How do you improve communication skills? 2

[mag007]

Hi everyone:

I am currently working as an engineer in a large insurance firm. There are times I have to communicate with my customer, which can include email, telephone meetings, and face-to-face. I was wondering, are there any tips/tricks you use for this?

How do you simplify technical aspects of your job, like 'SAN' storage, 'High Avalibility', etc...

Is there a good technical communication book? Writing or speaking.

TIA

 

[jrbarnett]

When explaining technical concepts to people without a technical background, try and use analogies that they will understand. For example:

Recycle Bin - rubbish bin
Hard disk - Filing cabinet
SAN - Storage room (collection of filing cabinets)
RAM - top of desk (by taking this one further, I persuaded a client of a former employer to upgrade the RAM in a server of theirs).
Application - tool (eg calculator, pen)

High availability - the provision of resilient application and data use via duplicated data and servers (so it will work if one of the servers holding the resource goes down).

Obviously you will need to tweak these to your audience and market.

John

 

[SantaMufasa]

Use of analogies (parables), as John suggests, in explaining otherwise difficult-to-understand concepts is a vital tool in my mind.

The other technique that strengthens any communication is "Precision Writing and Speaking": using proper, concise, and exact language skills. I am one of the "Precision Writing and Speaking" instructors for one of my customers. The company recognises the power that precision commiunication offers to their workers...They require of each employee a passing grade in the class as a condition of employment.

Therefore, I recommend that you locate a similar class from your local Adult Education, college/university extension, or some other professional source.

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[I provide low-cost, remote Database Administration services: www.dasages.com]

 

[Welshbird]

I agree Dave - One of the most useful courses I ever studies was in Information Mapping (

http://www.infomap.com/).

It was incredibly useful, and in fact we ahve used it at every company I have worked for every since.

I'd recommend it hughly. It's really well worth a look.

Fee

The question should be [red]Is it worth trying to do?[/red] not [blue] Can it be done?[/blue]

 

[LadySlinger]

All the above.

The analogies do help as well. I once compared dummy terminal to a Slurpee from 7-11. If there is too much information that is received, the terminal will freeze; Much like gulping down a slurpee from 7-11. If you drink too much too fast, you'll have a brain freeze.

 

[Lunatic]

jrbarnett

I love the one for RAM.

Unfortunately I don't have any good stand-bys to contribute because usually everything is dependent on the person I'm speaking with (my dad, for example, is a carpenter so I use a lot of examples with tools).

I'd be interested to hear of other common analogies people use to help explain technical concepts or even just general computing to the developing technology user.

***************************************
Have a problem with my spelling or grammar? Please refer all complaints to my English teacher:
Ralphy "Me fail English? That's unpossible." Wiggum

 

[Welshbird]

My favourite I remember (but have no idea where from) was the explanation given to me about defragging.

It seems that Windows is like a particularily untidy teenager. When you give it stuff to put away (i.e. click 'save') it bungs a bit behind the curtains, some under the bed and the rest in the bottom of the wardrobe. Defrag is telling your teenage Windows to GO TIDY YOUR STUFF! It then makes it much quicker to find stuff when you ask.

Fee

The question should be [red]Is it worth trying to do?[/red] not [blue] Can it be done?[/blue]

 

[mmorancbt]

Analogies and word pictures - as mentioned above - are much simpler for non-technology passionate users of your product.

Try to imagine or remember a concept outside of your expertise or purview - that someone explained effectively. How did they do it? How or why did it make sense to you?

Another tip: Allow your customer/client/user to tell you are being to technical/jargon-filled. They will if you give them permission.

I do a pretty effective job at communicating to non-technical audiences (I am often hired for that purpose alone). Much of my book is dedicated to that prospect alone. However, I will tell new clients and remind old clients - particular the non-technical one to tell me I am being a geek or that I am jargonizing too much.

You can tell them right up front, I am working on improving my communication skills and would like to know when I am doing well or doing poorly. If my explanations are confusing, please let me know. If something works and is clear to you, let me know as well.

Many times, non-technical people will assume that either you do not care to explain more clearly or that you would offended if they corrected you. There is also a sense that overusing technical terms with non-technical customers is intimidating and can be used as political power of sorts by technology professionals.

