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Hi everybody, and welcome back to Less Chatter More Matter. It is a delight to have you here if you are a returning listener. Thank you again, welcome back. Really appreciate that you keep [00:01:00] coming back for more. And if this is your first foray into my podcast, a very big welcome to you too. Now I'm currently in Canada as this is going to air because I'm presenting at the IABC World Conference next week.

So IABC is the International Association for Business Communicators. We're a membership-based organisation and I lead the Queensland chapter in Brisbane. It's a really big organisation, so I am super excited to not only share my knowledge with other communicators, but also to meet so many other people from the profession, from all over the world.

I absolutely love making new connections wherever I go. So right now, this is like connection overload for me, and I am loving it. So at the conference, I'll be presenting a very high level, 45 minute version of a three hour workshop that I do called Communicating Better Together. So as you can imagine, there's not a lot of time, but I'll be [00:02:00] touching on two of my key models.

One being the communication personality type model, and the other is understanding how people respond to change. And then we layer those two together to get a much better understanding of how to communicate change effectively, which is awesome. Uh, so that's super exciting. I'm also speaking at one of the IABC's special interest groups, so this particular group, Is for students, and apparently I'm there to inspire them.

So let's see how we go, hey? And of course I'll be attending loads of sessions myself. So next week's episode, I'll be sharing my key learnings from the conference. I can't wait for that. In the meantime, I'm catching up with friends we haven't seen since our wedding in Las Vegas seven-ish years ago. And yes, we got married in Vegas by Elvis, but that's a tale for another day.

Um, we're also catching up with really good friends who moved back to Canada during the pandemic, so I'm so excited about that too. But in the meantime, there's still heaps of learning to share with you, so [00:03:00] let's get stuck into it. Today's episode is addressing a bug bear of many, and that is how to write concisely without sounding like an asshole.

It can be a really hard balance to strike writing short, succinct messages that don't sound blunt or abrupt. Also, some people are just so used to writing in more long-winded ways, especially if you've got a background in academia, for example, it's really hard to break those habits. I totally get it. So I'm going to share some of my top tips for being a more concise writer without losing friends in the process, I hope.

Now there is this quote that's attributed to quite a few people, but the most accurate source I could find says the original orator was Blaise Pascal, a mathematician and physicist. And he said, I have only made this letter longer because I did not have time to make it shorter. And I really love that quote because it speaks to the skill that's required to write in a really [00:04:00] concise way.

It often doesn't come naturally to people. You know, it's, that's the, I guess, oxymoron of it. To write something short takes a long time sometimes. But the problem with not putting in that effort and having writing that isn't concise is that it can be quite confusing because you're not getting to the point quickly.

It's lost in this sea of other words and ideas. It can also, quite frankly, be really boring because it's long. Which means it's also time consuming for people to consume, and because of all of these things, your messages are not memorable and you're less likely to get the results that you're after. On the flip side, the benefits of writing more concisely is that it's very clear what you are trying to achieve. Concise writing by nature is much clearer, so the communication is easier to action. It's also more attention grabbing than long-winded [00:05:00] phrases, but importantly, it's very respectful of people's time and needs, and that's really important when you're building relationships with others.

Remember, the whole point of being an effective communicator is to build and maintain and strengthen relationships. So concise writing can really help us do that. But how do we get there? That is the million dollar question. I have a three step process, which I'm going to walk you through today that I find very useful, especially when coaching others in making their writing more concise.

So let's get stuck into it. The first step of the process is as always, determine the outcomes you want to achieve, especially if there's a clear call to action. Number two is then apply the formula I'm about to share with you to write that first draft. And then number three is proof and edit. Looking for those opportunities to cut out the fluff.

So once again, that process is determine the outcomes, then [00:06:00] write the first draft according to the formula, and then proof and edit. So let's start with step one on the outcomes. You know, I bang on all the time about know, feel and do objectives. And you can head back to episode two for more info on that.

The key is really starting with the end in mind and being really clear about what you want to happen as a result of your communication. So I won't labor on this point much as it's already been discussed at length in previous episodes, and that wouldn't be very concise, would it? So let's keep going.

Step number two, you've got your clear outcomes. It's time to apply this very simple messaging formula, which I love. It is: what? So what? And then now what? So what, so what now? Now what? Let's start with what, this is the topic you're talking about. Try and stick to just one topic per communication, or it will overwhelm people and if you need a clear [00:07:00] action to be taken, then absolutely stick to one topic so people are very clear on what they need to do.

So you've done your what, and that's just one or two sentences. The next is, so what, so this is where you mention why this is relevant to your audience, what this means to them or to the business, the team, whatever that context is. That's exactly what this part is. It's contextualizing the information for them so they don't dismiss it straight away. Again, keep it short. It only needs to be a couple of sentences. And then finally, we have the now what or the so what. So this is where you give details on what action they need to take, if they need to take one, or what the next steps are, and all the logistics, if there are some, like the when, the how, et cetera.

