Effective Communication

What makes an effective communicator?

How many times have you been in this conversation?
"You never told me that"
"Yes I did!"

Your job as a communicator is more than just wrapping all of the pertinent information into easily digestible paragraphs, though it is certainly part of it. To become an effective communicator you must also:

1. Ensure your audience is in a receptive state.
a. If your audience is bored or if they don't understand your vocabulary they'll hear less than a quarter of the information.
b. If your audience is stressed out and busy with other projects, they'll hear less than half of your message.
c. If your audience is hostile or defensive, guess what, they're not going to hear a word you're saying.

2. Allow your audience plenty of opportunities to retain your message
a. Most of us can only retain a portion of what we hear. That means if you deliver your data flawlessly, the majority of your audience will only remember three-quarters of it.
b. Identify about three of the most important bits of information and be sure to repeat these at least three times during the presentation.
c. Assume that your audience is going to zone in and out during the presenation. To that end, find three different ways of delivering the same information during your intro, in the body of the presentation, and again in conclusion.

3.