Umm, What I Meant To Say Was . . .

Forsaking musical references for the nonce, let us turn to the written and spoken word.  Aww, c'mon, we've got to face up to this sooner or later, and today is nearer to later than it is to sooner.

You may have tired by now of reading and hearing about all the things that supply chain professionals must master in our brave new world.  But, adding all these burdens to yesterday's primary tasks of toting barges and lifting bales is the reality of how our roles and responsibilities - and the tools we use - have evolved to create our singularly demanding and rewarding profession.

It turns out that there's more; there's always more.  A very noticeable gap in our tool kit lies in the too-frequent absence of strong communicatons skills.  We could overcome that perception (and reality) a few decade ago, but competing for corporate capital, promoting change - even transformation, telling others what we are about, crafting PowerPoint presentations, addressing 4th grade classes, giving facility tours, or writing about plans, projects, and performance - all of these require, for most of us, elevated competence in commnuications.

Most of us just are not all that good at executing the basics in this area, and, these days, that can have career impacts.

The total topic needs a longer article, or a book, to cover in depth; keep your eyes peeled for a Basic Training column on the subject.  But, here are some of the components that can make or break our communications:

    - Have a point, a conclusion, a call to action

    - Stay focused on purpose and core message

    - Build a story line that guides the flow of either writing or speaking

    - Take care with language - spell correctly, pronounce accurately, use the right word for the right situation, use big words and little words (for specific purposes)

    - Know your audience and its motivations

    - Practice, practice, practice (both writing and speaking)

    - Never let 'em see you sweat, literally or figuratively

    - Forget you ever saw emoticons or Twitter-speak

There's plenty more to get into, but the objective here is to get you to begin to think about how you can communicate to get results, or fail to communicate and get disappointed.  Remember, almost no one is a born communicator; it's not, like physical attributes or dread diseases, embedded somehow in the DNA.  The art, science, and skills are learnable and made more useful through constant employment and experimentation.

Take a moment and look within.  Are you comfortable in communications situations?  Could you improve your work life with better communications?  Are people with lesser operational skills, but elevated communications abilities passing you by?  Is this the time to shore up that part of your total package?