Adapting Your Communication Style.
What’s in it for me?
The benefits of adapting how you communicate to others.
Did you know that people only remember about 20% of what you say?
Learning experts suggest people only remember 20% of what we say and 10% of what we write.
If it’s true that 80% of what we say and 90% of what we write doesn’t stick, the goal is to think about how we can help our messages land at work.
By personalising your message to the person you’re communicating with.
It’s useful to remember two principles of communicating:
The more specific information is to them, the more likely they'll pay attention.
The shorter a message, the more they’ll remember.
The result? More folks paying attention and listening to what you have to say.
The most romantic sentence in the world is…
What does this mean for me?
If you can answer that upfront, other people will pay more attention to you.
Examples:
If I do this compliance training, what will it mean for me?
If I listen to this training on delegation, what will it give me?
If I pay attention in the town hall, what will that allow me to do?
Remind us what we’ll get by paying attention. We’re not childish; we’re just really simple creatures who have exposure to more information than our brains can take in on any given day.
A quick exercise.
Before hitting ‘send’ on your next email, or opening a meeting saying you didn't have time to prepare, consider taking a moment to think about what message you need to convey.
What does it mean for them?
What do they need to do with your information?
Specifically: what do they get?
Is it clear to you? Is it clear to them?
If not, there’s a chance they could be zoning out.
When in doubt, relate it to something they already know about.
The fastest way to get anyone's attention is to link it to what they:
Already know a little bit about.
Are paid to care about.
Marketers talk about it like this; you get more attention from someone quickly when you join the conversation they’re already having in their heads.
The conversation we are all having, all the time is, what does this mean for me?
Not selfish: just filtering information when there’s too much information to process all at once (e.g. social media, emails, slack notifications, three speakers with different agendas in one meeting, open planned offices).
A few quick examples.
One shorthand is training your brain to think about ‘what’s their true job to do’?
The finance person probably isn’t trained to immediately look for the link between engagement to retention and reducing costs. It’s your job to make it explicit. Their job is to find money that goes in and money that goes out.
How about you’re chatting to someone in marketing. They're likely thinking of brands and consumer behaviour. In your connection, you might say less about the numbers and more about the impact to the brand.
Let’s say you’re giving someone feedback about a project and they’re in operations. They are deep in get stuff done mode. You might link your message to how it helps them get more done, in less time.
All of the above approaches are sincere.
And tailored. By doing so, you’re saving their brain a job of translating your message into their own world.
As a result, they have more energy to pay more attention to you.
The quick checklist for sharing any message.
People are more likely to remember your message if you:
Tell them how your message relates to them.
Relate your message to something they already know a bit about.
Use words and phrases they can instantly grasp.
Finding ways to relate your information to their personal experience, outlining what’s in it for them, and using words from their world, all improve the likelihood they recall your message.
Remember, if you can communicate how it relates to them, they’re 90% more likely to remember.
Do your employees need to adapt their communication?
We run a fun and engaging, 90 minute workshop at workplaces, on how to adapt your communication to your most important stakeholder.
Download more info on this engaging workshop.