You call your travel agent. That trip you planned probably needs to be changed. Will that be feasible?
Time Management 98
Inventory Your Life
It’s annoying when the stapler runs out when you’re assembling a series of reports needed immediately. It’s even more annoying when you have to leave your office to fetch a new box of staples. And it’s little things like running out of staples and paper clips that can, cumulatively, add up to unmanageable stress.
So create a list of the supplies you use regularly. Opposite each item, indicate how many you have in your office,immediately at hand. (If these supplies are provided by your company, indicate only the
amount that are only a few footsteps away.) You should have, for example, a minimum of two boxes of paperclips, staples, Scotch® tape rolls, pens, pencils, etc. within easy reach.
Make it a point to keep your personal supply cabinet or drawer stocked and to keep a record of what you use.Then replenish stock to maintain an adequate supply. Stay ahead of the game and you’ll always win.
“Well,” he responds, “according to my CRS, your PNR indicates that you have an outbound fare basis of KYE21NR but the return is a KWE21NR. So even though you have an NR, for $100 you can change 21 days prior with an MCO. But that will probably require you to change your whole FIT.”
Fortunately, travel agents are trained to avoid using their indus- try’s gobbledygook when serving clients. But every now and then they lapse into jargon. Everyone does.
If you’re speaking to outsiders, jargon will almost surely cloud communication and beget problems. (Remember: most people are too uncomfortable about revealing their ignorance to ask for an explanation.) Jargon can even trip up your fellow workers. Newcomers, especially, may not yet be privy to your industry’s or company’s specialized vocabulary.
Jargon interferes with accurate communication and creates problems that may take up valuable time later to correct. It’s better to make sure from the outset that you’re understood and that you understand the person you’re communicating with.
To get a sense of how jargon may impact you, try making a list of 20 to 25 words, phrases, or acronyms that are particular to your business. Once you’ve done this, become fiercely vigi- lant in your use of these terms. They tend to confuse the uniniti- ated, muddy comprehension, and perhaps initiate serious con- sequences when misunderstood.
Gobbledygook can go well beyond jargon. Poor phrasing, foggy sentences, and snarled paragraphs can all short-circuit communication, leading to setbacks later on. Here are some guidelines for making your letters, memos, and e-mail flow more clearly.
1. Avoid the passive voice.When the objects come before the subjects, the mind trips over the intended meaning. The subject of the sentence becomes hard to identify. For example: “The procedures that were outlined by the advisory committee have been found to be acceptable to everyone.”
The Art of Anticipating 99
Recast into an active (and more intelligible) form, this sen- tence would read more easily as follows: “The advisory commit- tee outlined procedures that everyone found acceptable.”
Another problem with using passive constructions is that they allow you to omit the agent, whoever is doing the action.
For example: “Any errors should be reported to the HR staff immediately.”
So, who’s responsible for reporting the errors? We all know the axiom—when everyone is responsible, no one is responsi- ble.
2. Replace negatives with positives.No, not, none, and other words with negative connotations set off confused and counter- productive feelings in the reader. For example: “To not prioritize will not help us and will, unfortunately, lead to failure.”
This would be better phrased: “To prioritize will help us suc- ceed.”
3. Edit long sentences into shorter units.As one expert puts it:
“If you can’t say it in one breath, it’s too long.” Consider this statement: “This personal organizer is not only compact, but it’s also very complete and it has numerous features that will help you streamline your business-related activities, as well as your personal life, with the added advantage of being affordable.”
This version would be more effective: “This compact and Time Management
100
Know Your Audience
One fundamental mistake many people make in writing is failing to take into account the reader. People respond differ- ently to written communications and, these days, most people don’t have the time or patience to read carefully.
People now want information in a quick and easy format.They want to learn right away how the communication may affect them.They want to be able to skim, looking for the details that are important to them, without having to read too carefully the information that they don’t need.
Keeping your reader in mind as you write will help ensure that oth- ers get what you need them to know.
complete personal organizer boasts numerous features to streamline your personal and business activities. An added ben- efit: it’s affordable.”
4. Be specific.Vagueness invariably spawns unsatisfactory or incomplete results. Consider this vague request: “Please see me soon about the project I assigned to you.”
More precise so much better: “Please see me tomorrow at 9 a.m. to discuss the budget for the Forbin project.”
5. Organize your writing via dashes, numbers, bullet points, bold print, underlines, italics, and punctuation.Too often, peo- ple have little time for patient, thorough reading of business communications. To “predigest” what you write for your reader achieves two results: it maximizes comprehension and it helps you organize your thoughts. Indeed, this book has deployed such organizational tactics throughout.
Here’s an example: “We should for security establish a poli- cy that no one can issue refunds in any situation unless the per- son is a vice president, manager, or supervisor.”
This version would be far easier to absorb: “For security, we should establish the following policy: No one can issue refunds in any situation unless that
person is a:
• Vice president
• Manager
• Supervisor”