The Three Rules of Workplace Communication with Gary Ross

Silence, vague direction, and “motivational” messages that don’t move anyone can quietly wreck a team’s performance. We sit down with leadership communication trainer and consultant Gary Ross to get brutally practical about what actually works when you need people to understand you and act. Gary argues that communication isn’t a soft skill at all, it’s a business skill, and organizations that treat it that way build more trust, execute faster, and outperform the ones that don’t.

We dig into Gary’s three “number one” rules: know your audience, tell them a story, and remember that everything communicates. You’ll hear a memorable CFO story that shows what happens when you lead with your title instead of curiosity, plus an easy Think Feel Do checklist that helps you create clarity in hallway conversations, staff meetings, and executive presentations. We also unpack storytelling as a workplace tool using a simple four-question structure that turns dry updates into a narrative people can follow, especially during change, transformation, or uncertainty.

Then we get tactical about modern communication problems: email tone, long messages nobody reads, and why the channel you choose matters as much as the words you type. Finally, Gary shares how these principles helped a plant manager eliminate a two-day production delay by informing, motivating, and directing the team more clearly, proof that better communication produces measurable results.

If you want to connect with Gary, find him at insidecoms.com. Subscribe, share this with a colleague who “writes novels in email,” and leave a review so more leaders can build communication that gets work done.

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Transcript

Welcome And The Big Promise

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to the Uncommon Communicator Podcast. I am your host, James Gable, and this is where we bring enlightenment to the topic of communication. Are you ready to take ownership of your conversations? Are you looking to possess the skills to navigate and facilitate conversations to a mutual understanding? Then grab your growth mindset and let's go. Hello and welcome to the Uncommon Communicator Podcast. It is my pleasure today to have Gary Ross. Gary is a leadership communication training and consultant. And uh he also trains teams to get it done. I don't think I worded that right. I actually stole that from uh your LinkedIn. Leadership communication training and consulting. So teams actually get things done. I thought that was so crystal clear. Welcome to the show, Gary. Thanks a lot, James. It's great to be here. So, what what brings you, you and I together? I think we share a common topic, don't we?

SPEAKER_01 0:55

Well, we're passionate about communications, and I just got to say that it's it's great to see someone who isn't necessarily in a communication role, as is quote unquote day job, uh, be so passionate about uh communications. I think we need a lot more of that in the business world. So uh uh I think that's what brings us together.

SPEAKER_00 1:14

Yeah, I really appreciate that. Yeah, that is so true, and it's so funny, is that it is everything to do with my day job and everybody else's day job. And I think that's one of the most important uh things. Well, let's just dive right into

Three Number One Communication Rules

SPEAKER_00 1:27

it. What I love is you have three number one rules. Now that's it took me a while. I read it a couple of times, I kept it may all be number one. I do want to ask this question is uh tell me what is your number one rule of your uh number one rules?

SPEAKER_01 1:43

Well, they're all tied, they're all tied for number one. Um, I was never very good at math, so that's you know, that's what happens. Um, no, they're they're all number one, uh, because they're all tied for number one, and they're all equally as important. I don't feel like I could really rank them uh because overall they're all equally important. And depending on what situation you're in, you may want to go toward one of those rules first. Uh and so there's no real order there. So uh, and they're my rules, and I can do that. So I threw that in there.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

I was hoping to get you to commit to that, but that's perfectly fine. One thing that I noticed, like, and I am, you know, I'm a fan of the rule of three, you know, and you came up with three rules, which is rather uh, but what you know, after all your years in in comms, communication, communication training, uh, what was really the moment or what was the thing that got you to these three uh these three rules?

SPEAKER_01 2:41

You know, I think it was in a in a community or uh a cumulative uh effect over over many years. I I spent 20 years in-house in communications departments, and I led communications departments at companies like Hyatt Hotels and CDW and and Fortune brands, and then I've been consulting and training on my own now for about 12 years. And a lot of the common themes just kept kept coming up. And I would see what people were were struggling with and also what enabled them to communicate well in the end, to achieve business results. And by the way, that's what all this is is about is to communicate, to achieve business results, and also to perform well in your job and advance your career. So there's there's there's two parts of this, and that's what makes it a business skill. People call it a soft skill, which I don't like that term. I get they shudder when I hear that term, because it's all about uh it's all about being a business skill and being a good business person and helping your business accomplish its its goals. And so over the years, when uh I I see people challenged in certain situations, it's these three things that that really are at the heart of the matter, I think.

SPEAKER_00 3:58

Yeah, and I would say you're the first person I've ever heard call it business skills, and I love that because I I think we share the dislike for the soft skill because it is certainly not that at all. So I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_01 4:11

Uh and that's yeah, I mean, just think about it. You notice you notice the difference when people are not good communicators, you notice a difference in an organization that doesn't communicate well, they don't perform as well as others. There's been research on uh the best companies to work for, which generally are strong in in trust and and communication. They perform better, their stock prices, those that are public companies, perform better. So it's not a nice to have, it's really crucial for business performance.

