Get the Message?
When was the last time you listened to an emergency briefing aboard a plane? The airlines try to get you to pay attention, but they don’t try hard enough. Reports I have read from the water landing incident on the Hudson River earlier this year would indicate that folks on board were not paying attention to theirs, as some passengers flagrantly violated some of the safety rules. The incident ultimately had a happy ending but a few variables could have easily led to some passengers going down with the ship.
There are many occasions that I am the deliverer of messaging, similar to those on board safety briefings, for the CRM programs that I help to lead. However, recently the tables were turned and I was the recipient of messaging for a change within my own company. I was required to attend a communication session that provided information on how to use a new business system. It was both interesting and educational – not the messaging in the session, rather, getting a chance to observe things from the other side.
A number of things did not work well:
- The timing of sessions never fit my availability
- The content did not fit my situation
- Information was presented that was important to the presenter, but not to the recipient
- Because I got bored I started multi-tasking and probably missed something important
All in all, I felt it was a total waste of my time, but more importantly, it re-sensitized me to be more aware of my audiences when I am the deliverer of similar mandatory messaging. I wonder how many times I have caused people to feel just like I did? I much prefer a better outcome for my audiences.
So, I spent a bit of time thinking about this and have some suggestions. Chances are you will need to deliver a communication to a captive audience and you too may fall into the same trap. Here are just a few ideas:
Zone Out Factors – Test your messaging to identify what content is going to cause your audience to quit listening. Make a change to your delivery either by changing the content to be more relevant or the approach to be more interesting.
Audience Centrism – You need to provide this information to improve the success of your program, but is it useful to your audience? Find a way to make it useful by evaluating the content from their perspective.
Enticing Media – I was at a meeting yesterday where the shortest presentation before I came onto the agenda was 138 slides. This is death by PowerPoint. Don’t kill your audience with your media. Use it to capture them.
Reward Attention – Can you do something to reward those who actually listen to you? Yes, and it can be pretty simple to do. Try handing out candy to those who answer a quiz question correctly and watch others perk up.
You can get many ideas on better communication from the gazillion books on effective presentations that line the virtual shelves at amazon.com, so I won’t go into more suggestions here. I think the important thing is to evaluate your messaging and make sure that you are not just handing out mandatory content and checking people off the list. This will increase your chances of having the communication serve less than positive value. Do a test run with someone outside of your program team and get straight feedback. You will improve the value of your communication efforts.
And remember, in the unlikely event of a water landing, your seat cushion can serve as a flotation device.
