| Contents |
Machine generated contents note: Preface Acknowledgments Part I: Background and Introduction Introduction: The Big Collision - The Intersection of Business, Language, Communication, and Technology Subject: The Other Scourge of Business Communication Technology and the Cardinal Importance of Business Communication What's the Big Whoop? From Pencils to WhatsApp: A Little History Lesson Book Overview and Outline My Communication Bona Fides Next Chapter 1: Technology Is Eating the World - The Dizzying Nature of Today's Existence Whoops Accelerating Technological Change Goldfish and Declining Attention Spans A Communications Revolution Unprecedented Automation and Artificial Intelligence The Age of the Entrepreneur Disruption Is Cool SEO, Google, and the Really Long Tail Marketing Madness Mobile Mania BYOD The Rise of the Tech Celebrity A New Body Politic Other Trends Next Notes Chapter 2: The Increasingly Overwhelmed Employee - Is This the New Normal? Mad Men No More Abundant Leisure: Keynes Was Wrong Drowning in Data Demonizing the Tech Companies The Limits of Technology's Tentacles A Different Kind of Workplace Is Being Overwhelmed Even a Choice Anymore? Next Notes Part II: Didn't You Get that Memo? - Why We Don't Communicate Good at Work Chapter 3: What We Say - Examining Words at Work Jargon: The Cause of So Much Noise Beyond Jargon: Other Communication and Language Atrocities Next Appendix 3A Notes Chapter 4: How We Say It - E-Mail Is Dead. Long Live E-Mail! A Communications Dynasty: Explaining E-Mail's Impressive Reign E-Mail Nation How We're Working Isn't Working Next Notes Chapter 5: Why Bad Communication Is Bad Business - The Unintended Consequences of Mixed and Missed Messages One Size Does Not Misfit All Message Not Received Decreased Clarity, Credibility, and Trust Lost Sales Severed Relationships and Burnt Bridges Poor Execution and Strategic Blunders Lower Productivity Inefficiency, Waste, and Severed Relationships Increased Risk of Project Failure Other Long-Term Employee Issues Net Effect: A Vicious Cycle Next Notes Part III: Message Received Chapter 6: Don't Call It a Paradigm - Guidelines for Effective Business Communication Language E-mail Selecting a Communications Medium Handling the Fallout Next Notes Chapter 7: Words and Context - Building a Solid Communication Foundation A Trip Down Memory Lane The World of Words Communication Context, Awareness, and Technique Next Notes Chapter 8: Life Beyond E-Mail - How Progressive Organizations are Using New Tools to Enable More Effective Collaboration and Communication Communication and Collaboration Circa 2004 The Benefits of Old Tools E-Mail Detox If Not E-Mail, Then What? True Communication and Collaboration in Action New Tools: No Guarantees Next Notes Part IV: What Now? Coda - Was This Message Received? Selected Bibliography About the Author Index . |
| Abstract |
"George Bernard Shaw once famously said, "The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place."Although he died in 1950, Shaw's words live on, especially in the business world. Far too many executives, salespeople, consultants, and even rank-and-file employees suck at communicating. Some think that they're speaking and writing effectively when they drop ostensibly sophisticated terms like paradigm shift, synergy, net-net, form factor, and optics. Others think that they're being clever.No doubt that you know the type. (Maybe you're even one of them and don't realize it.) These are the folks who regularly rely upon obscure acronyms, technobabble, jargon, and buzzwords when plain English would suffice just fine. They constantly invent new tech-laden words, bastardize others, and turn nouns into verbs. They ignore their audiences, oblivious to the context of their words. In other words, they talk without speaking.If bad business communication is a disease, then the prevalence of hackneyed and utterly meaningless terms is just one of its major symptoms. Aside from using confusing language, many corporate folks depend almost exclusively on a single communications vehicle: e-mail. In the process, they actively resist new, powerful, and truly collaborative tools specifically designed to make people work and communicate better.What's the net effect of this near-pervasive failure to effectively communicate while at work? The precise monetary figure is impossible to accurately quantify. At the same time, though, it cannot be overstated. At a minimum, communication breakdowns are directly responsible for myriad inefficiencies, duplicate efforts, ineffectual campaigns, project failures, largely avoidable gaffes, internal political squabbles, and forgone business opportunities.If that seems a bit lofty and abstract, think about how many misunderstandings could have been averted at your organization if two colleagues had simply engaged in a five-minute in-person conversation or videoconference over Skype. Ask yourself how many technical problems could have been solved with a quick phone call and a simple screen-sharing session.Fortunately, business communication need not suffer from antiquated tools and a commensurate mind-set. In Message Not Received, award-winning author Phil Simon demonstrates how intelligent professionals and organizations are embracing simpler language and new technologies to communicate in a much more straightforward and effective manner. No theoretical text, Simon takes us on a journey, stopping at progressive companies like Klick Health, Sidecar, and PR 20/20 along the way.Message Not Received examines how we communicate, use, and often misuse language and technology at work. It's high time to reexamine not only what we say while we're on the clock, but how we say it"-- Provided by publisher. |
