Christopher L. Hedges's Blog, page 14

Clarity in Communication (8/7/14)

…Are we Clear?!?…Crystal.

I’m a movie buff, and there are several scenes in A Few Good Men where there is dialogue between Lt. Kaffee and Col. Jessup that revolves around the clarity of the message being expressed.

As far as communication goes the most important aspect is clarity. To prove my point I have a little game for you. I am providing you with a sentence that is repeated, and I want  you to read it out loud emphasizing the underlined word. Look at how the meaning of the sentences changes just by changing the emphasis of one word.

I didn’t say you stole my money.

I didn’t say you stole my money.

I didn’t say you stole my money.

I didn’t say you stole my money.

I didn’t say you stole my money.

I didn’t say you stole my money.

I didn’t say you stole my money.

In those seven sentences only the emphasis of one word was changed, and by doing so the meaning of the entire sentence changed. So when you are communicating your goal should be to make sure you can’t be misunderstood when you communicate.

There are no Accidents (8/6/14)

They can use your support.

My friend Rob ran a meeting last week under the theme “Are There Really Any Lemons”. It’s funny because that meeting was sandwiched between two days where someone could have shaken the tree, and found bushels of lemons.

The first day I spent nearly three hours commuting to a speaking engagement where I didn’t even get to speak because the organization double booked speakers. The second day I was serving food at the Ronald McDonald House to families whose children are fighting just to survive.

In both cases it would be real easy to see nothing but lemons scattered on the ground, but then again you might not be looking hard enough if lemons was all you saw. The other speaker was an advocate for human trafficking, and I have a good friend who sits on the board of a national organization for the prevention of bullying. All of those families that were at the Ronald McDonald House were given the gift of hope courtesy of strangers who were their to lift just a little of the burden off their shoulders.

You may question the existence of lemons like Rob, but I like to think of it as there are no accidents. I was supposed to be at that meeting as a guest, just like I was supposed to be at the Ronald McDonald House barbequing.

Pulling My Hair Out (8/5/14)

I have been told by some of the most successful people I know to follow the K.I.S.S. principle in business. Keep It Simple Stupid. I really started to appreciate that statement recently. Lining up my book tour wasn’t hard enough so a higher power felt the need to throw me a curve ball by way of temperamental email. Granted if I was 7 pushing 8 I might young enough to know all the hoops I need to jump through to fix the headaches technology creates for me. If I wasn’t living from disability check to disability checking trying to find a way to pull my head above water I might have enough coin in the bank to hire the 7 year old who knows how to fix the headaches technology creates for me.

Seeings as I fall into neither of those two situations I say follow the K.I.S.S. principle. Don’t send me a 43 page error message that I needed a super secret decoder ring to decipher. Send me something that says we know you’re having problems. If you don’t have a clue of how to fix it push this button and we will help fix the problem for you. Better yet stop adding new features on every day that ends in Y…If you want to sell to me you better K.I.S.S.!

Jumped in Without Checking the Water (8/4/14)

I uncharacteristically spent $75 at Sports Authority for a pair of board shorts and goggles the other day. It wasn’t the frivolous spending that was out of the ordinary, but rather it was the ‘why’ I spent the money that was uncharacteristic. In preparation for the book tour I have been trying to lose a little weight and get a little healthier. With the desmoid tumors I have wrapped around my GI track I haven’t been able to find anything that lets me workout with any consistency. I thought the low impact nature of swimming would be a good fit.

The uncharacteristic mistake I made was that I didn’t check the pools first. I needed access to a pool for two months, and the monthly and daily rates to go to any of the local pools are unreasonable. At a point in time when I don’t have any disposable income every wasted dollar hurts that much more. My mistake was a good lesson on the importance of doing better research on planning my book tour. I actually preferred making that mistake now and getting it out of the way because I guarantee I won’t be making a similar screw up any time soon.

From Man to Machine (8/1/14)

Once upon a time it was pinstripe suits and tall commanding presences that dictated your position in life. We as a society were more visual back then because just about everything was done face to face.

With the advent of new forms of technology we have been gradually moving further and further away from actual human interaction. The power you command now comes from the persuasiveness of your communication. Another major shift that has resulted has been our ‘I want it now attitude’. As a result I think we are becoming robotic and mechanical. Cut out the chit chat because I don’t really care how your weekend was. All I want to know is what can you do for me and can you say it in 140 characters or less.

For as electronically connected as the internet has made us by breaking down the barriers to entry that at one time existed it has also begun to to do us a disservice. It has made us ever more efficient at the expense of the social interaction that pack animals like people need to function properly. Do me a favor and actually take the time to look around your day to day life and try to prove my hypothesis wrong.

You used to be able to close a sale by the relationships you had, now the efficiency of your communication is the key factor. Every day I wake up it feels like I get closer and closer to the Matrix. Just sayin’!