So that's it. What. So what. Now what. Really simple formula to help you draft your first draft. So you've written that, but as I just said, remember the [00:08:00] first thing you write is always just the first draft. If you are serious about honing your skills and being more concise, then you'll have to go through at least a couple of rounds of edits to get there.

The good part is the more you do this, the easier it gets, the less time you'll spend editing in the future because this stuff will become habits, right? You'll automatically start avoiding words and phrases that are long-winded. You'll automatically see those red flags in the writing before you even get there.

So it does become easier, I promise. So up to step three, which is that editing and proofing. A great place to start is to get someone else to read it for you, particularly if they've got no clue about what it is you're talking about. They haven't got the curse of knowledge, right. So they're a really good test of whether or not your writing actually makes sense.

But when editing it yourself, which you should be doing too, here's a few things to look out for, what I call the [00:09:00] writing red flags. So the first one is your sentence construction. How you start your sentence makes a big difference in how the whole sentence comes together. My top tip here is to avoid starting sentences with words that encourage long phrases.

So words like, There is or there are, or it is automatically mean you're going to have to write a longer sentence. So let me put that into an example for you. You could say there are six new products that will be advertised in our next catalogue. So we've started that sentence with, there are. Instead, you could just say, six new products will be advertised in our next catalogue.

So straight away you've already cut out a bunch of words just by starting the sentence differently. Pretty cool, hey? Well, I think it's cool, but I'm a word nerd. But this does lead to my next tip, which is use active voice, rather than passive voice. So active voice, [00:10:00] as the name suggests, is more active. It gets to the point much more quickly than passive voice.

Now there is a formula for active voice. So that is subject verb object. So the who or what, a doing word, and then the object that is being acted on. So let me put that in an example for you as well. So a passive voice sentence might be something like: The new app was used by the customers. Okay. It's quite long-winded.

We know what they're saying, but it, it's quite wordy. But the active voice version of that would be: the customers use the app. So can you see the difference there straight away by using a subject verb object formula, so subject being the customers, verb being used, and object being the app, we have cut out so many words, gotten to the point really quickly, and without losing any of that tone as well, which is really important.

So straight away you can see how we can be much more concise just by making little [00:11:00] tweaks. It doesn't have to be massive edits. Now, I do have plenty more tips on this, but I will bore you to death if I keep going into them in detail as well. So I'll just mention one or two key other ones, and of course if you've got tips to share, would love to hear them.

So another top tip for me is, avoid jargon, use clear plain language. Jargon often leads to more wordiness in your communication, and it's just really confusing for a lot of people a lot of the time. And we, you know, don't want that. We want the opposite of that. We want clarity. Secondly, removing extra words and redundant phrases that make up so much of the fluff.

So for example, extra nouns. So nouns are, you know, naming words. You might have a sentence like: we are interested in the pharmaceutical research field. Field in that sentence is another noun that is just not necessary. So you could just say, we're [00:12:00] interested in pharmaceutical research. See how straightaway it's much clearer as well.

Um, another issue in this sort of category of red flags is unnecessary qualifiers. So words like really, actually very, especially, particularly. So, for example, a sentence that says, there are actually many options that are very practical. Could literally just be, there are many practical options.

We've taken out those extra qualifier words that are not necessary. They add nothing and they get no value out of them. So I'll leave it there because as I said, there's plenty more tips, but we want to be concise today. So let's quickly recap. Number one, follow the three step process of determining your outcomes, drafting and then proofing and editing.

So again, outcomes, draft, proof and edit. When you're drafting, use the what, so what, and now what formula to help you draft a concise message. [00:13:00] And when editing and proofing, not only should you get somebody else to read it, but also look out for some of those wordy red flags as I just mentioned. So, as I said though, the more familiar you get with those issues and the more you practice editing, the easier and the quicker this becomes over time.

So hopefully that's given you a few aha moments. Maybe you are seeing some of the ways in which you can be more concise, or maybe you've had a moment where you've realised why something you've read might sound more wordy and you weren't actually sure why you couldn't put your finger on it. Hopefully, maybe you've had one of those moments as well.

I do run a short masterclass on this topic because it's so much more effective to put this stuff into practice than me just talk tips to you. So if you do think your team might benefit from a masterclass, please get in touch. They're virtual, 45 minutes can be done over your lunch break, and I'm very happy to have a chat to you about that.

In the meantime, as always, thank you for tuning in [00:14:00] and I'm looking forward to sharing my insights from the IABC conference with you next week. Stay safe and keep doing amazing things. Bye for now.