June 2009

Writing Tip: A Strategic Advantage That Begins at the Keyboard
Adapted from Writing to Get Things Done® Seminar
by Stan Berry

When composing emails, you are much more productive if you think and write from the reader's perspective. This simple solution is easier said than done. An officer in charge of a U.S. Navy Shipbuilding facility calls this fundamental change a "force multiplier." He personally models this approach and coaches his staff to do the same — because the benefits are both immediate and significant.

Be aware of your natural tendencies
Most people type their rambling thoughts as they think through what they want to say. Even professional writers do this because it feels natural to write as we think. This natural tendency is reinforced by our educational system, where we are taught make our case before getting to the point, e.g., introduction, body, conclusion.

By writing our rambling thoughts, we inundate readers with a stream of reasons and justifications that eventually lead to an action item, request, recommendation, or conclusion. In other words, the most important information is buried in the most difficult-to-find place, i.e., the middle or at bottom of the email.

Step into your reader's shoes
We have all been told to write for the reader. Yet few people really do or even know how. To best understand the reader's perspective, consider your own preferences. When reading emails, know these three things:

• How does this document affect me? Do I have to do anything?
• Why should I care?
• When do I need to do it?

Put another way, you want the bottom-line up front, followed by supporting information, and the urgency. Yet as a writer, these needs clash with our natural tendency and a lifetime of schooling, cultural reinforcement, and habit. We are conditioned to make our case before getting to the point.

Make a profound paradigm shift
Writing from the reader's perspective is common sense but not common practice. To make this profound paradigm shift, follow these five steps:

1. Put the bottom line up front
   The key to workplace productivity is to turn the academic model upside-down. That is, write from the reader's perspective by clearly stating what you want to get done in paragraph one. You can then make your case with supporting reasons, and respectfully conclude with a deadline, timeframe, or urgency.
   
   
2. Support the bottom line with key points
   To strengthen your message, strategically place key points and supporting details after you state the bottom line. You can further increase clarity and understanding by listing your key points and supporting details. Here is an example of a bullet list that makes it easy for the reader — and writer:
   
   The bullet-list format has three benefits for the reader:
   • Speed — lists are quick to read and write
   • Comprehension — lists are easier to understand than flowing verbiage
   • Retention — lists are easier to remember
     
     
3. Tactfully conclude by communicating the urgency
   Work environments are time-driven, and without a deadline or sense of urgency, things don't get done. Create accountability by tying an action item to a deadline. To increase compliance, tactfully provide a supporting reason. For example:
   
   "I would appreciate receiving your approval by Friday. This will give ample time to effectively plan our agenda for next week."
   
   Without a deadline, timeframe, or urgency, readers will wait for one. "We're pretty busy, but we'll get to it at some point down the road (whenever that is)."
   
   
4. Forecast the bottom line in the subject line
   Even well written emails are unproductive if they are not read. Use a forecasting subject line to entice readers to learn more and take action. Forecasting subject lines communicate the bottom line so readers immediately know how your information affects them.
   
   Effective subject lines offer more than a general topic description. Consider the following examples:
   
   "CVN 65 Topside TP AS21.1.1" (general topic description)
   
   "Recommendation to Disapprove Test Based on Discrepancies of CVN 65 Topside TP AS21.1.1" (specific forecast of the bottom line)
   
   Forecasting subject lines turn readers from passive to active by bringing them into paragraph one with an inquiring mind. This simple enhancement often determines whether your email gets read or not.
   
   
5. Finesse with tone to encourage cooperation
   The last step before sending your message is to check your tone. Tone is that personal touch that compels readers to react positively or negatively. Setting an effective tone means communicating in a way that encourages cooperation and consideration.
   
   Respect is the key to effective tone. When you hold the reader in high esteem, you stimulate positive feelings. Use friendly words like “please,” “appreciate,” “glad,” “give,” “happy,” “help,” “good,” and “thank you.” Keep your language positive and focused on what you want to get done. Which tone is more effective?
   
   "We can't authorize your security badge until you send us your signed application form."
   "We will be happy to authorize your security badge as soon as we receive your signed application form."
   
