Why metrics matter to me

Performance metrics matter. We know this and yet we continue to track things that have little to do with our goals. The better alternative is to make sure that you're measuring progress against the things that matter most to you and your future. Here are four steps to think through that process.

I'm trying to move away from outputs-- such as number of contracts-- and focus more on outcomes. Did I create a connection with a client? Did a client come back after the project to ask more questions or start another task? Would we both want to work together again?

What do you track on a regular basis?

Bad Boss Stories

Collections aren't cool as they used to be, you know, with all of this tidying up we're doing.  So if you've been good about clearing stuff out but still have the urge to pile up some random stuff in one place, consider adding to this short, e-collection of bad boss stories.

  • "Giving the first employee of the month award to himself.", Huffington Post
  • "My first boss was the founding partner of a mid-sized law firm in Boston….He used to come in every morning, vise-grip my head with his hands, kiss the top of it, and say 'hello my luv, ho-e-you, ho-e-you'. Then he'd proceed to shred me all day long. His best moments were after I was sick and lost too much weight, used to walk around screaming 'where's the damned stick with t*ts?.' Really. I worked for him for 15 years. , Huffington Post
  • “I had a boss who tried to fire a retired employee. She had told him that he could not retire because there was too much work to be done, but he retired anyway. When she found out, she was heard throughout the office screaming into the speakerphone at the personnel director that she wanted to fire the employee. The personnel director chuckled as he told her that she could not fire an employee who had already quit.”, PennLive
  • “The first thing he does that is horrible is he points to his office when he wants to see me. He doesn’t call me by my name. Then he gives me a list of things that the higher-ups specifically told him to do and tells me to do it. He then tells me that the higher-ups don’t like me and I shouldn’t be friends with them. ( I know this isn’t true from talking to the higher-ups). He goes golfing and says that it’s company business and gets paid to go golfing while I do all his work and mine.”, PennLive

To Master Social Media, Simplicity Wins

Social media is overwhelming. The very thing that makes it remarkable and powerful also makes you feel like you're lost in the woods, at night, in heels, with only half of a Lara Bar in your purse. The volume and constant flow of messages can lead to an urge to stay constantly engaged to keep up-- let alone make any progress in getting your message out.

In working on a piece for Inc.com in collaboration with Vendeve, these bonus tips were shared with me.  They come from Julie Lowe. Julie is a Facebook Ads expert whose mission is to make online marketing feel accessible and empowering - rather than mysterious & stressful - for every online entrepreneur.

Here's what Julie says...

  1. Use automation to your advantage. While you can't automate relationship building, you can schedule posts in advance. (Sit down once a week, create your content, and schedule posts to go out at set dates and times.) I use hootsuite but I know there are others out there like tweetdeck.
  2. Curate content to round out your posting schedule. Every post you share doesn't have to be your own original content. (Use tools like Postplanner or Scoop.it to find value-add content and avoid the burnout that can come from constant creation mode.) I use Feedly and am looking to change this up a bit. 
  3. Set some boundaries. One of the reasons people get social media burnout is that it becomes a time-suck. You can easily lose hours of productivity each week if you're not careful. (Schedule social networking into your day like any other business activity, set your intentions for how to use that time, and set a timer if you have to!)

You can find Julie at SociallyAligned.com

deliciously technical and controversial

My meetings started here this morning. As my grandfather would have said it, "We couldn't have had a prettier day." And, it's AUGUST.  In DC.

Gorgeous weather aside, I had the pleasure of working with a group of scientists gathered in DC this week to share their climate change research and talk about the challenges they see in doing this work going forward.

As is so often the case with highly-skilled experts, the technical challenges are big-- no doubt-- but those don't scare them. The issues that keep them up at night are around talking about their findings, building understanding and acceptance, gaining support, and, ultimately, seeing behavior change. In short, all of the communications stuff. I learned this week that answering the common question, "what do you do?" can start a debate in a bar.

