July2014 Deck Communication

Managerial Communication
Mali Mahalingam
mahalingam_c@yahoo.com
IIMT: Chennai Center:2014
What is up?
Introductions
Robust dialogue for effective discussions
Understanding & managing Fog Index
Story-telling as leadership competence
Mali / IIM-T / MC / 2014
Fundamentals of Communication
Ram Charan & Bill Conaty
If businesses managed their money as carelessly as
they mange their people, most would be bankrupt!
Source: Talent Masters ( Random House, 2011)
Results leaders produce
Direct Results
Building Values & their reaffirmation
Building & Developing People for tomorrow
Every Organization needs performance in 3 areas:
Source : Peter Drucker (The Effective Executive- 1967)
Communication Fundas!
Why Communication?
Communication is a social need for an individual,
but is the lifeblood of an organization
If individuals communicate 70% of the waking time,
an organization communicates 90% of its working
time
Business communication helps us prepare for being
effective in business situations
We need to be good at business communication to
create impact, to influence and to get things done!
At the end of the day, if we cannot express right, we
cannot impress right!
Basic fundas
Comes from Latin communis which means
common.
Transfer of information & understanding from one
person to another.
Communication skills include listening, speaking,
reading and writing
Communication is complete not when the sender
has sent but when the receiver has received &
understood
Good communication is 90% sincerity and 10%
skills!
You cannot talk yourself out of situations you have
behaved yourself into!
Noise
Noise
Noise Noise
Noise
Noise Noise
Noise

Sender
has idea

1

Sender
encodes
idea in
message

2

Message
travels
over
channel

3

Receiver
decodes
message

4

Feedback
travels to
sender

5

Possible
additional
feedback
to receiver
6
The Communication Process
Elements of Communication
Message
Sender
Encoding
Channel
Receiver
Decoding
Acting
Feedback
Encoding
Language (Verbal Code): Spoken or written words
used to communicate thoughts and emotions
Paralanguage (Vocal Code): The vocal elements
that go along with spoken language, including tone of
voice, pitch, rate, volume and emphasis
Non-verbal cues(Visual Code): All intentional or
unintentional means other than writing or speaking by
which a person sends a message, including facial
expression, eye contact, gestures, appearance,
posture, size and location of office, and arrival time at
meetings

Communication Loss!
S
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f
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R
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s

b
y

C
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H
a
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Interpreting messages: What listeners pick!
Frames of Reference in Communication
What is going on?
Leveled: Some details are lost
Condensed: The message becomes shorter
and simpler
Sharpened: Some details are highlighted,
thereby becoming more important
Assimilated: Ambiguities are clarified to
confirm to past messages and future
expectations
Embellished: Details are added
Barriers to Communication
Socio-psychological
Emotions
Selective perception
Information overload
Loss by transmission
Poor retention
Goal Conflicts
Offensive style
Abstracting
Interpretations
Sender-related barriers
Lack of planning
Vagueness about the purpose of the
communication
Poor choice of words
Unshared or incorrect assumptions
Wrong choice of channels
Receiver- related barriers
Poor listening skills
Mistrust
Lack of interest
Semantic difficulties
Biases
Attitudinal clash with sender
Seven Cs of Communication
Candidness
Clarity
Completeness
Conciseness
Concreteness
Correctness
Courtesy
S
o
u
r
c
e
:

F
r
a
n
c
i
s

J

B
e
r
g
i
n

Being Concise.
Due to the fact that
Employed the use of
Basic fundamentals
Completely eliminate
Alternative choices
Actual experience
Connected together
Final result
Prove conclusively
In as few words as possible
Communication Flow
downward, or enabling, communication that moves
instructions and other directive information down or
through a hierarchy

upward, or compliance, communication that provides
feedback to the people who originate downward
communication

lateral, or coordinating, communication that moves
between peers to maintain or improve operational
efficiency

the grapevine, which fills in gaps in official
communication and provides answers to unaddressed
questions.

Anon
Communication is a lot like a love affair! Almost
any fool can start it, but to end it well requires
considerable skill!
Monkey business!
Higher the Monkey climbs up,
more of its back is visible to others!
Effective Meetings & Business Reviews
Read Ram Charans article: Conquering the
Culture of Indecision for class room
discussion
Meetings & Business Reviews
What do we already know?
Wharton Center for Applied Research:
The average CEO spends about 17 hours
each week in meetings
Senior executives spend an average of 23
hours a week in meetings
Middle managers spend 11 hours a week in
meetings
Senior & middle managers said only 56% of
the meetings were productive.
A phone call or a memo could have replaced
over 25% of the meetings they attend
Decisions need dialogues!
Leaders create a culture of indecisiveness, and
leaders can break it!
Primary instrument for making decisions is human
interactions- dialogues!
Dialogue is the basic unit of work in an organization
Tone and content of dialogue shapes peoples
behaviour and beliefs
All social operating mechanisms comprise
dialogues
Dialogue can lead to new ideas and speed as a
competitive advantage!
Characteristics of decisive dialogues
Openness
Candor
Informality
Closure
Robust Dialogue
openness : truth over harmony
candor wipes out silent lies & pocket vetoes
informality leads to candor
Closure: Action responsibility: who, what and when
Openness
Openness means that the outcome is not
predetermined
There is an honest search for alternatives
and new discoveries
Leaders create an atmosphere of safety that
permits spirited discussion, group learning &
trust
Candor
Willingness to speak the unspeakable
Exposing unfulfilled commitments
Airing conflicts that undermine apparent
consensus
Expressing real opinions, not what they think
they are supposed to say
Candor helps wipe out the silent lies &
pocket vetoes

