What voice do youcommunicate in?

By Al Diaz, MBA, PMP, CBAOctober 2013

Different Voices for different Stakeholders

• Decision Maker

• Executive

• Influencer

• Corporate Buyer

• Technologist

• Peers

• End User

• Sponsor

• Project Team

• Individual Contributor

• Project Team

• The Customer!

Let me share a little secret …

• Your key stakeholders, customers, boss

– They are never wrong…

• WHAT ! NEVER ?

• In their minds they are never wrong…its your job to set them straight when they are.

Communication

Styles

Clearly you don’t …

There is no way …

I can’t do that …

Unacceptable …

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

• I can see your point…on the other hand we might be able to

• I can see the benefits …the only question I have is…

• I can do that…all I need is

• Can we both agree on …

• YES!

Who is the most

important person we

communicate with?

No; its not your boss…

they just

write your review

• Its Your Customer;– Why? Because they are the company's best

consultant.

– Their feedback can hurt the bottom line or help it!

• So best we listen to them

– We want

• customers to collaborate with us

• to get as close as possible to the customer

• drive the customer experience from the front

– …don’t walk in with a blank sheet of paper!

What does the customer want…Make it easy

Be a good listener

Limit customer touches

Anticipate their needs

Take action

Be Available

Sit on the Cactus

Golden Rule

Say…Yes!

What voice do you

communicate in?

• I did not say he stole the money.

• I did not say he stole the money.

• I did not say he stole the money.

• I did not say he stole the money.

• I did not say he stole the money.

• I did not say he stole the money.

Communication is one business where you do not want to become Exclusive

Be Inclusive

Identifying whom to share

information with

Broaden the depth of your communication network

Share information as broadly and deeply as possible

When people don’t understand

they will not ask,

they don’t want to appear ___

The sender is responsible for making information clear and complete so that the receiver can

receive it correctly, and for confirming that it is properly understood.

SenderSender

Encode

Decode

Encode

Decode

Noise

Noise

MediumNoise

Noise

What voice do you

communicate in?

I didn’t receive it

so

I didn’t do it

WOW!

REALLY

The fact that you did not receive the

code

file

numbers

report

Does not get you off the hook

This behavior is called

Hanging it up

Like Hanging up your shirt or blouse after clubbing all night and

forgetting about it…

Its still dirty

Think like a CEO…

“The CEO is the link between the Organization and the Outside World” -Peter Drucker

Peter Drucker; invented the concept known as management by objectives (MBO)

process of participative goal setting and measurement back to the standard1954 Book The Practice of Management

What does a CEO do when they are not setting strategy?

They are communicating with their stakeholders

Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com, He changed the way people shop and read.

W. Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway,

brilliant value creator for almost 50 years.

Morris Chang, Taiwan Semiconductor, Built Taiwan's largest company, w/a market value of $88 billion.

Larry Fink, BlackRock, World's biggest money manager.

Carol Meyrowitz, TJX, (TJ Maxx) Number one in off-price retailing w/ $26BB in sales

Larry Page, Google, market value is up $100 billion on his watch.

Howard Schultz, Starbucks, Revolutionized what America means by coffee. Serving 70 MM customers a week at more than 18,000 stores in 62 countries.

Fred Smith, FEDX, He continues to innovate and $45 BB in sales

"Invention requires a long-term willingness to be misunderstood," says Jeff Bezos.

“Do something that you genuinely believe in, that you have conviction about, for a long period of time well-meaning

people may criticize your effort, and when you receive criticism … it pays to say…are they right?

And if they are you need to adapt what you're doing.

If they're not right, …then you need to have thelong term willingness to be misunderstood."

Source : http://www.businessinsider.com

Let’s Breakdown Jeff’s Statement

1. Do something that you genuinely believe in

2. Well-meaning people may criticize your effort

3. When you receive criticism … it pays to say…are they right?

4. If they are you need to adapt

5. They're not, …then you need to have the long term

willingness to be misunderstood.

Speaking in the voice of the customer or stakeholder is not

parroting back what they are saying

or telling them what they want to hear

To speak in the voice of the stakeholder is to

understand what is important to them, to have empathy for their

issues, and to speak to them in their terms.

