Chances are many of the emails you spend all day cranking out to your colleagues take about 1/10th of the time to actually scan read as they do to for you to compose. By the time they get to paragraph three,(assuming they made it that far), most recipients have tuned out, distracted by the three new messages that just popped into their inbox, a phone call, a text message from their kid, or, if they are really on the cutting edge, a stray Tweet or Direct Message.
If there is something in the message that is really, truly, important you can't bury 175 words in. Hardly anyone is paying attention that far down, trust me. Don't think this applies to you? Test it out sometime. Draw up another one of your typical 385 word soliloquies on the budget planning process, or next year's performance management initiatives, or whatever is consuming your thoughts today. But in the third or fourth paragraph, slide in the equivalent of an 'Easter Egg', a concept taken from video games where game players can unlock secret or extra functionality by discovering a hidden code, message, or other undocumented feature. Unlocking the ‘egg’ grants the player more abilities, or access to normally hidden levels for game play.
Except you shouldn't have to make your 'egg' all the secret, or hard to spot. Try it. First thing in the morning send out your own ‘Easter Egg’ a little something like this:
Lead with 200 words of drivel importance then slip this in ... 'So as we continue in assessing the most critical functional skills of the organization's talent, let's tie up any loose ends in our thinking by meeting at Noon for a long lunch at (insert name of local pub here), where I will buy lunch and beverages for all in attendance. At the lunch we will continue to examine the cross-organizational implications and synergies of our holistic approach to leadership and increased employee engagement, blah, blah, blah. Thanks very much, etc.
Then don’t send another message about the lunch invitation, try to avoid any direct conversation about the plan, and don’t respond to any calls or emails for the rest of the morning. In fact, sneak out of your office at about 11:15 or so, (or whatever time is sufficiently early to avoid being seen as ‘going to lunch’) and head over to the pub. Grab a table large enough for at least a few of the invitees to join you, and wait.
Assuming you are reasonably well-liked (at least enough to accept a free lunch from), one of three things will result:
One - No one, or maybe a token colleague shows up - time to really re-think your communication style because whatever you are doing, it’s not working.
Two - A small group (3 or 4) turn up. Not bad, but not great either. Here’s where you have to really evaluate the composition of the ones that turned up. If it the three young guys that spend most of their time talking about fantasy football and happy hours, you can be pretty confident the only message that got though was ‘free beer’.
Three - The majority of email recipients do actually show up for lunch. Either you have a really attentive team, or you maybe have one person that found the ‘egg’ and shared it with the group. Either way though, you can feel good that the message did get across, even if it was buried in the blather.
The thing is most of us probably think we are pretty effective communicators. We might even ask our peers, friends, and colleagues to give us feedback and help us improve. But, especially if you are the boss, people lie. A better way to see how your communication stacks up is to put it to the test once in a while.
So where is lunch again?
If there is something in the message that is really, truly, important you can't bury 175 words in. Hardly anyone is paying attention that far down, trust me. Don't think this applies to you? Test it out sometime. Draw up another one of your typical 385 word soliloquies on the budget planning process, or next year's performance management initiatives, or whatever is consuming your thoughts today. But in the third or fourth paragraph, slide in the equivalent of an 'Easter Egg', a concept taken from video games where game players can unlock secret or extra functionality by discovering a hidden code, message, or other undocumented feature. Unlocking the ‘egg’ grants the player more abilities, or access to normally hidden levels for game play.
Except you shouldn't have to make your 'egg' all the secret, or hard to spot. Try it. First thing in the morning send out your own ‘Easter Egg’ a little something like this:
Lead with 200 words of drivel importance then slip this in ... 'So as we continue in assessing the most critical functional skills of the organization's talent, let's tie up any loose ends in our thinking by meeting at Noon for a long lunch at (insert name of local pub here), where I will buy lunch and beverages for all in attendance. At the lunch we will continue to examine the cross-organizational implications and synergies of our holistic approach to leadership and increased employee engagement, blah, blah, blah. Thanks very much, etc.
Then don’t send another message about the lunch invitation, try to avoid any direct conversation about the plan, and don’t respond to any calls or emails for the rest of the morning. In fact, sneak out of your office at about 11:15 or so, (or whatever time is sufficiently early to avoid being seen as ‘going to lunch’) and head over to the pub. Grab a table large enough for at least a few of the invitees to join you, and wait.
Assuming you are reasonably well-liked (at least enough to accept a free lunch from), one of three things will result:
One - No one, or maybe a token colleague shows up - time to really re-think your communication style because whatever you are doing, it’s not working.
Two - A small group (3 or 4) turn up. Not bad, but not great either. Here’s where you have to really evaluate the composition of the ones that turned up. If it the three young guys that spend most of their time talking about fantasy football and happy hours, you can be pretty confident the only message that got though was ‘free beer’.
Three - The majority of email recipients do actually show up for lunch. Either you have a really attentive team, or you maybe have one person that found the ‘egg’ and shared it with the group. Either way though, you can feel good that the message did get across, even if it was buried in the blather.
The thing is most of us probably think we are pretty effective communicators. We might even ask our peers, friends, and colleagues to give us feedback and help us improve. But, especially if you are the boss, people lie. A better way to see how your communication stacks up is to put it to the test once in a while.
So where is lunch again?