I search my dogs for ticks regularly however One-One being so hairy and not yet having had his first clip made the tick hard to find. Even the vet had trouble finding it and said she would have to clip the dog to do so. In the end she fond it without the clip being done.

So I ask again, on behalf of all the other little One-Ones out there does Frontline Plus really work? (One-One is an Anglicized version of the Japanese “Won Won” which is ‘woof woof’ or puppy.)

Any comment on your experience with the Frontline Plus product would be appreciated.

Richard Townsend

A discussion on free speech and the need to maintain our right to say things that upset those around us. The stifling of free speech is one of the most important issues of our time.

I have recently seen a crazy example of this: Qantas was at the centre of a scandal after posting a photo of two guys who wore black face-paint and afro wigs after they posted a photograph of the marketing stunt on the micro-blogging site. The guys were dressed and made up to look like Radike Samo. complete with Afro Wig, Aus rugby kit and face paint, They were snapped a photo with “Samo” himself. The airline however after congratulating the two fans changed its tune after an angry Twitter backlash and then issued an apology. This was not a racist action and Samo himself seems to have had no problem with it. The guys were honouring a great Aussie team member. Give me a break PC crowd… get back in your dark little narrow box.

Dr Thilo Sarrazin, former central banker and author; Dr Janet Albrechtsen, columnist with The Australian; Professor James Allan, bills-of-rights scholar; and Brendan O’Neill, pulls-no-punches journalist and editor of the popular online UK publication spiked for a closer look into the pervasive problem of political correctness.

Beware of political correctness and the motive of those that peddle it as they are attempting to “muzzle free speech, stifle genuine inquiry and destroy independent thinking”.

Tip one: When you use “and” in a sentence don’t use a comma next to it, it is redundant as “and” is a conjunction. I realize there are occasions where it can be correct however, in general terms it is best avoided.

Tip two: Never use the word “but” in your writing, for many, particularly older readers, it is just not considered a good writing habit. Had a copywriter/author friend on his retirement once say to me that he was proud of the fact that in his career he had never used “but” in his writing. As an alternative he did however use “however”, a much better choice.

Tip three: Don’t start a sentence with either “and” (or “but”), this alone will put you out in front of many less professional writers.

Tip four: Try to limit your sentences to a maximum of twenty five words. Long sentences can be confusing to many readers.

Tip five: Do not use capital letters for common nouns. The school, the company, or the city may be ours however none of these nouns need a capital. Even if you are talking about say, your “supervisor”, or company “director”, no capital is required unless you are writing in a situation where you are announcing his or her formal title.

Tip six: If you are going to use and acronym it must be explained the first time it is mentioned in your piece. An example could be; The company is undertaking a TQM project. The first mention should be …“Total Quality Management (TQM)” project.

Tip seven: Avoid jargon at all costs, it is arrogant and more importantly can be so confusing to the reader that the piece you are writing will lose all value.

Tip eight: Avoid clichés such as the one I used above, “at all costs”. These hackneyed old phrases are boring to your reader and smack of laziness on the part of the writer.

Tip nine: Don’t use a big word (three syllables) when a small one will do. It is worth doing some research on the web to understand the value of reducing your “smog index”. If you write as you speak you stand a better chance of being understood.

Tip ten: Present only one idea per paragraph and try to limit your paragraphs to four sentences.

Tip eleven: Put yourself last. You should not use the form, “me and the team”, it should always be; “the team and I”

Tip twelve: Now I am aware that my writing to some English purists is not perfect and in all likelihood neither will yours be. In the hurry to get information out we all take shortcuts and make mistakes. If you want more in depth information this site is a good start: www.alexcommunications.com/style_guide.htm.

I think it is mistake to take it all too seriously however, there are times you will need to write well to maintain your reputation.

Bonus tip: Capitalization in headings can be a problem and the rules and traditions of different countries vary greatly. To be on the safe side you should not use capitals for: articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, nor, so) or the word ‘to’.

These better business writing tips will not make you a perfect writer however, they will go some way if adopted, to making your written pieces more legible and look more professional.

Communication Commandment 2: Thou shall not hide by avoiding responding to emails or calls, or use total silence when face to face.

