Be Heard in a Noisy World
Deborah Cortigiani Ed.M, MBA
??Empowering?Italian professionals to communicate more effectively and confidentially in the USA ?? Language + Cultural Awareness| 25+ years exp. | | Check my recommendations
This month's 1 big idea: To communicate more professionally in the USA, you need to be more direct, concise, and explicit.
Why it Matters:? We are all getting bombarded by more “noise” than ever.? More emails, podcasts, texts, messages, social media, articles….I could go on. Because of all this noise, our attention spans have shrunk - A LOT. ? You must find a way to get your messages (written or verbal) to break through the noise for maximum impact, so that your words can be persuasive, influential, and unforgettable.
What's Up With This New Format?
I’d be a hypocrite if I forced you to scan through a long newsletter to discover the main idea of this newsletter. ? That is why I have decided to model this and future newsletters after Axios’s newsletter style from their book, “Smart Brevity,” written by Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen and Roy Schwartz.? I? recommend it to all my clients as a good reference book to help them become more concise communicators.??
The authors write that to be an effective, professional communicator in the U.S., you must be brief and strategic about how you present your message to your audiences.
In America, we are trained that If I am speaking or writing to you, I need to get my point across in a way that makes it easy for YOU to understand.
The Mentality of Communicating Professionally in America
Since it’s my responsibility that you understand my message clearly, I am going to do my best to communicate starting with my conclusions, and organize my ideas so that they flow in a logical, direct manner.? My sentences won’t be too long (at least not exceeding 2 independent clauses), and I’ll avoid using any fancy terms that you might not know.? You will probably hear me repeat my key points. ? My job is not to sound like a professor. My job is to make it easy for you to understand my message.? I promise that I won’t leave a lot up to interpretation.???
Oh, and I know you don’t have a lot of time, so I am going to make sure I am as brief but meaningful as possible.? That way you can easily process what I am saying in the shortest amount of time because I know you have a busy day.
If I can do that successfully, my words are going to have a greater impact, and you’ll probably start thinking, “Hey, this woman is a darn good communicator!”
What Does This Mean for Italian Professionals Working in the USA?
It means you are going to have to retrain your mind to communicate in a new way.? You are going to have to plan what you are going to say before you say it, whenever possible. “Winging it” (1) is not something that will help you sound more professional.
Sometimes you can’t always plan what you are going to say when you are communicating on the spot (2). ? But I’d argue that there are quick ways to organize what you are going to say, and with practice, they can become second nature (3).??
In addition to planning and organizing your speech, there are other things that you can do so to sound more concise. ? For example, you can start by:
I have more tips, but I don’t want to write down too much information at a time. I’m trying to be concise, remember?? But if you want more information, you can look at some of my latest posts on the subject here.
You can get more tips by connecting and following me on LinkedIn.
Why Americans Communicate This Way
Americans are “low context communicators.”? We operate with the unconscious assumption that we might not necessarily share a lot of the same background knowledge or experiences as our listener (Myer, 2015).? So it’s best if we just say what we mean and not try to force you to interpret too much. If you don’t understand what I am saying, well, that’s on me.
But Italians?? They operate with the unconscious assumption that everyone shares similar reference points, body of knowledge and information. As a result, Italians assume good communication is more nuanced or implicit. Communication is considered more of an art form. For Italians, the responsibility of the message being understood rests on the shoulders of the listener or reader.
Blame it on? Culture
Americans are trained from a young age what “good communication” looks like. ? By the time we are in middle school, it is ingrained in us to group our ideas together as themes, place them in a logical order, and form a clearly worded thesis sentence that will serve as a preview to our reader/listener about the topics we are about to discuss.?
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So we first tell our audience what we will be speaking about.
Then we tell them about it.
Then we remind them what we told them.
We can easily carry this type of thinking to professional communication..??
So Now What?
So, now, my dear Italian professional, that’s what you are dealing with - people who have been trained from a young age that good communication is explicit, direct, and doesn’t leave much to interpretation.? It’s ordered and logical.? It can even be a bit repetitive.?
Since I was born into a low-context culture,? I am going to rewrite what I wrote at the beginning, and wrote throughout this newsletter:?
To communicate more professionally in the USA, you need to be direct, concise, and explicit to best present your ideas, conclusions, and recommendations in the most impactful way.
Did this make sense?? I hope so.? Because if you didn’t understand, as a low- context communicator, I believe that’s my fault, not yours!? ??
I help Italian professionals become more direct, concise communicators at work in the USA. To learn more about how I can help you, contact me at [email protected] , or visit my web-site at www.englishlanguagesolutions.info .
1 Winging it=To try to do something without much preparation or practice
2 On the spot=immediately
3 Second nature= a habit that becomes instinctive because you have done it so often
Reference
Meyer, Erin. The Culture Map: Breaking through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business. PublicAffairs, 2014.?
Mechanical Engineer, Project Management at Wake Forest University
1 年After six years working with corporates and business leaders in the US, an american wife I married last year, I must dissent with part of the above: Americans like open conversations, they don't like to be direct. That's very different. They speak openly mostly about everything (with a very few "red lines" you don't normally talk in business) but they may speak in a very indirect way, and that's the most difficiult thing to grasp for a foregneir. At least it was for me. You may find people/contests where people talk very directly but mostly about things they like to hear. If they don't like to hear something, you may want to be very careful in being very direct, especially as a foregneir (european, for instance) in their country. I'd be very happy to discuss furtherly. You'll have a great day. F.