Communication Foundations for Professionals

A few weeks back I took a training on Communication Foundations by Tatiana Kolovou, Brenda Bailey (from Kelley School of Business), and below are my notes. A recent survey suggested that “Communication competency” being the single most decisive factor while choosing a manager in most companies! As a project manager, this is one of the key skills one should master to deliver successful projects.

Top 3 Learnings:

1. Listening takes up ~55% of our daily time and unfortunately across the globe, there is very little training on Listening. Always listen with Ears, eyes, and Heart!
2. Determine process or product – How you do it vs what is needed? – When I try to explain what is required from the team , I should focus more on the product rather than the process. This is because as a PM I should not expect the team to do things the way I would have done rather be comfortable with their process and deliver the expected product.
3. When criticized, check your listening bias. De-personalize it, the intent might be that person is venting out and not blaming you for the problem!

Highlights + Notes

1) The Four Communication Building Blocks:

Four Building blocks:  People, Message, Context, and Listening

• People:  Consider other’s thought processes before commenting or sending an email.
  • Think: What does he/ she THINK of my message.
  • Feel: How does he/ she FEEL about my message.
  • Do:  What will they DO from my message.
  • Mental Filters: This dictates how we understand and decode a message

• Message: Understand the non-verbal signals and tone of voice used.
  • Channels: Consider the channels best suited for the conversation. (Email, text, phone, F2F etc)
  • Emails: ~ 246 billion worldwide daily !!
  • Framing message: Message to inform, message to persuade (should have claims, data for the argument !)
  • Bundle information: Primary message backed with other secondary messages can be helpful.
  • Check for understanding!

• Context: Be aware of the Timing, location, and relationship before communicating the message.

• Listening:
  • Use reaffirming non-verbals —  aha, hmmm, etc to show that you are following along.
  • Connect — This takes time. Empathize with the speaker, assess the situation, ask clarifying questions to improve communication.

Example for Empathetic listening: ” I can see where you are coming from ” – shows you are actively listening to the other person and understand his concern.

2) Communication for common situations

Socializing in professional settings Tips:

• Smile Authentically
  • Stand or sit tall
  • Minimize fidgeting
  • Mine for connections (common setting between both, weather changes, current news etc )
  • Keep it positive !!
  • Ask open-ended questions and get a person to talk about himself.

• Toolkits for practice –
  • Outside work drills for practice:
    • Introduce yourself and create a rapport through the common item that we both share (ex: in the airport !! )
    • Follow this up with other open-ended questions and keep it up for 2-3 minutes.
  • Workplace Context Drills:
    • For 3 consecutive meetings ask an open-ended question to the person on the right !🙂  (if I am on MS teams, to a person below my name in the chat window! )
    • Practice listening interjections like aha , Nice etc !!
  • Professional Context Drills:
    • Find 3 people you haven’t met before and Introduce yourself!
    • Comment on keynote speaker, environment,  industry news
    • Ask open-ended questions and practice repeating their names and ask something about their names.
    • Remember the names and follow up with them later.

Meetings:

• Cost of meeting are very high (~$300), So make the most of the meeting ..
  • Send Agenda before hand. Smart agenda is specific on how people can best prepare for the meeting.
  • Add estimated time for each activity will help time the meeting better.
  • Teleoanticipation – Biological process for pacing oneself. (athletes use this to pace their timing in race)
  • Meeting should be 60 – 90 mins max..
  • Always encourage discussion in the meeting.
    • Although with meeting content prep, also prepare for what questions to ask the participants..
    • Allow people time to think (Give some silence time)
    • Loop in virtual participants so that everyone gets the chance to talk.
    • Paraphrase the content and emotion – this will tell participants that you are listening to what others share.
    • Pay attention to nonverbal queues.

• Meetings tool kit –
  • Identify 3 new behaviours to better your meeting.
    • Sending meeting agenda
    • Plan thoughtful questions.
    • Accommodate or rotate meeting times to meet others schedule/ favorable time

• New behaviors for me to Implement:
  • Ask a great question.
  • Wait in silence for people to share ideas.
  • Hold the floor for people and wait in silence (Do not let others interrupt for the question intended to XYZ person)
  • Sample: Hey, looks like you disagree , I would like to hear your thought on this !!
  • Last 5 mins for after-action review, summarise decisions made on who agreed to do what.
  • Close on schedule.
  • Send action items (MOM after call.)

Emails:

• Think of Reader’s action.
• State the action in the first or second sentence.
• Edit the email for tone and try to be polite.
• ALWAYS –  Proof read !!
  • Have a rule / ritual – Not to send an email without fixing atleast 1 error in the email content !!
  • Proof read 1 – Check for Grammar
  • Proof read 2 – Check for Numerical accuracy
  • Proof read 3 – Check for Spelling of names

Practice Tool Kit for Email-

• Look for last 5 emails that was sent out and follow the checklist and look at patterns!
  • Message – Verify if my actual message in the mail  was in the top 2 sentences
  • Action – Verify if the Action in the mail was clear and easy to take.
  • Details – Was every word necessary and could that be more concise.
  • Tone – Was the tone used creates the impact I intended.
  • Channel – Was email the best channel of choice ?
  • Timing – Was the email sent at the right time ?
  • Errors – Did any of my email had any errors ?

Explaining the task:

• Sets of 3 !! – research says people remember when things are explained in set of three..
• Flex to the learner’s need.
• What –> Why –> How logic !! – Whenever a problem is discussed its better to start with What is the problem, then move to why do we have that problem in the first place and finally talk about How do we fix the problem.
• Let the learner to show and tell – There are situations where we take or provide trainings , a good way to ensure we have learners attention is by informing the learner about what I call “Cross KT “!! It is a knowledge sharing session where the learners has to train the trainers the way he would explain it to a new person.

