I had a very enjoyable trip to Newcastle last week and posted a photo of the train station on LinkedIn to indicate my pleasure in being in the city.

Somewhat to my surprise, it garnered more views than many of my regular posts. It was not a particularly great photo, nor was it really insightful content… it was just a quick snap.

Now, this, of course, may say much about my other posts, but I prefer not dwell on that here 🙂 … but underneath there was also an important lesson to be learnt.

Short is best, when it comes to communication.

Smart Brevity – write less say more… and in their TED talk have made a business out of this. Apparently, the data shows that most of us never read past the first few lines. Those that do only skim-read, before blindly liking and sharing with our friends on social media.

Feeling guilty….? Don’t be (well not too much, we all do it!). The sheer volume of information, we have to digest is a problem… we all naturally find coping mechanisms. The trick, however, is knowing when to skim, when to not and when to concentrate.

Top tips for communication clarity

All of us, if you have ever written an email or created a PowerPoint presentation, are writers of communication. In thinking about our readers, there are areas we can help with clarity, which in turn helps us get heard.

• Most of the readers will not finish the article, so get to the point quick
• Keep it short, they only read the start, so key points upfront
• Use straightforward language, sentences, and words
• Make it easy to skim and pull out key ideas
• It is all about the audience… not you

Writing long is easy, writing short is hard

I have always found it somewhat ironic that writing less is harder than writing more, but it is true.

Psychologically the cards are stacked against us – as a society, we just seem to culturally value more – more time, more stuff, and more product equals bigger value. It is a hard-wired and a hard habit to break (Business books are an example, 250 pages that could be summarised in a deck of 6 slides… but would I pay £19.95 for 6 slides, probably not)

Also, having fewer words also means you need to be more careful about what you say, and even more difficult what you leave out too.

Of if this was easy we would of course all be doing it!

Why this is important… in Collections too

Many of my friends, those in marketing, with English or language backgrounds, will know this stuff already (no scoffing please), but it is relevant for the rest of us mere mortals. And, this is not just you and me, but customers too…

Think about most collection letters, emails, and messages you see. Do they follow the points above, and if not how can they be improved?

Most of those I see have clear areas of opportunity. Getting crisp design, clear and to the point is always a challenge… but it is also an opportunity to be heard, by the customer, leading to better outcomes (and business outcomes too).

Customer-centric customer letters I suppose… who would have thought!

… have a good week everyone.

This week the political situation in the UK got so surreal, at one point it seemed all I needed for entertainment was the Financial Times and Newsnight, giving up watching the rest of TV for entertainment (let alone Eastenders). It has all been quite exhausting, with the speed and level of change huge.

We are now seemingly on our fourth chancellor of the exchequer (finance minister) in four months and one who has just reversed all the policies set by the last one only a couple of weeks ago.

Much of the change (today) seems to be in a bid to stabilize financial markets. It would all be much more entertaining if it was not so serious of course… impacting us all with the cost of borrowing and interest rates.

This is big politics, and it can behave strangely, but it does, as of now, feel as if the adults are back in charge. Hopefully, things will settle down to have a sensible debate on policies at an election (rather have to focus on how to recover a completely wrecked economy, collapsed tax base, and financial markets (think pension), in what is already a cost of living, inflationary crisis).

The impact of getting things done – politically

Now, all this political talk also got me thinking about the dynamics of office politics too.

Office politics is something I dread, nor something I consider myself particularly I am good at either, but I do recognize that in some sense it is necessary.

It does, after all, drive pragmatic compromise in an organization, and helps to get things done… humans are after-all are sometimes complex organisms and there always needs to be a bit of negotiation it seems 🙂 !See also  Another week, another lockdown..!

However, at the extreme, it can also drive tribal behaviour, a blame culture, and short-term focus on personal goals, sometimes at the expense of others… employees, customers (and voters) all get caught up in these dynamics, both quick to judge and impacting everyone.

The speed of change – a problem

Change is of course needed and sometimes even necessary, but, as we have seen this week, if you make a dramatic change, and get feedback that it does not work, your best option is to fix or reverse as soon as possible.

