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How To Speak “Management”

For most people, picking up a new language is a challenging task, no matter how smart they are.  Gaining proper eloquence, learning the nuances – it can take years of practice.

However, there is one language you can pick up in a matter of hours, and while it may be most relevant for only a select number of people, it may have more to do with your professional development (and possible promotion) than any other language you could acquire.  What language is this? “Management.”

    Yeah, those people   
    “up there” have their
    own language… 

 

This article will attempt to offer an introduction to the language called “management,” by presenting some of the key words in this language’s vocabulary. Remember, language is more than just a means of communication; it’s also represents mindset, and effective management is all about being in the right mindset.

This language can be picked up in a matter of hours and used fluently in a matter of weeks. Why? Because it doesn’t have tens of thousands of words, like regular language do, and there are only a few single grammatical rules. There is only a short list of key words you need to learn and fully internalize in order to gain ownership of this language.

Your new vocabulary list:

  • Asset
  • Burden
  • Objective
  • Milestone
  • Bottleneck
  • Force Amplifier
  • Early Indicator
  • Assumption
  • Problem Oriented
  • Solution Oriented
  • Reactive
  • Proactive
  • Descriptive
  • Analytical
  • Recommendation
  • Alternatives

Let’s get started with the most important words on this list:  Asset.

The standard definitions of the word ‘Asset’ are:
–noun

  1. A useful and desirable thing or quality: Organizational ability is an asset.
  2. A single item of ownership having exchange value.
  3. Assets,
    • Items of ownership convertible into cash; total resources of a person or business, as cash, notes and accounts receivable, securities, inventories, goodwill, fixtures, machinery or real estate (opposed to liabilities).
    • Accounting. The items detailed on a balance sheet, esp. in relation to liabilities and capital.
    • All property available for the payment of debts, esp. of a bankrupt or insolvent firm or person.
    • Law. Property in the hands of an heir, executor, or administrator, that is sufficient to pay the debts or legacies of a deceased person.

In Management, the definitions of the word “Asset” are slightly different: 

–Value

  1. The degree of your contribution to your manager’s ability to make better decisions.
  2. The enhancement you bring to the overall resources your managers have available.

Management is about a whole list of challenges that relate to vision building, resource allocation, team building, and more.  But at the heart of all of these challenges, there’s one fundamental core-challenge: decision-making. 

If you want to speak fluent management , you need to understand that your message has to be directly related to the most pressing decisions that decision-makers are facing at that time, in context of the Objectives “they” are trying to achieve.

When your message does not relate to these pressing decisions, you will quickly be tagged as a Burden, a vocabulary word you want to avoid. However, if you consistently ensure that your message is directly related to the pressing decisions they are facing, and if you construct your message in a way that helps them make better decisions, you will quickly be tagged as an Asset.

Remember, being an Asset is about enhancing other people’s ability to make better decisions.

The first thing about being an Asset, has to do with your own orientation.  Which has more of your attention: the problem at hand, or the possible solutions to that problem?

When you are Problem-Oriented, the nature of your message is likely to be Descriptive – offering endless details and facts about the current situation as well as the path that led up to this current situation, without any suggested solutions.  Problem orientation is about looking back, searching for excuses (and in many cases, people to blame).  Being Problem-Oriented is the fastest way to become a Burden.  Until humanity finds a way to travel back in time, the past cannot be altered, making this mindset a total waste of your manager’s time (and your time, too).

Effective managers care more about the future than the past.  When they do look into the past, it’s only in order to better shape the future. 

To ensure that you are perceived as (and are in fact) an Asset, you need to discard the Descriptive approach, and adapt a Solution-Oriented mindset, usually indicated by Analytical messages that focus on possible solutions to the current problems in a way that is based on clearly defined Assumptions, Alternatives, and Early Indicators.

Forward Framing
The fastest way to becoming Solution-Oriented and adopting an Analytical approach when speaking Management, is to always begin your message with a reference to the future, specifically relating to Objectives you know the person with whom you are communicating needs to achieve.

This is called Forward Framing – when your entire message is framed in context of the future (rather than the past).

