2 Prepare

Preparation is key to creating anything, including communications.

How much preparation you need depends on the situation, the people you are interacting with, and your end goal.  A text message to say hi to your friend clearly does not need the preparation a blog post on winter hair care does.  However, each still involves you, the communicator, understanding the situation, the audience, and your purpose.

Communication needs SHAPE.  Think about these prompts before developing your message.  There is a SHAPE Worksheet in the Appendix you may use to help outline the background information.

    Situation

Take a moment to think about the situation and context.  Examining the situation will help you determine what you know about the topic and what information you need in order to be clear.  Gathering information could be as simple as asking a question of your audience (and listening to the response), or more involved and require external material to create your blog post or recommendation on which product to use.  Step back and describe the setting and circumstances to understand what you know and what you need to know.  This will be situation specific and may be a few words, or a page or two covering the research you need to conduct and information to gather.

Choose how to communicate – your channel – by considering four things:

• Cost: What is the cost of the method?  Your phone service fee usually includes all local calls but a registered letter costs $20.00.
• Speed: How quickly do you need to inform the audience?  If the information is essential, perhaps a telephone call or text is best.  How quickly do you need a response?
• Importance: Do you need a record of the communication? When you pay a bill or place an order, it is good to have the receipt or description of the service in writing.
• Relationship: What is your relationship with the audience?  A text message is usually less formal than a telephone call.  Think about the basis of your relationship – your boss, an employee, a colleague, a client, a friend, a service provider, etc. – and choose a channel that reflects it.

Remember to choose a channel the audience can access.  You won’t reach someone by telephone if the number is disconnected or there are technical reasons why the phone isn’t working.  If your communication is important, you may decide to use two methods to ensure delivery.

The most important person in the communication loop is the audience.  Your job as a communicator is to make sure the audience understands and to do that, you must understand your audience.

It is not necessary to create a full profile of every person with whom you communicate. A basic understanding will help you plan how best to proceed.  There is an Audience Analysis and Action worksheet in Appendix A that you may find helpful. 

There are four primary areas to know about the audience: the demographics; current knowledge of the situation and subject; the expectations and needs; and what the relationship is.

Audience demographics refers to those external characteristics that are measurable: age, gender, education level, culture, economic background, etc.  The information is used to help you understand the language to use: if the audience is a recent immigrant whose first language is not the same as yours, you need to make sure you minimize any barriers that could develop through written communication.  Choose simple, easy to understand words with uncomplicated sentence structures.  The same is also true if you are writing to someone who may be reading in a very noisy location and they can’t focus for a long time.

Knowing what the audience already knows or thinks about a subject is also valuable.  It saves you time repeating information, which could also bore the audience which would mean they stop paying attention immediately.  You also know whether or not they agree with your message and that is essential.  This helps you plan what information to include and what order of material to use.

Expectations and needs are essential to understand.  If you want to make sure you don’t disappoint, you must know what is expected of you and your information.  When you are in a situation where these are not clear, you can include an outline of what information you will provide which allows you to state what the expectations are and how you are going to meet them.

Identifying the relationship between you and your audience reminds you first, to always treat an audience with respect and second, to modify your approach and language to suit the relationship

    Purpose

While there are three general reasons we communicate – to inform, persuade, or entertain – these easily mix.  You can use information to persuade in an entertaining manner or any variation of the combination.

If you are not clear what your message is about and what you wish to accomplish, it is almost guaranteed the audience won’t know what you are saying either.  Make sure you write a clear purpose statement before you start drafting or speaking.  Have the point of your exchange in mind before you start.

Sometimes, your purpose may shift from what you originally planned to an alternate because your audience analysis reveals the response to your original message is probably going to be negative.  Planning your purpose gets you to organize the information to be received even if it may not be what the audience wants to hear.

Before picking up the phone, drafting the letter, pressing send on the text or email, or having that conversation, review your content ideas from the audience perspective.  Is it clear what you as a receiver are to think or do?  Is there enough or too much information?  Do you have a positive or negative response?

Completing a SHAPE analysis of your communication scenario helps keep you the communicator focused on the audience and your purpose.  In the worst case, it takes you an extra 5 minutes before you send an email, write a memo, or make a phone call.  In the best case, it prevents misunderstanding that could negatively impact your relationship with another person.