SPEAKER_00 4:43

Yeah, I like how you separate the two also from just like the personal communication skills, but businesses need to communicate, and it's not just one person with a voice. I'm a huge fan, I'm a systems thinker. I love thinking about things in systems, and communication is exactly that. Like, communication is what systems are in place for you know for the teams to communicate. And how do you do that? Like, I do that often, like when I meet somebody new. Um, you know, what do you prefer? Text, phone call, you know, carrier pigeon, newspaper, you know, trying to find out what is their form of communication, but that's just creating a system. And businesses need to do that as well, too. That's a great point. Well, I like how uh your three that you have really they they are consolidated, they're they're very concise, and I think they fit in so many different areas, not only just in uh, you know, having these number one rules, but they fit in like public speaking, they fit in your daily communication, they they fit everywhere.

Know Your Audience Or Fail Fast

SPEAKER_00 5:44

The first one I wanted to talk about was know your audience, because that one is very uh it's deep to me because I I love doing a lot of public speaking, and that is often what I hear a lot is know your audience. But what what I guess what help me understand that one a little bit better from your perspective.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

Well, you were just getting at it just now when you're talking to people, when you're asking somebody how do they want to communicate? What's the best way to reach them? Knowing your audience is all about communicating the right thing to the right people in the right way at the right time. And making sure that what you're communicating is relevant to people, making sure that it's something they can act on, making sure that it's timely for them too. Because if it's not any of those things, then it's like, well, what do I do with this information? And then they start tuning out other things that might be more important for them to hear, and that's the beginning of a communications breakdown. So it's it's all about thinking about what uh what motivates people, what do they need to hear from you, uh, also what you want from them as well, and truly understanding who your audience is. Now it's easy to kind of have this default thinking of, oh, I know my audience. It's these five people, and I've worked with them for five years, and this person's a little crabby, and this person's a little enthusiastic, and I I know their tone and all. Well, yeah, and that all that stuff is is important, but it it's also about what do they what do they really want to hear from you? What do they need to hear from you? What motivates them? And what do you need from them as well? And so to really pause and think about that gives you a much deeper understanding of who your audience is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:41

I you know, one thing is to initially uh identify it, right? I think that's isn't that like the course to every 12, every 12 steps starts with you gotta, you know, you gotta admit it or something. But it's the idea that you have to acknowledge it like you're looking for it. But I think the what I love about the know your audience is because it's in some ways around some of the circles I run around, a little bit cliche, right? Because it's so concise and so pinpointed that it and it's so deep in it in its in its meaning. So I so what I was hearing from you though is like really knowing what they want, you know, knowing what you want to communicate, right? And what you want them to communicate to you. Uh, and a lot of those things can come from what you were pointing out, or like relationships or things you know about people. But is there a good time to really like research deep, or how can we research into knowing our audiences a little bit better?

SPEAKER_01 8:36

Asking yourself those those questions. What what do they need? What motivates them? What do they want to hear? What do they need to hear? And thinking, um, thinking about that and making the communication relevant to them. You know, I'll tell you a story, and um, that's foreshadowing for another rule, by the way. Uh, but I'll I'll tell you a story where uh an executive that uh who I used to work with he fell flat on his face because he didn't know his audience. He uh was uh just promoted to become CFO of an airline. And he's a cool guy, a nice guy, and he wanted to uh be kind of that man of the people and and so on. So he went into one of the airline's maintenance hangars at two in the morning, and he figured, well, if I go introduce myself to the folks on the graveyard shift, they'll see that I'm a real guy, that I care and all that. And that's that's great motivation, and and so on. Uh, so he goes up to uh an airplane uh mechanic who's who's deep in his work and he gets the guy's attention, and the guy looks up and he takes off his eye protection and his ear protection, and the executive uh you know sticks out his hand and says, Hi, I'm I'm so and so. I'm the new CFO here at the airline. And the technician looked at him and said, So the F what? Except he didn't say that, except he didn't say the F, he said the whole thing. Uh, and then put his PPE back on and got back to work. And that episode taught that executive a very important thing about communication, that when you're communicating at work, uh, and arguably in other situations, but when you're communicating at work, it's not about you. Yeah, the communicator, it's about the audience, the people you're communicating with, people you're giving information to, or you want some, you want them to follow you on something or or do a specific action. And that stayed with him for the rest of his career, that that moment where he was, you know, here he was, one of the top people in the company, and he got just and he just got dressed down by by somebody on the on the graveyard shift for not knowing that you know this guy really didn't care that there was a new CFO in town. Now, if he had led with uh, hey, I'm the new CFO and I want to know, you know, more about what you guys need here in the hangar or or what have you, then he might have had a conversation because that would have made it more about the technician. Yeah. But instead it came across as being all about him, yeah, and he fell flat on his face. And that stuck with him throughout the rest of the career. It was very the rest of his career, it was a very profound lesson for him. Uh and and and that I think goes to show you. So yeah, when you ask about researching the audience, perhaps he could have, you know, he's he could have decided, all right, I'm gonna go at 2 a.m. uh to the to this maintenance hangar. And I want, but I want to know what these folks care about so I can have a conversation with them and engage with them, learn something, and also have them feel like I am here to listen to them and to make their jobs easier. That would have been a much more valuable conversation than hi, I'm the new CFO.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

