Has your style of communication evolved?

When I was younger:

• If I wanted contact a friend of mine I'd have to arrange a time to call them on the home phone. Today, I can send them a simple instant message 
• People only drank Lucozade when they were ill. Now, they have it to perform better when playing sport
• The Shawshank Redemption did poorly at the cinema. It’s gone on to become a popular best-seller on DVD

You see, things evolve over time.

But, some things don’t evolve. Even when they should.

For example, there are certain communications you see every week that just aren’t fit for purpose any more.

They’re not needed.

Or they are; but they don’t need to be so long.

Or have as many attendees.

Or be so dull.

Here’s a simple exercise, to see whether your communications are evolving when they should:

1. Identify all the communications you do/receive regularly – weekly update meetings, monthly catch-ups, quarterly reviews, daily FYIs, and so on
2. Highlight which of these you could stop doing right now, without doing any harm
3. For the rest, identify those you could reduce in some way – have them less often; make them shorter; invite less attendees; have fewer agenda items etc – again, without doing any harm

And then…

Action point

… Do Steps 2 and 3. Stop/reduce these communications where you can. You might as well. It won’t do any harm.

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Written by NativeEnglish

Native English Spain is dedicated to make learning English simple, fun and affordable for Spanish people.