   Like a boomerang, tone returns what you send out. Finesse your messages with tone to make it easy for your readers to say "yes."

Try it and see what happens
In today's fast-paced work environment, employees don't have time to wade through stream-of-consciousness emails. Clear communication drives productivity. To inspire, direct, and gain cooperation from all levels of personnel, think and write from the reader's perspective using these five steps:

• Put the bottom line up front.
• Support your bottom line with key points.
• Tactfully communicate the urgency.
• Forecast the bottom line in the subject line.
• Finesse with tone to encourage cooperation.

Though common sense, this approach is not common practice. Call it a strategic advantage that begins at the keyboard.

Stan Berry has devoted the past 34 years to improving the writing skills of over 55,000 business and government professionals. After completing his Master’s degree from Yale University, he co-authored five books on writing that he uses in his seminars. He’s been a member of the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) since 1975 when he served as the newsletter editor and on the Board of Directors for the Twin Cities Chapter. Stan can be reached at www.BerryWritingGroup.com or 612-578-1487.

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Announcing Your New ASTD-TCC LinkedIn Group
by Jane Neumiller-Bustad

Greetings fellow chapter members. Your chapter board is always looking for ways to add value to your ASTD-TCC membership. This year the chapter decided to take the plunge into social media and deepen our online communications approach.

My role as the Director of Interactive Communications is to look at, and potentially implement, a wide range of interactive/web-based/social media tools. We're doing this to fulfill our mission statement of helping members connect, learn, and grow professionally. In the weeks and months to come, we'll be rolling out a variety of new tools, and we welcome your feedback and suggestions. We want to design an interactive communications strategy that best serves our members' needs.

As you are no doubt aware, LinkedIn has become a major force in the Internet world. A social media tool, LinkedIn has become a "must do" for professionals across the country — and around the world. Networking, recruiting, project sourcing, contract hiring, reference checking, etc. … are all being heavily influenced by LinkedIn. Many of you probably have a LinkedIn profile (if you don't, I encourage you to run, not walk, to your computer and spend a few minutes setting up your profile). If you do already have a LinkedIn profile, you may not be making use of all of the features available. One of the most potentially useful features of LinkedIn is the "Groups" feature.

We've taken the step of creating an ASTD-TCC Group that is open to all active chapter members. As long as your membership remains in good standing, you will be able to access the ASTD-TCC Group. We have pre-loaded all members into the group, so requesting membership isn't necessary. If you have a problem accessing the group, please let us know.

We hope that participating in this group will help you learn, connect, and grow professionally. To that end, we've established guidelines to help all members enjoy their group experience. The guidelines are designed to help everyone participate in a friendly, collegial manner. They are reproduced below, and will also be found on the Discussions tab in the group.

To highlight those guidelines, spamming, posting of "open networking" requests, and blatant advertising won't be allowed in the Discussions portion of the group.

Because they are a revenue generator for the chapter (by helping keep your membership dues stable), job postings will continue to be available on the chapter's website (astd-tcc.org). The Jobs tab will not be functional on the LinkedIn group at this time.

We encourage all members to start professional discussions, exchange ideas and information, and contribute their expertise to the ongoing conversations. We ask that you use an open, friendly, professional approach when asking or answering questions.

Again, we hope you'll share your ideas and suggestions. Please contact me, Jane Neumiller-Bustad, at jnbustad@gmail.com with any feedback at any time. Please review the following guidelines prior to using LinkedIn.

ASTD-TCC LinkedIn Group Guidelines:

1. You are welcome to post and participate in discussions that are related to the purpose of ASTD-TCC. The board reserves the right to remove posts which are off-topic or unrelated to the training and development community.
2. If you are looking for a new job or new opportunity, you are welcome to share your status, your background, your experience, etc. in the News tab. The News tab is also the place to post any announcements by individual members, or link to articles of professional interest.
3. Do not post a discussion or topic solely to advertise or recruit for your company, your products, your services, or your job openings. “Open networking” postings are not allowed in the Discussions tab.
4. Job openings are a revenue-generating activity for our chapter (thereby reducing the dues you pay). Viewing job openings is also a member benefit. Please contact the ASTD-TCC office with all job postings. We will continue to post them to Talent Scout on our astd-tcc.org website, and we encourage you to look there to view all openings.
5. We encourage collaboration, sharing of issues, idea generation, and other interactions with your fellow members. Please express your ideas and opinions in a professional, respectful manner. If you disagree with, or feel strongly about a topic that another member has posted, we ask that you express those ideas or concerns in a professional way. We reserve the right to remove posts that do not follow this guideline.
   

