Guide to managerial communication

1. Guide to managerial communication Mary Munter

2. Managerial communication is different from other kinds of communication because a brilliant message alone is not sufficient: you are successful only if your message results in your desired response from your audience.

3. 1. Objective • “As a result of this communication, my audience will. . .”

4. 2. Strategies • Communication objectives: Define the general objective and the expected action to follow: the audience will learn something, sign, give me info, engage in defining a strategy, approve a plan • Style: (content control vs. audience involvement) • Tell/Sell • Consult/join • What is your credibility?

5. 3. Credibility (persuasiveness): stress pre-existing; increased acquired

6. 4. Audience • Who are they? • What do they know? • What do they feel? • How can you persuade them? • Using audience benefits • Using credibility (check table previous page) • Using message structure

7. Using message structure • Opening and closing: emphasize benefits • Problem/solution structure: First convince them that there is a problem so you can then convince them that there is a solution • One-sided or two-sided: Two-sided for controversial topics. Helps establishing common ground • Pro/con or con/pro. Pro/con for noncontroversial • Ascending or descending order. Informed audience ascending, uninformed descending • Foot in the door technique: break down your request • Door in the face technique: Follow an outregous request with a reasonable one. Wrong structure for your papers: Answering questions like if the paper was an exam

8. 5. Message THOUGHT PROCESS (drafting) ends with conclusion STRATEGIC PROCESS (writing) emphasizes the conclusion Bad ideas Organized ideas Organized ideas Reach conclusion last State conclusion first (usually) Assumptions Data Good ideas Organized ideas Facts Organized ideas TIME

9. Message strategy • How can you emphasize? • Do not bury things in the middle • Direct approach: front loading or bottom-lining. • Using the indirect approach: back loading or mystery story approach (by enlarge not appropriate in business writing and thus not appropriate in your assignments)

10. Macrowriting

11. Macrowriting • Introduction: What exists, why write, how organized. • Closing: closure • Ineffective: • Introducing new topic or information • Apologizing • Ending abruptly. • Paragraphs: • (1) heading and when no heading topic sentence • (2) Signposts to clearly connect ideas within each paragraph or section.

12. Microwriting

13. Microwriting • Avoid wordiness: See table Munter’s book p. 73 • Overlong sentences • Clues: • (1) Too many main ideas in a sentence, usually signaled by using the word “and” more than once. • (2) Hard to find main idea, usually signaled by using too many piled-up phrases, parenthetical ideas, and qualifiers. • Business like or bureaucratic (see p. 77) • Active or passive?

14. Writing Exercise: Present and defend the vision statement that you have been writing for CAPSIM. Use the back of this page. I will put them in the overhead projector so… write “pretty”. The goal is to convince me that it is a good vision. Audience: Chair of the Board of Directors (me). Introduction: Write just a couple of lines which states your vision. Remember what we have discussed in the lecture. You are advocating, defending, championing a particular vision. Body of the document: Write about 3 headings or the titles for the sections that you would write to convince the board of directors that the vision you have defined is good. See tables 2.1 and 2.2 in textbook as to what is a good vision. See Munter’s writing guide as to what is a good heading and a good way of organize a paper to create a convincing argument. Closing: A couple of sentences (see Munter’s guide for what is a good closing) The whole paper should use white space and indentation to make it pleasing to the eye and easy to read. The purpose of this exercise is to review and practice how to write effective business documents. We will follow this model for all your written assignments.