For instance, when questioned by their managers as to why they need the extra resources they’ve recently requested (bigger budget, additional personal, etc.), most people offer Descriptive answers that relate to their current workload, and the list of problems they have due to lack of resources.  From their perspective, these problems are what they face on a daily level, so it’s understandable that they are preoccupied with them.  Their managers, however, need to keep their eyes on the bigger picture, understanding exactly how certain extra resources they approve will help meet the overall objectives they are committed to. Therefore, when you speak Management, you need to always use Forward Framing, ensuring that you always incorporate into your message an answer to the question: “why?”  Why should you be given extra resources?  Why should your recommendations be approved?

Example:

  • Question: “WHY do you need extra personnel?”
  • Problem-Oriented: “We are extremely understaffed and we’re already running behind schedule.  We can’t handle the current work load without extra personnel.”
  • Solution-Oriented: “With the extra personnel, we should be able to guarantee meeting the deadline without falling behind on the rest of our workload.”
  • Fluent Management: “If we want to secure future contracts with this client, it’s imperative that we meet the current deadline.  We can either delay some of the other projects we are currently working on – in which case, I would like to discuss prioritization with you when you have a chance – or we need to extra personnel to stay on schedule with all the current projects.”

The ability to speak Management is an extremely important tool to have in your arsenal. These few simple tricks can help you to close a big deal with a client, help decision-makers come up with the best possible solution, and maybe get you a promotion. Take a few days to learn this language; it’ll be worth it.

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Strategic Communication: Becoming an Asset in the Workplace

One of the most common New Year’s resolutions is to be better at your job.  While it’s super general, most don’t really know how to accomplish this goal.  What it really comes down to is your unique value to others and how you can become an asset.

The most important value of Strategic Communication is its ability to support and assist other people’s decision-making processes.

The greatest difficulty facing decision makers is the lack of resources available to support their decision-making process:  Information, Time to analyze that information, and Analytical Ability (see below: “The Decision Maker’s Dilemma”– the source of these challenges).

The Decision Maker’s Dilemma: 4 key steps to effective decision making):

  1. Define objective(s) in a tangible and objectively measurable way.
  2. Identify and generate as many different alternative paths that lead to the defined objective(s).
  3. Select preferred paths.
  4. Execute!

Strategic Communication is about you becoming a valuable resource for your environment in dealing with this process.

If you become a resource, supporting the decision makers with these challenges, you are likely to turn (in their eyes) from a mere Service Provider to a Consultant or even a Business Partner.

  • As a provider, you are perceived as a drain on your client’s resources, making you an inherently unwelcome agent.
  • As a business partner/consultant, you are perceived as an addition to your client’s resources.  You are a resource, making you a welcome agent!

Basic Principles of Strategic Communication:
Manage Expectations – Understand the objectives (beyond your own).  See and relate to the bigger picture.
Be Solution-Oriented (not problem-oriented!) – Understand, relate to, and generate additional possible courses of action.  Avoid focusing on the past or spending too much time describing the present.  Do so by:

  • Addressing the future
  • Being positive and proactive – even when you have questions, come prepared with possible answers or with your own recommendations on how to best go about finding the answers to these questions.
  • Be analytical not descriptive – present your analysis, or the simple context of the data you want to present BEFORE you present the data itself.

Remove Barriers and Bottlenecks – Simplify the ability to receive and internalize your message by:

  • Prioritizing what you have to say – every word you speak is a resource your listener is allocating to you.  Make sure your message generates a value greater than the value of the resource spent listening to you.
  • Pay attention to Logical Sequence – make sure the inner structure of your message make sense.  Make sure each part of your message builds on the previous parts.  Try to make the order of your message be in sync with the questions occupying your listener as they come up in his/her mind as they listen to you.
  • Distinguish between WORK (=process/”how”) and PRODUCT (=desired outcome/”what”) – this is an extension of the previous point:  present your conclusions and/or recommendations before you present your evidence.

Now go ahead and actually keep your resolution this year. Strive to become an asset and a big influencer at your job!

