Chris Fenning

Don't forget that communication involves two or more people. While you might be ready to talk about your topic, your audience may not be. Make sure you validate that your audience has the ability and the availability to engage in the conversation. Give them an opportunity to defer the conversation to another time or to redirect you to someone else who can help.

Give your message the best chance at being understood by preparing your audience to receive it. Set clear expectations for how much time you need, so your audience knows if they are about to have a thirty-second or a thirty-minute discussion. Use framing to focus the audience's attention, giving context for the topic, letting them know what you intend for them to do with the information, and then getting to the point quickly with a key message. Having prepared your audience to receive your message, keep their attention with a clear structured summary of your topic. Most work conversations are rooted in solving problems and achieving goals. Summarize your topic with a clear statement of your goal. This helps people see what you are trying to achieve. Give a short description of the specific problem that is preventing you from achieving the goal, and then propose a solution, which may be an actual solution to the problem

The first minute of any conversation is critical to its success. The en-gagement, understanding, and next steps your audience will take can all be defined in the first minute. Without a clear, well-structured start, you risk confusing your audience, wasting time, and not getting the results vou expected.

A structured summary comes after framing and fills the remaining forty-five seconds of the first minute. The simplest way to summarize a problem topic is to use the goal, problem, solution method. This three-part structure provides the ideal format for summarizing and starting workplace conversations. It works for simple and complex topics. The three parts of the structured summary are: • Goal: The goal you are trying to achieve • Problem: The problem that is preventing you from reaching your goal • Solution: What I/we/you are going to do to solve the problem