Right. Well, and I so I you I use that principle as well, too, as far as like people really don't care who I am. Like, I'm I'm a director of operations for a general contractor. Uh and and and I'm fairly new to the to this role this year. People don't care what that is. But if I walk on a job site, and this is what I coach our superintendents to do, and and anyone else that has those interactions with the guys in the field, because the guys in the field, like what he did is he went to the actual person doing the work. That's impressive. Like to to make that whole thought is is really, really impressive that he just gesture, yeah. Yeah, but if he if you truly come in and lead with uh a genuine curiosity about them, then they will remember forever who you are. You know, my favorite is like who is that? Great point, you know, that's what you want. You want, who is that again? Because really you come in and care about how that person is, what they're doing. Um, at the end of the day, like me announcing who I am doesn't get me really anything.

SPEAKER_01 13:04

Right, right. So when you think about knowing your audience, you want to consider to yourself, and by the way, this all applies to the range of communication at work, everything from an informal hallway conversation to an executive presentation, and everything in between, a weekly staff meeting, shift huddle, what have you.

Think Feel Do For Clear Direction

SPEAKER_01 13:27

Uh, but one once you think about these things about your audience, then you want to consider all right, what do I want people to think, feel, and do as a result of my communication with them? What do I want them to think, feel, and do? Now, I don't suggest people sit and fill out a little worksheet before every hallway conversation. Okay, what do I want these people to think, feel different? But it becomes something, it becomes like a mental muscle that you want to train. So when you find yourself in those hallway conversations, and all of a sudden, 30 seconds, 60 seconds into the conversation, you realize, oh, this is a substantial conversation. Then you want to think to yourself, all right, what do I want people to think as a result of this conversation? What's the news? What are the basic facts? How do I want them to feel? Which we had just talked about with this with this airline example. I want this person to feel like uh this new executive cares about me, that he's in tune with what's going on in my workplace and so forth. And then ultimately, what do you want people to do? What's the action that you want people to take as a result of your communication? And that, believe it or not, that's the part that gets left off the most is what do we want people to do? You know, we've all seen the email toward the end of a quarter or the end of a year where we get this note from an executive and they say, Hey, we're uh we're 5% behind our goal for the end of the year, but we have the best team in the industry, and I need you to finish the year strong. Okay, so in there we've got think, which is to know that we're 5% behind our goal. We've got feel, which is hey, this person thinks I'm top-notch, I'm part of a top-notch team, and that's that's great confidence to give to a team. And then the do part was finish the year strong. Well, what does that mean? Uh what do I need to actually do? And then so I turn to my manager and I say, Well, what do they mean, finish the year strong? And then the manager looks back at you and says, I don't know, I got the same email. I don't know what that means either. And uh uh, so you know, we're we're two-thirds of the way there, but then we leave people hanging. So, so be very explicit in what we ask people to do. People crave that direction, actually.

SPEAKER_00 15:58

Yeah, yeah. And I I love that it's uh think, feel, do those three things. I love that you pointed out because you so many times we're like, I got a simple metric for you, and they give you like a seven-point, like uh um you know, acronym word to to go build your communication. But you're you're right, they're simple, you're not expecting people to write it down, but but if you do one of them, right? If you if you think in your mind, I'm gonna do it. I'm a huge fan of repetition, like putting the reps in. That's one thing I love about Toastmasters as an organization, is it allows people to get up and just practice the things that they're uncomfortable with, and just like that think, feel, do, um, you know, it a lot of times people are stuck on the do, right? They're not on the other two. And in this case, it was an interesting story that like they forgot the do. Like, what does do mean? So they all tie together.

SPEAKER_01 16:49

And by the way, that also helps you make sure your communication is solid. Because if you're thinking through that and you get to the do part and you're like, Well, I'm not exactly sure what I want people to do. Oh, well, then it's time to take a step back before you even communicate, right? And think about the work and and what you what you need people to do, what you want people to do. Um, because if you don't do that, then you're out going out and communicating something that's nebulous and people don't understand, and then you get a finish the year strong situation, yeah, where um people don't exactly know what's expected of them. Right. And that's a communication breakdown. So the the whole exercise of think feel-do, make sure that you've got your ducks in a row before you're going out to communicate in the first place.

SPEAKER_00 17:37

Yeah, and like I was saying, like I've seen the do part fail as well. It's like, how can they all do what I tell them to do? Well, if you didn't think and you didn't bring anything in of supportive for what they're doing, like they truly do need to, it's you know, they they need to work together to get there because I've I've actually had that like recently, and man, I've been telling them to do it and they're not doing it. I'm like, then you're doing something wrong. Like they're if they're you're in charge and they're not doing it, there's a breakdown here, right? So it is communication, it's maybe leadership, it's authority, there's all those things kind of tied in there. But what you're saying is you add in the think and the feel, you get a it's you get a lot more action out of the do.

