Tuesday Tips

Communication is supposed to cause something.

If it doesn’t, there’s no point doing it.

And one simple way to ensure your comms do cause action…

… is to change your last thing so it mentions actions:

• Meetings – ensure the last item on every agenda is “Actions Arising”. This means there’ll be actions. Don’t end with “Any Other Business”. This just allows people to rant about whatever’s on their mind
• Conference calls – same as meetings (after all, a conference call is simply a meeting when you aren’t in the same room). So end with “Actions Arising”, not “Any Other Business”
• Presentations – Title your last slide “Next steps”. Underneath, write the actions you want your audience to do. When you do this, they’re more likely to do them. But when your final slide says “Thank you”, they’ll reply “You’re welcome. Now get out”
• Emails – Begin your last sentence with the words “Please can you”. And then specify what you want the recipient to do. That’s much better than “I look forward to hearing from you” – which means you often don’t

You get the idea.

Always end by stating what you want people to do… and they’re much more likely to do it.

Action point – Really easy. Really quick. Really powerful…

Preview today’s diary. Look at all your meetings, presentations, conference calls and emails…

Ensure every one ends with a Call To Action. Like this one…