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Great conversations make Green Hands

Tags: Be interesting | Presentations | Meetings | Leadership | Do more | Influencing

1st September

Here’s a weird question for a Tuesday morning…

When you communicate with someone, which part of their body do you affect the most?

The easiest way to answer this – and, in doing so, understand the impact of your communications – is to imagine these body parts turning bright green.

For example, your weekly Update Meeting. Lots of people swapping lots of information. At the end, everyone is updated. In other words, they’re now cleverer than they were. Their brains are bigger. So, they leave the room with big, green heads…

   … which often quickly revert to normal skin colour when they get back to their desk and forget/de-prioritise everything they’ve just heard

Another example: the Motivational Talk. It could be a fancy conference keynote, or a Manager’s pep talk to her team. These cause people to love their job/life more than they did before… so big, green hearts…

   … which often quickly revert to normal in a day or so – sometimes sooner, especially if they receive an obnoxious email from a stressed-out colleague

Other examples:

  • ‘FYI’ emails inform people – green heads
  • Team building events often get people excited – green hearts
  • Pointless, boring meetings that everyone hates – green… well, nothing

Green Head and Green Heart Communications like these do have their place. After all, we all know we’re supposed to win hearts and minds.

But, the most impactful communications cause Green Hands – they motivate people to do something:

  • Update Meetings that trigger new ideas for people to try next week
  • Motivational talks that cause people to change behaviours
  • Emails that persuade recipients to take immediate action
  • Team building events which include the group agreeing how they’ll take their new teamwork and excitement back into the workplace
  • Meetings that generate actions, not just things to discuss

Much more useful. Green hands everywhere. Imagine if everyone in your company communicated like this. You’d sure get a lot more done.

I write Tuesday Tips so they’re Green Hands Communications. That’s why they always have an Action Point at the end. Of course, I want them to help you think differently (Green Head). And I want you to enjoy them (Green Heart).

But most importantly, my aim is that they help you do things differently. And so…

Action Point

…for your next communication today, what part of their body will turn green?

And what tweaks can you make, so their hands also turn green - so they actually do something as a result.

And, if you fancy a Green Hand day – one where you’ll learn hundreds of things you can do immediately to improve your business – come to my seminar with Drayton Bird on 20 October 2015. It’s taking place in The Churchill Rooms, London – a great place to spend the day, network with successful people and watch their – and your - hands turn bright green! Here’s more blurb about it.