SPEAKER_01 18:18

You do in the modern workplace. Now, unless you're in the military or some sort or a police department or some sort of explicit command and control structure like that, in the vast majority of workplaces, the think in the feel part is really important because people want ownership of their work. People want to know why their work matters, why it connects to the greater goal. And that's what the think in the field part does.

SPEAKER_00 18:41

Well, coming from uh I'm in construction, and construction is still what we call legacy construction, which is not how we're going to perform work moving into the next generation. It's not successful anymore. It came right from that command and control thing. And that's why, even in my mind, like you tell somebody to do it, they do it, isn't how this generation is responding. And it's not really an effective way to communicate and to motivate people, but that is what has been the custom in construction in the military and all of these command and control. And it's just really it's almost weak sauce and trying to uh you know get what you want done uh without the the think and feel in there, too. So those are just some really really deep points about.

SPEAKER_01 19:25

That's a yeah, that's a um that's a that's a great point. Um it's it shouldn't be used as a crutch. And then, you know, you were kind of just touching on this right now with the with the do piece. If we're not sure of what we want them to do, or if we know what we want them to do, but then we realize, oh wait, they don't have the resource to do to do what we want them to do. They don't they don't have the proper tools or the time or what have you to do their best work. Well, then we got to think about how we're supporting the team and if our goals are reasonable and all that, and then all of a sudden that becomes a business conversation, and then that's where we see the link between communication and and being a business skill. Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_00 20:10

Well, it's we're gonna jump into one of the other rules because they're not in order, there's no particular order. I couldn't even get you nailed down to a top one, two, or three, but they're all right. You brought up the story part, which I think is it's this is again is another kind of public speaking trick is people love stories, you know. I think businesses love stories. I I with uh 39 years in construction now, I people I don't know if they like stories, but my stories are gonna help them uh and to effectively uh you know give them. But I guess tell me more about your your perspective on uh telling stories, especially in the communication.

Tell Them A Story At Work

SPEAKER_01 20:48

Yeah, so this rule I call tell them a story, and it it really just takes advantage of the fact of the way our brains are wired. Uh, for since caveman times, we've been communicating by stories. I mean, think of caveman drawings, those are all stories. And there's something about a story structure that it actually alters brain chemistry, research shows, but it it draws us in, gets us emotionally involved. We want to see how things are gonna turn out. I mean, anybody who's binge watched anything feels that uh feels that power. And we need to use that power in the workplace. Now, I'm not saying we need to sit around a campfire and with flashlights up to our face and you know tell ghost stories or anything like that, but you can take anything that you need to communicate at work, put it in the form of a story, and all of a sudden you have what could be a set of dry information now becomes something that people lean into. They want to know how it turns out, they want to know how they're a part of it, they see themselves. themselves in it. There is a promise at the end of a resolution. We all crave certainty. And part of that is what draws people in. And so how do we do that? How do we take the most dry piece of information and turn it into a into a story? We ask ourselves four questions. There's four questions to this. Where are we now? Where are we going and why? How will we get there? What will it look like when we get there? Answer each of those questions with just one sentence on whatever it is you're working on. Then you've got a four-sentence through line on a story. And the way you use that in communication is that becomes sort of the foundation of what you're communicating about that specific subject over time. So the individual pieces of communication, whatever they may be, all tie back to that story. Everything's in context. People can make sense of it because they're invested in that story. So I'll show you, I'll give you an example. And the example I use the most on this uh is The Wizard of Oz. Because by the way, the um this storytelling structure, you'll see it in, think of your favorite movie, your favorite novel. You will see it in uh in in those in those works of of art, of literature, film, and and so on. Sometimes it's one of those threads, sometimes it's three of those threads stretched together. Uh but the Wizard of Oz, I think, cross uh gives us the the most the the simplest example. So I could come up to you and say, hey, uh there was this visitor to a town and she met with a civic leader and then she left. That's factual, right? You know, in this story. Uh, but what if I also told you, where are we now? Well, this girl is stuck in Oz. The girl from Kansas is stuck in Oz. Where are we going and why? Well, she's off to see the wizard because he's the only one who can get her home. How are we gonna get there? We're gonna follow the yellow brick road. And oh, by the way, along along this trip, we're gonna make some new friends and we have to avoid uh the wicked witch of the west and the creepy winged monkeys and and all that stuff. What will it look like when we get there? There's no place like home. And notice at the end, I didn't say Dorothy gets back to Kansas. It's there's no place like home. There's always we always want to have some sort of emotional component to whatever the resolution of the story is. So those four questions take us through, and they also introduce the typical storytelling elements that we see in our favorite books and movies. Uh uh, where are we now? Introduces your hero or your heroine. Uh, where are we going and why? That uh introduces uh a bit of a challenge and a quest. How are we going to get there? The quest and the journey continues, but it also is where the the conflict resides. And uh what's it gonna look like when we get there? That's the the resolution, the satisfying end to the story. So we can take that and we can say, well, let's say we're talking about uh we're gonna be moving our offices to a new place. Where are we going and why? Or I'm sorry, uh where are we now? We're outgrowing our our new office, uh, and we need to be closer to our our clients, and so we've got to move. Uh where are we going and why? We're going down, we're moving to a new downtown office that'll get us closer to our clients, and it'll be an easier commute for most of our people. How are we gonna get there? We'll give you all the supplies that you need to do a simple move, and uh we'll keep you informed along the way. And what's it going to look like when we get there? We'll be in this brand new spacious office, we'll enjoy working in the city, we'll be closer to our clients, and our business will improve, and this will be a better place for all of us to work. So that's how you you take kind of a dry situation like an office move and turn it into a compelling story that that we can uh that we can all get behind. Yeah. And that's uh you could really do that with anything. But think about you know, the Wizard of Oz, think about Star Wars, think about Shakespearean plays, think about anything that you like out in the out in the world in terms of uh uh literature or film, and you'll see that story structure in there. It's pretty amazing, and so let's use that at work to draw people into what we're communicating.