Communication Commandment 3: Thou shall not interrupt, arrogantly cut in with your own views, nor just be competing to ‘win’.

Communication Commandment 4: Thou shall not generalize, use spurious facts nor wallow in your own ‘genius’ ideas.

Communication Commandment 5: Thou shall not indulge in self-deception, self-righteousness, nor be defensive or dogmatic.

Communication Commandment 6: Thou shall not crucify the message by using jargon, slang or bad language.

Communication Commandment 7: Thou shall not be impolite by using “me and the team” rather than “the team and I”.

Communication Commandment 8: Thou shall not say yes to keep the peace when you need to say no to deal with the reality.

Communication Commandment 9: Thou shall not respond due to your attitude to the sender rather than the facts of the message.

Communication Commandment 10: Thou shall not be unwilling to look critically at your own position or behavior and how it’s impacting the situation.

Communication is…

“Achieving a state of shared understanding of the message transmitted”. Communication only occurs when the receiver fully comprehends what you mean. Communication to be successful must be confirmed by appropriate feedback that demonstrates that understanding.

Communication is not… just telling someone something!

So what’s the problem and why is there so much miss-communication?

Communication when you break it down is a series of ‘symbols’ translated into language and gestures by the sender, which are then deciphered as a new series of ‘symbols’ by the receiver! Example: Different words can mean different things to different people.

Take the word vision for example.

Vision can mean: eyesight, something that has been seen, something that is surreal and imagined, competence in discernment or perception, intelligent foresight, the way in which one sees or conceives of something or it can refer to an object of extraordinary beauty. Even if you take the final meaning beauty of course can be many things to many people, what you find beautiful may not be seen as such by another..

The most commonly used 2000 words in the English language can produce 14,000 possible interpretations and because those with whom we speak constantly interpret rather than truly listen… our real meaning is therefore often lost.

This leads to the second problem of communication… most people don’t really listen well.

Listening is a long subject that I will not go into here however suffice to say that when you are speaking with others they will be either preparing a response to what you are saying from early on in the conversation or worse still mentally thinking about what they a have prejudged in their mind about you and the topic you are presenting.

To truly communicate well you need to…

a) Plan what you are going to say by putting yourself in the shoes of your audience.

b) Use the famous seven “c’s” of communication! You must be…

•    Clear
•    Concise
•    Concrete
•    Correct
•    Coherent
•    Complete
•    Courteous

c) Be acutely aware that what you are saying will be filtered through both your and the listeners…

“Individual differences, cultural differences, attitudes about the message or the other person, stereotyping, generalizing, beliefs, values, assumptions about what the other person knows, thinks, feels or has heard, age, sex, perceptions, expectations, emotional state, jargon, differing verbal and non verbal signals, pre-empting, thinking about your perspective or how to answer something that you or the listener does not understand and environmental noise or visual distractions.”

A handy basic communication checklist.

During your planning you need to think about:

WHAT WE WANT TO COMMUNICATE: Organise our thoughts. Make a mental outline… (Know any people that never get to the point?) and state what we are communicating concisely in the appropriate order and at the appropriate pace.

WHEN TO SEND MESSAGE: Is this the right time? What frame of mind is receiver in? … Is the receiver going to listen or are they under stress or pressure from other situations they are dealing with?

WHERE TO GIVE MESSAGE: Is this the right place or are there a lot of distractions? Is more privacy required?

WHO IS THE RECEIVER: Their frame of reference, experience and needs.

THE METHOD OF SENDING OUR MESSAGE: In person, by phone, letter, memo or a combination of methods…

So finally to be an  effective communicator you need to hone your skills of soliciting pertinent feedback buy developing a series of pertinent questions during your planning process to ensure that what you are really communicating is understood and finally asking your listener to summarize what you have said to make sure the correct message has been received.

So if you are unavailable for any reason what is the best “can’t come to the phone” explanation (excuse) that can be given. I suppose a simple “he’s out of the office” is OK however there is something I believe is better. “He/she is attending to another customer” for my money is the only phrase that will let me hang up without being annoyed at my inability to reach the parson I wanted to contact.

