ANNOTATION

To effectively communicate something, you need to understand your audience. Who are they, what do they know and how much do they know about your subject? These are key points to crafting an articulate and effective message. This chapter does a wonderful job exploring how theory and practice align and differ in terms of understanding your audience and how to craft a story that makes sense to your target. Adjusting how information is displayed, designed and explained all depends on the knowledge of your audience. When the audience has knowledge of a topic they will likely need less of an explanation of data, but when your information is unknown it’s great to provide more information such as data, images, narrative, and graphs.

SELF REFLECTION

Each industry seems to have its own language, so it’s critical to have a little understanding of who your audience is before you craft your message. As an event publicist, I am tasked with sending out information to very diverse audiences. This can be difficult when trying to articulate technical information and I’m often forced to dumb down language so that is digestible for all. This is inevitably lost on the individual segments that hold more knowledge. Therefore, as our data segmenting becomes more sophisticated, so will our need for more defined audiences. Highly targeted messages are always more effective than mass messaging.

Chiasson, T., Gregory D. (2014). Chapter 9 – Communicating Data to an Audience. Data + Design: A simple introduction to preparing and visualizing information (pp. 211-231). Infoactive.

ANNOTATION

Apologies are an essential method of repairing relationships in the workplace. Admitting when we are wrong can be very difficult and sometimes create conflict. When we react to such conflict without sincerity or authenticity, we end offering an ineffective apology. There are four main types of ineffective apologizing in the workplace. They include being empty, excessive, incomplete, and in denial. To apologize effectively, we must stay humble, keep our emotions in check and keep it real. Real apologies often include personal change. When done right, not only will you effectively repair work relationships, but you can also grow personally from it.

SELF REFLECTION

Staying humble and calm can be very difficult when we think we are right. I worked with a client who was known for being difficult. For years I never experienced this side of her directly. Then about two years ago we worked on a project together and it went badly. The relationship was damaged. I agonized for months over needing to reconcile. Sadly, neither of us were really willing to change our ways and the window for change closed. We are still cordial, but we know that our methods are two different to work together again. It was a hard lesson.

LINK TO FULL TEXT: https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-04-2015-0072

Molinsky, A. (2016, November 25). The 4 Types of Ineffective Apologies. Harvard Business 38(3), 420–437.