| Strive for conciseness and clarity in oral and written reports. |
| If there is one most irksome encumbrance to promoting urgency in the workplace, it is the person who takes a half-hour of rambling discourse to say what could have been said in one sentence of 20 words. There is a curious and widespread tendency among engineers to surround the answer to a simple question with so many preliminaries and commentaries that the answer itself can be hardly be discerned. It is so difficult to get a direct answer out of some engineers that their usefulness is thereby greatly diminished. The tendency is to explain the answer before answering the question. To be sure, very few questions endure simple answers without qualifications, but the important thing is to state the essence of the matter as succinctly at possible first. On the other hand, there are times when it is important to add the pertinent background or other relevant facts to illuminate a simple statement. The trick is to convey the maximum of significant information in the minimum time, a valuable asset to anyone. |
If you have not worked to develop your communication skills, you must invest some time and effort into improving your skills on the job.
There are essentials to all successful communications:
- Know your audience - People have different backgrounds and what makes sense to you might be meaningless to others, so write or speak to the audience.
- What is your purpose? - We communicate to do different things: Inform, Persuade or Solve a problem. Focus in on what you hope to accomplish with this communication and develop it around the objective.
- Do your homework - Check your facts and figures for accuracy and have supporting documentation available.
- Be open-minded - When differences of opinion exist, understand other viewpoints and explain your reason for a particular approach without becoming defensive.
- Develop an outline - Well organized and complete presentations stick to a well-developed order. Outline your communications presentation to keep it ordered and ensure you cover all of your main points.
- Keep It simple - Do not provide too much information as it tends to confuse the audience or works to diminish your main points.
In order to prepare and develop better written communications:
- Take a writing class at a night school or local university.
- Read. Read newspapers, technical journals and other materials to build your vocabulary and observe other writing styles.
- Review company documents such as manuals, reports and memos to familiarize yourself with the correct company formats and writing procedures.
- Always proofread for accuracy and grammar and ask a colleague to review your work.
In order to prepare and develop better oral presentations:
- Attend presentations by other engineers to observe their style.
- Take a public speaking class or join Toastmasters.
- Familiarize yourself with the room and audiovisual equipment.
- Confirm how much time you have to make your presentation.
- Practice. Practice. Practice.
- Decide on a central or key message.
- Decide on three to five key points to present and develop your supporting presentation.
- Open strong by stating your purpose and objective and outline to the audience what you plan to say and how long it will take.
- Be conversational and maintain eye contact with the audience.
- Close with a summary and conclusion.
For a more detailed study see the modules on "Communications Skills" and "Effective Technical Presentations."
  (transcript) - Importance of communication skills and learning how to learn - Craig Redding, Southwest Research Institute
Previous Next |
