That communication is key to success needs no proof or elaboration. But the nature and style of communication that actually makes achievers to succeed needs detailed discussion. This is how you too can become the achiever that you want to be. By knowing how you can sharpen your communication, you can embark on the implementation project so that you become the powerful communicator that can get what he or she wants—the impactful negotiator that bends cases in his or her path, the invincible debater, the influential operator that wins many competitions for rare opportunities. These are just some of the great benefits of becoming a good communicator who masters both the oral and written communication.
We are specifically talking about clear and concise communication. This is the kind of communication that will set you apart. When you are asked a question or you are supposed to present a report, your challenge is to convey maximum information in a minimum measure of time or space. Be it in an oral or written report or answer, aim to be concise and clear. You will gain a lot of mileage by going straight to the point while covering all the necessary information.
The best tool for making your presentations and reporting concise and clear is the ‘inverted pyramid’ framework. This is where you start by presenting the most important bit of information. Act as if you might be cut mid-way your presentation, at which stage you should have already presented your main and most important information. If you keep your vital information for the last, there is no guarantee that your audience will still be there then or if written, there is no guarantee that they will read the whole report up to the very end.
Once you present your main point, which acts like your executive summary, you now have the leisure to go into a little more detail, but still being efficient and effective with your amount of information being shared. Be as succinct as possible. Do not speak or write to send your listeners and readers to sleep! In fact, you will leave more impact if you wind up your communication before others start ‘chasing’ you off or when they start running away from you. With the use of the ‘inverted pyramid’ framework, you are sure that your main point has already been shared across.
Communicating clearly and concisely using the ‘inverted pyramid’ framework has the added advantage that complex content has a better chance of being understood. By starting with the main point, your complex material is likely to be made clear to the audience or the readers before you get them confused with the detail as you climb up the ‘inverted pyramid’. Even if the audience or readers fail to understand the bulk of the information, they will have understood the main gist from the ‘executive summary’ that you communicated from the bottom of the ‘inverted pyramid’.
You now need to begin to implement and practise usage of this impactful framework for succinct communication. Just start and keep improving on your usage of it through self-critiquing and personal reflections on how effective you get with the framework. Good luck as you rise and shine as a clear and concise communicator!