Tool kit for Explanations:

Activity 1:

1. Find 3 co workers to teach how to make fav meal !
2. Find out how they process information.
3. Identify the big-picture people vs the step – by- step people
4. List your instructions.
5. Share and receive feedback.

Activity 2: Break down a process exercise

1. Think of a process your team members do.
2. List the steps.
3. Break that list into separate buckets
4. Consider visual support to help – may be a video tutorial
5. Share the details and list of what , why, and how to exercise 

Advising senior staff:

• Accept that you are young!
• Find ways to connect with your older colleagues.
• Build your credibility.
• Avoid buzzwords and word fillers
• Consider how you dress.
• Demonstrate respect for the person.

Tips as verbiage: ” I’m the one with the least experience so I may be wrong here, but I have an idea. What do you think about this? “

ToolKit –

• Identify a senior team member and write down the person’s name.
• Find something in common.
• Build credibility with a past experience.
• Rewrite words or phrases in a respectful and humble way.

3) Communication for Challenging Situations:

When Pitching Ideas:

• Think about people whose approval is needed – Always a people-first strategy.
• Consider the decision-making style of the person (Analytical person Vs emotional person ? )
  •   Analytical (Thinker) Person Needs:
    • Evidence, Facts, Comparisons, Benchmarks
  • Emotional (Feeler) person
    • People benefitted,  Values honored and Harmony upheld 
• What –> Why –> How
  • Start with What is the idea
  • Follow by 2-3 compelling reasons on Why the idea is important. Back up the reasons with statistics, research data, values, etc.
  • How the idea will be implemented – show visibility

Example: Pitching the idea of new resource request..

What:“I Need one additional rep to run point on this campaign with me”

Why:” We calculated that the social media components are going to take 200-250 staffing hours, That’s too much for one person”

How: (If the decision-maker is the emotional person)” The client loves the work we’ve done before, and I want to protect our reputation and the client’s loyalty.” I realise this adds significant costs, so I’ve been looking at ways we can make adjustments the budget. Can I get your thoughts on some suggestions I have ? “

Toolkit to enhance influence:

• Activity 1:
  • List 4 of the professional networks
  • 5 People essential to these networks
  • The effort to reach out to these people once a month and find a tracking system.
  • Quick Scan of your professional network.
  • Example: In my case, I would scan my professional network and talk to other PMs in my industry. I would influence them to collaborating with me in my Blog.

• Activity 2:
  • Take out the phone and find the last 10 dialed records.
  • Find a way to influence one of them into something.
  • Example: In my personal word, I am influencing my mother to do yoga everyday.

When Asking for something:

• Everyone should get better at asking !
• The key is to be direct when asking and Not beat around the bush.

• Tips on Asking for Something.
  1. State the action.
  2. Create the urgency.
  3. Make the next steps easy for the decision maker.

• Practice Toolkit for making the ask :
  • Spend 30 days asking for low-stake (unimportant)  things every day.
  • Get comfortable with the idea of rejection.
  • Ask for a discount where it does not need. (training the mind !)

When caught off guard :

• Tips for handling situations when you are caught off guard:
  • Buy time and acknowledge the situation  –  Verbiages.. “Tell me a little bit more about the situation, I want to understand” or “I am caught off guard here 🙂 give me time till the end of the day to think about it and we can discuss this again tomorrow ?”
  • Calm yourself – Take a deep breath and focus your thoughts.
  • Use a response formula. –> What I know + What I don’t know + How I’ll find out!

Toolkit to practice caught off guard scenario

• Practise buying time: When someone asks for a request, Remember to tell, I need to think about it and get back to them in some time. The waiter comes to take the order, ask them to come back in few mins.
• Practice calming yourself down.
• One visual cue and 5 deep breaths before responding.
• Practice the response formula from above.

When criticised:

Tips on Managing criticism:

• Give time to ponder criticism.
• Demonstrate empathy.
• Ask questions. ” Please tell me what you hoped and how we missed ?? “
• Before responding – Ignore the first 2 thoughts  – 1) Defensive 2) accusatory 3) Problem solving
• Use, “Yes, and .. ”  proven in “Improve comedy” to keep the conversation going.

Toolkit to practise response when criticised:

• Think of the last three times you faced criticism ,
  • Write out a defensive response
  • Then write out a positive response that acknowledges the problem, uses Yes, and philosophy and concentrates on solving the problem.
  • Try saying this response out loud to practice tone!

When presenting up:

• Tips when presenting up –
  • Know your audience
    • What are their pain points around the topic ?
    • How much do they know about the topic? History?
    • What are their core values?
  • Lead with a conclusion.
    • Share your suggestion or key idea within the first 60-90 seconds of your presentation. Get to the point succinctly.
  • Introduce your topic with SCQA.
    • S –  Current Situation
    • C – Complication that created the problem or opportunity
    • Q – Key Question that needs to be addressed.
    • A – What is the Answer to that question.
  • Go for the forest – Focus on the big picture.
  • Expect to be grilled.
    • Be prepared
    • Answer concisely
    • Redirect back to the main theme.

• Toolkit to practice presenting up:
  • Build a Hypothetical situation and include the SCQA
  • Meet with a colleague
  • Review main points
  • Ask three tough question the audience might ask.
  • Repeat with others colleague.
  • Imagine Scenarios:
    • Decision maker can’t attend the presentation – Be prepared to summarise the entire presentation in 2/ 3 sentences.
    • You have to turn your presentation into a conversation.
    • Technology doesn’t work – make some notes and be prepared to this scenario.
    • Practise explaining the visual.

I will be practicing above concepts and toolkits going forward to be a better communicator. Let me know if there are any other things you do that has helped you improve your communication skill in the comment box.

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