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The Coaching SIG is Back!

Your new Coaching SIG co-leaders, Julie Berg and Cindy Edwards, are making it possible for all organizational coaches to get involved. There are now two ways to participate in the ASTD-TCC Coaching SIG.

Join us Monday, June 8, for the inaugural in-person meeting to discuss what the future holds for coaching in organizations and for the Coaching SIG. We’ll discuss topics of interest and logistics for the reincarnated SIG. And, we’ll have some fun too!

Whether or not you choose to attend the in-person meetings, get connected to what is guaranteed to be a vibrant community on LinkedIn (request membership in the “ASTD-TCC Coaching SIG group”). We’ll post discussions, resources, events, and announcements to internal and external organizational coaches. Take advantage of the benefits of social media to network with and support your fellow coaches.

Also, invite your coaching colleagues to join us for live meetings and on LinkedIn. The Coaching SIG is open to ASTD-TCC members and the community at-large.

For more information, please contact Julie at julie@hrdconsultingmn.com, or Cindy at cindy@tofindyourfit.com.

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June 26, 2009
Friday
11:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m.
Metropolitan Ballroom
5418 Wayzata Blvd.
Golden Valley, MN

Cost:
$30/members
$45/non-members
$20/students
+$10 after 6/23

REGISTER ONLINE or DOWNLOAD FORM

June Monthly Meeting: The Six Principles of Leadership

Presenter: Ralph Jacobson

Ralph Jacobson helps people with organizational growth and change. He offers innvoative leadership development programs that help leaders see a new way to lead and provides them with practical and powerful tools to create employee commitment and organizational success. He helps leaders communicate and plan for change. He uses large-scale organizational change techniques to simultaneously involve employees in a meaninful way, reducing the time and increasing the effectiveness in making transitions. Ralph is a strategist, trainer and coach. Ralph was recognized by Executive Excellence Magazine as one of the top 10 leadership development experts in the country (September 2005 and 2007) and one of the most innovative (December 2005).

For more than 25 years he provided innovative solutions for Fotune 50 organizations as well as emerging growth companies in a wide variety of industries. For the least sixteen years he has been the Principal of The Leader's Toolbox, Inc. He has held executive Human Resource positions with Medtronic, CrosField Dicomed and General Growth Center Companies. He received the American Express Quality Award for his consulting work and was an examiner for the Minnesota Quality Award. He is an adjunct faculty member at the University of St. Thomas, Physicians Leadership College. He holds advanced degrees in psychology and human resources.

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Turn Employee Attitudes ‘On’ for Positive Change
by Laura Goodrich

Allow us to offer a ray of hope in this negative economic environment.

It is possible to influence positive behavior and get an entire group of employees moving in a desired direction by helping them focus on what they do want, not what they don’t want. It sounds simple. But to be effective, it requires an intentional visual and auditory event followed by regular reminders that extend the experience.

At On Impact Productions we created the film Seeing Red Cars to help hundreds of organizations impact change or implement important initiatives. We are constantly amazed at the multitude of ways that trainers, coaches, human resource professionals, and leaders are incorporating the film and its messages to launch and sustain important initiatives or to enhance their existing training programs.

Here’s the premise: Seeing Red Cars is a 10-minute film based on the metaphor of a red car. You go out and buy a red car and as you’re driving it home you notice something strange — everywhere you look you see red cars — there’s one, there’s another one, there’s another … it’s almost like the only color car on the road is red! Why is that? You’re focusing on it and it becomes blatantly apparent.

At work and in your daily life, you invariably get more of what you focus on — whether positive or negative. The problem is, focusing on the negative is an unconscious, natural reaction. In order to focus on the positive, you need to intentionally move desires to your conscious thoughts and use frequent reminders in order to keep them there.