The vested man above is Paul Ollig. He's a National Park Service employee and the Chief of Interpretation for the National Mall and Memorial Parks.  He's a fantastic storyteller-- if you ever have a chance to walk the Mall with him, you're guaranteed to learn something new. So, Paul led a tour today for this group of climate scientists to talk about climate change impacts to the Mall and the city and park's adaptation efforts-- including the construction of a massive levee to protect the monuments from storm surges.

Before setting off, he opened up a discussion on what techniques are effective when talking about climate science. The insights shared by the group were great-- and I think can be a good starting point to communicating any highly technical and controversial material.

  1. Humanize your work. Describe why you personally are drawn to the specifically challenges. What experiences or beliefs lead you to this point?
  2. Chunk the message. Talking with someone who is incredibly knowledgeable and enthusiastic about their work can feel like being sprayed with a fire hose. Be able to chunk your message into "bite site" points and know how to sequence them in case people ask for more information.
  3. Avoid trigger words (audience-dependent). Know your audience and what trigger words might cause them to shut down and stop listening. For some, "climate change" are those trigger words that have such a strong association that it might be difficult to overcome someone's position. The goal often is to talk about the impacts, the risks, the behavior changes needed, etc. Being flexible enough to do that with more general language can keep a much-needed conversation going.
  4. Make it visual. Snow, I learned, is a visually compelling way to talk about climate change. What are the pictures that help people understand the risks and impacts of your issue?  Use those.
  5. Take opportunities to talk with kids. Of course, any conversation with a kid has to be age appropriate-- and ideally pre-approved by a parent or teacher.  The point is though that kids help you test how accessible your message is. Can a 5th grader understand your point? Kids will also has great questions and will typically come to a conversation with fewer preconceived ideas. If nothing else, you both might learn something.

One of my colleagues has this great picture of Einstein with a quote that reads, "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough."  I love this because it's so true. Times (many, many times) in the past that I've stumbled over technical messages have come down to precisely this problem.  My understanding was more superficial that I realized. Engaging with an active listener can quickly reveal those holes.  

So, if there was one overarching recommendation, it would be to know your topic well.  Know it so well that you can avoid jargon or terms that only another technician would understand. My key takeaway from meeting with these awesome scientists this week is that they're not out to impress anyone with their smarts-- though their knowledge and skills certainly are impressive.  They've trying to make a difference in the world and you can only do that by bringing others along.

what are you talking about?

No, really. It's an honest question. What are you talking about?

I came across The Good Men Project during a typical click to click to click browsing session. I was curious to learn what was meant by "good men" and why the hell this too had to have the "project" bit at the end. (I think PMI's relentless marketing is to blame for the runaway use of this term for anything and everything people want to say, do, or explore on the Internet. Time for a universal find and replace!)

Anyway, I got sucked in and spent a good hour or so clicking around trying to understand what good men are talking about. Scanning the site, I saw stuff on social and family issues, professional challenges, and personal values. This are thoughts on how to raise good children, achieve work/life balance, and improve relationships.

I was surprised. I guess not surprised that men were talking about these things (after all there are men's opinions all over the place) but previously unaware that they were swapping views within a circle of other men.

Prior to coming across this site, I'd imagined that most man-to-man conversations (outside of work or direct father to son type stuff) were focused on sports, maybe a little politics, and on the one slow sports day each year, you might get a a calendar review that went something like, "I went to X, then ate Y, then sat in traffic back to X."

To my knowledge, no such site exists for women. In fact, women have been trying to un-have the conversation about what makes a "good woman" for more than 50 years now.

It made me wonder what people are talking about within their circles of same-ness.  For me? I have a pretty good handle on running conversations among federal management consultants (procurement is broken), working moms (there's never enough time), and half-assed vegans (green smoothies count, right?)

Reflecting on what people are talking about with others they view most similar to them (in life stage, circumstance, interests, race, religion, and so on) provides a lot of insights into their worries and priorities. Understanding these ongoing conversations is important-- not so that we can parachute in to solve them-- but so that we can better understand each other, be more empathetic, and more helpful when the opportunity presents itself.

