ON THE EDGE
What Makes You Listen?? Getting Messages Across
by Carl Pritchard, Pritchard Management Associates
"From the gunner's seat of an M-1 Tank….I'm Carl Pritchard." I used to have a career in the media (proof that project management is the accidental profession). And that is one of the more memorable phrases that I was ever privileged to utter on the air. I was the news guy. One of the objectives in media is the same as one of the key objectives in project management: Get others to listen to you. What is interesting is that the message often isn't as important as the setting, and in many instances we forget about some of the basics of good, clear, effective communication.
Having now become the "risk management guy," I know about the pain associated with communicating messages. Risk is generally perceived as bad news. Justifiably so. It's tough to listen to information about all of the bad things that could potentially happen. It's even tougher when the message can just as easily be ignored. One student recently shared that her boss told her, "My projects just don't have risk. Period." This is the professional moral equivalent to jamming fingers into your ears and humming your favorite tune.
Getting messages through to people is no mean feat. But there are ways to accomplish it. People cut through the interference all the time. In order to be consistent about it, the keys are to ensure you have the ability to recognize different elements that make messages attractive to different people. Messages can be rendered more attractive through history, setting and personal influence.
The Stories
We all have our favorite stories. If you're married, you've heard your spouse's favorites dozens of times. You may even be able to mimic the inflection and pacing of the tale. They're familiar. Yet we don't tire of them nearly as readily as we tire of hearing other information. Stories have a sense of personal influence and depth that is not common in other settings. They create common bonds. The story of Moses and Pharoah. The story of Helen and Paris in Troy. The story of the world-record soccer field. Oh? Never heard that one?
In July 1994, the Washington, D.C.-area landscaping firm of Ruppert Landscaping hosted a one-day competition to motivate their employees. 425 professional landscapers descended on a packed-dirt, hardscrabble, trashy dust bowl to convert it to a lush, green, playable soccer field. Total time elapsed? 20 minutes. In just 20 minutes, they ripped down vines that had crept up light poles, prepared the soil, carted off the trash and sodded an entire soccer field. 20 minutes of ant-like activity crawling across an Adams-Morgan field, coordinated to perfection and moving across the field with drill team precision.
You now have a new story. It's even a project management story. It could be used to talk about the awesome power of teamwork, or the inspired efforts associated with effective planning. Or it could be used to address the nature of short cycle-time projects. Stories can be twisted to our needs. If someone tells you "Private-public partnerships are important," that's one thing. Without the story, that statement is weak. Telling you that story, and citing the press coverage that survives an entire decade is another thing. People will remember the 20-minute soccer field. And they are more likely to remember the message that go with the story, if they know the story and it's told well.
The Setting
Life presents us with wondrous opportunities, and the cell phone has gone a long way toward sharing those opportunities. Most of us have either called or received a call from some bizarre, exotic locale. Just recently, on Atlanta's MARTA system, I overheard a gentleman saying, "You won't believe this. I'm on the subway in Atlanta. We're underground, and I still have a signal." He was sharing the setting. He was drawing in the person on the other end by trying to get them to marvel at the experience with him.
I remember recording stories for the news inside an M-1 Tank, from City Hall, from backstage at concert venues, and in the middle of crowds rallying for one cause or another. The reason news crews strive to produce pieces in the midst of the tumult created by a particular venue is the sense of setting.
If you want to convey a message, it's vital to create a memorable setting. I laughed when one student shared the image of her boss arriving for a meeting in a Minuteman's uniform from the Revolutionary War. He was trying to convey a message about quick response and immediacy. Had he simply walked into the room and said "The British are coming! And we need to be ready to respond in a moment's notice," it would have been quickly forgotten in the morass of a dozen other meetings. But his uniform and the setting it created made the message powerfully memorable.
To take someone to a setting does not necessarily involve extensive costuming or remote locales. It does require the ability to set a stage with words, however. If words alone are to convey the message, it must be done in a context familiar to the audience. Simply telling them to "Imagine you're in a very cold place" will not establish a powerful connection. Instead, remind them of a personal experience. "Think back for a moment to the last time you were caught outside on a cold, gray, dreary day, and you were soaked through to the bone. You know the kind of cold I'm talking about. The kind you simply cannot shake. When you're chilled through and just can't warm up." That will go a long way to ensuring they're actually living the experience. They can become part of the setting. Setting helps make message more memorable, as the audience can go there and become an element within a greater environment.
Personal Influence
YOU! That's a very powerful word. But it's actually a word that's horribly overused and abused. Those trying to convey a message frequently ascribe traits to "you" that "you" simply don't have.
In the time it's taken me to write this column, I've received some e-mail indicating change in my life!
"You can get the lowest fixed rate on a mortgage"
"You can make massive profits on E-Bay®"
"Your partner will love you for this"
I don't think so…
The word "you" is assigned to us without consideration on whether or not YOU really feel a particular way. People are not influenced by what is expected of them with a flash of the word "YOU." They are influenced, however, when their true personal needs are identified, assessed, and addressed. There's a connection between parties in the communication process when you can find a personal need, a desire or an understanding that reflects what the listener is thinking. This is why some talk show hosts are phenomenally successful. They echo what the listener is thinking. If you can identify the needs of the listener and connect with them, there's a lot of value there.
One other e-mail came in with the barrage cited above. It was from one of the major chain department stores, announcing their "Summer Sale Spectacular" on slacks and shorts. It came in screaming "Your chance to save on slacks!" Last night, while flying home from Atlanta, I tore a gaping hole in the seat of my pants when they caught on the armrest of my airline seat. That chain store made an e-sale. Why? Because they happened to connect to a very personal need. They were talking directly to someone who could identify with what they were promoting.
Sometimes it's just luck when we connect. But if we invest the time in getting to know our team members more intimately and make ourselves familiar with their experiences and needs, personal influence can become a defining element of our interpersonal and project communications.
Woven together, these three elements create powerful communications. Not through volume or expense or rehearsal, but through a clear understanding of what makes messages stick.
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