Informality
Informality encourages candor, formality
suppresses it
When presentations and comments are stiff
and prepackaged, they signal that the whole
meeting has been carefully scripted
Informality reduces defensiveness & loosens
the atmosphere
It energizes and leads to spontaneity

Closure
Closure imposes discipline
It means at the end of the meeting people
exactly know what they are expected to do
Closure assigns accountability and deadlines
to people in an open forum
It tests a leaders inner strength and
intellectual resources
Lack of closure the primary reason for a
culture of indecisiveness in organizations

Dialogue Killers
Dangling Dialogue
Information Clogs
Piecemeal Perspectives
Free for All
Hidden Agenda in Free for All
Extortionists
Sidetrackers
Silent liars
Dividers
Feedback & Follow-through
Critical feedback is the heavy lifting of leadership (Dick
Brown-EDS)
Avoiding feedback sentences the organization to
mediocrity
Feedback should be many things: candid, constructive,
relentlessly focused on behavioural performance,
accountability and execution.
If at the end of the year, someone is truly surprised by
what you have to say, thats the failure of leadership!
Decisive dialogue & follow-through creates a workforce
that is energized, empowered and engaged!
Understanding Fog Index
Exercise Time!
Write a 100 word paragraph that describes the vision of
a future you want to create for yourself 5 years from
completing your MBA from prestigious IIM-Tiruchirapalli
The Fog Index
Is based on the count of the number of multi-
syllable / complex words in a hundred-word sample
of the passage being checked, as well as of the
average sentence length
Best in Class
Readers Digest has a Fog index of between 8
and 9

Time magazines Fog index is 11

Churchills Fog index was a terrific 3.2!
If your Fog Index is higher than 13, you
are hard to read
What does the research say?
Only 4% of readers will understand a sentence of 27
words

But, 75% of readers will understand a sentence of
17 words

And 95% readers will understand a sentence of 8
words
Readability of communication is affected by
The average length of the sentences
The percentage of simple words
Proportion of familiar words
Proportion of abstract words
Proportion of long words
Proportion of personal references
What does this image conjure up?
Storytelling as Leadership Competence
What is storytelling all about?
A corporate narrative to inspire customers
and employees
Great leaders at every level lead through
their stories
Used for sparking action, transmitting
values communicating who you are,
fostering collaboration, sharing knowledge,
learning people into the future and taming
the grapevine

What is a story?
A tiny fuse that detonates tacit understanding in the
mind of the listener!
Source: Institute for Knowledge Management (1999)
Key Story-telling Principle
The audience does much of the work for you!
Story work is providing a method of building a story in
someone elses mind, where it counts
Ultimately, the story happens in the minds of the
audience, not just in the brain and mouth of the teller.
The Story Triangle
The CEO Stories
IBM: Lou Gerstner
McDonalds: Ray Kroc
HP: Bill Hewitt
Cisco: John Chambers
T. Thomas: Hindustan Unilever
Intel: Andy Grove & Gordon Moore
The Vision & Values Stories
Scandinavian Airlines
Hewlett-Packard (2002)
Federal Express
Alcoa
The parable of the black belt
The Monk and the young lady
Tim Elmore: Habitudes Video samples
B S Detector Beware!
Universal Story lines
Who am I?
Who are we?
Where are we going?
Four key features of Corporate Stories
A strong central plot line
Clear values
Lots of emotions
Compelling characters
Four truths of the Story teller
Truth to the story teller
Honesty and candor
Truth to the Audience
to understand what the listeners know about,
care about and want to hear
Truth to the moment:
extraordinary claims require extraordinary
evidence
Truth to the mission:
Infuse stories with a mission and meaning,
beyond self

Tips for Storytellers
Stories are about people

One or more people in your story has to want
something

Stories need to be fixed in time and space

While people in the story pursue a goal, they tend to
talk

Audiences bore easily
Stories speak the audience language
Tips for Storytellers contd
Stories speak the audience language
Stories stir up emotions
Stories dont tell; they show
Stories have clear meaning
Stories are containers of truth
Sharing knowledge: Approaches
Exercise
Talk about something Youve made or that Youve
done that youre proud of!

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Managerial Communication

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