Sunday, January 16, 2011

Break Bread with Us

I have a few speaking engagements in the next few weeks that are open to the public. I hope you’ll take the opportunity to visit with me and see what these organizations have to offer. As you all know, I speak often and our local professional organizations are outstanding. Don’t miss the opportunity to find out just how much you can get out being a part of them.


Jan 24 – Dinner Meeting - Speaking about "Persuasion" to the International Council of Systems Engineering (INCOSE). See this link and RSVP as indicated to jolane@usc.edu

Jan 26 – Dinner Meeting - Speaking at the Project Management Institute (PMI) on the subject of "Building and Maintaining Productive Business Relationships". See this link and RSVP as indicated at the bottom of the page.

Feb 2 – Speaking for InlandNet.org on a subject yet to be determined, and I will make it interesting. This is a great group for people engaged in an employment transition. Note that the meeting is in the morning from 8:00am to 10:30am.


Insist on great business results! Go to Pathfinder Communication

Busy New Year?

CONTEST - I NEED YOUR HELP. I will be giving online and face-to-face three hour workshops starting in March. These will be on more communication tasks like "How to Repair Your Reputation with Your Boss", "How to Communicate your Strategy" or "How to Communicate with Engineers". Send me your ideas. IF I USE YOUR IDEA YOU WILL GET A FREE SEAT TO THE WORKSHOP!

Just write me at gregg@PFComm.com RIGHT NOW with something you'd like to learn how to communicate. DO IT RIGHT NOW.

I was reminded by several long time readers over the last week that I am late on the first newsletter of 2011, so I posted one this week and promise you all that I hope to be "tardy no more" this year.

The Pathfinder message is getting out and I should have figured it would - you help people communicate and they communicate about YOU!

BOY, has it been busy. I even had to hire a helper to help me get out from my backlog. Lucky me. I hope things pick up for all of you. The last two months have brought opportunity beyond my dreams.
  • I accepted an invitation to sit on the Business Advisory Council for UCSD extension and am looking forward to our first meeting.
  • I am putting together an online class for UCSD on Persuasion and Influence for Quality and Process Improvement Professionals.
  • I am working with a committee within the American Society for Quality at the national level to write a Body of Knowledge for Teamwork Excellence, and create a certification program for that Body of Knowledge.


Insist on great business results! Go to Pathfinder Communication

 

Elements of Persuasion #3

The persuasion techniques I have written about in the last couple of newsletters were geared towards teaching some of the “ground rules” regarding the subject. I hope you have all had an opportunity to try the techniques show. Those of you that have, no doubt are starting to see some difference in you results and would like a little more to work with. Here we go.


When you are discussing a work problem, and you are trying to persuade someone to help, go easy on the people involved. When faced with an accounting problem, for instance, don’t refer to “the dummies in accounting” or “the stubborn accounting manager”. In fact, do the opposite – the bigger the problem, the easier you go on the people.

• If you have a big accounting issue, say “I am certain that the people in accounting are doing all they can”.

• If it is a REAL problem, say “The people in accounting have been stellar in trying to help me with this, and I think we still have a lot more to do”.

• If it is a HUGE problem, say “the people in accounting are not the problem here – they are just like everyone else; doing all they can with what they have. We have to find a way to better communicate our needs and work with them to find solutions. This issue has significant impact and has to turn around before we find ourselves stopped from working on anything else”.

What I am saying is that the bigger the problem, the easier you go on the PEOPLE and the harder you get on the PROBLEM. This practice will help you win allies and make it far more likely for the people to want to help you and focus on the PROBLEM.

If you find yourself being attacked by another, recast the attack on you as an attack on the problem. For instance, let’s say you are a program manager and someone says to you “you’re just like all program managers; every one of you is ready to push us all to work more and work faster, but you have no idea how to do my job!” Do not address the attack on you. The best thing to do is to recast this as an attack on the problem. “I feel the same way. The pressure to get these jobs done is huge, and we are all so specialized that we can’t really grasp the details of each other’s job. It is a big problem, especially when it comes to budgeting time to do the work. We have set a deadline and the customer is counting on us to meet it. We need to discuss a better way to set deadlines for future jobs”

These are two ways you can keep the discussion from becoming about the people involved and focusing back on the PROBLEM you want to solve.


Insist on great business results! Go to Pathfinder Communication