I saw this phenomenon play out hundreds of times over many years. Intelligent leaders and executives would ask for help when they were facing significant challenges in their organizations. I would ask them, “What do you want to have happen here?” Invariably, they would tell me what they didn’t want … I don’t want to lose market share … I don’t want this employee to continue behaving in this damaging way … etc.

I would ask the question again, and in different ways. They continually struggled to identify what they did want to have happen.

Storytelling is what finally made the difference. We created Seeing Red Cars to expand the reach of these concepts around the globe. We have received calls from the Baltic states, Taipei, The Netherlands, Dubai — plus many North American businesses and organizations that have used the film in a multitude of creative ways to set the stage for positive results.

Example #1: A division manager called a meeting announcing her decision to close an entire branch. She showed the film Seeing Red Cars and then broke the staff into small groups. Each group leader recorded the “I Wants” of the group. The information was then shared with the larger group. The “I Want” statements set the tone and revealed the range of emotions being felt by the attendees. There was a visible change in body language as the audience relaxed. In the days following the meeting the leader received an outpouring of emails thanking her for her leadership through the difficulty of closing the branch.

Example #2: A school district superintendent used Seeing Red Cars at the kickoff meeting when all principals, teachers and administrative staff were present. One principal divided the Seeing Red Cars digital activities and supplementary materials into 40 weeks and used them as regular reminders of the top three “I Want” goals that each of his staff members had written at the beginning of the school year. A local bakery prepared red Cadillac car cookies he handed out on the first day, and everyone rallied around the goals with high energy and upbeat attitudes that carried throughout the entire school year.

People have used the film at the beginning, middle, or end of important kickoff meetings to get the audience in the right frame of mind, begin working together, and to focus on their desired outcomes. To keep the messages alive, they use a combination of the accompanying support materials over a period of time, such as once a week. All package contents are customizable for any organization, such as: “Seeing Red Cars for Safety” or “Seeing Red Cars for Customer Service Excellence.”

This film is perfectly timed for what is going on in the marketplace today. If there ever was a time when people were focused on what they do not want to have happen, this is it. It’s time to influence positive change. Incorporate Seeing Red Cars whenever you need to create an environment of positive change for an audience or team that needs to get clear about goals or expectations.

Seeing Red Cars is a film by On Impact Productions, an integrated content company which specializes in authoring and producing videos, documentaries, television content and multimedia content delivered over time to create sustained change and learning of important leadership concepts. To purchase or rent Seeing Red Cars visit the distributor at startrhower.com. Laura Goodrich is a partner at On Impact Productions. You can contact her at (952) 856-6071 or laura@onimpactproductions.com.

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• Sponsor or Exhibit at the ASTD-TCC Regional Conference!
  Get your name out there by becoming a sponsor or exhibit at the 2009 ASTD-TCC Regional Conference & Expo in St. Paul. Sign up is available HERE.
  
  
• Save the Date for the Alive at Five Networking Event!
  Join us on the Lord Fletcher's deck August 18 for an evening of networking with a barbeque, brews, and scintillating conversation. Meet up with colleagues in the WLP community in a no pressure environment. Details and registration can be found HERE.
  
  
• Do you have Spectrum-worthy News?
  Did you know that you can submit your articles for our monthly newsletter? The monthly deadline for writing submissions and advertising is the 10th of the month previous to the month you want to be in print. For example, for the June issue, get your submissions in by May 10. More submission details can be found HERE.

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From May 1-31, 2009

New Members

Renewing Members

Hartford Life
John Haggard
Jason Lawton

MN Dept of Human Services
Jamie Barrie
Gail Dekker
Lela Porter
Dawn Sorenson
Allan Warrior

BAE Systems
Robert Browne
Paul Foreman
Carrie Kemp
Sue Mansfeldt
Julie Mitchell
Donald Wilkinson

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What would you like to read?
If you have ideas for articles or information that could be shared in Spectrum, feel free to contact the 2009 editor, Sarah Brammer, at smbrammer@embarqmail.com.