SPEAKER_00 27:06

I love that. I immediately went to Star Wars as as well, too. It seems like every that that theme alone is is for Star Wars is in every movie, but what you just described though, too, is it really does explain the reason why I've heard people tell terrible terrible stories. Like there's there, you're like you're enthralled, somebody's like going along. I've I've had this, like they're you know, they're just one of those, like maybe not self-aware, they're gonna like hook your ear and they're just gonna talk your ear off, and you're like, okay, it's entertaining, right? Sometimes I'm in it for the ride. Like, all right, this is entertaining, and there's no end. Like, wow, they went to another story and didn't finish it. I'm like, this leaves me so unsatisfied with that story.

SPEAKER_01 27:50

Yeah, maybe we know where we're going, but we don't know why, or the other way around. Maybe we don't know how we're gonna get there, or to your point, we never get to the end, so I never get that payoff. Yeah, or maybe there was never an end, right?

SPEAKER_00 28:03

The goal of this conversation was for you to talk and I didn't even need to be there, right? You know, I've I've literally just started stepping backwards before. I think for me as a communicator, though, I've learned some techniques to not allow that to happen. I felt like I was always a good listener, and I overlistened myself to learn that my time's valuable too. And if there truly isn't like an end to the story, like I'm gonna find a way to get out of that. That's probably a whole other topic for us on how to exit uh conversations and stories that don't, you know, that aren't effectively going somewhere. Uh well, so those are two really important things. Uh, know your audience, uh, tell them a story, tell them a story fits in so many different ways. And I loved how you broke it down to really four sentences. Like it doesn't even have to be long, but if you have, because you know, a lot of organizations are moving, and to have a just a four-sentence reason uh and story to get there, that's enough to satisfy some folks to say, okay, that makes sense, let's go. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:07

And I'll I'll tell you about where I've seen it fall short too when people don't use that, is um in in say, like a real major change situation uh in an organization where either it's an MA or some sort of corporate transformation or some sort of upheaval in in an organization. And I've asked in my consulting work, I'll ask a leader in the organization, okay, all of this is going on here. Why should somebody stick around? And if we don't have a story to explain that, then that we can show people they're not going to come up with it themselves. Right. And that's when also the wheels start to fall off, and all the money invested in the transformation or the acquisition or what have you goes bye-bye because employees are angry or confused or you know, don't know what's going on. Um, so having a story behind anything that you're looking to execute, whether it's a project, some sort of transformation, some sort of change in the organization, you got to get a story behind it. Otherwise, people aren't going to know how to make sense of it or understand the the general point of what you're doing. And they won't be able to get behind it or see themselves in it. So that's where the story really can be crucial and be make or break, really, depending on the on the initiative.

SPEAKER_00 30:36

Yeah, and this really ties into that third point, which is if you're not telling the story, people are gonna tell their own story. And that leads right into that everything communicates, right? This is why they're all number one. That's why they're all number one. We're trying to tell me more about the uh uh everything communicates, other than everything communicates.

