We are all aware that communication can take many forms. For example, did you know that in a face-to-face conversation, the spoken word represents only 30% of the overall communication?  The rest takes the form of facial expressions, body language, tone of voice and eye contact.

Sometimes, it is not what is said that is important. Rather it is information left unsaid.  Apparently the opposite also applies.

I recently met a bloke at a barbeque (as most Aussies do). Let’s call him Ross.  We were discussing a man we had both met who has a tendency to “stretch the truth”.  Ross told me that he was aware of this tendency on his first meeting with him.  This surprised me as this particular man has managed to fool many of us for quite some time.  Being the skeptic that I am, I asked him how he could possibly have known this after only one encounter.  His answer was amazingly simple and logical.

He told me that when people are being a little less than honest, they always say one sentence too many.  He said that it was that one sentence after their point had been well and truly made that negates all of the preceding information.  How interesting!

After considering this for a time, I have to say that I agree with him.  It really does make sense.  When people are telling the truth, they are happy to just state the facts.  However, there comes a certain desperation to be believed in people who are not being entirely honest.  This could well lead them to overcompensate or give ‘too much information’.  I encourage you to think about this in your own communication, particularly with those who are inclined to, let’s say, exaggerate.  See if you agree.

What a useful communication tool and a great asset to add to our built-in BS Detectors.

Isn’t it interesting that within Australia, between the states and territories, there is very little difference in our language. However, take a trip across the Tasman, and the difference is huge. Even more interesting when you consider that Brisbane is actually closer to Auckland than to Perth.

On a recent trip to New Zealand I became involved in many a friendly debate about the “correct” pronunciation of words as well as the “correct” terminology for various things.

As Australians, we can generally recognize a Kiwi accent at a hundred paces. They stand out because they are slightly different. (However, I am often outnumbered in my social circle!) Aussies just can’t help ourselves when we take the proverbial out of our Kiwi cousins. For instance, I have advised my neighbour, Ben, to work on his accent as the Kiwi pronunciation is hardly flattering.

It was a real experience for me to have the tables turned and to be recognized by my Aussie accent. People asked if I was “dinky-di”, expected me to say “ridgy-didge” and wanted me to “put another shrimp on the barby”. This highlighted to me the misconceptions we have between nations (by the way, I saw very few sheep while I was there).

I suggest we celebrate our differences and be proud of our heritage. Let the Kiwis have their accent and I will be taking my Aussie twang wherever I go.

Fortunately, thanks to my “Aussie” Kiwi friends, I have had years of training. I knew to leave my jandals at the door and which chilly bin the beer was in!

Now that there are over 70 million blogs worldwide, it has become apparent that the art of blogging has taken the corporate world by storm. In fact the growth rate of blogs are now much higher than the growth rate of internet adoption at its peak. Did you know that 10% of all Fortune 500 companies and nearly 40% of large US corporations now utilize blogs as a powerful part of their marketing mix?

Why?

There are many valid reasons for businesses to blog. Many of these reasons have been mentioned on earlier posts. http://www.redwrite.com.au/blog/2007/09/18/why-blog/

Firstly, it is cheap PR. Blogs can level the playing field for small businesses to compete with larger organizations. After all, anyone can have a blog even on a low promotional budget.It is important for businesses to stay ahead of the competition or even disgruntled customers. After being severely disappointed in his new Land Rover Discovery, Adrian Melrose founded a blog, haveyoursay.com to vent his anger. His site was then the first to appear on Google if you searched “Land Rover Discovery”, until Land Rover rapidly increased their web presence. Incidentally, it still appears in the top ten.

Secondly, blogs offer an effective method of two-way conversation, where customers can give feedback and businesses can trial new ideas or products.Most importantly for businesses, however, is the ability of blogs to give a human voice to represent the somewhat cold and distant face of large corporations as discussed in The Cluetrain Manifesto.

“Markets are conversations. Their members communicate in language that is natural, open, honest, direct, funny and often shocking. Whether explaining or complaining, joking or serious, the human voice is unmistakably genuine. It can’t be faked.Most corporations, on the other hand, only know how to talk in the soothing, humorless monotone of the mission statement, marketing brochure, and your-call-is-important-to-us busy signal. Same old tone, same old lies. No wonder networked markets have no respect for companies unable or unwilling to speak as they do.But learning to speak in a human voice is not some trick, nor will corporations convince us they are human with lip service about ‘listening to customers.’ They will only sound human when they empower real human beings to speak on their behalf.”

The Cluetrain Manifesto

Business blogs have various uses and as such can take many different forms. You can use your blog as an FAQ page, run contests to gather customer data and feedback, and offer your customers updated information on your business and products. A blog can be added to your existing website or as a cheap alternative to gain a web presence. Best of all, blogging software is easy to use and can be maintained by any member of your staff without relying on your web developer to upload posts or changes. For more information on how a blog can be of benefit to your business, please contact the Redwrite team.