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Dare You To Move: Appearance and Movement in Body Language

In this last chapter on body language, we’ll talk about the body itself. This topic is divided into two parts:

  1. Outward appearance and presentation
  2. Movement in an open space – posture, sitting position, stability, and hands.

It is important to understand each of these things individually in depth. But the last analysis, the final result, and the way our message is transmitted, depends on the integration of both of these elements.

Outward Appearance
A cell phone company did a research project in which they asked their sales and service representatives to come to work for one month dressed in tailored clothing, but to continue to give exactly the same service as before. They didn’t learn any new service techniques and no new “sale” projects were approved. The only thing that changed was the way the representatives were dressed. When the month was over, the research showed two main findings:

  1. Customers reported that the service was more courteous and pleasant.
  2. The representatives themselves felt that the customers respected them and the work they did a lot more.

In conclusion, all the communications and proceedings between the service people and the customers were more pleasant for both sides.

It takes people just three seconds to form a first impression of the person facing them and file them into a certain category before they even open their mouths or shake hands. The way we dress, our appearance, and our presentation are cardinal elements in the way we are seen and others’ first impression of us. Appearance doesn’t only relate to the way we dress, though. It also includes complementary elements that create a particular image.

A common question is: how should you dress if you don’t know the dress code?

The best recommendation is to dress one level above what you think the dress code will be. It’s preferable to dress up than to dress down.

In the movie “Legally Blonde,” the character Elle (played by Reese Witherspoon) accidentally shows up at a fancy party dressed in a bunny costume (image shown above)! In some cases, it is just better to ask the dress code, rather than do some guesswork.

Movement In An Open Space

Posture when facing an audience – When we stand facing an audience, our instinct is to stand in one place. And if we have a podium, we almost always choose to stand behind it. We at VAYOMAR conducted an experiment in which we placed a chair or table in the center of the stage and asked our workshop participants to present. Over 90% of those tested chose to stand behind the chair/table and even to lean on the chair back or on the edge the table. The leaning expressed more than just a physical leaning, but also a mental one. The chair and the table acted as ”security blankets,” a kind of divider between the presenters and the audience.

The more we use the space that we have before our audience, the better we will succeed in transmitting our message. The message is that “we are in control of the stage,” and the audience’s first impression is that we are also in control of the message itself. A nonchalant and dynamic use of the open space before our audience gives the message of our control of the content, as well as our expertise.

If we are showing a presentation, it is obvious that we won’t stand and block it in a way that would have a camera on our body and would make us look ridiculous. We can stop the presentation occasionally, while continuing to speak. Use of the open space in this way keeps the audience’s attention and gives them the feeling that we control the content of our talk at a very high level.

Stability – The way in which we sit or stand (depending, of course, on the situation) greatly influences how we are perceived. There is a correlation between how we hold our shoulders and if we are perceived as people with high or low self-esteem. It is very important, when sitting, to sit straight – the message you transmit is that of a person with confidence in himself and in his messages.

Hands – Of all the non-verbal elements of body language, the use of hand movement is the most dependent on cultural background. There are cultures that make great use of hand movements; however, there are Far-Eastern cultures where hand movements are considered blunt and disrespectful.

On the other hand, in Western cultures, hand movements are very acceptable and are often very natural. They can help us realize the message we want to transmit. For example, if we want to actualize direction or size, it is natural to use our hands to demonstrate this. However, there are also well known errors using hand movements; for instance, standing with our hands in our pockets or behind the back. But one of the most frequent hand movements, to which we pay little attention, is touching the face or hair. Studies have shown that a person touches his face and/or hair about seven times a minute.

When we stand before an audience the area around the face must be clear so that it will be easier to understand what we are saying and our movements can be mimicked. The face should be hidden as little as possible. Touching the hair broadcasts a lack of confidence and touching the throat broadcasts hurt. But at the same time, a hand touching the heart shows that we are speaking honestly and from the heart.

Reflecting – A situations that happens very naturally is how we appear and reflect those around us.

