Message Not Received: Why Business Communication Is Broken and How to Fix It

Message Not Received: Why Business Communication Is Broken and How to Fix It

by Phil Simon
Released March 2015
Publisher(s): Wiley
ISBN: 9781119017035

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Book description

Get your message across the right way with clear communication

Message Not Received provides the tools and techniques that make an effective writer and public speaker. Particularly on topics related to data and technology, effective communication can present a challenge in business settings. This book shows readers how those challenges can be overcome, and how to keep the message from getting lost in the face of mismatched levels of knowledge, various delivery media, and the library of jargon that too often serves as a substitute for real, meaningful language. Coverage includes idea crystallization, the rapidly changing business environment, Kurzweil's law of accelerating change, and our increasing inability to understand what we are saying to each other. Rich with visuals including diagrams, slides, graphs, charts, and infographics, this guide provides accessible information and actionable guidance toward more effectively conveying the message.

Today, few professionals can ignore the tsunami of technology that permeates their lives, advancing far more rapidly that most of us can handle. As a result, too many people think that successful speaking means using buzzwords, jargon, and invented words that sound professional, but don't actually communicate meaning. This book provides a path through the noise, helping readers get their message across succinctly, efficiently, and effectively.

  • Adapt your approach for more effective communication

  • Learn the critical skill of crystallizing ideas

  • Tailor your style to the method of delivery

  • Ensure that your message is heard, understood, and internalized

    • It doesn't matter whether you're pitching to a venture capitalist, explaining daily challenges to a non-tech manager, or speaking to hundreds of people - jargon-filled word salad uses a lot of words to say very little. Better communication requires a different approach, and Message Not Received gives you a roadmap to more effective speaking and writing for any audience or medium.

    Table of contents

    1. Preface
      1. The Wrong Way to Announce a New Product Launch
      2. The Good News about Bad Business Communication
      3. Notes
    2. Part I Worlds Are Colliding
      1. Introduction: The Intersection of Business, Language, Communication, and Technology
        1. Subject: The Other Scourge of Business Communication
        2. Technology and the Cardinal Importance of Business Communication
        3. What’s the Big Whoop?
        4. From Pencils to WhatsApp: A Little History Lesson
        5. Book Overview and Outline
        6. My Communication Bona Fides
        7. Next
        8. Notes
      2. 1 Technology Is Eating the World
        1. Whoops
        2. Accelerating Technological Change
        3. The Rise of the Machines
        4. Trailing the Goldfish: Our Declining Attention Spans
        5. A Communications Revolution
        6. The Age of the Entrepreneur
        7. Disruption Is Cool
        8. SEO and the Really Long Tail
        9. The Sliding Scale of Search
        10. Google and the Never-Ending Jargon Train
        11. Marketing Madness
        12. Mobile Mania
        13. BYOD
        14. The Rise of the Tech Celebrity
        15. A New Body Politic
        16. Other Trends
        17. Next
        18. Notes
      3. 2 The Increasingly Overwhelmed Employee
        1. Mad Men No More
        2. Abundant Leisure: Keynes Was Wrong
        3. Drowning in Data
        4. Demonizing the Tech Companies
        5. The Limits of Technology’s Tentacles
        6. A Different Kind of Workplace
        7. Is Being Overwhelmed Even a Choice Anymore?
        8. Next
        9. Notes
    3. Part II Didn’t You Get That Memo?
      1. 3 What We Say
        1. Jargon: The Cause of So Much Noise
        2. Beyond Jargon: Other Communication and Language Atrocities
        3. Next
      2. Appendix to Chapter 3
        1. Notes
      3. 4 How We Say It
        1. A Communications Dynasty: Explaining E-Mail’s Impressive Reign
        2. E-Mail Nation
        3. How We’re Working Isn’t Working
        4. Next
        5. Notes
      4. 5 Why Bad Communication Is Bad Business
        1. One Size Does Not Misfit All
        2. Message Not Received
        3. Decreased Clarity, Credibility, and Trust
        4. Lost Sales
        5. Severed Relationships and Burnt Bridges
        6. Poor Execution and Strategic Blunders
        7. Lower Productivity
        8. Inefficiency, Waste, and Severed Relationships
        9. Increased Risk of Project Failure
        10. Other Long-Term Employee Issues
        11. Net Effect: A Vicious Cycle
        12. Next
        13. Notes
    4. Part III Message Received
      1. 6 Don’t Call It a Paradigm
        1. Language
        2. E-Mail
        3. Selecting a Communications Medium
        4. Handling the Fallout
        5. Next
        6. Notes
      2. 7 Words and Context
        1. A Trip Down Memory Lane
        2. The World of Words
        3. Communication Context, Awareness, and Technique
        4. Next
        5. Notes
      3. 8 Life Beyond E-Mail
        1. Communication and Collaboration Circa 2004
        2. The Benefits of Old Tools
        3. E-Mail Detox
        4. If Not E-Mail, Then What?
        5. True Communication and Collaboration in Action
        6. Slaying the E-Mail Dragon: Klick Health
        7. Keep Calm and Jive On
        8. The Internal Social Network
        9. New Tools: No Guarantees
        10. Next
        11. Notes
    5. Part IV What Now?
      1. Coda
    6. Acknowledgments
    7. Thank You
    8. Selected Bibliography
    9. About the Author
    10. Index
    11. End User License Agreement

    Product information

    • Title: Message Not Received: Why Business Communication Is Broken and How to Fix It
    • Author(s): Phil Simon
    • Release date: March 2015
    • Publisher(s): Wiley
    • ISBN: 9781119017035