What do you think?

Is this some city's (Basehor's) fancy way of saying, "City Limit", or does it have some other legal meaning that most people don't understand?

E-mail only for appropriate subjects

Soon, it will be the anniversary of one of the worst uses of E-mail ever. And that serves as a reminder to you to use E-mail only in situations where it is appropriate.

You learn in your "Break Through the Clutter" communication seminar that anger, sarcasm, and other negative emotions need to be gotten out of voice-mails and E-mails. Negative emotions like that are best left to face-to-face communication where you can see the effect you and your message are having on your receiver.

With all of today's methods of electronic communication, it's easy for people to hide when there's a potential for conflict. Things like ending a relationship by texting, breaking up through voice-mail, and the like, though, make you look shallow and callous. It's obvious that you didn't want to deal with the emotions in person, so you hid behind technology.

This was carried to another extreme nearly four years ago now, in August of 2006, when Radio Shack sent this E-mail to 400 employees - "The workforce reduction notification is currently in progress. Unfortunately your position is one that has been eliminated." Fired, by E-mail.

While it may be easier on you to hide, screen calls, and block E-mails, if you really want to communicate effectively, know when it is appropriate for electronic communication and when face-to-face is really the only option.

Call or E-mail today to schedule your own "Break Through the Clutter" communication seminar, 913-631-2985, bkthrucomm@aol.com.

E-mail, again

In your "Break Through the Clutter" communication seminar, you learn the importance of grabbing the attention of your message's receivers early and capturing their imaginations. Throughout the seminar, you're shown various ways of accomplishing this, including how this philosophy applies to both voice-mail and E-mail.

Hit your main point within the first two sentences when sending an E-mail message, for instance. That way, when your receiver opens your message, there's the important information they need right at the top. They don't have to scroll down down to find it. And every time they refer back to your E-mail, there it is again, right at the top.

Also, include a descriptive "Subject" line in your E-mails. Often you can make your point or answer a question just in the Subject line. As mentioned in the April 22 post on this blog, it takes your receiver an average of four minutes to open, read, respond to, and either delete or store each E-mail they get. If you can communicate your important information in just the Subject line of your message, you may save them those four minutes. Subject lines such as, "Meeting Thursday 10am", "Cookie money due Tuesday" and the like, communicate your message as soon as they see it in their inbox. And, the descriptive Subject line makes your message "break through the clutter" of all of the other E-mails they receive. In the text of your E-mail then you simply need to reinforce and expand upon your information since communication has already happened.

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.

Too much E-mail

In your "Break Through the Clutter" communication seminar, you learn that the two keys to effective use of E-mail are brevity and necessity, sending only what is needed when it is needed. There is simply too much E-mail going on.

A study now shows that your receiver spends an average of four minutes to open, read, respond to, and either delete or store each E-mail. That's a very important statistic for you to consider.

When communicating, you need to picture an actual person in your mind as you compose your message, what they're doing, thinking, and feeling. Part of that, when it comes to E-mail, is to realize that if your message ends up being one of forty or fifty that piled up while they were on vacation. At four minutes per E-mail, they might not have time to read something called, "Another Blond Joke".

Plus, if they are used to getting only important E-mails from you, when they get one, they will tend to think that it is important. If, however, they usually get 15-20 E-mails a day from you, and most of those contain the same jokes, cartoons, and video links that others are sending to them, they won't consider your E-mail to be as important.

Brevity and necessity, the keys to effective use of E-mail, when done in conjunction with all of the other things you'll learn in your own "Break Through the Clutter" communication seminar. Call or E-mail today to schedule a seminar for your group or business, 913-631-2985, bkthrucomm@aol.com.

Spoken Communication tip

In your "Break Through the Clutter" communication seminar, you learn some of the benefits and responsibilities associated with spoken communication, as opposed to written communication. Among the tips you get regarding spoken communication, you learn to practice out loud when preparing for an oral presentation.

While practicing out loud, listen to yourself. And, while listening, check your pronunciation of words. The Dictionary of Pronunciation warns "...you will...be judged by the words you mispronounce. And you may not be judged kindly."

Read the following sentence out loud while listening to yourself. "The realtor, wearing jewelry, was comfortable selling the nuclear plant, regardless of the economy." You should have pronounced the italicized as they are spelled. Too often, pronunciations sound more like, "The ree-la-ter, wearing joo-ler-ee, was comf-ter-bull selling the noo-cue-ler plant, ir-regardless of the economy." If any of the second sentence sounds familiar to you as you read it, "you may not be judged kindly."

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.

Word choice

In your "Break Through the Clutter" communication seminar, you learn to use only words that will mean something to the receivers of your messages. An exchange at the pharmacy today underscored the importance of that.

When a prescription coupon card was presented along with payment, the clerk worked on the computer for a bit and sarcastically said, "Oh, I love this!", sighed, and stomped over to a fellow employee. After the second employee worked on another computer for a while, he came over to explain that the pharmacy had another drug's coupon listed as the "primary" card and this was listed in the computer as the "secondary" card and that's why it wouldn't go through. But, now it went through and everything was okay. But that's why it didn't at first, because the other one was the primary card and not this one.

Those who don't work at that pharmacy, including their customers, really have no idea what any of that means. Nor, frankly, do they care. Pharmacy employees deal with those computers, that software and drug companies every day, so it made sense to them. But they used these specialized terms when talking to a customer off the street. "Here are your pills and it'll be ten bucks" is all the customer wanted or needed to hear.

To communicate effectively, avoid lingo or jargon, specialized language unique to a certain area of interest or expertise. Within your own circle of co-workers, friends, or others that share your experiences, it's fine. But keep in mind that outside of your inner circle, it's really just gibberish. And whenever you use words, terms or phrases that your receiver, for whatever reason, doesn't understand, instead of being impressed with how much you know, they tend to feel alienated and sometimes even insulted.

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.

Clutter, again

To continue the discussions about "What is 'clutter'?" and how the clutter of today's world gets worse everyday - Mignon McLaughlin summed up the problem like this, "No one really listens to anyone else. Try it for a while, and you'll see why."

Humorous, yes. But it's sad, too, because it's true. So many messages are being sent today, often in a rapid-fire manner, that are centered on the person sending them. And the messages tell about important things like, "I just got a massage", or "I just had my nails done and now I'm going shopping", or "I'm having a latte and a bagel". While they might be harmless and even a bit of a diversion for people during their busy days, the messages are each another bit of "noise" or "clutter" that distract your receiver from more important messages. Like your messages, for example.

That's why it is so important for you to stop, as you compose your message, and to think about the person(s) you need to reach. What are they doing? What will they do just before getting your message? What will they do just after? In what environment will they receive your message? Take all of those things, and more, into consideration as you compose your message. For your message to truly be effective, it isn't about writing or saying what you want to write or say. It's about writing or saying what will mean something to your receiver for communication to happen.

And that's what you'll learn how to do in your "Break Through the Clutter" communication seminar. 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.