We have a tendency to imitate the body language of the person opposite us. This is a natural situation that happens without our noticing it. For example, if someone opposite us is sitting with their legs crossed, it’s generally only a matter of minutes before someone else crosses their legs. If there’s a rhythm to someone’s speech, or a staccato way of speaking during a discussion, or even hand movements that characterize the person opposite us, in a very short time, the person opposite us will adopt some of these nuances and will communicate in the same way. People who are generally more communicative will reveal the gestures of the person opposite them easily and quickly. The techniques of reflection exist unconsciously in all of us.

Reflection permits approach. As soon as we behave in a way similar to the person opposite us, we automatically feel closer to each other and feel that we’re speaking the same language, thus making our basis of communication more effective.

I am like you.

I like you.

Like = “similar to” as well as “fond of.“ It’s not by chance that these are the meanings of this word and this is a good example of the reflecting effect. We won’t always know how to explain the reason for a better feeling, but we will know that there was good chemistry. As soon as we become more aware of this, we try to be more proactive with this chemistry. The chances are better that we’ll intensify communication and cooperation with the person opposite us.

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Starting on the Right Foot

There is an old tradition that says you should always enter your house with your right foot first. That first step, where things are fresh and undetermined, makes all the difference.

Much like that old saying, conveying a message has a lot to do with the beginning; you need to figure out how to open on the right foot in front of your audience in order to set the tone for the entire session. The beginning, in this case, is the first 30 seconds to 4 minutes on average, depending on the length of your session. This is your window of opportunity to create a powerful first impression on a new or even a familiar audience.

So how do you start off on the right foot and experience “good luck” (at least for the duration of the session)? Start with anything that’s interesting and memorable, relevant (related to the topic and your agenda), and fits the time frame. It could range from a personal story, joke, historical anecdote to a piece of data, a quote or a visual aid, like a video or a picture.

In order to make your opening—or “grace period,” as we call it at VAYOMAR—effective make sure you match it to your audience, your comfort zone, and personal style and the kind of image you wish to portray.  For instance, an unconventional joke might not be the wisest choice in front of a conservative audience. If you can, find out who your audience is ahead of time and adjust accordingly.

Next time you begin your presentation, speech, or other form of message, make sure you start on the right foot and choose a strong opening. It could make all the difference.

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It's All About Your Face

Rarely do we think about the impact facial expressions have when giving a presentation. However, as they are a big aspect of our body language, the faces we make can influence others to think and feel certain ways, merely depending on which muscles we choose to move.

The video below shows sets of identical twins sitting side by side. Their only difference? One is chewing gum. Particpants were asked a series of questions based on which twin they thought fit certain criteria. Watch to see how the experiment unfolds.

http://youtu.be/Ueg33qiCq9Q

While this was interesting to watch, chewing gum is not the best way to show movements in your face.

Our suggestion is that you don’t chew gum when you go on stage or go to a job interview or to a business meeting. What you should do instead is take advantage of facial expressions.

Facial expressions are one of the major tools in the body language game. We express the entire spectrum of feeling, whether consciously or subconsciously, through our facial expressions.

Below are a few central aspects through which you can increase your use of facial expressions and your ability to identify the facial expressions of other people. In 2014, the University of Ohio found that there are 21 facial expressions that we, universally, use in our daily lives. Next to the six dominant facial expressions—which demonstrate feelings of anger, fear, disgust, enjoyment, sadness and surprise—another 15 expressions were found that were integrated into the first six, such as: surprise in anger, disgust in fear, etc.

When you stand before an audience and want to transmit a message in the most attractive way, you need to try to integrate as many facial expressions as possible. Your facial muscles should be moving as much as possible. This might be very difficult to do, as every person has 43 muscles in their faces and only uses two to four of them. The more aware you are of the impact of facial expressions, keeping this in your subconscious, the more you will use when you stand and speak before an audience.

The most important and the most discussed expression is, of course, the smile. We all know the old cliché that a smile is the only crooked line that can straighten out anything. Clichés are clichés because they are true. A smile can really break the ice, melt and soften opposition, and strengthen our position as speakers who are pleasant to listen to and to work with. An experiment was done with patients suffering from clinical depression. Half of them requested anti-depressants and half requested placebos for a period of one month. The placebo group was asked to stand before a mirror for seven minutes and to smile. The group asked to smile showed more improvement compared with those using genuine medications.

