Concision. (Sounds like I made up another word.) It's the idea of being concise
in our ongoing communication with others, both written and oral.



Many take forever to say so little. These are the same people who spend a lot of
time in meetings. Some who may have little to say use lots of words to say what
could be said in a few words. It is boring. It wastes time. It reduces
productivity. Theirs and yours.



I do not suggest that all of our communications ought to be reduced to one or
two words. There ought to be time in the workplace for idle chat. It leads to
relationship building and a better quality of life. However, it is sometimes
more productive to simply say "blah" rather than "blah, blah, blah".



As a practical matter, it is becoming more and more important to be concise as
we drown in this era of information overload. We get more information
impressions in one day than our great-grandparents 100 years ago got in a
lifetime. Think about it. 100 years ago, you may have looked a seed catalog, a
shared newspaper, and an occasional book, if you owned one. Today, we have
information coming at us from all directions.



The average working businessperson receives, on average, 150 new communications
each day via telephone, voicemail, mail, fax, and email. When email became
available a few years ago, it was supposed to take the place of a lot of other
communications, including first class mail. The truth is, all other forms of
communication have held their volume (or even increased) and we now have email
to deal with on top of it all.



Want to be more concise in your communications and save time? Here are two
suggestions.



1.. Think before you communicate. Before you make that call or meet with
someone, think out what you how hope to accomplish. A lot of extended,
unnecessary communication is in search of a purpose of the communication in the
first place. When you know what you are trying to accomplish, when you achieve,
it is over and you can move on.
2.. Practice. When you write an email to someone, look it over before you send
it. See if you can say what you need to say in fewer words. I use this technique
in a communications class I teach for MBA students. I ask them to write a
five-page paper. They submit it, I return it, and ask they re-write the paper in
four pages, but cover all the essential points from the five page paper. They
later re-write the same paper as a three, two, and one page paper. Each must
contain all that was covered in the original five-page work. It's a tough
assignment but with practice, they get better at saying more with fewer words.
You can too. If you write something, re-write it several times, each time making
it shorter than the previous attempt. The more you practice, the better you'll
get.




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Dr. Donald E. Wetmore
Professional Speaker
Productivity Institute

Time Management Seminars

60 Huntington St., P.O. Box 2126
Shelton, CT 06484

(800) 969-3773 (203) 929-9902 Fax: (203) 929-8151

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