It's sometimes difficult to answer the question-- what's on your mind? To get to the same place we might instead ask, what are you talking about?

three steps lead down a better path

So, you’ve hatched an idea. That’s great! Now what do you do with it?

The challenge now is figuring out how to share that idea in an interesting, intriguing, or compelling way and start the process of achieving buy-in. To start, you have to get ultra-clear on precisely what problem you’re solving, what the impact will be, who will need to be consulted, and whether it’s an idea even worthy of being said out loud to begin with.

To sort, shape, and validate the idea, ask yourself (or your team) the following questions:

  1. Sort the idea by problem solved: What issue does this idea solve? What pain does it eliminate? Is it a total or partial solution? How do you know that this is a problem? Include the supporting the data, trend, or feedback that not only speaks to the existence of the problem but its magnitude.
  2. Shape: To shape your idea, examine how known culture, attitudes, resources, spending sensitivities, and anything particularly polarizing should be considered. What about external conditions, such as the economy, public perception, customer/market surveys, industry trends and so on? Will they have an impact? Make adjustments or shape your solution to account for (or acknowledge) these factors.
  3. Validate: Do you have a confidante or trusted adviser whom you can safely bounce ideas off of? Ideally, this is someone who isn’t directly affected by the proposed outcome but who has some understanding of the organization and purpose. Someone like this can be invaluable and, such these relationships really blossom when they’re reciprocal. Touch base with a trusted adviser to float your concept and get a gut reaction. Based on their feedback, decide if tweaks are needed, additional people should be pulled in, or if you’re good to go.

Disciplining yourself to take these three early steps for each idea you’re passionate about pursuing helps lay the foundation for success in the future.

the truth about change

Didn't George Carlin have a classic joke about driving? It went something like -- anyone driving faster that you is a maniac, anyone slower is an idiot. So, so true. And actually, the same is true about change at work. The bottom-line is that we're all most comfortable when we're in the driver's seat and controlling the speed.

So, counter to the concept that “people hate change,” the desire for change is fundamental to who we are. We just want to be in charge of change and how it impacts us. We can’t help but observe our surroundings and think of all the ways our processes, relationships, and environments could be better. 

And we crave impact from that change—and not in a static, predictable kind of way. We crave being part of a team and being connected to others. This isn’t an introvert versus extrovert thing, but a recognition that we all need and want to feel part of something greater than ourselves. 

We want to leave our mark by making changes—even slight ones—to our world. This desire is most often channeled through our work but because we’re paid to do so, an immediate, dynamic tension is created. As we arrive at the office or log on in our jammies from home, we become a force driven to make change. I don’t know about you, but that’s what I’m thinking when slogging through hundreds of e-mails each day.

And on that point, what if you’re already feeling overworked and overwhelmed? Doesn’t pitching new ideas just make matters worse? Is it even worth it?

This is one of those cases where the opposite is true. You feel better when you proactively pitch ideas and pursue the changes that you want to see at work because it puts you in the driver’s seat. Conversely, we get anxious when we cede control of our days and stop being the director of our own energy.

All of our organizational constructs—the org chart hierarchies, networks, training sessions, meetings—were all created to tamp out, fan, guide, or otherwise control all that energy. Taking some of that control back can be accomplished by thoughtfully pitching an idea.

Planning to plan? Answer these 9 questions first

A client asked me this morning to review and comment on his organization’s strategic plan template.  A template?  Wait, what? After a bit of (polite) questioning, I learned that this client's organization director is asking several sub-units to draft strategic plans. Once completed, these plans will be rolled up into a master strategic plan.  

I wanted to respond with something helpful but the thoughts racing through my mind went something like... "You can’t template a strategic plan. I mean, sure, there are a handful of broad headers that you could type up but to what end?  Creating a template would exacerbate one of the biggest problems with our typical approaches to strategic planning. And that problem is more focus on the end document than the process of discovery, team building, creative thinking, and cross-discipline input.

