That question's taken on a new meaning in communication. Texting, particularly with young people, has brought "clutter" levels to all-time highs. And each one of those texts is another piece of clutter that your message has to compete with and break through in order to be heard.
A study says that high school students send an average of 440 texts per week, including 110 while in school, an average of three texts PER CLASS PERIOD. You can assume that college students' texting habits are similar. As the technology becomes even more commonplace and as these young people age to become a part of the workplace, their texting habits and tendencies will come along with them.
Those texting secretly during class now will be texting secretly during meetings soon. Those texting now to cheat on tests, more than one-third of the high schoolers surveyed admitted cheating with a cell phone, might be leaking company secrets and proprietary announcements soon. Regardless, they WILL be distracted while you're trying to reach them in meetings, during sales calls, and through speeches and presentations.
That's why it's even more critical now for you to practice the keys to effective communication that you'll learn in your "Break Through the Clutter" Communication Seminar. As the clutter (your message's competition) increases, your skill at breaking through it needs to increase.
Call or E-mail today to schedule your "Break Through the Clutter" Communication Seminar for your group or business, 913-631-2985 or bkthrucomm@aol.com.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Monday, August 10, 2009
Verb-alization
More and more, words are being "verb-alized" today, meaning non-verbs are being used as verbs.
An "office" is a place. A "fax" is a thing, a shortened version of the word "facsimile" which is what you create when the document in your hand is printed out at the other end of the phone line. "Text" is what you're reading right now, it's a thing that you can see. "Offshore" is a place that is removed from the shore. You remember from grade school that a person, place, or thing is a noun.
Yet for years now, when you office at home, people can fax things to you, or text you. Each of those nouns has become a verb in common usage. This morning's paper had new one, "offshoring". It goes along with "outsourcing" and it's apparently when you outsource overseas. But no definition was given.
As you learn in your "Break Through the Clutter" Communication Seminar, for effective communication, you need to use only words, terms and phrases that mean something to the other person. So be aware of your level of verb-alization. Adding "-ing" to a word does not necessarily mean that you can use it as a verb and that your audience will understand it that way. For instance, you wouldn't scream at a telemarketer, "Not now, I'm dinnering!"
As our use of language continues to evolve with advances in technology and in society ("He Blackberried me with the details."), keep your audience in mind when composing your message. Whether a word or phrase makes sense to you isn't nearly as important as whether it makes sense to them. Often, you're more successful when you stick to the basics instead of trying to use the latest terminology.
Call or E-mail today to schedule your own "Break Through the Clutter" Communication Seminar for your group or business, 913-631-2985, bkthrucomm@aol.com.
An "office" is a place. A "fax" is a thing, a shortened version of the word "facsimile" which is what you create when the document in your hand is printed out at the other end of the phone line. "Text" is what you're reading right now, it's a thing that you can see. "Offshore" is a place that is removed from the shore. You remember from grade school that a person, place, or thing is a noun.
Yet for years now, when you office at home, people can fax things to you, or text you. Each of those nouns has become a verb in common usage. This morning's paper had new one, "offshoring". It goes along with "outsourcing" and it's apparently when you outsource overseas. But no definition was given.
As you learn in your "Break Through the Clutter" Communication Seminar, for effective communication, you need to use only words, terms and phrases that mean something to the other person. So be aware of your level of verb-alization. Adding "-ing" to a word does not necessarily mean that you can use it as a verb and that your audience will understand it that way. For instance, you wouldn't scream at a telemarketer, "Not now, I'm dinnering!"
As our use of language continues to evolve with advances in technology and in society ("He Blackberried me with the details."), keep your audience in mind when composing your message. Whether a word or phrase makes sense to you isn't nearly as important as whether it makes sense to them. Often, you're more successful when you stick to the basics instead of trying to use the latest terminology.
Call or E-mail today to schedule your own "Break Through the Clutter" Communication Seminar for your group or business, 913-631-2985, bkthrucomm@aol.com.
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