A smile, in particular, and general facial expressions not only show other people how we feel; they also influence the way we express our feelings, the way we experience our reality. There’s a difference between a courteous or artificial smile and a smile that shows real joy. The difference can be seen in the creases around the eyes. A real smile will include creases at the corners of the eyes, an artificial smile won’t. However, an artificial smile will actually stir the blood in the area of the brain responsible for enjoyment, and will improve your mood. While it’s true that a smile isn’t always suitable at every lecture or for every audience, if used in a moderate way, a smile can always be a bridge, knocking down walls, and creating effective communication between your listeners and you.

Dr. Paul Ekman (whom the show “Lie to Me” is based on), specialist at reading faces and facial expressions, developed the micro-movements that can identify, to the millimeter, the meaning of a movement of an eyebrow (helping police investigators to identify and analyze lies), and coined the term “facial slips,” which are much like slips of the tongue. Even when you try really hard not to show your facial expressions and to keep a poker face, these facial slips just happen. It’s difficult to control them. Only 1% of the population is clever enough to decipher the micro-movements of the face; they are also the ones who can control their facial movements.

Most are not among the people who are talented enough to control facial movements. But you can succeed in seeing someone in the audience who wants to ask a question or someone who doesn’t agree with you and you will certainly see those who do agree with you. These things happen naturally and you need to increase these talents. Someone in the audience who wants to ask a question will transmit his wish through eye contact.

When you stand in front of an audience, you need to take as much advantage as possible of a wide range of facial expressions – because our message must awaken a certain emotion, a certain desire. And in order to succeed and to touch this emotion, you must personally feel the emotions on your body and radiate them outward, calling your audience to feel what you are feeling.

Even blind infants have the same facial expressions as other infants do. Thus,, we understand that facial expressions aren’t an acquired trait, but an inherent one. When we are children we use a lot more facial expressions than we do when we’re adults. That’s because when we’re children, we have less inhibitions. We must learn to go back to this period of lack of inhibitions, so that we can properly use our facial expressions to convey our messages.

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All About Body Language

Studies have found that only 7% of the messages we send are verbal – the other 93% are sent in some non-verbal way. This percentage probably shocks you. The bottom line is this: people first pay attention to your body language, and only afterwards do they hear what we’re saying.

Much has already been said about the importance of body language in sending messages and its basis on our status as speakers. But the question that frequently arises is: what can we do to change this? How much of our body language is innate and how much of it can we acquire?

Every individual has his/her own starting point, some finding body language more natural while others struggle. The key is to become aware of the strengths and weaknesses of our body language. Through this, we can learn to elevate our strengths and improve upon our weaknesses. This awareness will help us succeed in dramatically increasing the quantity of the messages we send, as well as the understanding of those messages.

Up until now, studies have mainly dealt with just one of the three aspects of body language.

1. How We’re Perceived – This relates to the audience, and how we succeed in transmitting our message. It applies to how we can improve our status before an audience and transmit our message, as well as using techniques like voice, eye contact, movement, etc.

Today more and more studies are dealing with the two additional aspects of body language, and if we relate to them, we can significantly improve the transmission of our messages.

2. Reading the Audience – Body language can help us to read the audience, to understand and to identify the small nuances that will help us make the right connection (an audience can be anything from one person to an entire stadium). For example, if someone in the audience slightly raises or lowers an eyebrow, we can assume that he/she has a question to ask or that he/she doesn’t completely agree with what we said. Before they are able to interject their question or opinion, try to ask that person, “Did you want to add something? Do you have a question?” The immediate message will be “they understand me, the speaker is reading me before I even said a word.”

The more we are aware of the small nuances in the audience’s body language, body movement, facial expressions, and eye contact, the more we will succeed in creating a better connection, and our message will be transmitted in a much better way.

3. Effect on Ourselves – This is the most innovative aspect: body language not only influences how we are seen by the audience; it also affects how we perceive ourselves. It can succeed in influencing us and how we succeed.

