Spring Clean Your Communication

I love this time of year.  The weather is beautiful, the sun is shining, and the flowers are blooming. It’s also a time to go through my closets and do a little “spring cleaning.” A time to go through and see what I really want to keep and then donate or throw out things that I don’t need or use anymore.  I started today, and it feels great!

As I go through years of accumulated clothes, I realize that I forgot about that pair of pants, or shirt or skirt that I loved.  I hadn’t even seen them hanging there.  There were other things around them, so certain items became less noticeable.  They didn’t catch my attention. And since they didn't get my attention, in a way, they were lost.  Now, having eliminated the unnecessary and unused, I see them clearly. And I will remember that they are there.

Getting rid of unnecessary clothing naturally made me think of effective business  communication. (Doesn’t it do that to everyone?) They actually have a lot in common. Instead of taking out the old clothes, you can start removing unnecessary words.

Keep Your Messages Concise and Meaningful

Social scientists have told us time and again that people are more likely to comprehend and remember messages if the words are limited in number.  Having too many extra words, like extra clothes, keeps us from focusing on the good stuff - the real core of our messages.

In addition, these scientists have told us that simplicity beats complexity.  More information doesn’t necessarily mean better information.  And the simpler it is, the more likely it will be remembered by other people.  Another great benefit of simplicity?   Our messages (ideas/thoughts/and opinions)  can be easily repeated to others, too.

🧹 Before you start “sweeping out” those extra, unneeded words from your communication, you have to do some reflection first.  

First, it all starts with your audience.  

Ask yourself, what do they need to hear?  What do they already know? What do they need to learn?  All these things should help you focus your message.

It’s tempting to tell them all we know.  But it’s not about what we want to say, it’s about what they want and need to know.  Value them and their time by staying focused.

Next, think about your objective

Don’t start communicating until you have a clear objective about what you want to say.  So ask yourself, if they were to walk away with just one idea, what do you want it to be?  Once you identify that, BINGO!  You’ve got the core of your message.  That will help you craft your communication.

Remember, it’s easy to get excited about what you’re talking about and sometimes the desire to just launch into your communication is overwhelming.  But if you want to be effective, slow down.  Think about what you want to convey before you start.

Make the message clear

Start off your communication by beginning with your conclusions.  If you are a native Italian speaker communicating in the USA, this is key to remember, because it is the opposite of how communications work in Italy.  In Italy, a “high-context culture,” it is normal to begin with your background knowledge, supporting ideas, etc. and then build up to your conclusions.

Since Americans are accustomed to hearing the main idea first, you risk losing them if you leave it until the end.  They may become confused, bored, or tune you out, depending on your audience.  Find that message and make it clear!

Back it up now

Once you have stated your main idea, you’ve got to back it up with a reason or two.  Now you’re sharing the logic behind what you stated.  Fortify your reasons by giving evidence or examples that support it.

Say it again, it’ll be fine

Think of the structure of your communication like a nice package.  Start with your conclusion, give your reasons and evidence, and then state your conclusion again.  Repetition of your concise idea helps reinforce it in the mind of your audience.  Make sure you restate your idea in another way so it sounds more natural.  Just once.  No need to say it over and over, but do repeat it once. 

In fact, to bring more attention to your point at the end, use flagging statements.  Some examples of flagging statements could be:

• I can’t emphasize how important it is….
• It all boils down to….
• The heart of the matter is….

If you feel you’ve been getting a bit off point and you want to bring your audience back to focus on your main message, try:

• I’ll get to the point.
• In a nutshell,
• It all boils down to….

Choose the right words

Make sure your words are simple.  You’re not trying to sound like a professor.  Your goal is to be understood.  One syllable words are particularly powerful.

And don’t assume an English word has the same meaning as an Italian word.  There are many false cognates out there.  Check my post on false friends in case you missed it.    

Similarly, don’t assume that an idiomatic expression that exists in Italian also exists in English.  You might risk “making the chickens laugh”  (but don’t use that expression because it doesn’t exist in English.)

Avoid jargon.  Those words that are so common to you, your company and industry, may not have meaning to whoever you are communicating with.  If you must use it, identify what it means first, and then you can keep referring to it.

🧹Communicating with brevity is a challenge, especially when you are coming from a high context culture, such as Italian culture.  It takes a bit of retraining of the way the mind works, and moreover, it takes a lot of practice.

It might take some extra work at first, but you can actually say more with less.  Don’t dilute your main message by putting extra, unnecessary words around. So if I can clean out my closets, you can clean up your communication so that the important words and ideas are heard and remembered.

Stay tuned!

Since communicating more concisely is a challenge that many Italian professionals in the USA experience, I have designed a digital course called, “The Say More with Less 6-Day Challenge.”  I  hope you’ll give it a try.