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I love words. I’ve always loved words. I teach a lot of communication skills and I’m always amazed at how the smallest words can have the biggest impact. Great communication skills don’t need to rest on complicated models, instead we can all have fun with small words. Here are some of my favourites:

And

If

Yes

What

Really

The reason why these are such jolly helpful little helpers is because we can do so much with them. Oh no you can’t!

Oh yes you can! (Panto mode over now). And if we write these words down on a piece of paper and use them, we will tend to find that conversations are more hopeful, joyful and productive.

‘What’ is an interesting word, because when we ask ‘what questions’ we invite people to think, which means they tend to give us much better answers.

In contrast, ‘why’ isn’t so useful, because it can hook us back to an early childhood experience of being asked a difficult question that we couldn’t answer. Where why closes us down, what opens us up. That’s a lovely chewy sentence, I love words!

And if we ask questions in a friendly way, and if we persist, then we are more likely to have our questions answered.

Really? Yes.

If you want to have fun and push people a bit harder you can really use the word really.

What would you really like for your birthday?

Are you really going to eat those carrots?

Is she really going out with him?

This last question was of course famously sung by Joe Jackson, who thought it would make a better lyric than the question above about carrots.

These useful little words are the salt and vinegar on our fish and chips. We don’t have to use them and if we do our linguistic culinary experience becomes much more interesting!

This week have fun using little words.

Next week: OMD!

If we were to attempt building a house without a properly measured drawing how well would we fare? Would we even attempt to do it? Just for fun?

Probably not. The bricks would be all over the place, the windows wouldn’t fit and the roof would be a disaster to sort out.

Teachers need to have lesson plans, in order to stay on track with the syllabus. Armies need plans too, as wandering round a battlefield aimlessly, isn’t a great tactical initiative.

Plans and planning are part of a successful way of life and yet…

Many businesses don’t have a plan. They might have a weighty strategy document that sets out a broad ambition and is liberally sprinkled with important goals. However, how often have you seen an actual plan? With steps and milestones? They’re rarer than you might think.

It’s as if the effort required to write the strategic tome drains all other mental faculties. A strategy that is published with a fanfare (and maybe a few nibbles to help it along) and then is left on a shelf to gather dust is really no good.

We can argue that a useful guiding business document needs to have one main ambition, three key goals and a practical plan for delivering them. Plans need to live in the real world and take account of actual resources and not make the mistake of assuming staff will work harder to make it a success, when they are already toiling away at full tilt.

Evidence for insanity, or at best lazy thinking, concerns the effects of leave allowances. If we have a department of 10 people and each person is allowed 4 weeks of annual leave then practically speaking we have 9 people available at any one given time (once you remove statutory holidays and allow for some sick leave). Any plan that is based on 10 productive people is going to fail, given that someone has to be on leave all the time to fit in everyone’s entitlement.

I remember arguing this point many years ago with a senior manager, who couldn’t understand why productivity was always below his expectations. His plan was flawless, apart from the glaring flaw, which I handily pointed out, much to his irritation.

Plans need to be grounded in reality and not wear dark glasses in the vain hope of avoiding being blinded by basic maths. Employing 11 people to deliver the work of 10 may leave a sour taste in the budget holder’s mouth, but it is something that must be factored in for any plan to  work.

What is your plan? What actions do you have sequenced, as steps to success?

I have a plan. With actions. And an achievable timescale. I’d prefer to reach my goals sooner, but know that if I bend the numbers around to suit my ambition, I’m just setting myself up for heartache. Better to work consistently in the real world than gallop through a fantasy world and be disappointed.

Do have a plan. It only needs to be on one sheet of paper. With actions. Nothing fancy. Keep it simple.

Next week:  Really?