Industry Confidential

Check in every issue for the unfiltered thoughts of our guests writers and contributors as they discuss the hottest topics in sports tourism. Join the conversation by tweeting us at: @pushsports

In this issue our guest writer discusses the subject of concise communication.

Who knew that a world without offices would actually mean MORE meetings? As methods of working change, we must all look for better, more effective, ways to communicate. We all have those meeting invites that cause us pause, internally dreading the potential time suck that may follow. Being efficient and effective is the only way to ensure your meeting invites stay answered and meeting guests actually pay attention. Below are a few things we can all do a bit better.

Prepare prior to a meeting. We have all sat in meetings where the leader or a key guest was unprepared, they...were...dreadful. It is impossible to be brief without preparation. Prior to any key meeting, spend a few minutes to review the agenda and any supplementary documents. Make notes to organize your thoughts and if you are planning to speak, please, build talking points. These can go a long way to foreseeing questions or pushback, and more importantly stop you from getting off topic or babbling on. Creating a few expected questions is never a bad idea to rehearse, as there may not be interaction after every presentation. Remember, meetings ask guests to take time out of their day, ensure you are using that time wisely.

Send key documents ahead of time. There is nothing worse than sitting in a meeting trying to quickly read enough to figure out what someone is talking about. Giving guests an opportunity to review items/ideas ahead of time is essential if you need to communicate a large amount of information. Provide your audience the vital content and context to then make your experience together shorter and more effective.

Get to the point and listen more than you talk whenever possible. Deliver the main idea quickly and then start to get meeting guests involved in the conversation. If you were to communicate your desired point into one sentence, what would it look like? This is easier than it sounds, as we do it all the time; think about the subject line of an email.

Understand your attendees and what it is you actually want from them. Stay away from broad strokes like “What do you guys think about XYZ”, instead focus on connecting your thoughts to the groups common goals or strategies. How are they trying to solve a matter? What is top of mind to them? Most notably, if your ideas make a mark on them, what will they gain? How will your subject matter to them most? Structure your communication towards influencing your attendees.

Write concise emails.It has been said all emails should not be more than five lines. If your email is longer than that, then you should be making a phone call, not sending an email. Use brief paragraphs and sentences. If the email includes multiple action items, bullet points and numbering can be helpful in making your message easier to consume.

The fundamentals of great meetings are simple, know your subject enough to be prepared and concise, set guests up properly and keep the purpose/goals forefront.