Build Trust!

What are Four of the most powerful words you can use?

What do you think?

In the following slides

We look at your project

communication

This beautiful project you put together

Months of work and

dedication falling apart

WAIT

How did this happen?

It's not that you're not smart…your smart

It’s not that you didn’t work hard…you did

You've got a bazillion things on your mind, working feverishly while thinkingI don’t have time for these people that keep trying to take me away from my work...

If you don’t have time for your customers or stakeholders

Your project is coming down like a house of cards…

Hero’s

Are always waiting in the sidelines

To save your project

Take the credit

And make you look like a …

Project hero’s are effective because they sit and wait!

Vulturus : Latin for Highly Effective

Communication VultureReady to take all the credit!

Don’t be a Victim to

Project Hero’s

You only have yourself to blame

If you decide to let yourself be victimized

Communication Methods• Interactive Communication

– Most efficient way to ensure a common understanding– E.g. meetings, phone calls, Instant message, smart

watch, video conferencing• Push Communication

– No traceability of understanding– E.g. letters, email, press release, faxes, voice

mail, instagram, twitter, social media• Pull communication

– For large volumes of information and large audiences– E.g. SharePoint, drop box,

You cannot control all communications but should try to prevent

miscommunication, and unclear directions.

• Actively managing the expectation of stakeholders.

– Increase the likelihood of acceptance.

– Influencing their desire to achieve & maintain goals.

• Addressing concerns that have not become issues yet (anticipation).

• Clarifying and resolving issues that have been identified.

Managing Stakeholder Expectations

Be clear and concise …Don’t Assume anyone understands…

Brevity with Senior Staff

Managing Stakeholder Expectations

Unless Specifically Asked No Yes

Methodology X

History X

Approach X

Marketing X

Facts X

Qualification X

Yourself X

Building Personal Rapport X

C Suites are impress by the quality of the question

Challenge conventional thinking

Be Passionate about Curiosity

Communication

Starts with YOU

BUT I’M RIGHT

I’m standing on principal

I will not yield

Worked for Patrick Henry

Not for most people

Be flexible, willing to compromise,

be pragmatic

My Perception of the world is…

So this is the way; I expect things to happen

What voice do you communicate in?

Integrity

Mean what you say…life your values

Be Patience

Be positive to all around you

Speak well

Dispel Myths

Never Give UpBuilding a strong

Foundation - Education - Experience

Don’t just go through the motions

Have staying power!

And

Give Back

Communication Starts with Inner Dialog

YOU HAVE TOO

YOU SHOULD

JUST GET IT DONE

Dreadfully Done

Cultivating Curiosity

Helps us align the contradictions

Leads to meaningful work

Aligning the Contradiction Resolves

Self Sabotaging Behavior

Fear of Failure

Inner Doubts

Perfectionism

Nurtures Compassion

Why Settle

What do you think

about most?

Perfection is the Enemy

of

Good

So much of your success is dependent on you

Yes we’ve all heard it before

Its not what you know…It’s who you know

Right place…Right Time

Money or Luck

I am not here to tell you life is fair, it’s not

but it’s what you do…with what you got

don’t sit there and tell me you can’t

if you do… you won’t last

NOW…

GO OUT

AND SOLVE

REALLY HARD PROBLEMS

Books to Read…

• In Search of Excellence

– By Tom Peters

• The First 90 Days– By Michael D. Watkins

• The 5th Discipline

– By Peter Senge

• The Future of Management

– By Gary Hamel

• Influencer – The power to change anything

– By Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler

• The Why of Work – How great leaders build abundant organizations that win

– By David Ulrich, Wendy Ulrich, Marshall Goldsmith

Books to Read…

• The Tao of Psychology: Synchronicity and the Self:

- By Jean Shinoda ...

• Emotional Intelligence- By Daniel Goleman

• Authentic Happienss

- By Martin E. P. Seligman

• Original Blessing – By Mathew Fox

• A Gift of Positive Thinking– Gill Farrer-Hall