Back to my client... he elaborated that he was looking for some thought-provoking questions to include in an annotated outline. The outline would be the basis of a strategic planning meeting agenda and would be during the session to facilitate discussion. Sigh.  Ok, that makes sense.  Based on his request, I jotted down some basic strategic planning guidelines and the kind of questions you should be asking of your team.

“Bottom up planning is different and worth trying for organizations really needing or wanting buy-in. It’s not fast or neat or clean but you will get a pretty good sense of what gets people interested and excited about the mission. ”

Before doing “save as” and creating your spanking new strategic plan file, set some time parameters.  As arbitrary as they might seem, establishing short but reasonable boundaries around the effort is tremendously helpful to participants.  Without sideboards, strategic planning can and will go on forever and eventually be crushed under its own weight  So, I’d suggest that you set a deadline of about a week-- 2 max.  Seriously. You (meaning all the participants in your organization) really do not need more time. Simple and clear beats perfect and polished.

 

 

Ok, here you go...

Problem Statement

  1. What are two problems we're trying to solve?  (Sit back and enjoy the range of answers. Giving everyone 2 helps them focus and provides a little wiggle room)
  2. How do other comparable organizations describe the same or similar problem? (Include for a quick compare and contrast exercise.)

Current State and Desired End State

  1. Briefly describe where the organization stands today in the face of this problem.
  2. In an ideal world, where would you be and by when?  Answering this question can and will consume most of the discussion. You can only include this question if there is a pretty good sense of the options. If the problem is truly unsolved, additional research and exploration is needed. A good meeting but just one step back. Another thing... Personally, I recommend that you keep the goals modest and the timelines relatively near-term.  Multi-year strategic plans have very limited practical value.

Stakeholders and Customers

  1. Who or what is impacted by the problem? Try to name the biggies and cut people off before you get too far past 6-8.
  2. Within the organization, who owns the biggest pieces of trying to solve this? (Good list for pulling in future reviewers and collaborators)
  3. Who are you trying to please, support, engage, or help?  These are your customers (even if you’re not “selling” anything.) Spend most of the time you have talking about this group then take another pass through your decisions and tweak from the customer’s point of view.
  4. Besides you, who outside of the organization cares about this outcome?

Opportunities and Limitations

  1. What events can you reasonable anticipate in the set time frame that you want to take advantage of or avoid.  Keep it short and snappy.
  2. So what’s the path?
  3. Given all the thoughts above, provide some sense of the range of options considered.  Which path best takes advantage of all of the resources at your disposal? This is your strategic path.  Write this down—on paper if that’s easiest.

Evaluation Points

  1. What logical evaluation points along the path exist?  Mark these roughly on your calendar and commit to a quick (less than 1 meeting) evaluation of how you’re doing.

Have fun with it.  To me, one of the most commonly missed opportunities with strategic planning is that we all take it too seriously and limit input to only the coolest kids in the office.  Lame.  Instead, even the most modest effort to make it interesting, take some guesses, accept some risk, and integrate as many viewpoints as possible will make this different from the last time.

Oh and encourage participants/contributors not to get too hung up on the language and meaning of strategic.  I’d say that a plan is strategic if it reflects multiple viewpoints and illuminates a path forward-- given the best information available at the time.  A project plan would follow and describe the step-by-step once this approach is finalized.

Follow through or else

Color Grid: Spring 2 by Allison Long Hardy

Color Grid: Spring 2 by Allison Long Hardy

Strategic plans are like dust bunnies. They have a cute name but are an annoying reminder that there is something else we should be doing. They're amassed from the fur, fluff, and fuzz floating around and tend to reproduce in dark corners. Strategic plans are often the end goal of a long process with at least a meeting or two scheduled along the way.

Strategic planning meetings can be great but have limitations. Done well, they...

  • Get everyone on the same basis of understanding around the problem to be solved
  • Lay the foundation for some near-term decisions the leadership team will ultimately have final say on
  • Energize a team in a rut

Sadly, the initial interest and excitement generated during the meeting can flip to disappointment quickly after. The problem usually isn't in the meeting itself, it's the follow through. To avoid frustration and reduce the risk of long-term eye-rolling, there are two choices.

