Archive for December, 2003
…Argues Clive Thompson in this morning’s New York Times Magazine:
In August, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board at NASA released Volume 1 of its report on why the space shuttle crashed. As expected, the ship’s foam insulation was the main cause of the disaster. But the board also fingered another unusual culprit: PowerPoint, Microsoft’s well-known “slideware” program.
NASA, the board argued, had become too reliant on presenting complex information via PowerPoint, instead of by means of traditional ink-and-paper technical reports. When NASA engineers assessed possible wing damage during the mission, they presented the findings in a confusing PowerPoint slide — so crammed with nested bullet points and irregular short forms that it was nearly impossible to untangle. “It is easy to understand how a senior manager might read this PowerPoint slide and not realize that it addresses a life-threatening situation,” the board sternly noted.
PowerPoint is the world’s most popular tool for presenting information. There are 400 million copies in circulation, and almost no corporate decision takes place without it. But what if PowerPoint is actually making us stupider?
Read the rest of the article here (note that the NYT is a subscription site, but that the subscription is free).
Check out previous CommLog posts regarding internal communication and the Columbia investigation here.
MIT describes its OpenCourseWare site as “a free and open educational resource for faculty, students, and self-learners around the world.” We describe it as “the closest thing to a free MIT education.”
With a Master Course List of over 500 courses from five of MIT’s schools (including the Sloan School of Management), MIT’s OpenCourseWare provides a treasure trove of reading material. For communication professionals, we recommend the notes from two classes in particular:
15.279 Management Communication for Undergraduates
15.280 Communication for Managers
Two recent articles on email policies warrant a scan.
In the November issue of Darwin, Janet Evans recommends six questions organizations should ask to help ensure they have a comprehensive and viable email policy:
- What constitutes a fair workplace e-mail policy? Does it protect the employer and the employee?
- How do you define queasy qualifiers in your policy like “reasonable use”?
- What is your company’s policy on the transmittal of confidential or copyrighted material?
- How does your workplace control improper access to computers, such as mandated password changes on a regular basis?
- Is there a policy in place regarding improper access of company e-mail by system administrators; i.e., who watches the watchdogs?
- Do you have a mechanism in place to communicate about viruses and hoaxes?
She also points out, correctly, that snopes.com “is a great resource for gullible employees tempted to forward e-mails hoaxes such as computer virus warnings.”
Meanwhile, according to the BBC, “legal experts are warning companies to do more to stop pornographic spam reaching employees. Firms that do not take steps to stop sexually explicit spam could face lawsuits from employees suffering distress because of exposure to offensive images.”
As readership of CommLog grows, we wanted to draw your attention to the CommLog comments feature. For each CommLog post, readers may post comments, questions, or share in a discussion. To do so, simply click the “Comments” link at the bottom of each post (the number in parentheses indicates how many others have offered a comment on that topic). The form will ask for some basic information in addition to your comment—name, website, and email address—but does so only for the benefit of other readers (CRA captures none of this information).
The comments are a great way for you to ask us direct questions about theory or practice—our entire team reads CommLog daily, and will quickly respond to any question a reader my post. Comments are also an easy way for readers to extend their professional networks by sharing information with other professionals from the CRA family of clients and beyond. We hope you use and enjoy the feature, and if you have any questions, post a comment
As we’ve said before, leadership decisions intentionally or unintentionally send “louder” messages to an organization than any content conveyed through formal communications.
Enron whistleblower Sherron Watkins’ comments in a recent Fortune article illustrate this principle.
…How can top management send a message of integrity to employees? Watkins says executives have to ooze integrity through their actions. At some companies, she notes, bosses will fire employees the moment they are caught stealing even seemingly small items from the company. “The message these leaders send is that their values are number one, not the numbers—if you steal, even a small amount, you will be fired; if you make the numbers but don’t play by the rules, you will be dismissed.”
That message, she says, is the opposite of what she observed at her former employer. “Enron’s unspoken message was, ‘Make the numbers, make the numbers, make the numbers—if you steal, if you cheat, just don’t get caught. If you do, beg for a second chance, and you’ll get one.’ ”
It’s annual review time in many organizations and people are struggling with one of the most valuable forms of communication: feedback. People avoid feedback because they don’t like being criticized – plain and simple. But rather than waiting for the annual performance review to come along, effective leaders seek and provide feedback on a regular basis.
As more leaders learn to ask for feedback they improve their own performance and create a more candid environment. Read Fear of Feedback to learn more about addressing the challenges associated with feedback.
And here are some tips we offer clients to help make feedback part of their daily routine:
* Use an effective structure—One way to frame your feedback in a more neutral way is by telling people what you appreciate most, what you would like to see more of, and what you would like to see less of
* Be specific rather than general—Always use observable behaviors to illustrate your feedback and offer specific steps to change future behavior rather than focusing on the past
* Recognize the smallest changes—Get in the habit of recognizing small changes in people and congratulate them
A new RoperASW/Tandberg poll confirms the suspicions of business communicators everywhere: Most workers pay less-than-full attention during audio conferences.
The biggest distractions? For Brits it’s doodling, for Germans it’s web surfing, and for Americans it’s side conversations with colleagues.
What’s the solution? In our experience, several somewhat obvious but frequently overlooked suggestions work best. Specifically, conference calls are more likely to hold participants’ attention when they are short, the content is “chunked” and audience relevant, and the format is interactive, with plenty of time allocated to Q&A.
