Over the next few weeks, I will be re blogging my most popular blogs from the past year. I will be back blogging about business news and concepts in September. If you have any suggestions for blogs, feel free to contact me. The below blog was from a safety conference that I attended last year.
One of the keynote speeches and breakout sessions involved communicating your safety policy to staff with Liisa Sheldrick. Many of the ideas or concepts can be used in any situation, safety or operations, business or play.
There are three things you need to be able to properly communicate with someone:
Trust: Do you have the proper pillars in place for the relationship you are pursuing? That trust can be built by being open, communicating often, being personable and involving everyone. Communication is a two-way street. Listen and involve your audience during the process. It will only help in making the communication more personal.
Engagement: Have a plan on who is doing the delivery, how it is being delivered and when the message is given. Keep your message simple and consistent. Always welcome feedback. Again, communication involves a two-way street.
Inspire Action: Actions speak louder than words. If your actions are not consistent with the message, no matter how powerful your message, it will be drowned out. That consistency will help to drive certain behaviour. That behaviour creates an emotion that people act on.
Apple has the most valuable brand in the world[1] due to the fact that they are consistent with their message (We want to break down barriers with great technology!), engage their audience (AppleLive) and inspire action (purchase new iPhone).
If you are missing trust, engagement, or inspired action, your message could be lost in the shuffle.
In my blog for next week, we are going to talk about the Pixar storytelling method. Everyone loves a story and storytelling will only help bring the emotion out and build that sense of trust. This method could help you to frame your communications and see results.
Have an awesome week.
Kevin
Kevin MacDonald is a Business Consultant at L6S Business Consulting Inc (www.L6SBC.ca). L6S offers services in management consulting, Controller and CFO contracting, and lean management with either project work or teaching/mentoring of staff. Kevin has his CMA accounting designation along with a Black Belt in Lean Six Sigma.
Kevin is active in the community by volunteering for different groups and donates platelets at the Canadian Blood Services clinic on a bi-weekly basis.
L6S Business Consulting will also be holding 3 sessions in regards to better understanding and using social media (Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn). For more information, please email: info@L6SBC.ca
Photo Credit: Sebastien Wiertz
You can visit Liisa Sheldrick’s website here or follow here on Twitter @liisamarjatta.
L6S Business Consulting Inc 