Once again, demonstrating that this is not your attitude will go a long way to improving your communications.

Matthew Moran (career blog and podcast below)
Career Advice with Attitude for the IT Pro

http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/pm/career

http://techcareerconsult.blogspot.com

 

[jrbarnett]

The one area I face continual difficulty with is to persaude people to run the Windows or Microsoft Updates every month on their PC.

How about this one for Windows Update, just thought of it:

Windows presents a wall to your internet provider, only allowing data to flow in certain rows. Occasionally, methods will are found that open extra holes in that wall and allow outsiders access to your computer and the data on it.
By pushing through these Windows or Microsoft Updates, these holes get filled in with concrete or polyfiller, strengthening the wall.

A Windows service pack is a huge collection of updates plus maybe the odd software enhancement, and it is generally advisable to install them if they are available for the software you run.

What do people think?
I've not yet found an end user to run that one against?

This could also apply to patches for other applications as well (for example the recent Adobe Reader flaws discovered).

John

 

[SQLSister]

The first thing I have noticed in many IT people is the tendency to talk down to users as if they were stupid. They are not stupid, they are experts in some field other than yours. (And if they were expert in your field there would be no need for your position.) Nothing will turn off the communications between two people faster than being patronizing and arrogant.

Empathy and politeness will work wonders. Listening works even more wonders. Asking questions to get the user to explain the problem further or explain why they don't want to run an automated update of the operating system, for instance, may get you to see things from a perspective you hadn't considered.

So you may find that the schedule of 4:00 pm on Friday for auto updates may work fine for many offices but payroll is doing time-critical work at that time and cannot afford to be stopped by an automated process if everyone is to be paid on time. Learning about other people's constraints and concerns is always helpful in helping you help them.

Often what we in IT view as the most important issue is not what the users view that way. They will be happy if we fix X while we are busy trying to fix Z and then maybe X if we can get to it.

Use of analogies is good to explain technical concepts - so are graphs and charts. I talk with my hands so often I can't explain something to a user without drawing it out for them as well. Often a quick sketch of the problem will make clear what a hundred explanations will not.



Questions about posting. See faq183-874

 

[rosieb]

I think analogies are great, and there are some really good ones here, but the most important factor is to explain why it's important to the customer.

Something like "and this means that your computer will run faster" - but you have to make sure it's something important to that individual.

Rosie
"Don't try to improve one thing by 100%, try to improve 100 things by 1%

 

[eyetry]

The most effective way to communicate is to know your audience. Learn the audience’s terminology, about their jobs and ask questions about those aspects you don’t understand. Know who the decision makers are and who they rely on when making decisions. Try to determine who will be a stumbling block.

Most technical people don’t see themselves as sales people. We are. Our business is providing technical solutions for business problems. We need to sell our customers on the concept we understand their need(s) and can provide result(s) that will meet them in a cost effective, timely, results oriented way.

Analogies and word pictures are effective but only to the degree that we can keep people interested and they are meaningful to our customer. As said above we can also take them to far and appear to be talking down. Use the customer’s terminology as much as possible.

Ask questions, use paraphrasing to confirm understanding. Let customers do the talking. Assume you know less that you think you know. Once we clearly understand each part of the issue confirm the level of criticality ask for some sort of buy in….. Most people don’t want to know the details. They want to know that you understand the problem/objective. That you can provide them with a high level view of what it’s going to take.

When presenting options, if you catch yourself rambling or losing your audience STOP…. Even laugh and ask people if they are still awake… Use words and pictures. Ask a peer to signal you if it looks like your loosing them, saying to much/little etc..

AND… in my opinion presenting solutions in a conference room setting should be a formality only. If you don’t know the decision makers are going to buy your solution before you walk thru the door you shouldn’t be there. Meet with the key people before hand. Two minutes in the hall can knock off 20 in a meeting. Provide them with details they need along the way. They want see progress or catch you before you go to far down the wrong street.

Ask for feedback.


Are you still awake?

 

[mag007]

Good post eyetry
yes, still awake.

 

[gbaughma]

When I used to teach basic computers, many times I had people asking "What does it mean megabytes and terabytes and so forth, and how do I know which one I need?"

