Where did the failure occur?
Communication is often viewed as one of those “soft” skills that every reasonably educated person should already be good at, especially managers and senior leaders who have been around for a while. If that is true, why do so many management strategies and plans go undone? Why do so many good ideas and great products go unsold? Why do we have so many failures to communicate?
I recently came across the following, which was attributed to Konrad Lorenz. It’s quite profound, and is itself a wonderful example of clear and concise communication.
- What is thought is not said
- What is said is not heard
- What is heard is not understood
- What is understood is not believed
- What is believed is not yet advocated
- What is advocated is not yet acted on
- What is acted on is not yet completed
Is it possible that communication is actually one of the hardest skills of all?
Clueless
Tom Morello, the guitarist for Rage Against the Machine, is not happy that Paul Ryan likes his band. Morello says Ryan “is clueless” about the band and what its lyrics stand for.
I’m even more clueless, because until today I had barely heard of RATM, and had never heard of Morello.
But the most clueless in this scenario is Morello, along with so many other entertainers who get upset when “the wrong people” like their music or when they take meaning form their lyrics that was never intended. Springsteen is embarrassed that Chris Christie is one of his most ardent fans, and while I love Jimmy Buffett and would love to sit down and have a margarita with him, I would be very careful not to discuss politics. (Although we do agree on manatees.)
Here’s a newsflash for musicians—and for everyone else: once the message leaves your lips, it doesn’t belong to you anymore.
Your message does not belong to you anymore. Once your message hits your listeners’ brains, it ricochets wildly around their existing attitudes, models and memories, finally coming to rest who knows where. Communication is about your listener. Every listener is different from you in some way, so there is always a certainty that they will interpret your message at least slightly differently than you intended. Multiply that by thousands of fans, and you have an almost infinite number of varied interpretations.
Would Jesus recognize the interpretation of his message today? Would Lincoln, or Gandhi?
So, what does this mean to you as a communicator?
- Unlike a rock star, you can make the effort to learn and understand as much as possible about your audience to make sure your message is tailored for the best fit.
- Unlike a rock star, you have the advantage of being able to pay attention to your listener, to ask questions, or to reframe or rephrase your message as necessary.
- Unlike a musician, you’re not solely in transmission mode all the time—or are you?
I was running a class for sales training facilitators last week, when the conversation turned to the similarities between teaching and selling. Good salespeople do a lot of teaching, and good teachers do a lot of selling. Both professionals only succeed if their customers or pupils do—you can’t be a teacher unless someone learns, and you can’t sell without someone buying.
Churchill said, “Personally, I’m always ready to learn, although I do not always like to be taught”, a phrase which mirrors the old sales adage that people like to buy but don’t like to be sold, and the skills required to get them to this point are the same for both professions.
Both professions know that their success hinges on commanding attention, and both know they have to tune in to WIFM (What’s in it for me?) to get the attention of their listeners. My brother-in-law, a high school math teacher, is always asked by his students why they need to learn some formulas or operations that they will probably never use. He tells them it’s like mental weightlifting: you won’t do those exact movements in sports or in daily life, but it strengthens your muscles for the movements you do make.
Except for transactional sales that can be closed in one call, both professions rely on the listener taking appropriate action based on the information they receive. It’s not enough that they get it; you have to ensure that they act on it. For example, when I run a training session I always tell the students that I see it as a sales call, in which my purpose is to gain their willing commitment to use the processes and techniques they learn during the session. The best way to ensure that they will act on what you tell them is to make it their idea. That’s why salespeople and teachers both use questions to draw the right thinking out of the customer or the pupil. Whether it’s SPIN selling or the Socratic method, both approaches recognize that when the other person discovers something for themselves, compliance or learning are much more likely.
With teachers as well as salespeople, their listeners may question or object to what they are telling them, and that is a good thing. The poor ones in each profession want to get through their sales or lesson plan as efficiently as possible, with a minimum of interruptions, but the good ones know that the lack of questions is a bad thing, because it means that the other person just does not care enough to put up a fuss. Besides, the toughest objection to handle is the one you don’t get. The best teachers encourage healthy debate and have the humility to learn from the pupil; excellent salespeople listen far more than they speak. But both also have the confidence in their message that they are willing to challenge the other when they just don’t get it.
Persuasion often requires teaching, and teaching often requires persuasion. If you teach, think about doing a little more selling; if you sell, think about doing a little more teaching.
Like him or not, the man can coach
As a fan of the Miami Dolphins, who were left in the lurch by Nick Saban when he left to coach at Alabama, I am not a big fan of his, to put it mildly. Yet it’s important to give credit where it is due, and no one can say the man can’t coach college football, having won 3 of the last 9 national titles.
A recent article in Sports Illustrated talked about the system that Saban has put in place to achieve excellence, and how his approach is spreading through college football. “Instead of talking about wins and championships, Saban speaks about the Process. In its most basic form, the Process is Saban’s term for concentrating on the steps to ensure success rather than worrying about the end result.”
As Saban says, instead of the scoreboard, focus on dominating the man across from you; Instead of the title, think about finishing that 9th rep in the weight room.
If he were coaching salespeople, he would tell you that, instead of thinking about your commission, you should think about the needs of the person you’re talking to; instead of quota, make that extra phone call. If writers: instead of dreaming about how many books you’re going to sell, focus on the page you’re writing right now. For anyone: instead of envisioning success, envision what you will do to deserve it.
The focus on process works at organizational levels, as attested by Saban’s success, but it also works at individual levels, during the actual performance on game day. As sports psychologist Jason Selk says, it’s OK to set product goals, but then we must focus our attention on process goals, because processes are the only things under our control.
I’m sure the article vastly oversimplified how the Process works, but these three elements are clearly central to its success:
Fundamentals: It’s about doing fundamental things well, not about gimmicks. Innovation is great, but if you didn’t execute with the last idea, what makes you think it will be different this time? In so many cases, execution trumps ingenuity, and ingenuity can even distract from what really matters. People are always looking for tips and tricks of the trade, when they should be focusing on really learning the trade.
People: It’s about getting the right people; the physical skills and talent need to be there, but just as important are character[1], attitude and intelligence. Find the right people, and then train them relentlessly, focusing on the smallest detail, to make sure they fit and contribute to the Process.
Clear expectations: DO YOUR JOB. This was the wording on a sign hung up by coaching great Bill Belichick when Saban worked for him. The Process requires that responsibilities and expectations are clearly defined for everyone who works in it, and then holding them—and getting them to hold themselves—strictly accountable.
The Process was summed up nicely by Jimbo Fisher, the head coach at Florida State and a former Saban assistant: “Everybody thinks it’s right here (on the field), or that it’s the X’s and O’s. That’s the last part of it.”
[1] Those familiar with Saban’s history might roll their eyes at his talking about “character”, but that points out the differences between “moral” character elements such as honesty and compassion, and “performance” character attributes such as toughness, resilience, etc.