While I’m at it forget the “who’s calling please” it makes the caller feel as if your deciding if they are important enough to be put through. A better question is “may I tell him/her who’s calling”.

One last thing… never tell a customer, as someone did to me today, “he’s at lunch can you call back in an hour“, that’s terrible. Telephone diplomacy can win or lose you and your company great amounts of business!

b) Brevity

As with speaking one of the quickest ways to lose your audience ti to circle around the topic or by indulging in the proverbial ‘beating-about-the-bush’. There is an old sales letter adage that if you don’t capture your audiences attention in the first ten words you have lost them. Get to the point quickly, use headings and bullet points, never have more than 27 words in a sentence and less is better.

According to Ann Wylie of http://comprehension.prsa.org/?p=217 ‘The longer your sentences, the less your readers will understand and  according to research by the American Press Institute a study shows that:

•    When the average sentence length in a piece was fewer than eight words long, readers understood 100% of the story
•    Even at 14 words, they could comprehend more than 90% of the information
•    However if you move up to 43-word sentences, comprehension dropped below 10%

Bottom line: To improve understanding, break sentences up or condense them.’

c) Clarity

Newspaper, magazines, blogs and many other articles have headings and so should you.

From P. Mathew www.articlealley.com/article_1568981_50.html

“Write in paragraphs that are short and convey a single thought that is briefly explained. Bulleting your sentences and maintaining lists improves readability and helps keep your ideas short and simple to read and understand.”

As I was taught it is always better to use simple words rather than long complicated ones and avoid jargon and anagrams.

Comprehension of a piece of writing can be calculated using what is known as a SMOG index and if you search for this on the web you can find a number of excellent articles that will explain how to calculate this so you check your writing effectiveness.

I still remember a boss that would send back lending submissions I had written with bright red notations “so what” at the end of sentences. To ensure clarity you need to follow the “so what” idea when reviewing your work to clarify what you are trying to transmit.

Example: The business’s gearing ratio is 2.5:1 The so what could be: This is way below the industry average of 4.2:1 and has reduced considerably over the last three years indicating a healthy financial trend.

And again from Pramila Mathew “Always keeping your goal in mind: If you lack a substantive goal, your readers can easily lose interest in your message. The rule of the thumb here is: start with an idea, and end it with the same.”

Rule 2 Read, Practice and Research like a Journalist

If you are going to an effective writer you will need to become an avid reader. You should read at least one or two books a month, preferably on topics related to your career or area of expertise or professional discipline. You can practice your writing by doing summaries of concepts you uncover in your reading, You will also I suggest need to read a serious newspaper each day and any industry magazines that relate to your work.

As you can see from this blog post I have used information written by other writers on the topic and with internet search it is easy to gain more facts or ideas about your topic. By doing research you can support your ideas with the help of other and broaden the perspectives you offer the reader.

Finally to improve your writing skills you should sit down and write at least one small ‘article’ a week – or more often if possible – on a topic related to your profession.

Perhaps a blog is a great place to start if you want to become a more effective writer.

If you like what you have read here there are more career advice articles at: orglearn career advice

Rule 1. Write like a journalist, or as some call it the A:B:C way

Obviously good journalists are experts at getting their message across so the skills they display give a great skeleton to use as a guide to our writing. The A B C stands for:

A – Accuracy
B – Brevity
C – Clarity

In journalism’s ABC they add “coherence,  emphasis, objectivity  and unity” which are perhaps a topics for another day. So lets just look at the basic ABC’s of effective business writing.

What can you do to ensure your accuracy?

As a writer one of the most difficult issues to come to grips with is to judge how well your writing covers the topic, how well the ideas flow or if you have answered the questions being addressed. A key to good writing is to ensure what you have stated in your writing paints an accurate image in the readers mind.

A great exercise to develop this skill is to write some instructions on how to use a calculator plus solve a maths problem. Once done hand what you have written to a another person to see what happens and if the answer is correct. You can also use a geometric shape as a model to  write a description of how to draw it and then see what others come up with as a result of your written instructions.