Everything Communicates Including Silence

SPEAKER_01 30:57

Well, yeah, uh every well, it's because everything communicates, it's not just what you write and what you speak, uh, but also how you write and speak, and perhaps most importantly, what you don't do when you're not communicating, because not communicating is an act of communication. And sometimes we're not communicating about something for reasons that we feel are are valid or are um are are important and noble and so on. I don't feel I'm ready to communicate, so I better not say anything right now. Or we only have 90% of the story. I need to get 100% of the story ready before we can talk. Well, that might be well-intentioned, but while you're considering communication and thinking about communication and days and maybe weeks are going by, think again about your audience. What are they hearing? Zippo. They're not hearing anything, they're hearing silence, they're not seeing uh the leadership or the key personnel in um in their normal work or what have you. So there's a void left, and they're left to make up their own version of what's going on, which is never as good as the story that you want to tell. So uh understanding that that not communicating is an act of communication in and of itself. It's always better, in my opinion, even if the story is incomplete, to communicate something to help maintain or initiate or maintain your narrative, and then you are clear in that, hey, we we don't know everything right now. We're telling you everything we can, and we'll have more to come soon. People appreciate being leveled with, even when the story is is incomplete. Yeah and it will help uh ensure that they're not coming up with something in their minds that veers way off of what it is you're looking to do. I I could tell you another story uh of a consulting client. There were about 3,000 people in this particular part of the organization. And for about 1,200 of them, I believe it was they were getting a new leader or something like that, but uh they called a meeting with the 1,200 people and they communicated what it is they had to communicate. And man, they were proud of themselves. You know, we were timely, we got everybody in here, we told them everything we knew. This is great. Well, the problem was the other 1,800 people knew that something was going on, but had heard nothing about what it was. So they were concerned like, why wasn't I invited to this meeting? What why aren't they telling us what they're talking about? What's going on? Are we being sold? Are we being laid off? What's what's happening? Well, no, there was absolutely no effect for these 1800 people. That's why the organization didn't think to communicate to them about it. The news had no impact on them, but they didn't realize that that information vacuum would kind of send them into a tizzy, and it created a whole situation that they had to then go back and fix. So, again, even though it was well intentioned, they freaked out two-thirds of the company because of the act of not communicating, right? So uh always remember that that uh how you're uh uh how you communicate, even if you're not communicating, and then there's also things like body language and tone and how we write and how we speak and and that sort of thing, right?

SPEAKER_00 34:56

Well, and from a people management perspective on communication, uh taking that same line is not communicating what our intentions are, uh, because one thing I've noticed and I've seen it happen, like people that there were plans for, like you're the next, you know, this, you're gonna have this role, but we didn't tell them because we just assumed how did they not know that, right? And that's why when it comes to one-on-one uh, you know, meetings, quarterly, you know, check-ins, really communicating what that future plan is. That's what this generation really wants as well, too, is to know that there is a plan. And I know that, like even coming from you know, my past, my history, my the generation ahead of me, is we were always careful to even let somebody know it would go to their head, or you know, maybe we didn't think they were quite the one, we're waiting for the perfect one, all terrible reasons to not say, you know what, you uh, you know, you are the era parent, or if even that, like we would like to get you there to this role, and then we help develop that. All of that lack of communication ends up with people leaving saying, I didn't know there was a plan. You never told me, right? And that's that lack of uh where everything communicates what I was what was communicating what we were communicating was we don't have anything for you, but that's not what we were saying. So that definitely fits as well, uh, as well. That's a perfect example. But talking about like, you know, everything does communicate, you know, in the lack of words as well. You you touched a little bit on body language, uh, tone of voice, those type of things, uh, in in communicating

Email Tone And Writing With Brevity

SPEAKER_00 36:30

as well, too. And I think you and I know you work at a corporate level with organizations, like uh emails, you know, one thing that always bugs me is like I didn't like the tone of that email. And like you can you can read the same email and get a different tone, you know. I think it's Keenan and Peel. They do this great uh shit on like misinterpreting uh uh text messages, and that happens in emails as well, too. It happens in text messages where tone, like people are implying tone into just static words on a page. Like, how would you coach somebody through that that kind of scenario of look, you gotta look at how you're presenting uh these words uh in such in I call it static, but in just such a kind of flat way.

SPEAKER_01 37:16

Well, first of all, I love Key and Peel. I haven't seen that sketch, so gotta look that up. Sounds awesome. Um, and um, yeah, I it it's um you know, there's that old rule about write something first, stick it in a drawer, and then look at it again after a period of time. I think that that still applies. There are times, though, where uh email and texts and and so forth uh aren't the best way to communicate. If it's a sensitive issue, if you look at something uh and before you send it and you realize this could be taken two ways, either rewrite it or or pick up the phone. Uh and and that's also again part of knowing your audience. Is this something that whoever I'm communicating to might might take out of context? Are they sensitive to a particular topic or something that might have happened? Being aware of their perspective, their frame of reference, their environment. Again, putting yourself in their mind, not making the communication about something you want to send, but make it about something that they are receiving. And how putting yourself in their mind frame and their perspective, how would they receive something? So that kind of falls under under that umbrella. With with emails and and texts, more so emails, because it's a longer, it can be a longer form of communication. Uh, shorter is better these days. Um maybe not great for communication's sake, but it's just how the way we communicate, it's the way we communicate these days. People are conditioned for short bursts. So if you find yourself writing an email that's seven paragraphs long and the paragraphs have five sentences each, don't do that. Um, because people aren't going to read it. Uh, or if they read it, they won't most likely not digest it or comprehend it in the way you want. So emails, I think, should be in in short paragraphs, bullets, numbered lists. Paragraphs should be two sentences, really, at most, if possible. If I catch myself writing longer paragraphs than that, I I find a way to break them up. Yeah. Or I think should this be two emails, or should this be a phone call? Um, again, in a text, which is a generally much shorter form of communication, really be sensitive to to the length of that there as well. Now, when we cut things down, that's where what you're talking about, where context could be could be misconstrued. So, again, it's best to get into that know your audience frame of mind. How is this person gonna receive this? Right.