Beach or Work…Decisions Decisions (7/31/14)

What are you willing to do for the things that you desire? Actually I don’t think willing is the right word. What are you committed to doing in order to attain the things you desire?

Commitment is a tough word when the skies are blue and there isn’t a cloud on the horizon. Looking at the boats of all shapes in sizes lining up to dock at the Elk Lodge just across the bay, and knowing that the beach is less than a five minute walk from the house it is nearly impossible to get anything accomplished on a holiday weekend.

There is nothing I’d rather do on a long holiday weekend than unplug and unwind on the beach. However, there will always be another opportunity to walk down the road and park my chair just outside the surf line. Opportunities to pursue greatness on the other hand are few and far in between. So between my sporadic spells of daydreaming I grind out the tedious task of laying the ground work for my book tour. Committing to the success of one venture could open the possibility of a lifetime of sun filled days lounging out just outside the surf line. So I’m willing to sacrifice this beach day in favor of a long shift at the keyboard.

Relatability (7/30/14)

Growing up I had the benefit of a world class education starting at a very young age. Psychology, economics, and art history were among the many subjects I studied in grade school. That list grew exponentially once I made it to college with subjects like theology, sociology, and marine biology. Do many of these courses have all that much relevance in my day to day life? Not really, but they broaden my knowledge base and make it possible to potentially relate to a complete stranger.

Normally I’m a fan of the acquisition of knowledge by doing. I think you get a better understanding of the subject matter that way, but it isn’t always possible with subjects like brain surgery and rocket science. However, you decide to expand your horizons is irrelevant as long as you expand them. In expanding your horizons you are able to relate to a greater number of people, and being able to relate and being relatable is paramount if you want to be successful in sales.

Just think about the interactions you had with your parents. They told you stories of mistakes they made growing up. They were trying to make their life lessons relatable to you in hopes that you wouldn’t replicate their mistakes. Chances are you made them anyway, but your parents were unknowingly teaching you about sales at a young age.

First Step to Success (7/29/14)

Do you know why the success that we revere is so rare and hard to achieve? Most people aren’t willing to commit to achieving it. As the saying goes if it were easy to do then everybody would be doing it.

That nail was driven in over the weekend as I did some work behind the scenes to get ready to take off on this little 20,700 mile adventure. I was working on a speech that would be delivered to every group I went to see. Repeating it hundreds of times over the course of hours on end. I spent another 18 hours collecting the address for all of the pertinent Ronald McDonald House Charity chapters, chronicling them in order as I make my way from city to city. These are the monotonous details that no one ever sees or reads about that are the key to the success we revere.

I was prepared for the fact that this book tour was going to be a lot of work, but I don’t think I realized the amount of time that would actually have to go into it. The admiration I have for people like Jack Canfield is infinitely greater now, because I have been able to put into perspective what it took to achieve their success. Knowing what it takes to achieve success is only the first step. Once you know then you need to summon the desire it takes to attain it.

Journey or the Destination? (7/28/14)

I recently read in a book on sales that the author believes that thinking outside the box doesn’t work, and instead he thinks we need to grow the box we already have.

I found this statement so ridiculous I almost stopped reading. However, I forced myself to finish the section. When I looked at what I think the author was trying to convey I don’t think he was offering a new idea. What I think he was doing was applying a new dialect to the same language. In the author’s examples all of his recommendations for growing a person’s box truly are based on thinking outside of the box. He basically recommended that you go out and learn about something that you normally wouldn’t.

Here’s my problem with his logic. In order to grow your box you need to be able to think outside of your box otherwise you wouldn’t consider doing any of these foreign things that cause your box to grow in the first place. So if thinking outside of your box doesn’t work how can you possibly grow your box? Personally I don’t see thinking outside of your box as a thought process that changes you from who you are like the author seems to. I see thinking outside of the box as the necessary step you must take if you plan on growing.

The way I see it the author wants to focus on the final destination where as I think we need to focus on the journey of getting to the final destination.

Social Media Rant (7/25/14)

Every once in a while something takes place reminding me that the written word may be a good way to record history, but it is by no means a good way to communicate.

I have argued to no end that social media in theory is a form of communication, but just like other theoretical success stories it’s only truly successful in theory. Communication is more than the words on the paper or in this case the screen. Social media doesn’t take into context intangibles that can’t be captured in 140 characters or less. It doesn’t give you the context of the moment in time that a picture was taken. Social media doesn’t give you immediate dialogue regarding a video you post.

I have finally removed any reference to social media being a form of communication from my belief systems after a recent email exchange. I know it’s hard to believe, but I sat down for a one hour conversation with two different people to gauge there interest in a panel presentation. At the end of each conversation there was positive buy in. These were two separate conversations so I took valid points that each person made and shot them out in an email to all parties. Some how 300 words or less distorted 60 minutes of dialogue in the eyes of one person and just about capsized the project.

Social media may be a means of interacting with people, but I will stop short of calling it a means of connection or communication.