What makes a good piece of communication?
Read MoreThe 4 T's of Communication
Can You Afford to Listen Fully
Are you a good listener?
Read MoreInstagram Carousels - un.blab
How do you make the world a better place?
Ever wondered how you can disagree with tact?
10 Common Fallacies
Do you feel you're being mislead?
Read MorePunctuation Chart
Inspired by an infographic I discovered on Pinterest.
Do you know your punctuation?
Personally, I speak 2 languages: good english and bad english. I am only fluent in one of them.
Grammar and punctuation has never been my strongest skill. Those of you who regularly follow my posts will know that by now.
For my nudenotes I have always believed if it communicate the idea or content, it's done the job well enough.
But, as a designer I know proper and correct spelling can be a powerful tool to communicate from idea or messaging - it can be the bad chink in your armour that damages your image as an expert or a premium brand.
Hopefully this handy chart will help me to fix that, although I think is will just be the beginning of a long road.
How to e-mail like a Boss
Inspired by an illustration created by Dani Donovan .
Do you have a love - hate relationship with emails?
Are you like me:
Love, not having to pick up the phone or have a face-to-face,
but hate, trying to find the words to explain your point.
With the vast majority of the world in lockdown because of the Covid-19, I am sure the amount of emails being sent has exploded exponentially.
But, just because you have to do it more frequently doesn't necessarily make you better at doing it.
When working from home, email is an essential life-line, and connection your company and colleagues.
Being able to communicate in a concise, clear and compelling is essential - no matter how good you are there will always be scope for miss-interpretation alignment. Hopefully these pointers will help you email like a boss!
Techniques That Will Improve Your Communication Skills
Inspired by an infographic I discovered on Design Taxi, which was originally created by NeoMam Studios
How do you improve your communication skills at work?
Communication is the key to success in many things but especially business.
Sometimes to communicate correctly it seems difficult, but just because it is difficult doesn't mean its not worth the extra time and effort needed to ensure your communication skills are on point!
Some of you with a keen eye for detail will notice a blurry cap in my notes. The reason for this is I actually got the titles for two of the sections the wrong way around. I managed to photoshop the main spread image but couldn't fix the others.
Communication doesn't have to be a danger zone that we all tip-toe around. My hope is that these notes help you to communicate better in emails, conversations and meetings at work so you can achieve your goals faster and more effectively than ever before.
How To Communicate Under Stress
Inspired by an infographic I discovered on Pinterest created by the University of Illinois.
How well do you communicate under stress?
We all know communication is the cornerstone of success. But, when we are under massive stress it can feel like good communication is just a waste of time and energy. Especially when you are just trying to get shit done!
We all know deep down that in fact the opposite is true. When the pressure and stress begins to build up good communication is more important than ever. In these nudenotes we take a deeper look 3 key principles of communication: Speak Carefully, Listen Attentively & Respond Accurate.
Each of these 3 principles has been broken down into 4 actionable tips we can use right now to improve are ability to communicate with those around us when the pressure is on. Let me know it the comments below which of these points you are going to start using from now on.
How To Tell The Difference Between Fixed & Growth Mindset Employees
Inspired by an infographic I came across on Pinterest.
Growth Mindset or Fixed Mindset - which is best for employees?
Understanding if you or your colleagues has a fixed or growth mindset can be a good indicator of how likely they are to overcome difficulties, in their day to day duties. So, let's break down these two mindsets:
A Growth Mindset employee is malleable - able to leverage their talents and skills, even look to obtain new skills to overcome problems to ensure a successful outcome.
A Fixed Mindset employee is rigid - tend to stay with their known talents and skills, they often won't push to learn new skills to overcome problems.
It's important to highlight that not everyone fits cleanly into one camp or the other, but understanding the needs and wants of employees with these mindsets is key to the success of any business. So, which is mindset is best?
A growth mindset has been linked to more productive and positive teams. However, it is not always the norm - it's important to access your own situation to find the best fit for you.
Personally, I feel a growth mindset is the best choice. It gives you the flexibility and belief that you and your team can achieve anything that comes their way - Adapt & Overcome!
5 Things Great Communicators Do
Inspired by an infographic created by NBO Group.
How do you become a great communicator?
Strong and effective communication skills are possibly the most important weapon in our workplace arsenal.
Concise, compelling and clear communication can make or break any project and team for that matter.
Day to day in the office communication in many forms: conversations, critiques, presentations and phone calls just to name a few.
I hope these nudenotes help you to become a great communicator in all its forms - empowering you to be more efficient and effective in your work.
Design Transparency
Inspired by Unknown.