Proofreading your own work is difficult however if you have the time, leave your piece of work for a day and then read it again. Using this method can help you find the weaknesses in what you have produced. Of course the best method is then to hand what you have written to a colleague to see if you have made sense,

It’s desirable if not essential, even today, for you to ensure that what you have written is grammatically ‘correct’ and that you have followed the conventions that your organization requires. As another writer on this topic puts it: “This is one of the most important post-writing tasks that you need to do.” Grammar in most cases is what difference between a readable and understandable piece of work and a nonsensical one. Remember grammar can change your meaning dramatically!

This classic example will perhaps demonstrate the point:

a) A woman without her man is nothing.
b) A woman: without her, man is nothing.

Once more – you must proofread your work as another reader may not know that if your intent was to express point a) above or point b)

Accuracy is also governed by giving the appropriate amount of information, too little and mistaken image will  occur in the readers mind and too much will lead to reader confusion. That leads me to part two beginning with brevity.

Before we move on, finally on accuracy: Check your facts, shouldn’t really need to say it however, don’t believe everything you read and try to confirm information – ‘facts’ – from more than one source.

Go to part 2 brevity and clarity or through direct post writing-brevity-clarity

Admittedly it is dangerous to comment or make judgments regarding another’s culture however sometimes I believe it is necessary.

With that said did I once have the misfortune to listen to a young American professor while he advised a willing audience of ‘expats’ and ‘locals’ on the intricacies of dealing across cultures and how they should approach their life and work assignments in this case in Taiwan. He eagerly gave a broad brush explanation of how the Taiwanese behave and why, based on the studies of the renowned G. Hofstede. This professor (cultural consultant) was obviously selling his wares and insisting that cross-cultural training was essential for those being posted overseas. In my view cross-cultural training is often unless carefully selected and moderated represent nothing more than help you (and I) try to break the rules of good human relations. However there are some handy practices and behaviors that can at least bring a civilized approach to dealing with others of a different persuasion or those whom have a different perspective on what is a priority or on what constitutes

GOOD IDEA: NEVER TELL SOMEONE ABOUT THEIR CULTURE… ASK

So what is a reasonable starting point when thinking about or dealing with cross-cultural relations? Perhaps the following can be used as basic ground-rules for those interacting with different cultural groups? We must believe and act as if the following where true (as it is)…

No-one is an expert on any culture – not even their own
Another’s culture is not better or worse than our own – just different (well maybe see part 3)
Stereotyping or generalizing is inept, stupid and intellectually unsound
We must be flexible and able to accept a lack of clarity and a differing view
Always ask about another’s ways and never tell someone about their culture
And of course… DO NOT assume anything… ever!

If you are going to invest (or perhaps waste) your money on cross cultural training check very carefully that it will not create non-thinking individuals or worse, a bunch of inflexible experts that can clearly stereotype ‘lesser beings’ (or greater gods). Don’t let your staff become users of a bunch of unsound generalizations that will relieve them (and/or us) of the responsibility of asking what motivates those they (or we) associate with and manage.

part 3

To begin lets look at what a culture is and how it manifests itself in our behavior. According to a variety of dictionaries the key words are “type of civilization”, “manners & tastes”, “ideas and customs” and “beliefs, way of life and art”. Again to look at a simple example the ideas, values and customs of the accounting department will very really differ from those in the sales and marketing department.

Why you should take my observations and opinions on culture at least as reasonable.

Having lived in and/or worked in seven ‘foreign’ Asian countries, being in a cross cultural marriage, having a son in a cross cultural marriage and having friends from diverse national and religious backgrounds hopefully qualifies me to provide some accurate observations on culture. In addition at the basic level I have worked in debt collection, sales, advertising-creative, manufacturing, education and corporate training so my work with many corporate cultures has been pretty much part of my career.

At this point I would also like to state that many so called ‘cultural difficulties’ in international organisations where “expats” work with “locals” are often little more than a tactic by which ‘locals’ or ‘expats’ will try to justify a lousy attitude, unethical behaviour or worse, try to support an intellectually unsound work or business practice. The cry, “you don’t understand our culture” is often no more than a ploy to… dare I say it… avoid reality, ignore changes that may be being implemented or to and cop out of necessary activities or operational standards.

Part 2