Download Professional Writing and Communication

Business and Administrative
Communication
Communication,
Management, and Success
Week 2
Unit 2
Importance of Writing
• In an information
economy, good writing
is not just a tool for
doing business, it is an
important business
product.
Business Depends on Communication
• Plan products and services
• Hire, train, and motivate employees
• Coordinate manufacturing and delivery
• Persuade customers to buy
• Bill and invoice customers
• Goodwill
Importance of Writing
Study of 120 major coporations in US
At least 70% say most of their workers have specific writing
responsibilities
• E-mail (100% of employees)
122 business emails sent / received
205 Billion
• Presentations with visuals, such as PowerPoint slides (100%)
• Memos and correspondence (70%)
• Formal reports (62%)
• Technical reports (59%)
National Commission on Writing
• Writing is the top desired skill in
college grads
• Yet one of the weakest skills of
college graduates
• “Effective business communica
skills are a stumbling block”
• Spelling, grammar, misuse of wo
emails, reports, presentations
Common myths
1.
2.
3.
4.
assistant
templates
writing not implied in job title
phone calls
Why should you care?
• Competitive job market
• Regardless of your position, you will need to communicate
• The higher your position, the higher the expectations
• Promotion
• Success and $$$$$$$$
• Fear the consequences
Consequences
•
•
•
•
•
NASA and Lockheed Martin
Toyota recall and delayed response
BP’s constant apologizing
Unaware of policies
Yahoo Internal communication leaks
outside
Agenda
A.
The Managerial Functions of Communication
B.
C.
D.
E.
The Cost of Correspondence
The Cost of Poor Correspondence
Benefits of Improving Correspondence
Criteria for Effective Messages
Agenda
A.
The Managerial Functions of Communication
B.
C.
D.
E.
The Cost of Correspondence
The Cost of Poor Correspondence
Benefits of Improving Correspondence
Criteria for Effective Messages
A.
The Managerial Functions of Communication
• Managers have three basic
jobs:
1. to collect and convey
information
2. to make decisions
o conversations, the grapevine, phone
calls, memos, reports, databases,
and the Internet.
o meetings, speeches, press releases,
videos, memos, letters, and reports.
3. to promote interpersonal
unity
o Management by walking around
A.
The Managerial Functions of Communication
Effective managers
• are able to use a wide variety of media and strategies to
communicate.
• know how to interpret comments from informal channels such as the
company grapevine
• can speak effectively in small groups and in formal presentations;
they write well
A.
The Managerial Functions of Communication
Receivers
Internal audience
• Other people in the same
organization
• Superiors, subordinates, coworkers
External audience
• People outside the organization
• customers, suppliers, unions, stockholders, distributors, potential
employees, government agencies,
trade associations, the press, and the
general public.)
A.
The Managerial Functions of Communication
• Informal listening, speaking, and working in groups are just as important as
writing formal documents and giving formal oral presentations.
• to find out what you're supposed to do and to learn about the organization's
values and culture.
A.
The Managerial Functions of Communication
Document Types
to inform
to request or
persuade
to build goodwill
• you explain something or tell readers something.
• you want the reader to act
• Must motivate and convince the reader to act
• you create a good image of yourself and of your
organization
• Encourages others to want to do business with you
Internal Documents
External Documents
Agenda
A.
The Managerial Functions of Communication
B.
C.
D.
E.
The Cost of Correspondence
The Cost of Poor Correspondence
Benefits of Improving Correspondence
Criteria for Effective Messages
B.
The Cost of Correspondence
• To produce a written page in business costs between $15-$45
• 54 minutes to plan, compose, and revise a business letter
• 10 min to dictate
• Cycling between writer and superior before exiting company
• Longer documents can involve large teams of people and take
months to write.
• Good communication is worth every minute it takes and every
penny it costs.
C.
The Cost of Poor Correspondence
Money
Time
Effort
Goodwill
Legal
70% of small-medium size
business say ineffective
communication is primary
problem (SIS Intl)
C.
The Cost of Poor Correspondence
Money
• To produce a written page in business costs between $15$45.
