Do You Hate Work Email?

Imagine that you're away from your desk at work for a while. You come back and immediately refresh your email. And you watch message after message populate your screen. Suddenly your stress level goes up.

So what's the problem with email? Would we be better off without it? Perhaps but it is a valuable tool and it's not going away anytime soon. Fire is also a tool but you wouldn't give it to someone if they didn't understand how to use it. That's the problem with a lot of organizations: They assume that people know how to effectively communicate through email. With that in mind, here are some suggestions for improving your messages:

Don't Over Write: Have you ever found yourself having to read a message over and over? I'm guessing it's because it wasn't clear. Put anyone in front of a keyboard and a simple request can become paragraphs. If you have to use email, keep your message simple and to the point. Confusion doesn't help your business.

No Tone: In email, it's not easy to tell the tone of a message. Imagine if your boss wrote, "Get it done." Is that an demand, a joke, or something in between? You can't tell and again, you have to spend time trying to figure out the meaning. Some like to put important things in bold or italics, but again, you're relying on people to understand your intention.

People Feel They Have to Respond: Ever see a simple request from the boss go out to staff and ever staff member feels they need to reply. Those replies are sent to everyone so everyone has to stop what they're doing to read it. Do you want your team spending their valuable time doing this?

Was That Important? How many times do you have to repeat something that you emailed a few days ago? There's just something about seeing a message on a screen that makes it hard for people to remember. Plus we get so many emails nowadays that it's easy to lose one in your inbox or you forget to get back to it later.

Let Go of the Mouse: Use email only for general things that you want people to know about, as if it was. an electronic bulletin board. This could include an announcement of quarterly earnings, the score from last night's softball game, and employee promotions. For action items, like a new dress code, sales strategy, or news of a visit from the corporate office, resort to good old-fashioned person-to-person verbal communication. This can be done at a staff meeting or having the information communicated down by supervisors. If you must, then you can send out an email that outlines the action item. You may think this will take a lot of time but in the end you'll save time by eliminating misunderstandings.

Can Ten Be Better Than Five?

The Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences has announced that next year's Oscars will feature 10 nominated films for Best Picture. For more than 60 years, five movies have battled it out for the top honor. For more on the announcement, follow this link.

In some ways the move makes sense as it could give a foreign or animated film a chance to compete for the honor. In the past, many of those have been squeezed out of contention. The change also gives studios more films they can promote as being nominated for the top prize.

I think the downside could be how the extra nominees could affect the running time of the awards show. There are always complaints about the long show (no such thing as a fast musical number or tributes to the recently deceased) and every year it seems the Academy tries to do something new to shorten it. I can't imagine how introducing ten films could take less time than five. I'm sure the company that employees people to sit in the seats of those who are going to the bathroom are thrilled with the announcement.

Perhaps the challenge of a longer show could be solved by limiting Oscar winners to Twitter length acceptance speeches. Of course then the walk to the podium would likely be shorter than the actual speech!

The announcement may also fast track the production of my long discussed Mafia vs. Aliens motion picture.

Police Action

I recently had to have my fingerprints taken by law enforcement as part of a background check. I was told of several area police stations where I could have this done. I went to one that's close to where I live. It's in a small community.

When I arrived I was told that the department could normally take my prints but could not do it this week due to remodeling in the area where procedure happens. For a moment I was tempted to ask what would happen this week if a suspected criminal was brought in? I imagine he or she might receive some immediate service.

I was also tempted to enquire if there was some minor infraction I could commit so I could receive some red carpet treatment and have the prints taken right away. But since the purpose of the fingerprinting is to show that I don't have a criminal record, I decided it would be easier to go to another police department rather than start life of crime.

The situation got me to thinking about how often we give the best service to our worst customers. While they may not have broken any laws, it can be easy to spend the most time with the people who complain the most or the loudest. This should be a concern if it takes away from serving your good customers (or law abiding citizens). In the case of law enforcement, it's probably a good thing for them to be focused on, "the bad guys." But for your business that kind of service could be a crime against profitability.

Let's Talk About Public Speaking...

I'm often asked for tips about public speaking. Obviously it's always good to practice your speech as much as possible so you're really comfortable with your topic. But sometimes we become so focused on the material that we forget to address our mindset.

Think about it: Isn't it easier to do anything when you're feeling good and positive? And something you dread doing seems to last forever.

What I see happen is a well prepared person (in terms of material) has a really tough time presenting because he or she is in a very negative state of mind. Before long our flight or fight response goes off and we react to an audience the same way our ancestors would to a charging bear.

Fortunately, it's unlikely you'll ever give a speech to a room full of bears. But you may still have an intense physical and mental reaction to your presentation.

So why not create a pre-speaking routine that puts you in a good frame of mind. Actors do it, as do athletes. To give you some help with this process, I've created this short presentation:

(If you can't see the presentation, go to: http://bcn.brainshark.com/title.aspx?pid=505012062 )

Most of all a pre-speech routine can give you a sense of control over a potentially challenging situation.

Cronkite Visit Remembered

I've heard the reports of Walter Cronkite's fading health and that took me on a trip down memory lane. As a senior in college I had a chance to meet him, when he visited one of my broadcasting classes (note the groovy shirt I'm wearing in the photo). At Arizona State University, the Journalism School is named after Cronkite. Every year, he would make an annual visit to the school and interact with students.

The first thing I noticed was that he wasn't as tall as I imagined. I'd put him at about 5'9". It's funny how you tend to think that people who are on TV are taller than they are. He also had very rosy cheeks. Cronkite was a great storyteller and entertained us with lots of tales from his journalism career. I'm sure he had told these stories many times but the material seemed fresh, a skill I strive for as a professional speaker.

When asked about the state of journalism (in the early 1990s), he seemed very impressed by the technological advances that made it possible to have worldwide coverage. He didn't say anything negative about CBS News although years later he wrote how he was upset that he wasn't used more as a senior correspondent. But on that day, there was no bashing of CBS or the competition.

As a viewer, I have some memories of him anchoring the news, although I was pretty young. I can appreciate the contributions he made to our knowledge of our world at a time when information was much harder to come by. His was a comforting presence in a changing world.

This Food Stinks...

Do you find yourself doing the same things every day, even though you may be experiencing diminished returns? In this clip from my presentation, "Stop Crying In Your Cubicle," I talk about this common problem that many face at home and work. The clip is audio taken from the talk. The hand drawn animation slides are all my own (Pixar can sleep soundly at night).



(If you can't see the video, go to: http://tinyurl.com/ksktsd )

My title, "Stop Crying In Your Cubicle," comes from a recent survey that found that roughly 1 our of 4 workers are so stressed out at work, that they routinely cry on the job. There's a better way....

The Stuff We Like...

Advertisers know there are certain behaviors or beliefs that are universal. If you can tap into them, you can gain a customer's loyalty because you seem to be speaking directly to their needs. With that in mind, for fun, here are some universal truths that I've come up with:

People are much more likely to tell you that they're tired than well rested.

Everyone seems to want someone else's hair. We never seem to like our own.

After standing in a line, people feel the need to move away quickly.

Anyone who is paying with a check at a register, won't start to write it until the last possible moment.

If you're late, it's for a reason. If someone else is late, they're wasting your time.

Color plays a big role in a supermarket. Generally speaking, healthy products are green, pizza boxes are red, and potato chip bags are yellow. Would it feel weird to buy that stuff if the colors were switched?

I'm sure I've left out a bunch of other behaviors but my goal here is to get you to think about some of the norms you follow that are targeted by advertisers. Feel free to send me any other observations that come to mind.