I sometimes think that I am living with the next Mr Spielberg. My seven year old son, J, has the most vivid imagination I have ever known. The ideas that he comes up with while he is awake are so bizarre, I often wish I could step into his mind while he sleeps.

This wish was granted the other night when he came crawling into my bed after a particularly wild nightmare. No witches and goblins and vampires for this one ” oh no ” he dreamt that he and his brother were “mice on a mission” and had to eliminate all the bad-guy cats in the neighborhood (as opposed to good-guy cats??)

As much as J’s imagination is a constant source of entertainment for the rest of the family, it makes me wonder exactly when, in the course of growing up, do we lose this capacity for dreaming? At school and then at work we are often berated for daydreaming and told to keep our heads in the real world, when in fact it is these dreams that can inspire us and direct us toward a more positive future.

Our world would be a very different place if it weren’t for people following their dreams. Martin Luther King shared his dream with the world and as such was the youngest person to receive a Nobel Peace Prize and enabled the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to be passed through Congress.

Einstein’s Theory of Relativity was inspired by a dream that he had as an adolescent in which he was snow-sledding downhill and going faster and faster until he looked up and saw the stars of the night sky refract into a brilliant spectrum of colours. He then devoted his career to interpretting that dream and changed the course of human history.

We need to perceive before we can believe and then achieve. The first step, however, is to perceive. As we enter the new year of 2008, let’s allow ourselves time to dream incredible things for ourselves and our world. Take it as a compliment when someone next quotes Michael Caton from The Castle - “Tell ‘em they’re dreaming”!

Christmas is upon us yet again and I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of my readers and clients a very merry one and hope that you can spend some quality time with friends and family.

It really is a strange society in which we live when we encourage our children at Christmas time to think about what they would like Santa to bring. Isn’t it better to encourage our children to see their glass as half full rather than half empty?

Too many of us focus on the things we want rather than truly appreciating the things we already have. If we go through our lives continually wanting more, we can never be completely happy. While it is important to have goals and dreams to strive for, it is equally important to recognize and celebrate the small victories along the way.

Let’s all make the effort this Christmas to really count our blessings, large and small (particularly the small!) and to teach our children this- the secret to real and lasting happiness.

At the risk of getting soppy, I would like to take the chance to publicly recognize and appreciate those who enrich my life - my two gorgeous boys who are my very reason for being; my incredible Mum, whose quiet strength and compassion still amazes me; my brothers and their beautiful families; and of course my “lifetime” friends, too numerous to mention but you all know who you are. Thank you all for inspiring me and filling my life with joy and love.

If it’s true that wealth can be measured not by money but by friends then I am truly one rich woman!

There is a lot of hype around these days about “effective communication” whether it’s in the workplace or in personal relationships.

So what exactly is the real key to effective communication? Is it expressive dialogue, tone of voice, body language, creating a rapport? Ironically, the real key is none of these; it is actually the fine art of LISTENING.

I currently receive a regular e-newsletter from Martin Avis called “Kickstart Daily”. It is inspirational, motivational and chock full of positive “Power Thoughts”. Martin has nailed the key to effective communication in a recent newsletter and I quote:

“Imagine this conversation at the water cooler:

“Hi, how are you?”

“My shoulder’s playing up today. It’s very sore.”

“I know, my knees are in a terrible state. I can hardly climb flight of stairs without they send shooting pains right up my legs.”

“Yes, I think its from when I played tennis a the weekend, my left shoulder locked up and hasn’t been the same since.”

“And my right ankle is starting to ache as well now, I guess I’m just wearing out.”

“Have a good day.”

“See you later.”

Does it sound familiar? We all do that - think that our aches and pains are far more interesting than the other person’s.

And isn’t it irritating when you are talking to someone who does that too!

The conversation above is what is called a 50:50 dialogue.

Each participant spends 50% of the time talking about themselves. 2 x 50% is 100% - nothing left over for listening.

In any conversation between two people there is the opportunity for you to have 50% of the time (unless you know some very self-obsessed people, in which case they will tend to monopolize if you let them). How you use your 50% determines how well thought of you will be.

That is worth repeating: how you use your 50% determines how well thought-of you will be.

Imagine your 50% being broken up into five equal parts.

Now, when you are next having a conversation, consider this formula:

3+2=10/10

If you can make three parts of your five be about the other person and the other two about anything else (you, football, the weather, work, anything at all) you will get 10 out of 10 as a conversationalist.”

To subscribe to Martin’s e-newsletters, visit his website at http://www.kickstartdaily.com/. I can guarantee you won’t be disappointed.

One thing I love about my job as a writer in the internet age is the ability to work from anywhere. Have laptop and mobile phone, will travel. Similarly, this same technology means that I can work for clients in various locations.