Amy Cuddy, one of the leading researchers in the field of body language, performed many experiments and found that if, just before a job interview, we take two minutes to ourselves in the bathroom or in the car and we stand in a “super power position,” we will walk into the job interview with more self confidence, and our chances of receiving a position reply are that much greater.

Cuddy claims that this isn’t a “fake it ‘till you make it” situation, but rather “fake it ‘till you become it.”

This principle answers the question concerning innate body language as compared to acquired body language. At the beginning, it may seem a little false or forced, but later on it becomes part of our DNA. It will influence not only how we are perceived by others, but also on how we perceive ourselves, and it will help us succeed in business, in our personal lives, and beyond.

In the next few weeks, we will carefully examine each of these three aspects of body language more carefully, so that the next time you present in front of a crowd, your body language will help to captivate your audience and let them connect with you easily!

To hear all of Amy Cuddy’s TED talk on body language, CLICK HERE.

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Charisma: How to Match Your Verbal and Non-Verbal Messages

If you look up “charisma” in the dictionary, the definition will say something along the lines of: “a person with personal charm, persuasive and possessing high interpersonal skills.”  Clearly, charisma is a quality that one should want to possess, particularly in the communications field.

But how can we truly become more charismatic?

There are many qualities that can make a person charismatic. On a practical level, however, a person is thought to be charismatic when his verbal messages and his non-verbal messages are consistent.  This means that your words and your body language have to correspond with one another, and have to work together to create a stronger impact.  It may seem simple, but how exactly do you effectively do this?

5 tips for achieving correspondence between verbal and non-verbal messages:

  • Voice and tone – 38% of our first impressions are based on our ability to use our voice correctly.  What is considered the “proper” use of your voice?  Simply put, you should use a moderate and changeable variation of: volume (high/low), pace (quick/slow) and style (decisive/authoritative/soft/containing).
  • Facial expressions – it’s very difficult to listen with interest and gain a connection with someone who has an expressionless face.  We must ensure that we use varied facial gestures according to message we’re trying to convey and of course, we can’t forget to smile.  As a rule, people have an easier time connecting to and having a positive perception of people who smile at them.
  • Eye contact – in order to radiate credibility, honesty and intimacy with the person standing before us, we must ensure to make eye contact with all the people in the audience.  Don’t stay fixated on one person for too long though; make sure you are making eye contact with the entire audience.  Additionally, try not to look at your notes or presentation too much.  Keep engaging the audience to make sure not to lose them.
  • Shoulders – studies have shown that something that radiates high self-esteem is the shoulders.  That is, erect and straight shoulders send a message that a person can be counted on; strong shoulders give the impression that a person believes in himself. This, in turn, makes it easier to believe in this person and in his message.
  • Use of attention grabbers – in order for our message to be memorable and to create an experience as a derivative of the interaction with us, we must spice up our content with concrete examples, personal experiences, anecdotes, surprising data from recent studies, videos etc. As much as we might want our presentation to stand on its own, using extras can really help our message stick with the audience.

Charisma can be something that comes naturally to people, but it can also be taught and learned very easily through these simple steps. If you want others to be excited about what you’re saying, you need to be excited while saying it. By being passionate and energetic, your message will grab hold of an audience and make them feel the same way you do.

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Enhancing Your Influence

Every person is looking for a way to maximize his input, whether it’s in a big or small way.

One of these ways is becoming an asset to the big decision-makers at a company.

How can you be sure that your suggestions are helpful and not hindering? CLICK HERE to take a look at our infographic on Enhancing Your Influence and learn more!

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Conscripting Innovation

By, Gur Braslavi and Stephen Fox

We often associate great intellectual breakthroughs with a single eureka moment of a single inventor, such as Newton’s apple. The reality, though, is that innovation is the moment when many smaller ideas are pulled together to deliver a unified solution to a specific problem. Those who are skilled enough to accomplish this alone come around once in a lifetime. What about the manager who needs to innovate within his own company? There must be a better solution than waiting to hire the next Albert Einstein to the R&D department. Rather, managers must learn to harness the existing powers of their organizations in order to find solutions faster and more reliably. The answer is conscripting innovation.