  1. Plan, schedule, and market the meeting as a team building exercise. Then when good strategic thinking happens and written down in the minutes, the team is delighted.
  2. Build follow through into the process at the beginning. Schedule a least post-meeting sessions to bring closure to the plan and, more importantly, get a few (2-3) of the priority actions rolling.  Then, get a meeting on the calendar for one year out as a reminder to all that the plan will be revisited, progress reviewed, and actions refined for the next year.

high impact organizations at CBODN today!

Kid prep, run, meet with a client, get to the conference, present, and then we’re off to Gettysburg for the weekend with the entire family for dinner, nostalgia, and mini-horses. There is a lot going on today but I am so excited to hear the others, then speak at the Chesapeake Bay Organizational Development Network (CBODN) conference today!  


Here’s the gist of the message. The slides will be up on Slideshare later today.


High-impact organizations—what are they and how to we get there?


We all want impact. We want to do work we think is important and make progress. Too often, we’re held back by missed opportunities to connect with our leadership and get buy-in because we’re using our language, not theirs.


When I start working with new clients I often hear them say, “We’ve told them (their leadership) this before but they just don’t get it.”  Sometimes that is true but I’ve found a lot of times that our bosses understand the numbers but they’re not seeing the connection with the bigger picture—something they care deeply about.  And I believe that it’s our job—not theirs—to make that connection.


How might you do this?  Well, to start… 

  1. Inventory your current ideas, key proposals, objectives, goals or whatever you call the stuff you would really like to see done.  
  2. Then, document the top issues for you organization—coming from a recent speech or memo or your agency’s strategic plan.  It’s important here to pull from materials and use the language that will seem most familiar to them.
  3. Complete a mapping exercise.  Look ideas that can either be renamed or pitched slightly differently to better demonstrate the issue.
  4. Lastly, sit down and plan a series of conversations with the right staff—heads of each line of business or other senior staff to build a broader base of support.

With revamped messages and a calendar loaded with a handful of strategic meetings, you can begin demonstrating a connection with the broader mission.

 

sticking with it

I overheard crumbs of a conversation between two people at Starbucks the other day. I was waiting in line. I wasn't trying to be nosy, really. They were within two feet of me. Living in and around DC, however, you never know what juicy bit you might hear so I didn't make any attempts to distract myself either.

Anyway, the gist of the conversation was one person pitching the other on creating a business partnership. The closing comment was, “Hey, this was great.  Thanks for your persistence on this.  I’m glad we finally got together.”  I suspect that all of the seated twosomes around the shop were having conversations that we’re basically the same at their core. Call it networking or catching up or getting-to-know-you or whatever, a lot of things start this way over a latte.

“Thanks for your persistence on this,” stuck with me. It’s not something you hear said out loud often but it struck me as a compliment. I can think of dozens of things I've bought or bought into and now love—products or services or experiences or job offers—that took someone more than one try to sell me. When approaching someone new with something new, we give up too easily. We all do. 

But what happens when we approach someone with whom we have an established relationship—our leadership or boss—with something new?

I scanned the recent experiences of friends and colleagues and, of course, my own that came to mind. I thought of my friend and neighbor who doggedly pursued recognition for a key client over about a five month period. In the end, her persistence paid off and she ensured that the client won an important industry award given out by her organization. I thought of a colleague with deep reservations about the risks in a prospective scope of work who pushed for a half dozen rounds edits with the account lead and client to get it to a place she felt more comfortable supporting the assignment. And I thought of a former boss and mentor who fearlessly (and like a charming goofball) works every room, everywhere she goes turning over stones looking for fresh opportunities.

After just this quick mental search, I decided that it’s impossible to know whether we’re more persistent with those we know than those we don’t. I suspect that we’re a little better when we know the mind of the recipient and have a much more open door to reach them. I also suspect that because we know them we filter the kinds of ideas we approach our leadership with in advance. We assume a “no” so we don’t even ask.

