How to communicate effectively at work | book summary | Read a book with me

think of the last time you watched olympics athletes make it look so easy and you might be thinking wow that looks amazing and i bet i could do that at the

same time sometimes when i watch ted talks and read books i get similar feelings the presenters or the authors are just so good and they look

effortless that is what this book is trying to help with this book simply said communicating better at work and beyond touches on a lot of useful tips

for various types of communications in this video we're going to summarize and highlight the key points of the book we're going to talk about how to structure your thoughts and create good

content how to improve your oral communication skills and how to communicate effectively through writing let's start by talking about how to craft good content such as a specific

message personal introduction engaging stories and content for different purposes we often communicate in a professional

content to convey a specific message so how to craft and convey a clear message a clear message should be short use simple language and should focus on the

needs of the audience limit your key message to one sentence preferably fewer than 10 words long such as we need to close the deal soon

avoid use big words and jargons keep in mind that your message is never about you it is about your audience how your audience needs to use your

content to craft an audience focused message ask yourself what does this audience need to learn when we introduce ourselves we should also be more focused

on others instead of seeing ourselves based on titles and status we view ourselves from the perspective of how we impact other people so when you introduce yourself instead

of saying you are the principal of a girls high school you could say you foster girls growth into wise young women and how do we tell engaging

stories each story has a beginning a middle and an end all good stories start and end in the same way they usually begin with a time or place that

establish context in a business context the beginning should be short and pitchy the middle of the story should explain the struggle and build tension explain a

problem of your company and then you show how the lesson learned is what led you to your suggestions in the end you convey the point you're making there's

another book on this topic that i highly recommend for you to read it's called story worthy by matthew dicks i love that book i highly recommend how do we

organize content consider three aspects to structure your information the audience needs the key message that you want your audiences to hear your purpose

do you want to persuade them to take action or convey information always consider the audience needs so when you meet with your manager instead of saying i want to talk to you about

project x you could say since we have a staff meeting tomorrow i thought it would be helpful to you to give you an update on project x then start with the broadest possible assessment of the

situation so that your manager has context and knows how to hear your points the broad assessments could be regarding project x everything is on

track regarding project x we hit a snag regarding project x i've got good news and bad news this key message sets the tone for the meeting and gives the

audience control then it's time to convey your content there are two content formats the informative format and the persuasive format when you want

someone to know something follow the informative format in this message each box represents one slide of your presentation tell them what you are going to tell them in your context and

agenda slides tell them what you've got and go deeper into the topics and tell them what you've just told them in a summary slide when you want someone to

take action to do something follow the persuasive format mention very briefly what you want and then spend the majority of your talk telling your audience why they should want it people

don't really care what you want as much as they care about how what you want impacts them to figure out what is the internet for your audience think about

the universal motivators like time feelings and money the second section of the book talks about oral communication skills all speaking is public speaking we are

always talking to someone most people are okay speaking to one person at a time the secret is to apply the same techniques you are using speaking to one

person to situations in which you're talking to many people at once we all know it is important to look at your audience when you speak to a group you should not scan your audience and make

eye contact with as many people as possible instead look at one person at a time for a complete sentence this way you will relax since you only talk to

one person at a time also you will avoid distractions and build rapport with your audience in terms of body language you want people to focus on your content not be distracted because they're trying to

interpret your body language take a solid stance use open neutral body language maintain an open posture and use open hand gestures and facial

expressions communicating effectively isn't just about the way you send down information but also about the way you take in information listening well is hard work are you just waiting to talk

or are you listening to understand maintain eye contact and posture is equally important when receiving information as delivering information

most of us approach a conversation as if it's a competition i talk then i pause you jumping when you pause i jump back it's a fight for control which should always welcome other people to talk when

the other person is done talking we can say that's very interesting tell me more about that think about information like a pyramid at the top is the smallest amount of information of the content you

know that you know then it is you think you know you know you don't know the greatest information is things you don't even know you don't know when meeting with others assume that there is a lot

of stuff you didn't even know you didn't know the goal is to uncover the information you didn't even know you didn't know in order to get more information and be a good listener we