SPEAKER_00 40:05

Yeah, I I've I've worked with somebody recently who was known for very lengthy emails. In fact, I the people on the team were like, I don't have time to I I he goes, I didn't read the email. I knew I didn't have time because it was like all those paragraphs. So I had a conversation with them and very proudly like showed me I'm a bullet, I am definitely a bullet points person. Like, I I want to have short statements, bullet points, break it out, even visually, right? It communicates better. But so I mentioned bullet points and being more concise, and people aren't reading emails, just given some uh probably some what do they call it, just unsolicited feedback. And then it he was like, Hey, come here, come here, come here. And he took, was really proud of it. I mean, sincerely, had taken all those paragraphs and just threw some bullet points on each one of them. So the bullet points were in paragraphs. I'm like, I think my message didn't quite get there, but yeah, you're absolutely right. Like, nobody's gonna take the time. But the whole thing is it it's not taken away from the fact that it was all good information, like it was all absolutely important information, uh, but all of that was not gonna be able to be digested. So that's a great point in regards to that.

SPEAKER_01 41:14

And and this person's not setting out to write terrible emails. This person was probably thinking, all right, I'm gonna be thorough here, so nobody has me. So I'm answering questions up front, and people understand, and so I'm gonna give them all the information I can. And again, they were they were well-intentioned, very, but but not um understanding the audience and and how they're gonna digest that that information, and so it's a good first step for the person to put that put the stuff into into bullet points, but then we got to consolidate a little further, and when we think about what do we want people to think, feel, and do that helps us consolidate. So, you know, I what do I want people to do? Uh, I want them to increase output by 10% on whatever project. Okay. So now look at this short novel that I've written. What in here is not going to contribute to them improving the throughput by 10%? Oh, yeah. Well, I guess we could lose this, we could lose this, we could lose this. All of a sudden, we've got a shorter email. So that's what the ThinkField do can do for you, uh, in practical terms.

SPEAKER_00 42:28

Yeah, absolutely. Everywhere, right? Uses everywhere. All right, so know your audience, everything communicates, tell them a story, all number one, not in any particular order. I should probably read them in a different order, but they all are they are all equal. I can read you really have uh shown that they are of equal stature because one without the other is not going to get what you're out there to accomplish. And just kind of one final thing I wanted to dive into.

Communication That Fixes Real Output

SPEAKER_00 42:52

You have it's really a great testimony from one of your clients where they uh where you went in and uh you know coached them on communication, and then the response was, you know, our plant was two days behind, you know, after Gary left. We weren't anymore. Now, for me, from just like the especially missing the story, I felt like what you did to me was uh all right, so I went in, I told them a couple of tips, and now they're a millionaires. Uh that's it. Well, I know there's more in there, uh especially coming from manufacturing and coming from construction. Like, I want to know like what were specific things in the communication that helped communicate productivity because I'm a lean thinker, I'm a lean-minded, you know, construction individual. Like, what are some specifics from that that were able to change to allow them to communicate to improve production?

SPEAKER_01 43:44

Well, it's basically everything we just talked about. Uh, he had we had we had talked about the three number one rules, also about thinking about communication in in business terms. So, how is our communication? Tying to the goals of the organization and what's the job of our communication, which we should also get in the habit of thinking about, even hallway conversations to executive presentations and everything in between. And he, this plant manager, was better able to uh inform and motivate his team to do what they needed to do. And now the plant's running on time. And that goes back to this being a business skill because a plant running on time means it's it's real money compared to a plant that was running two days behind schedule, impacting client service and all of that. And that's why communication is a business skill. We talked about communication. He was better able to go back to his team and inform and motivate them and explain what they had to do. Now the plant's running on time, the company's losing less money. It's really as simple as that. Uh and and if if we view communication in business terms like that, there's so much we can accomplish. Imagine what we can accomplish if everybody uh can can take communication more at heart, think of about it as more of a business skill, like this plant manager did, and he fixed his problem. Imagine what we all could do with this kind of uh framework and thinking about communication in this way.

SPEAKER_00 45:33

Sure. So just so I'm clear though, you you helped coach that plant manager. Plant manager changed his communication that created the opportunity to kind of explain the why to the team. So it's his communication to the to the organization. Is that was kind of the the key to that?

