HR Communication Tip: Finish with a Flourish

Scene 1: Your presentation starts out great. You’ve carved your slides down the the best ones and your audience is reacting. You’ve got ‘em. And then you get to that slide that says, “Next steps.”

Scene 2: Your benefits brochure has the best opening line since “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Nah, it’s the HR communication equivalent of “Call me Ishmael.” Crisp. To-the-point. The copy rocks. And then you get to that closing paragraph that says, “If you need additional information, please see your manager.”

Scene 3: Your managers’ training begins with a bang. You have ‘em hooked and you let everyone breathe a sigh of relief that there won’t be any role playing in this session. (You’re a great instructional designer.) And then it’s time to go, and you end up talking about where the group dinner will be that night.

STOP! FINISH WITH A FLOURISH.

Have you ever been to a killer speech? What happens at the end? Do the speakers fade into the podium? Do they end with a whimper? Do they mumble their last words? Hardly.

Here’s the deal: Whether you’re presenting, writing, or training, put as much energy — if not more — into the closing that you do for the opening. People won’t remember every word you used, but they will remember how you made them feel at the end.

More “Don’t Say It Unless You Mean It”

Our post yesterday called Don’t Say It Unless You Mean It got some really great comments that I wanted to move to the front page. Here they are.

Ron Ulrici of R&S Associates Blog (a great read…add them to your RSS feed) wrote a set with the comment that “We in HR should set the standard for doing, not just saying.” Great advice, Ron. He writes:

  • Don’t say “empower” when you really mean delegate with strings attached.
  • Don’t say we have an “open door policy” when there are ramifications for the employees who dare enter the big boss’s office.
  • Don’t say “we have values here” when employees who ignore them are promoted anyway.

And Jenn Barnes, who many of you know as HR Wench (she recently told us that HR Wench isn’t the name on her birth certificate), wrote:

  • #1 communication SNAFU that drives me up the wall is “we have an open door policy” when they DON’T.

I’ll be there’s even more out there. Don’t say it unless you mean it is good advice always. That goes double in HR.

In HR, Don’t Say It Unless You Mean It

[via Failblog]

Here’s my HR hint of the day: Don’t say it unless you mean it and can back it up.

  • Don’t say pay-for-performance if you really use the Peanutbutter Process.
  • Don’t say teamwork and then allow gossip and backstabbing.
  • Don’t say transparency and then only communicate to selected managers.
  • Don’t say learning environment and confuse it with a few crappy training classes.
  • Don’t say employee engagement when you really want compliance.

Which is all a long way around to saying that being mealy-mouthed in HR is about as bad as it can get. Check out that sign for “Success Center.” If you’re gonna say it, back it up.

How to Keep Your HR Communications from Turning Into a Playtpus


[Photo credit: Tasmanian Government]

Paul Byron of the NYT called the platypus a classic animal design by committee. Look at that thing. He cites a poem about the composite animal:

I like the duck-billed platypus
Because it is anomalous.
I like the way it raises its family,
Partly birdly, partly mammaly.
I like its independent attitude.
Let no one call it a duck-billed platitude.

The Duck-Billed Platypus, Ogden Nash

Sure, the platypus looks “cute.” But I’m afraid a lot of your HR communication ends up looking like it, too. You start out with a good idea, then it morphs into something else, then there’s a committee that makes edits. Etc, etc, etc. You know the story. What started out as something great turns into a HR version of a platypus.

How to Keep Your HR Communications from Turning Into a Platypus

  1. Listen to the experts. Just because you took a “graphics design” class in high school doesn’t mean that you’re a designer.
  2. Get an executive editor. One person has to make decisions. None of us is as stupid as all of us.
  3. Choose good words, but don’t obsess about single words. Great communication isn’t about picking the “perfect” word in paragraph 11, line 3.
  4. Take a step back. Groupthink is a surefire way to create an HR platypus.
  5. Have some guts. Great communication requires hard decisions and some nerve. “Yes men” build platypi (I just wanted to write that word).

Check out this movie that’ll give you a good idea how it goes. This group wants a designer to create a stop sign. Here’s what happens when a committee gets involved to do creative writing and design. [via Vincent Ferrari.]

Teamwork and Communication Waning

You never call. We never talk.

Next Page →