Archive for December, 2003
Managing relationships — or investing in social capital — takes time and energy. In Conserving Social Capital, David Hornik looks at such social capital as a limited resource that can be “spent” (and thus used up):
The more I think about social networking products that are intended to expand and strengthen social connections in the name of business opportunity the more I think that they misunderstand the fundamental nature of social capital. Social capital is just that, ‘capital.’ If you aren’t careful you can spend it all up.
[…]
If you have a good conversation with a potentially helpful business contact at a conference, he will probably take your call or read your email the first time you reconnect with him. But that relationship is pretty fragile and if your initial post-conference contact with him isn’t at least mutually beneficial, that relationship will be spent before the second email. Even relatively strong relationships can be taxed if they are over-exercised.
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Word choices have consequences. Here are three sources that will help you choose wisely:
* In the current issue of Darwin, Crawford Kilian identifies several dozen terms that are commonly misused in business contexts and highlights the appropriate use of each.
* The Dilbert Mission Statement Generator is good for a laugh…but also serves a practical function by providing an impressive inventory of overused, incredulity-inducing adverbs, verbs, adjectives, and nouns.
* Last but not least, Deloitte continues to offer their free Bullfighter software. As we reported here last summer, Bullfighter is an impressive tool for eliminating “consultant-speak” from Word and PowerPoint documents.
It appears we have a new pattern here at CommLog: Jeff makes a substantive and meaty contribution about something interesting, (like he did here and here) after which I ride on his coattails with a short, pithy post that simply offers some additional links about the same topic (as I did here, and will do again in this post). (Attention CRA staff: No comments about how this pattern so accurately reflects life around the office).
As a follow-up to the “When PowerPoint Stops Making Sense” post, I offer this Wired article, Learning To Love PowerPoint, in which Byrne makes his case for the software (and posts some of the art he’s made with the tool). If you read it, you should also read Tufte’s response, PowerPoint Is Evil, which immediately followed Byrne’s article in the September, 2003 Wired. In it, he offers the graphic below, which reflects his sentiment.
My favorite line from the Tufte article:
The standard PowerPoint presentation elevates format over content, betraying an attitude of commercialism that turns everything into a sales pitch.
Take note: This is the first time we’ve seen fit to reference the terms “epistemology,” “Talking Heads,” and “surrogate decision-making process” in a single CommLog post…
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As is our tradition, with the holiday season we again offer our downloadable primer on leadership communication opportunities that come with the New Year … click here to view or download the document, and all the best to you and yours for 2004.
Think email policies and procedures are draconian? The following may change your mind…
Top Five E-Mail Blunders of 2003
# Failing to Keep Content Clean, Compliant, and Corporate: Enron Employees Learn a Hard Lesson About Keeping Personal and Business E-Mail Separate.
# Failing to Retain Business Record E-Mail: Investment Banker Frank Quattrone Discovers It’s Illegal to Destroy E-Mail Evidence.
# Failing to Educate Employees: Merrill Lynch Experiences the Sting of Negative E-Mail-Related Publicity.
# Failing to Monitor Employees’ E-mail Use: Big Brother Watches as American Family Insurance Employee Wilts.
# Failing to Recognize—and Manage—Instant Messaging as a High-Risk Business Tool: IM Is Used in 90% of Offices—Without Management’s Knowledge or Authorization.
Click here to read the full story behind each blunder.
Does giving employees a half-day off during the holiday season for shopping or other errands count as a convincing decision that communicates the organization’s values? Or, given recent layoffs, does it communicate a lack of attention to organizational priorities?
And what message does a higher-up reversing the decision send?
Explore the case of the DHR Employee Shopping Day here at the Decatur Daily News.
Online Recruitment posts this article citing research regarding executive communication skills. Key findings from the survey of 100 corporate communications professionals:
* Over 85% of respondents feel that communications skills across the executive team can be improved
* Over half of respondents, 54%, feel that their executives are not good communicators
* Only 10% of respondents believe that executives deliver corporate messages effectively
* 66% of respondents believe executives acknowledge communication with employees as a critical aspect of their jobs, but it is rarely a priority
Read the rest here.
In a follow-up to Jeff’s earlier post, here’s a link to Tufte’s website, where you may purchase The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint, and his classic, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information (which is required reading for all communication professionals).
While his essay is only available for purchase, you can read his analysis of a key Boeing slide here, which is a case study in its own right. Some other informative resources:
* Scott Steffens writes about Tufte’s essay here at his Contact Sheet weblog, and comments on Tufte’s and Jakob Nielsen’s contradictory advice on how to present information online.
* The New Yorker published an article by Ian Parker, titled Absolute PowerPoint, which is worth reading.
* Aaron Swartz posts a parody of Tufte’s essay … his argument presented as a PowerPoint outline … here (also on a weblog).
* We posted here the Gettysburg Address via PowerPoint.
* Last but not least, you may find our own guidance, CRA’s one-page Principles of PowerPoint, here.
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Charles Schwab co-CEO David Pottruck, interviewed in the current issue of Context Magazine, offers useful insights about internal communication.
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