M Power is a Melbourne based public relations company that believes communication empowers. Karen Morath is the founder and Managing Director of M Power. M Power provides consulting, training and communication services to organisations largely in the locality of Melbourne

This is m-news, M Power's monthly e-newsletter. We hope you enjoy reading it. Feel free to forward it to friends or colleagues who may find it useful.

M Power is a communication and events company. m-news includes information about related themes - six quick snippets about business, organisational and individual effectiveness, communication and public relations.

Communication empowers.

Karen Morath, managing director, M Power

The ‘quick six’ for June are

1. Tips for communicating to be understood
2. A quote we like
3. Check your touchpoints
4. Introducing High Tech Trivia events
5. Clear communication
6. This month's book review

1. Tips for communicating to be understood

People will really be communicating when they favour the use of plain English over jargon, acronyms and other abbreviations which hinder understanding.

In the last few weeks, we have been dealing with a solicitor who writes letters in a foreign language (the rest of us don't speak Latin do we?) with numbered paragraphs, a federal government department which runs public seminars to explain the jargon it uses so people wanting to do business with them understand what they are saying, an advertising agency which talks about, well actually we couldn't be sure! and an orthodontist who told me I could ask questions if he was going over my head.

The common thread seems to be that if people hang on to jargon, then they hang on to the power. It somehow makes other people lesser than them if they know and use terms that others don't understand. And that is a nonsense.

If people don't understand you, you are not communicating at all and, as such, have no power at all. What makes you less powerful is that it is the clear communicators who have the real power - influence, the change agent.

So here are our tips for communicating to be understood -

think about the purpose of the document or the conversation or presentation and ask yourself what you are trying to achieve
write or talk in a way that the intended audience is comfortable with
make it easy for people to find the information they want
avoid jargon wherever and whenever possible
choose a tone that matches the objective of the document or discussion
if it’s a written document, re-read what you have written from the shoes of the reader and imagine how it might be read and interpreted - how will it make the reader feel?

2. A quote we like

"Opinion doesn't remain aroused for long unless people feel their self interest is acutely involved or unless opinion - aroused by words - is sustained by events."

Hadley Cantril, quoted in 'Strategic public relations', Kim Harrison, Vineyard Publishing, 2001

3. Check your touchpoints

Communication theory talks about touchpoints - the understanding that every contact a person has with an organisation affects what they think and feel about it. For some, it includes how the phone is answered and the appearance and language in the letters that leave an organisation. Some people make their decisions about an organisation based on how they FEEL they are treated by it, or on the environment that the organisation conducts its business in, or the way they are spoken to or communicated with or indeed whether they are communicated with. Organisations who take this thinking seriously are often as successful as individuals who are conscious of the first impression they create personally and who take the time and trouble to ensure their dress and grooming but reflect who they are and what they value. Unfortunately, just as a bad hair day can mar a personal first impression, other seemingly slight faux pas can damage corporate reputation. I have been called a pedant before, but I would certainly not use the services of the real estate company which took out a front page ad in my local paper exalting that they are 'acheiving great results'.

4. Introducing High Tech Trivia events

High Tech Trivia can transform your organisation’s next event into an exciting and energised evening.

The trivia questions are projected onto a big screen, contesting teams have a wireless handset and work together to choose the correct answer. The questions include music clips and local knowledge and range from the familiar to the esoteric. They are topical, based on music, celebrity, news and general knowledge and the wildly puzzling. The event can also include questions about the organisation itself.

Interspersed between the wild turbo-charged trivia are audience participation challenges with ‘extreme eating’, puzzles, circus, entertainment and physical challenges. There are lots of photo opportunities, lots of fun and good, safe silliness. The events are ideal as part of training conferences, special events or end of year activities.

For further information about how a High Tech Trivia event could turn your organisation’s next event into an exciting and energised evening please call M Power on 9510 2592.

5. Clear communication

Continuing on the theme of clear communication, here are a couple of tips (more next issue) of presenting information so people can understand it.

1. You understand something new relative to something you already understand.

You can't tell the size of a painting on a wall, unless you compare it to the size of something you know, perhaps by standing next to it. Scale always relates to us. EG The new park will be the size of the MCG, the interior of the new model aeroplane will accommodate 114 Collingwood six footers toe to toe,..... Excuse the footy references, but they are excellent terms of reference. If footy doesn't assist your audience, choose something that does.

2.Don't beautify, clarify.

Taking a statistic and turning it into a pie chart, adding lots of colours and shading, making it 3D, exploding parts and suspending them in space is tempting when technology allows it. But every step is a step away from understanding. Quote the statistic.

Adapted from 'Blueprint for Information Architects', by Mark Fischetti, Fast Comapny magazine, August/September 1997

6. This month's book review

Blink - the power of thinking without thinking by Malcolm Gladwell, Penguin, 2005.

This is the follow up book to Gladwell's blockbuster –‘The Tipping Point' and my Christmas in June gift to m-news readers is don't buy it. Save the $32.95 and just read the back cover. You are no better off for 254 pages. The basic premise is 'trust your instincts'. Decisions that take a long time are not better than those that you make in the blink of an eye. If you are naturally decisive, even impulsive, this book is either reassuring or unnecessary. If you need to see the financials or get a second opinion before making a decision, then maybe there is something to learn by reading.....the back cover.

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