Many of my writing assignments are conducted purely by email. Whilst this is a convenient situation for both myself and my clients, nothing beats personal communication, whether it’s a phone conversation, or even better, a face to face meeting. There are so many things conveyed in our voice and body language that are lost in electronic communication. It is these nuances that allow us to really understand the person we are dealing with and the message that they are trying to relay.

My partner is currently overseas and, with the exception of one telephone call, all of our correspondence has been through text messages. Personally I would swap twenty text messages for one single phone call. There is something to be said for hearing a loved one’s voice rather than reading their messages. It is also a “real time” communication that is shared between you.

Back to work. As I have already mentioned, sometimes a face to face meeting with a client gives me valuable information that isn’t conveyed in an email. For this reason, I often find myself travelling (within the local area) for meetings. As I live on the beautiful Coral Coast of Queensland, this need to travel isn’t always a chore. I have recently undertaken work for a client living in the Town of 1770. As I “needed” to meet with this client, I also caught up with my dear friends Kev and Sue, who are currently managing a fishing charter business. While I was there, I had the pleasure of enjoying a trip on their game fishing boat “Vasco III”. What a wonderful way to enjoy this naturally beautiful area.

I really do love my job!and the need to travel. I just have to be careful not to get sand in my laptop.

Visit Kev and Sue’s website at www.coralcoastgamefishing.com.au for more information on one of the best charter operations in Queensland.

Red Write has recently written some documents for Hunter IT Solutions and what an education that was.

Did you realise that a study conducted by the University of Texas found that 43% of companies that experience a severe loss of data, and that have no recovery plan in place, never reopen.

That’s a staggering statistic, particularly when you combine it with USA Today magazine’s findings that a huge 69% of people have lost data due to accidental deletion, disk or system failure, viruses and other disasters. Of these, roughly three quarters of all data loss is caused by hardware failure and human error. When you consider that a hard disk drive has a life expectancy of between three and five years, the question is not if a hard drive fails but when.

Ken from Hunter IT Solutions says that with a little forethought and planning it is possible to have an effective recovery system in place that is both economical and simple to maintain.

As with most things, when dealing with important data, prevention is better than cure. It is far more cost-effective to have well designed disaster recovery plan in place than to rebuild lost data. To rebuild can cost on average $10 000 per MB. Given that the average loss is 2MB, this equates to a cost of $20 000 to rebuild lost data. Compare this to the cost of recovering data that is protected through an effective backup process. The cost of recovering such data is reduced to around $550 total.

To avoid these consequences, you need a well designed disaster recovery system. This system would ideally incorporate an efficient backup and archival process as well as redundant storage to factor in hardware failure. This system also needs to be tested on a regular basis to ensure its proper function.

Visit Ken’s website at www.hunteritsolutions.com.au for more information on protecting your valuable data.

With a date finally set for the Australian election, we are seeing more of our pollies through various media (unfortunately for most of us!)

This leads me to wonder how much of the policies and legislation the average Aussie really understands or has an interest in.  Most of us form an opinion based on the physical presence of candidates.

Prime Minister John Howard is often portrayed as a little, weedy bloke when in fact he is quite tall.  Mr Costello is seen as a bit of a goof but actually has a very bright political mind.  Mr Rudd seems to give many men the impression that he is a bit soft.  Ironically, the best thing he did for his public image was confess to being in a strip club while on a trip to the States.  Added to that his inability to completely remember the night because he was sloshed raised his public image (amongst Aussie men) even more. Only in Australia!!

Former Queensland Premier, Peter Beattie was a self-confessed Media Tart and knew how to be portrayed by the media in the best possible light. All of our pollies are well aware and experts at the media “sound bight”, just that short snippet we see on the news or hear on the radio.  How much of our opinion is formed on that public face?

Maybe we need to consider how we average Aussies are perceived by the public.  My sister-in-law had me believing for fifteen years that she had perfect children who never fought.  She finally let me in on the secret “they fight like cat and dog..at home!  They were well-trained to keep their “public image” even if they let rip at home.  There’s some common sense PR. You don’t need a degree to work that one out, just the privilege of being a parent.

Isn’t it amazing how trends come and go?  It would seem that, this time, technology has sent us backwards.

Think about the Dark Old Days, when all communication was written.  Books were written, read and passed on.  Newspapers kept us up to date (to a degree) and the only way to keep in touch with loved ones or conduct business was through letters. 

Then some bright spark by the name of Bell invented the telephone.  Great!  Now all we have to do is lift the handset to communicate with anyone in the world.  No more writer’s cramp, no more week/month/year old news. 

Not long after, we entered the Electronic Age and we discovered radio and then television - machines that talk to us so we no longer need to read.  We had almost lost the written word when we entered the Information Age.

Suddenly we have SMS and email, communication channels that require us to use real words again, given that some might be abbreviated.  No longer do we sit in front of  “the box” and have information fed to us.  We now sit in front of a different “box” exploring the wonderful world of the Web which requires us to sift through information in a written form.  For now it looks like the written word has returned….and as a writer, I’m lovin’ it!