SPEAKER_01 45:50

Yeah. So this was a this client, uh, this company, I uh uh came, I taught my uh communication workshop, which basically covers what we've just covered uh to about 25 managers a month for about year, a year and a half. And he was one of the people in the course. And I had learned in the in the course that uh his plan had been behind schedule, and we followed up with him later, and he said, Yeah, I was better able to um to get my team to do what we needed to do, and now it's it's running on time. So, you know, make no mistake, he did the work, he and his team did the work. I enabled him through this this coaching uh or through this training course to think about how he communicated with his team in a different way, and that sort of unlocked the logjam, so to speak, that was keeping them from from uh from running on time.

SPEAKER_00 46:52

Okay, no, that's a good understanding of that. I mean, I talk about constraints and bottlenecks a lot in the business that I'm in, and that was the bottleneck, you know, cause because a bottle only has one neck. So when things get funneled and then there's something that blocks it, you've got to remove that blockage, otherwise everything backs up behind it. So uh that's a that's a great story. Um, I know specifically like in production uh stuff, there's other things that visually can, I'm a big visual communication fan of Kanban boards, things like that. Oh, yeah. So my my assumption is you know, that's you you pretty much had the nail on the top of the head, and there's a lot of things that kind of respond to that type of open communication uh and hopefully open up other avenues for um even better production. I love that. Yeah. Well, cool. Well, very good. Well, so before we wrap up, uh, as I um I've got a couple of questions at the

How To Reach Gary And Final Takeaway

SPEAKER_00 47:57

end. Uh, how can how can the listeners uh get a hold of Gary Ross? And what's the best way to find you and communicate with you?

SPEAKER_01 48:03

Well, website at www.insidecoms.com, I-n-s-i-d-e-c-o-m-m-s.com, uh, and contact information is is there too. Uh, email is Gary.ros, G-A-R-Y.coms.com. Those are the two best ways to uh to reach out. And if um, you know, anybody would love to just, you know, brainstorm or get some ideas on on how they could achieve results like that plant manager did and uh talk a little bit more about communication and how it can help their business, uh happy to happy to talk to folks. Fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 48:51

Yeah, we'll leave those in the show notes. We'll have other ways, maybe some links, make it easy for people to get a hold of you. So I've got two questions I always end uh with. And the first question is what does the world get wrong about Gary Ross?

SPEAKER_01 49:07

What does the world get wrong about me? Well, um I tend to boil communication challenges down to uh uh some simple principles like the ones we just we just talked about. And I uh for some reason people like, I don't know why, but people like to make things more complicated than they actually are sometimes. And I really like to simplify things for people because in the end, especially with communication, there are some very simple and straightforward things that we can do that'll make a huge difference. Like for this plant manager who spent a half a day in a workshop and solved a tremendous problem that he had in his uh in his facility. So I I think when I when I talk about simplicity in in work, I sometimes it feels like people think, well, it needs to be more complicated than that. That can't possibly be the solution, right? Well, in my not so humble opinion, it is.

SPEAKER_00 50:15

So what people get wrong is you've got simple ideas, they complicate them. And that is so true, though. Like I think people do look for something like it, it like it can't be that it can't be that easy, right? And then really to do the easy stuff isn't easy, back to it's not soft skills, it's business development skills. Um, they're not easy by any means, and they're not soft, meaning that uh I mean they're difficult, they're challenging uh to do, and but they are simple, they are easy.

SPEAKER_01 50:46

Oh, yeah, and that's that's a great distinction you just made. That the the work itself, you know, may not be you know like that to everybody, but I think the principles are fairly similar to think about and may take some work for people to uh to embrace and and fully use, but I I try to make things as simple as possible because in the end, who who has time to be digesting these complicated things and 19 different frameworks and acronyms and all of that stuff? Right, you don't have time for that. Nobody wants to do that. No, Harry, tell me what will help me. And so okay, I say, okay, do these three things. Yeah. Oh, really? That's it. Yeah, that's it.

SPEAKER_00 51:34

Yeah, if you have me do four things, I'm not doing any of them. Oh, good chance of guys. Which brings me to the to the last question, which is what I always do on the uncommon communicator is you know, we've been talking over 50 minutes, 45, 50 minutes. Uh, if if every if anybody made it to the end uh at this point, you know, what is one thing that would be the best point for people to leave with from this conversation? Like I call it the UC moment. Like, what's if if we can get somebody to leave with one thing, then we've we've had a win. What's that one thing that people could get from today's conversation?

SPEAKER_01 52:07

Yeah, that better workplace communication can help your career and it can help your organization. And there are simple principles that can help you do that.

SPEAKER_00 52:18

I love that. Simple principles help you get there. Remember the top uh number one, the top three number ones, and you can't go wrong. Gary, thanks so much for this conversation, and that's all we got for everybody today. See goodbye. Congratulations. You made it all the way to the end. You're officially a one percenter. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the Uncommon Communicator with me, your host, James Gable. Make sure you like and share this episode. This helps spread the message of communication to the world. Check out our website, the Uncommon Communicator, for more and connect with me on LinkedIn to keep building those communications together. See you next time.