However, there is a problem. In our accelerating, consolidating, digital world our ability to make significant changes, with greater speed, is increasing dramatically. We can, so often we do.

Unfortunately, the speed we receive feedback on these changes – whether this has worked has not – often has not kept pace… this is especially the case where human interaction is involved.

Unless the feedback is dramatically bad, it is delayed and easily gets lost in the noise. This seriously limits our ability to quickly adjust course, often until really too late when more damage has been done.

We see this dynamic often with process design, but also with organisational dynamics too.

A change is made, one we thought was going to be great, only to realise, too late, it was not… (eg customer complaints or employees leave)… compromises, workarounds and recovery plans are all standard fare.

We all make mistakes – design the feedback

The reality is, as humans we all make mistakes and the solution is not solely to work on perfection, but rather also a focus on fast feedback. Feedback loops are all too often not given the attention they need. See also  The importance of verbal communication

Change, itself, is often the dazzling star, getting all the focus. Feedback is, by design, post implementation, and frankly often seen as the boring bit. We can easily forget, even though it is critical.

In particular, what is crucial is that the speed and scale of the change being implemented is matched with the speed and scale of the feedback being received.

We need to ensure we stay focused on good outcomes before and after any implementation. Not doing so, allows for white space, a gap, which is then filled by spin or provides an opportunity for potentially suboptimal politics to start creeping in.

My argument is for creating good, regular feedback loops and making this a priority.

From process to politics

In politics, it is often said we have the ultimate feedback loop, the next election.

In our current world whether this is fast enough, and with enough data is really up for debate. Based off what has happened the last couple of years, maybe we need a re-think here too… something to mull on this week.

Have a good rest of the week everyone

I was in Tesco to pick up a few things this Sunday and in the middle of picking some snacks for later, my attention was drawn to a hubbub at the end of the aisle.

Lots of people, all waiting, without a semblance of a queue, for the arrival of the day’s wave of discounted, sell by to-day food to come out.

In due course it did, and there then followed a mild and polite scramble as people picked up the bargains.

Listening closely…

Now I am not a stranger to the discount aisle. In fact, it is a great place to pick up a good food bargain, especially ones to pop in the freezer for later.

Now, we have all noticed the cost of living increase in the last couple of months, not least with grocery expenses, but this was something I had not seen before… at least not in these normally reasonably comfortable surroundings.

My take away, the cost of living is clearly starting to bite, and in new parts of the population too.

During the preparation for our recent audience with Credit Unions, I heard similar comments too. They had seen similar developments.

Customers who were previously financially stretched, are still financially stretched. They are used to budgeting and finding savings and there is some support available to help with getting by.

… for a new profile

However, as this latest cost of living crisis bites, they are also starting to see a new profile.

Customers a year ago who were managing, are now also having to absorb energy and food cost increases. They have never had to budget like this before, are not used to it, struggling and starting to look for help… it is something new and a surprise for many.

In the risk profile population graph, it is like we are all taking a step to the left, increasing in risk profile, away from prime and to be ‘riskier’… it affects all of us differently and is a creeping change, gradually enveloping more and more of us as prices filter through.

With reports that arrears levels still not spiking, it is likely the impact of the cost of living crisis will not hit us with a bang as much as a slow-creeping fog… but, if you look closely the signs are already there and starting to be seen.

... & help with debt advice

In this budgeting and advice are going to be needed more than ever, which is clearly going to put more pressure on the debt advice sector… in the news this week, with the announcement of the MaPs contracts.

With the debt advice award not including a couple of the largest free debt advice providers, who handle a lot of the existing volume, it was a bit of a surprise. It will be interesting to see how this plays out… this could precipitate a big change.

With support for customers and help for those in need going to be more important than ever… an already delicate balance between customers, debt advice providers and creditors will for sure need to be handled with care… one to watch closely the next couple of weeks (and no doubt more to come on this topic too).

Have a good week everyone.