Growing up I was fascinated with the amount of information on a baseball card. There was a great picture on one side, and I could "know" a lot about the player after just investing a few seconds reading.
Wouldn't it be great if everyone we met had a personal baseball card? We could keep it handy and whenever we were about attend a meeting with that person, we could give it a quick read. We would then know how to communicate with that individual and thus avoid months of trial and error mistakes.
I ran across this template in BusinessWeek a long time ago. I used it with a team the other day and it really worked.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/35010098/Blank-Working-With-Me
For example, one category is called "Communicating With Me." Everyone took a moment to fill this out and then we talked about it. We found that the members of the team only wanted emails on things that were quick, logical, and less then a half-page. Anything that was longer wasn't going to be read.
However, when it came to anything else, including anything that had an emotional element, they wanted a phone call. They felt this was the best way to connect, and understand the situation. This was surprising as the team was in sales and their time was limited.
Understanding how people think and want their information is key to communicating with them.
No comments:
Post a Comment