For those issues you have raised and ideas submitted...

  • Where did they go?
  • Are the concepts working way through a review and consideration process or are they lingering?
  • How important is it?
  • Is it worth following up (perhaps again?) today?

the two-step: gaining leadership buy-in at work

LOMO No. 13, Lisa Barbero

LOMO No. 13, Lisa Barbero

Most of us work within organizations where bosses tend to hang out. When we have ideas, one of the first hurdles often is getting our boss to agree—agree to let us expend our own work time, engage other staff, use corporate resources, buy something, sell something, or speak up and out on an important issue.

This connection to our leadership is such a fundamental part of the employment pact that it’s not explicitly written down anywhere. We all just “get” that if you want to do something outside of your specific, immediate job responsibilities at work, you’re going to need to ask.

This is as true for entry level staff as it is for the most senior executives. We all have someone who represents a gate we have to pass through to gain buy-into our vision. This approval gate creates tension. In some cases this is a really positive, creative tension. In other cases, unfortunately, it can be a disappointing, frustrating, murky mess.

 

 

 

 

There are communication strategies we can use to improve our chances of gaining buy-in from the beginning.

  1. The start is finding common ground on what problem we’re trying to solve. Is there agreement that we have an issue? Is it solvable in their view? Is it important enough to rise above other priorities? If we’re already past this point, great. We can skip ahead to crafting the pitch describing the proposed solution.  If we’re unsure, our time is well-invested to describe the problem we see and make sure we hit multiple viewpoints—our staff, our client’s, other stakeholders, and lastly, our own. 
  2. Next, our leadership has to agree that some significant portion of the solution we’re proposing might just work. The trick here is including a sufficient number of interesting, compelling hooks but resisting the urge to come bearing an entirely baked solution. One general thing about leaders—and you can probably relate to this yourself—is that they like to put their own stamp on things. Any solution that is completed researched and documented doesn't leave a lot of room for input. So an alternative is presenting the framework of our solution, demonstrating what you know and what you've researched, and leaving a couple of questions that create room for further engagement.

In the end, the goal is to get leadership support not just approval.  We want to see their whole head (and heart, if we’re lucky) invested in the outcome. We want them to change at an emotional, molecular level and support us with every brain cell. Anything short of that isn't full buy-in. 

extreme makeover, powerpoint edition

Have you ever been in a crowded elevator at work and spent the trip down mentally giving everyone new hair? In my imagination, these busy executives are grateful for the fresh new look-- and the outfit tips I throw in just for fun.

The real reaction would surely be far from glee so, needless to say, I've never piped up. Maybe it's just wishful thinking that someday I'll luck into an elevator ride with the adorable and talented Ted Gibson and he'll forever solve the tangled, flat mess that I've been struggling with for 40 years (will fact check whether or not I had hair at birth. I can't remember). In my fantasy, Ted and I hit it off so well that he decides to move to Falls Church and swings by every morning with a latte and his hairdryer. A girl can dream.

Anyway, I love before and after pictures-- personal, home, and now PowerPoint slides. Wait, what? Yes!  Slideshare does makeovers and they're pretty clever. Click here to see one.

The "before" slides look so much like millions of decks I've created myself over the years. The "afters" are so clean and simple that it wouldn't take too much time to try it out. Part of trick is communicating why to client and getting them onboard with stuffing the detailed content into the notes section. If you're prepping for a big internal meeting, the format might throw people off for a moment... until you hit back with great, well-prepared talking points.

Give it a shot!

3 "must do's" for your next advisory council meeting

Sprouts by Louise van Terheijden Tilburg, Netherland

Sprouts by Louise van Terheijden Tilburg, Netherland

Before you click away to check out a more interesting topic-- such as the effectiveness of various types of dental floss-- just stick with me for a moment.

Do you have an external council or advisory committee whose raison d'etre is to review your program's progress, provide guidance, and make strategic recommendations? Uh, yeah. Me too.

