Yesterday I was out riding my motorbike when I passed a speed camera. My speed was good, so don’t worry about me 😊 Riding on, a couple of hundred meters later, I came across other bikers, and I signalled the speed cam as a good citizen. On the motorbike, you do it by tapping your helmet. To my surprise, they understood and signalled back. I was surprised because prior to this, I rarely saw moto signs used properly in Hungary. This made me think about the importance of communication and especially the simplicity of it. On a bike, there are about 20, but you use around 3 on a daily basis. You can find a list here.

Communication in a corporate environment is much more complicated and complex. It is also often misunderstood or lost. If I tap my helmet on a bike, be sure other bikers will slow down. But how do you pass a message to finance or marketing? Let alone operations and sales? Also, your message is usually more complex than “cops ahead”. The corporate environment is way more complex, and your message has to find its way through the corporate noise. I don’t even mention the history you might have with colleagues and how that might affect their understanding of what you say. So, taking all this into account, how do you make sure your communication has the right impact and the power to go through corporate noise?

The message

This is maybe the most important. Spend time simplifying what you really want to say. Boil it down to a simple-to-remember message. Don’t try to solve everything and provide precise guidance. Just focus on what you really want to say. For example, if you are participating in an ERP development and you have to describe your invoicing workflow (for non-finance software developers), don’t get into details about that special invoice you issue once a year. Don’t base your explanation on exceptions and special cases. Boil it down to the essence of it and explain that. You will have time enough to explain the details of that one special invoice, but for the message to find its way through, it has to be simple. A beautiful, well-constructed speech is always less efficient than a short, punchy message.

In my experience and given my style, I always like to tell an anecdote or use a metaphor. This makes the message more interesting for the listener, and chances are good that they will remember it better if they can tie it to something.

The corporate noise

The larger the company, the larger the noise. The number of colleagues, communication platforms, software used for communication, interconnections, etc. This makes your task more and more difficult. The best thing you can do is to stay consistent. Always communicate the same, simple message. Repeat it often. Don’t have many messages. A colleague of mine was a director at the company when I was young, back in around 2010. His (almost) only message was “think out of the box”. He repeated this so many times, I still remember it after more than a decade. This was simple enough, easy to remember and act upon. Obviously, you cannot be remembered for one and only message, but I guess you are getting the point.

You have to understand your audience as well. If it is young colleagues, use simple language and avoid jargon they might not have. If your message is for somebody who has nothing to do with what you want to explain, use a story or metaphor they can relate to. Always have the recipient in your mind.

Conclusion

On the bike, you have no chance communicating complex messages. I signalled “cops ahead”, but didn’t say “2 cops after 200 meters; they are measuring speed; you should go with 50 km/h”. In the corporate world, make sure your message is simple and easy to remember. Stay consistent to avoid confusion. And stick to your version all the time.