How Not To Be Dicks To Each Other
Inspired by Ruth Brown and Simon Young
Anatomy of a Great Meeting
Inspired by an infographic from advisory.com.
What makes a good meeting?
We take a look at the before, during and after of a great meeting.
According to Harvard Business School Professor Nancy Koehn, 11 million meetings take place in the USA everyday - more that half maybe unproductive.
Meetings. Can't live with them. Can't have a work day without them.
Most meetings are unnecessary. But there is a way to do it right and be successful.
12 Things You Should Never Say At Work
Inspired by Headway Capital's infographic of the same name.
Have you ever said something at work that you immediately regret?
We all have right!?
Especially in a the creative industry. A place where tensions run high on a regular basis, with passionate people investing a lot of time and effort in ideas which will or will not move forward.
Words can be very subjective. Things can easily be taken out of context by your peers and managers.
Sometimes you can spend hours thinking about some off-hand comment, and how people may have interpreted it.
Only to find out later, they didn't think about what you said anyway.
"The workplace can be a minefield of office politics, stress and complicated relationships. One way you can make your time in the office easier is by knowing what not to say"
These notes contain 12 common phrases you may hear, with what you should say instead of those phrases.
What you say and the way you say it matter, it can easily shift the way people perceive you and your ideas.
Don't underestimate the link between perception and professional credibility.
Storytelling vs. Corporate Speak
Inspired by an infographic from businessofstory.com
How much do you hate corporate speak?
That's a lot of raised hands!
I can't say it any better than they have on Business of Story:
"It's not rocket science. It's brain science. Storytelling is how we're hardwired to understand the world. And anyone can tell compelling stories. So turn your jargon into journey's, your info lists into lore, and your stats into stories."
I hate pointless corporate speak.
It can alienate your clients and your team, making those not in the know feel uneducated and it puts them on edge.
If you can't communicate your ideas in basic language, you probably don't know enough about the terms themselves.
Shift your mindset from rational language of corporate speak to the emotional language of storytelling, and watch how your work begins to resonate more with your clients and customers.
23 Emotions People Feel But Can’t Explain: Part 1
I love these kinds of things, hopefully, I can remember them and use them regularly.
My new goal is to actually use at least one in conversation.
Key takeaway:
‘Jouska’, a hypothetical conversation that you play out in your head.
I can’t count the number of times this happens to me, especially before a bid design meeting when I’m trying to anticipate the possible question and answers.
Businesses and organisations are complex — it can take years for a learning culture to develop.
Although it is number three on the list, I believe ‘shared vision’ is the most important discipline.
If you don’t know where you are going, you can’t figure out the best possible route to get there.
Encouraging Motivation to Change: Am I Doing This Right?
These 11 questions are used to build self-awareness about your attitudes, thoughts, and communication style as you conduct your work.
There’s some deep stuff here, with interesting mindset changes, which can be used to keep your attention focused on the people you serve.
For us designers, that’s either the client or the user — sometimes, I think we lose sight of that in the fog of the design hustle.
Key takeaway:
Be more self-aware.
This is a tricky one to master.
It will take a lot of time to master, but even becoming 10% more self-aware in your life will dramatically improve your ability to communicate with others.
Becoming a leader of yourself will empower you with skills to lead others.
How To Win Friends and Influence People
By Dale Carnegie, based on his book of the same name.
How to Win Friends and Influence People is one of the best-selling books of all time, and I still can’t believe it was written in 1936!
There are so many crazy statistics about this book, it’s amazing — it went through 17 editions in its first year of publishing, has sold over 15 million copies worldwide, and made number 19 in ‘Time’ magazine’s 100 most influential books in 2011.
I think I need to schedule some time to read this one again.
Are there any books that any of you have read that you want to read again?
Key takeaway:
How often do you hear “they’re a people person”?
When I hear people say this, they suggest that people are born with the skill of being a people person, but this is simply not true.
It is a skill just like any other, it can be learned, developed and mastered — just like riding a bike.
No matter your personality type, introvert or extrovert, you too can master the skills of making friends and influencing people, and this book it a great place to start.
Beware of These 5 Motivation Killers
From LifeHacks.org
Having motivation makes every task easier and more enjoyable, especially when you're at work.
These are five sneaky motivation killers — things that you can identify and stop before they kill your drive.
Keep your motivation safe and stay happy at your work.
Key takeaway:
Don’t be afraid.
As I wrote in my nudenotes:
“Probably the single biggest obstacle to success- view obstacles as feedback and not a failure. Allow them to fine-tune your direction towards success.”
I believe a big part of the fear of failure is actually tied to the desire for perfection.
Nothing is perfect the first time around the quicker you are able to realise everything can be improved, the smaller your fear of failure becomes.