I would explain RAM, Hard Drive, and segue into Defragmenting this way:

RAM is like a whiteboard (or chalkboard, depending on which I had in class)
The Hard Drive is like a library.

When you work on a document, your computer pulls a book from the library shelf, and actually copies the book to the whiteboard, where edits and changes are made. When you save the document, the computer copies it from the whiteboard back into the book. So... the more RAM you have, the bigger whiteboard you have; the more documents you can be working on at the same time, or larger documents can be opened. The more Hard Drive space you have, the larger your library for storage of those documents.

Defragging just takes and re-sorts the library, putting all the books away in their proper order so that they can be found quicker. (I know, defragging does more than that, but the concept of tearing a book into little pieces to shove it into the cracks between books [fragmenting].... it gets to be too much.)



Just my 2¢
"Life gets mighty precious when there's less of it to waste." -Bonnie Raitt "Nick of Time"
--Greg

http://parallel.tzo.com

 

[aarenot]

I am in a little different field, telecommunications, primarily IP telephony.
When I speak to the decision makers, I tell them that I am going to ask a few questions about their proccesses, and their business in order to gain some knowledge about their application of the technology. I will then use that information to develope an application of the technology designed for their business, and proccesses.
I ask questions not only to learn their proccesses, and priorities, but to confirm to them that they are my focus, and intent to address. When they feel I am open, concerned, and asking questions in order to make specific considerations of their needs, proccesses, and goals I get a lot more cooperation. It also makes them feel more comnfortable with me, and that I am on their team.
They also give me less push back, more resources, and stay out of my way more. It is all about making them feel heard, validated, and a priority, then fixing their problem, even if they did not know they had one.

Works for me.

 

[Welshbird]

I agree aarenot.

I would add that I tend to try and explain their processes back to them too, both to ensure I have understood, and possibly more importantly, to make sure they KNOW I have understood.

Fee

The question should be [red]Is it worth trying to do?[/red] not [blue] Can it be done?[/blue]

 

[MallardVHS]

English isn't the universal language. The kitchen is.

At least, that's where I seem to find my most effective analogies. I must confess that I'm not a genuine techie like most TTers, so maybe I was bilingual to begin with.

Don't talk about "tables to be accessed." Speak of soup, and only dipping out the beans, and the unifying nature of broth... Queries are scary, so speak of forks, spoons and ladles. Just bring the conversation home to the person you are talking to. Make it relate to something, anything, that they understand.

Good luck!
Don

[green]Tis far easier to keep your duck in a row if you just have the one.[/green]

 

[aarenot]

I use the food analogies as well, as they are often widely understood.

One of my most frequent ones with project managers is that no matter if I serve filet mignon as a main course with all the frills, cooked to perfection, and a perfect delicate dessert. If the appetizers served before I get to the main course tastes like manure, there is nothing that can cleanse that palate. So they have to set the table, get the drinks, and put a good taste in their mouth to entice their taste buds. If they do not the filet is still going to taste like chit, no matter what I serve.

word pictures are what I aim for.

 

[gbaughma]

You know, speaking of analogies....

Just about *everything* electrical can be compared to water.

Voltage = Fast moving water
Current = Slower moving water, but a lot of force
Diode = "flapper" Valve that only lets water flow one way
Transistor = A gate at a dam; turn the handle and let a LOT of water through
Capacitor (I love this one) = Like a swimming pool filled with buckets of water (surges). You can either poke a little hole at the bottom, and control the surges that way, OR, you can fill it up a bucket at a time, then burst the pool, releasing it all at once.
Resistor = A narrowing of the "stream" to control the amount of voltage and current

Yup. Just about every electronic/electrical component can be compared to water in some way.



Just my 2¢
"Life gets mighty precious when there's less of it to waste." -Bonnie Raitt "Nick of Time"
--Greg

http://parallel.tzo.com

 

[MallardVHS]

I concurrent with the watter analogy, but would have added something about the Volta River (and its "rushin' water) (sorry, Stella, couldn't help it...), not to mention that oceans and circuit boxes both have "breakers" and that you should measure how old lightning is in "damperes," since voltage would be too obvious...

Don


[gray] ok, ok, back to the pond (another one of migraite ideas)[/gray]



[green]Tis far easier to keep your duck in a row if you just have the one.[/green]