• 100 employee business spends 17 downtime hours per week
clarifying communication = $525,000 per year (SIS Intl)
• 100,000 employee business: $62.4 million per year in US and
UK
• $26,041: cumulative cost per worker per year due to
productivity losses resulting from communications barriers
• NASA
C.
The Cost of Poor Correspondence
Time
• bad writing takes longer to read.
• 97% of our reading time trying to understand, not moving eyes
• bad writing may need to be rewritten
• ineffective writing may obscure ideas so
it causes discussions
• unclear or incomplete messages may
require the reader to ask for more
information.
• 30% of letters and memos in business are
sent to get clarification of prior written
communications
C.
The Cost of Poor Correspondence
Effort
• Ineffective messages don't get results.
• “Per our conversation, enclosed are two copies of the abovementioned invoice. Please review and advise. Sincerely, . . .”
C.
The Cost of Poor Correspondence
Goodwill
• Whatever the literal content of the words, every
piece of communication serves either to build or to
undermine (harm) the image the reader has of the
writer
• Credibility
C.
The Cost of Poor Correspondence
Legal
• Domino´s 30-min guarantee
• Senior Enron executives
• Boeing CEO Harry Stonecipher
• Credit Suisse First Boston banker Frank Quattrone
• Hewlett-Packard Chairperson Patricia Dunn
• Walmart Vice Presidents Julie Roehm and Sean
Womack
• Nothing you compose at work is private
Ad slogan mistakes
• Electrolux
• Pepsi: Come Alive
Parker Pens
• Marketing: The Quink pen "won't leak
and embarrass you.
• "Spanish mistranslation: The Quink
pen won't embarazar you - make you
pregnant.
Hersheys
Agenda
A.
The Managerial Functions of Communication
B.
C.
D.
E.
The Cost of Correspondence
The Cost of Poor Correspondence
Benefits of Improving Correspondence
Criteria for Effective Messages
D.
Benefits of Improving Correspondence
Better writing helps you to:
• Save time. Reduce reading time, since comprehension is easier. Eliminate the
time now taken to rewrite badly written materials. Reduce the time taken asking
writers "What did you mean?"
• Make your efforts more effective. Increase the number of requests that are
answered positively and promptly on the first request. Present your points to
other people in your organization; to clients, customers, and, suppliers; to
government agencies; to the public more forcefully.
• Communicate your points more clearly. Reduce the misunderstandings that
occur when the reader has to supply missing or unclear information. Make the
issues clear, so that disagreements can surface and be resolved more quickly.
• Build goodwill. Build a positive image of your organization. Build an image of
yourself as a knowledgeable, intelligent, capable person.
Agenda
A.
The Managerial Functions of Communication
B.
C.
D.
E.
The Cost of Correspondence
The Cost of Poor Correspondence
Benefits of Improving Correspondence
Criteria for Effective Messages
E.
Criteria for Effective Messages
• It's clear. The meaning the reader gets is the meaning the writer intended. The
reader doesn't have to guess.
• It's complete. All of the reader's questions are answered. The reader has enough
information to evaluate the message and act on it.
• It's correct. All of the information in the message is accurate. The message is
free from errors in punctuation, spelling, grammar, word order, and sentence
structure.
• It saves the reader's time. The style, organization, and visual impact of the
message help the reader to read, understand, and act on the information as
quickly as possible.
• It builds goodwill. The message presents a positive image of the writer and his
or her organization. It treats the reader as a person, not a number. It cements a
good relationship between the writer and the reader.
Conventions
• Widely accepted practices that you routinely encounter
• Help people recognize, produce, and interpret different
kinds of communication
• CV, Press conference, meetings, emails, invoices…
Wiio´s Laws
1. Communication usually fails, except by accident
2. If a message can be interpreted in several ways, it will be
interpreted in a manner that maximizes the damage
3. There is always someone who knows better than you what
you meant with your message
4. The more we communicate, the worse communication
succeeds
5. In mass communication, the important thing is not how
things are but how they seem to be