What makes a person return to a place that they’ve been dozens of times before? A waterfall for instance…has it really changed since the last time you saw it? Has the water miraculously changed directions, or worse, colors? What makes it different? How about everything surrounding the waterfall? The flowers, the trees, the greenery or lack of…even the animals are different. Each season brings a different picture. If it didn’t, we might not return. So Mother Nature does her own bit of advertising by simply changing the scenery. I can’t imagine the budget it takes to change the landscape of Arkansas four times a year, but I know she’s getting a great return in her investment. Whatever ad agency has her as a client sure has their work cut out for them.
“I need a budget quote on a snowy mountain in January, then a RL on Spring flowers by COB. We’ll need to have the FA to God by the end of September for Fall. Where are we on the summer garden layout?”
Spend some time outside this weekend. It will make Monday seem…not so Monday….I promise.
Whether you’re having a conversation over the phone or in a meeting with a group of people, or texting a message on your phone or typing an email, how best do you communicate? If it’s by speaking, I might ask, do people really ever listen anymore? Or do they wait until they receive an email then act? I recently found myself on the phone with an email marketing solution group that I work with very closely. After 20 minutes of arguing and complaining about a particular problem I was having, the conversation ended, and my problem was not solved. A few days later I followed up via email to the same company with the same problem. Five minutes later I received a response. My problem was fixed, I was happy, and the person on the other end was satisfied that she was able to handle the “upset customer” successfully. So I wonder, was I just able to communicate my problem better over email, or was the person on the other end of the phone just not listening?
As someone that spent 10 years in the radio business, I like to think that when I speak, I am clearly understood. But often I find that my tone is more often misinterpreted by speaking than in email! Yes, I know, just the opposite of what one might think. I guess in the end, the more ways you can communicate to get your point across, the better it will be understood. So talk, text, then follow up with an email; update your Facebook and Twitter status to urge those to make sure they read your latest blog post. Then, when you you’ve exhausted all communication resources, write a song.
In today’s world of online communication, it’s always interesting to see how people respond to an actual conversation when the subject is important. Are they listening intently, taking notes, perhaps recording the conversation? Or are they just there in body, not in mind, listening to about half of what’s going on, knowing that whatever is said is going to followed up by a detailed email anyway. If it’s important enough to be said, it’s more important that it be typed out and presented on the screen. Afterall, isn’t that what “minutes” in a meeting are? A re-cap; reassurance that what was said is now on paper (well, in an email anyway…print it if you must). If this is all true, one might question why we even bother with the actual conversation. What better, more thorough way to make sure that your point is getting across than to send it out in an email. Sure, a person’s tone or attitude might be misinterpreted, but the actions that you are going to take, or need someone else to take are right there, in black and white, as a record of what needs to be done. There’s always a possibility that if direction is given only by the spoken word, that something could be dropped, forgotten, or worse, “I didn’t say that.”
So I ask, which do you trust more: Someone’s word? Or someone’s email?