need to ask more open-ended questions for example instead of asking did you finish the memo ask where are you with the memo open-ended questions help you

probe not just for content but also the feeling behind the issues and helps you avoid making assumptions during a conversation you may want to confirm and clarify what you have just heard the

author calls it u statements there are three components an introductory phrase ray statement of the point of the other person made and a confirming question when we addressed an audience we often

use powerpoint presentations you need to create a constant connection between the audience the visuals and yourself the slides are not the presentation you are make sure to smile and look like you

want to be there if you have words on your slides read every word that is on the slide and add comments after you deliver the words on the slides reading every word that is on the slide

reinforces what audiences see and helps them process the content this is kind of surprising to me because i thought we're not supposed to read the slide the book did make a good point that this only

works when your slides are simple you should follow the 6x6 rule no more than 6 words per bullet no more than 6 bullet per slide to access information from the

slide apply the see it save it and say it method see it look at your slide in silence save it remember what is in the bullet point say it make eye contact

with one individual in the audience as you state the bullet point verbatim when you have graphs and charts on your slides if not delivered well they can overwhelm your audience tell audience

what they are looking at before sharing why they are looking at it with the following steps read the heading identify the types of graphs for example here is a byte chart showing our sales

performance compared to our goal for last year define the parameters and main points you can start with the vertical and then the horizontal with hand gestures you can say here we have the

sales performance and here we have the month of the year once you define the parameters highlight the key points for example you can say you'll notice in the third quarter last year we saw a

decrease in sales and then explain why you are showing the audience this information this is where you communicate key messages and draw conclusions the third section of the book talks

about written communication skills there are three steps that will allow you to write better first challenge every word you use and get rid of the clutter you

should eliminate zero words for example replace during the course of with just during cut wording expressions for example instead of using due to the fact

that just use because avoid confusing constructions and avoid mis-sentence parenthesis see these two examples the one without princesses is more clear to

me second make sure you're using the best words you can't convey your idea this means using strong verbs looking for words ending in shen

mint ants and in for example he made a statement is not as good as using he stated where stated is the key action of the sentence

look for the to be verb and similar weak verbs for example the process is flawed it doesn't meet our needs can be rewritten as the process fails to meet

our needs finally look at whether you have made clear who is accountable for the action in the sentence putting the actor up front in the sentence before the verb creates clear accountability

for the action and increases the likelihood you will use a stronger verb putting the actor after the verb creates what is called a passive voice as the name implies it is a passive less

assertive way of communication it is used to soften the tone i think most cases in general though it is better to use an active voice than a passive voice there are many formats for structuring a

document similar to what we have mentioned earlier the purpose of a document can also be persuading or informing the persuasive formatting states main message gives background

expands the message and provides a quick ending the informative format introduces subject and context states topics explains each topic summarizes topics

and then tells next steps beyond the structure of your document there are other elements that will make your document more reader friendly for example because your writing should be focusing less on yourself and more on

the other person there should be more use than eyes in your writing write short sentences you should aim for a maximum of 17 words per sentence

with regard to bullet points all the bullets should have the same structure i make this mistake of mixing up the structure of the bullets all the time as you can see in this example it can

get very confusing if you mix up the bullet structures also vary your sentence length to keep people engaged don't overwhelm the reader keep paragraphs to a quarter of the page at

most anything longer is visually intimidating an interesting document uses plenty of white spaces and occasionally headings and head subheadings that tell the reader where

to find certain information here are two examples of layout the one to the right looks a lot more interesting to me okay so far we have talked about tips for

creating good content tips for oral communication skills and written communication skills this book also talks about other types of interactions and leadership tips that

i'm not going to cover in this video overall i think this book is very informative and provides lots of useful tips the author was attorney and some of the communication tips written in this

book seems more applicable to lawyers sales and consulting types of work it might not be as relevant in the tech industry where communications are much more casual that's why i left some of

the tips out of this video if you're interested in learning more i recommend you to read this book the only thing i do not like that about this book is that it includes the sales pitch of the

author's company way too often and kind of diminishing the actual content of the book okay so that's it for this video i hope you find this video helpful thank you so much for watching and i'll see

you next time bye