In fact, just about every client I can think of has 1 (if not 14 active groups) hovering nearby who are "here to help!" And by "help" they mean ready to offer context-light suggestions and fancy footwork to avoid doing any actual work because they have other full-time jobs.

We do this advisory council thing to ourselves. It all sounds like a good idea in the beginning.  "Hey, we're kicking of our new strategic plan so we should probably create an independent group to help steer the ship."

There is a lot right about the concept.  Infusing an external perspective in any important new program is invaluable. If they're able to provide top cover too when things invariably go awry, then they're worth their weight in the coffee and light refreshments you have to provide to get them to show up in person at the meeting. The problems pop up about a month before the prescheduled quarterly meeting.

Usually, someone suddenly remembers that the council meeting is coming up and the program team immediately starts to get anxious. These external advisory councils are typically comprised of senior staff-- a gaggle of folks you clearly want to impress.  However, they're also intentionally disconnected from day-to-day program operations.  That's what gives them supposed objectivity.  Council members are also selected to represent a variety of organizational interests.  So in one meeting you and your program team has the delightful opportunity to piss off and disappoint not just one executive but a one from every division!

So, yes. Communicating with these folks can be tricky, distracting, time consuming, and even risky. To overcome these, you need to check yourself and your team against a list of "must do's" YOU need from the them and not just what they're expecting out of you.  Counter to our typical approach, the best communications strategy is to consider the council a resource-- not a validate-or.

  1. Review the year's action plan. Too far out and they'll lose interest.  Nobody cares and a few might be thinking they won't be around.  Don't waste any time on super, outyear vision-y stuff. Instead, ask them to add and delete actions to ensure alignment with broader organizational goals.  You might make a rule that this is a one for one swap.  Anything new can be added as long as something else drops off the list.  The objective isn't to overload but to hone the edges.
  2. Highlight hurdles-- which likely include money. Because they're advisory, you're not asking them for money but you're seeking advice on how to secure the resources you need. The tricky thing here is to be open to creative suggestions. Be prepared later to laugh over drinks with friends on the most ridiculous ones.
  3. Ask for advocacy.  Seriously, this is big and should be relatively easy for them to do. The question is-- when do you have an upcoming meeting or speaking opportunity that you can share some of the highlights on what we're doing, our accomplishments, and plans for the future. Be bold in soliciting their support and get them to make a commitment out loud-- if you can.

On top of these, if you keep the presentations relatively short and end early, you're sure to please.  Good luck!

talking nerdy

Cloud Print by Yangyang Pan

Cloud Print by Yangyang Pan

In this awesome TedGlobal presentation, Melissa Marshall shares a simple and elegant formula for more effective communication between scientists and engineers and, um, the rest of us. I encourage you to watch the short talk and won't spoil the fun by spilling the beans on the formula itself.

However... I'll say that her points apply to the science community, as well as, technical folks in a wide array of disciplines-- information technology and anything related to the cloud, health and bleh-insurance, facilities and infrastructure, and just about anything else you can think of that truly required understanding calculus and not just doing the minimum to pass.

In working with technical clients to come up with content and communications that resonate beyond their internal meetings with each other, there are two really, key things.  

  1. In my experience, we must fiercely and unrelentingly tie the purpose and benefits back to something any general smart person can understand.  This isn't "dumb-ing it down." That's a poke in the eye that doesn't get conversations off on the right foot.  Instead, there is some important underlying purpose for why technical folks are doing the important work that they are.  What is that?
  2. The second is helping manage the level of detail. Highly technical folks often can't actually tell the difference between a headline and a detail.  They're too close to their work to effectively differentiate.  To help here, I work with clients to outline all of important thoughts they want to share. After a first pass to streamline and sort everything into the right buckets, you can then have a more objective conversation about what is appropriate to share.  For most general audiences, content should only be at the highest (most outdented) level and include 5-6 points. And maybe, just maybe, you can go one level down for a new program pitch or Congressional hearing.  All the rest can be saved for questions or just admired in the notes.

Big hugs to all the science and techie types out there. We love ya... we just don't always understand ya.