What exactly does it mean to conscript innovation? The word “conscript” is typically a military term, meaning to be drafted or compelled into service. So to conscript innovation means to be drawn to be innovative, drafted into being creative.

The challenge is not for us to provide the solutions to our own problems, but rather to conscript a wide spectrum of talents together in order to innovate. Introducing new lines of thought and skills into the solution process allows us to break free from the internalized boundaries we have set for ourselves and find solutions that may otherwise have been overlooked. The problem is how to entice others to join you on your quest for the next great idea that will change your business, or maybe even your entire industry.

Conscripting innovation is a three-part process that will allow you to create an ideal environment to accomplish your goals, including focusing on a specific problem, fostering an environment for success, and making a problem fun to work on.

Part 1: The first step towards conscripting innovation requires managers to have their employees focus on a single objective and direct certain people to solve a single problem. Managers must take complicated ideas and strip them down into a simpler goal that others will be easily understood. With new perspective come new solutions. Take a look at the aircraft company, Boeing, during the early 1990s; individual departments within the company lacked coordination with each other, which lead to a lot of wasted time, resources, and money. Rather than implement changes from the top down, management decided to tackle this problem by opening the lines of communication between the departments and developing “accelerated improvement retreats” for the top employees in each group. When working together, they found that many of their processes overlapped, allowing the company to cut down significantly on the overall manufacturing costs.[1] The solutions did not come from around the boardroom table, but rather used the perspective of engineers, assembly workers, warehouse managers and pilots to find innovative solutions to the company’s process of manufacturing planes.

Part 2: The second step in conscripting innovation is to foster a creative, yet productive work environment. In general, this must be done through a long process of creating a supportive company culture. While creating “thinking spaces” with bean bag chairs and foosball tables can help, the way innovative ideas are treated by upper level management is what will decide whether or not employees are willing to put their necks out on the line. The way to achieve it is to develop a culture of innovation that does not punish employees for taking calculated risks, even if they fail. HP Software has implemented an impressive program called the “innovation stream” in order to overcome this problem. The stream flows throughout the organization, asking for input from all departments and levels, similar to the way Boeing had done; however, the difference is in the encouragement that HP gives their employees. They can receive points for submitting ideas, critiquing the ideas of others, and lending their expertise to design teams for the best ideas. These points can be used to purchase days off and other benefits. More importantly though, employees who are serious about working on their innovations are given time each week to work in development teams. HP has found that when employees are allowed to take the lead on their own ideas, it allows the large company to develop the entrepreneurial spirit that used to be reserved for smaller, start-up companies. This culture of innovation gives employees the courage to put forth their ideas and the support to turn them into products that will help HP continue to grow.[2]

Part 3: The third step of conscripting innovation says that the assignments employees are working on must be fun and enjoyable. Studies have found that people are far more willing to expend their time, energy and resources on tasks that they enjoy. An example of this can be seen in the discovery of supernova, where each year more professional and amateur astronomers search larger portions of the sky for these rare phenomena. The result has been an exponential increase in the discovery rate of supernova and many more associated breakthroughs in the astronomy community.[3]

In finding an innovative solution to your own problem, the dilemma becomes how to conscript others to work together. This requires focus on the question at hand, a culture that promotes innovation, and most of all, a fun and enticing process that attracts others to actually want to invest their time. You are not trying to bring the solution to others, nor are you assuming to know what the solution may be, nor are you saying there is even a viable solution. What you can do is bring together the collective knowledge necessary to find an innovative solution. So what is the focus of your company: on finding the solution to your problems or learning how to conscript others to innovate with you?

[1] “Can Boeing Fly High Again?” Http://www.maths.tcd.ie/~nora/FT351-3/CS.pdf. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2012.
[2] Gvirtsman, Ahi. “HP Innovation Stream.” Tel Aviv, Israel. 13 Nov. 2012. Lecture.
[3] http://www.universetoday.com/26495/a-supernova-story/

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Make Your Email Stand Out

It’s hard to imagine what our lives would be like without Ray Tomlinson.

While this name may not ring any bells, we can assure you that you are very familiar with Ray Tomlinson’s work. Ray Tomlinson is the programmer who invented electronic mail, more commonly known today as email.

