees, do you know where you’re going and how you’re connecting to a meeting? If there’s technology involved, do you know how to use it?

7. What does each attendee need to be prepared for and bring to the meeting?

Is this a meeting where you need to “bring your brain” or prepare a presentation? If you need to prepare a presentation, is it casual or formal? Does information need to be submitted ahead of the meeting to be compiled for discussion? These clues may be hidden in a meeting agenda, or they may be explicitly stated.

Meeting owners, be upfront and identify what attendees should prepare and bring to a meeting. If you expect materials to be submitted ahead of time, clearly identify how and when materials should be submitted.

Meeting attendees, are you clear what you need to prepare and bring? If not, ask!

Clearly identifying the meeting agenda before a meeting starts can make or break the success of a meeting.

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Meetings and meeting agendas range from super simple to super complex. No matter the size of the meeting, the importance of the agenda should not be overlooked. Spending time crafting or reviewing a meeting agenda before the meeting starts ensures that all attendees are aligned and prepared for a successful meeting outcome.

Effective marketing communication offers multiple ways to connect

Sarah · May 16, 2015 · Leave a Comment

Is your marketing communication and the content you share effective?

Are you sure?

If you’re not seeing the signups, sales or conversions you expect, one easy place to start troubleshooting is a key area of communication: your contact info.

I recently received a postcard to sign up for more information about a project, business, opportunity. It was exciting, and definitely one I wanted to sign up to get more information.

So I looked for the website to check out more information and sign up.

There wasn’t one. There also wasn’t an email signup sheet, Facebook page, Instagram or Pinterest account, or any other way to connect online, through apps or through social media. Edited to add: There wasn’t even a phone number.

In a face-palm moment, the fact that a phone number was a missing typical piece of contact info didn’t even occur to me. Oops. Clearly there are ways that I don’t think to communicate! 

My husband and I laugh whenever my mother-in-law pulls out a phone book to call a local restaurant or business. My parents recently sold their house (to move near us, yay!), and my mom made sure to leave all the phone books neat and tidy. I didn’t have the heart to tell her the new owners are unlikely to use them for anything other than a paperweight. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe they’re phone book junkies. I know that it would never occur to me to use a phone book, and it’s probably been close to 20 years since I’ve had one in my house (pretty much…since I moved out of that same house my parents just sold!).

Back to the postcard and project I mentioned…

The only way to sign up was by scanning a QR code.

What?!

This may be shocking, but not everyone uses QR code readers.

And if your customers, audience or anyone you’re trying to connect with can’t connect with you, you have a major problem.

If you're not making as much money as you want to, you may have this major problem sabotaging sales. Fortunately, it's an easy fix!

 

As much as I love technology, I’ve never had reason to jump on the QR code bandwagon. I didn’t have a QR code reader. I do have a smart phone, so all I needed to do was download an app, but still…

If I wasn’t highly invested in the subject, I would have quickly abandoned a great project.

(Seriously, are QR codes still a thing? If so, who uses them? Is it a sign of my mid-30s mom-ness that I think QR codes are more trouble than benefit? What’s so hard about typing in a url or clicking a link?)

It’s easy to fall into a trap of thinking that everyone is just like us, and uses the same ways to communicate.

News flash: They’re not.

With billions of people in the world, and over 325 million in the United States alone, it’s unrealistic to expect everyone to communicate the same way.

If people – aka consumers – aka your target audience – aka those individuals who want to give you money – don’t know how or where to find you, they can’t buy from you.

You need to offer multiple options for people to connect with you.

The average person is exposed to hundreds of ads per day. If they are interested in what you have to offer, don’t make it harder than it needs to be to get connected to you!

One more not to use a sole means of communication: I’ve also seen this with Facebook event invites. Yes, they’re easy, but there are many people that aren’t on Facebook for a variety of reasons. Are they being excluded simply by nature of how an invite is sent out?

Are you inadvertently hindering your friends, customers, fans or audience from joining what you’re doing because you have limited options to connect?

To maximize connection (and increase sales) make sure people know how to contact you!

Common + critical contact info types

1. Website

If you don’t have a website in 2018, do you even have a business? Setting up a basic website (like this one!) is super simple using WordPress and Siteground hosting (aka, what I use).

2. Email address

Better yet, a way for people to sign up for an email newsletter for you to stay connected with them right in their inbox. I use and recommend ConvertKit.

3. Phone number

Yes, this is still important, especially if you’re a local business. I have the same phone number I’ve had since 2001, which is super weird to think that it’s been with me longer than just about anything else – my last name, my husband, my kids, my house.

4. Social media platform of the week

These are self-explanatory at this stage, right? Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Snapchat, any other fancy new social media platforms that I don’t keep up with.

In summary

Whatever you do, offer multiple ways to connect with people and for them to contact you. You may not offer all the contact info types – you won’t find a phone number anywhere on this site – but think about what types of communication platforms the people YOU want to connect with are on. If your audience is teens and twentysomethings, that’s going to likely look vastly different than targeting those in their 50s and 60s.

 

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Welcome!

Sarah Parsons Hi, I'm Sarah and thanks for joining me! I believe that as working moms, we don't have to be exhausted trying to have it all. Sure, we juggle a lot. That just makes us expert project managers, problem solvers and simplifiers. And if you feel like you're not an expert at any of that, well, you're in the right place. It is possible to manage our time well and thrive - at work, home and play. Let's do this!
#3 is key.
This has been a game-changer for my afternoons! I'm so much more productive when I manage my energy and don't try to just power through the slump. #workingmom #manageyourenergy #timemanagement
31 Timesaving Tools, Tips & Templates | strategysarah.com

31 Timesaving Tips, Tools & Templates

Disclaimer

The views expressed on this site are those of Sarah Parsons only, and do not represent those of any employer or client past or present with whom I have worked.
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