Email is one of the most, if not the most, used tools today. We send and receive dozens of emails every day. It has transformed into our main means of communication, through which we are able to transmit our messages within our entire workforce.

It’s clear that email has a huge influence in our daily lives, but not everyone knows the proper rules for sending a good email. With our help, your mail won’t be lost in your addressee’s inbox. Instead, it will attract his attention so that he will read it and respond to it. In addition, these rules will help you transmit your message in a much more effective way and will help you avoid commonly made mistakes.

1. Subject line – If we want our email to take precedence over all other mail received, the subject line must attract the addressee. That is, the content must be useful or beneficial to the addressee– why is it worth his while? For example, if you send your boss a weekly report, instead of just writing “Weekly Report” in the subject line, try to give it a more interesting and captivating title. Just adding a few words regarding subjects that are important to your boss could do the trick. It could be” “Weekly Report – Changes in Income in the Asian Sector.” Note that you are giving the report a new title that will work well for chain messages. And take note of the most important rule: email should never be sent without a subject line.

2. Short and to the point – In order to make the content of your mail easy for the addressee to understand, the main subjects should be divided into individual points. Key words in each sentence should be emphasized. When the addressee scans the mail, he should be able to quickly understand its subject and the important points you are trying to get across.

3. Personal touch – It is very important to give your mail a personal touch (within reason, of course). Always open your letter with the addressee’s name, some greeting or words of interest in his welfare, and a closing note with a signature (in addition to your permanent business signature). The more generic your mail, the less significance it has. The content of the mail will affect not only the message, but also the writer. If you write, “Forward the results” instead of “I would appreciate receiving the results,” the addressee’s perception of you is different. You should still keep in mind your existing relationship and situation with the addressee. The question now arises of what to do when you are sending this mail to more than one person. How do you still keep the letter personal? There are two possibilities:

  1. Address everyone at the beginning of the letter: “Dear Noa, Dani, Ron, and Shira.” When a person sees himself addressed directly at the beginning of the email, he will automatically give the letter his attention.
  2. Individually send an email to each of the addressees. Even though this will take more time, the possibilities of receiving a response are higher. When there are a large number of addressees, the tendency is not to reply, because each person is sure that the others will reply or they prefer to know what others will say before they give their opinions. It’s always a good idea invest a little more time and send personal mail to each of the addressees.

4. Punctuation – There are an unlimited number of transactions that are worth millions of dollars, but have failed simply because the email was not correctly understood. Make sure to always use correct punctuation marks and to use them in the right places. In addition, try not to over-punctuate as well, such as exaggerated use of exclamation points or ellipses (dot-dot-dot). People who punctuate properly come across as more intelligent.

Let’s eat grandpa.

vs.

Let’s eat, grandpa.

Correct punctuation can save a person’s life.

5. Moving forward – What does the addressee have to do after reading the mail? Why did he receive it? Was it purely an informational email, or were you asking for his opinion? What you want from the addressee must be emphasized in the body of the letter. The addressee cannot be left wondering why this email was sent to his inbox. Be clear as to what your intentions are. In addition, if you want the addressee to send you a confirmation that he received your email, ask him directly to reply. If your request is unclear, you can’t expect the addressee to read your mind. If several people have been sent the same message, mention them by name in the body of the mail and request of each of them, by name, to reply.

6. Double check – One of the advantages of email over face-to-face conversation is the possibility of proofreading your words before sending it. If we are speaking to someone and say the wrong thing, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to turn back the wheel. With email, we can check the content of the letter, find grammatical or spelling errors, read the letter out loud, and check that the letter was sent. Although this is a relatively basic action, there are many people who do not check their letters before sending them. Devote a few more seconds to this – it’s worth it!

Every day, about 190 billion letters are sent by electronic mail around the world. Research has shown that this figure will grow even larger with time. Your mail, your message, is in constant competition with other mail. So, in order to successfully reach your goals and complete your work, it’s worth using this very powerful tool in the best possible way.

And another little tip… if you’ve sent two emails and the point still isn’t clear? Forget about the email. Pick up the telephone and talk about it.