Say, Listen! with Serah Delaini Serah Delaini

This week on Say, Listen!, we'll go over Audience Focus, the first "A" in our five-step PARLA process of Pay Attention, Audience, Rhythm, Listen, and Adjust.

When you focus on the audience first, you take time to think about who is receiving your communication, and attempt to understand their perspective as you create the material. I'm talking about email, chat, presentations, videos, posts, and in-person conversations and meetings.

Let's go over some tips and frameworks I've found that you can use to keep your audience engaged and interested in what you're saying.

Send in your questions to serah@saylisten.net, and visit me at the Loud and Clear community where we can discuss this in more depth: https://loud-and-clear.mn.co.

Links mentioned in this episode:


Crossing the Chasm, Geoffrey Moore, http://www.crossingthechasmbymoore.com/
Maslow's hierarchy: https://www.praxisframework.org/en/library/maslow
Illinois Graduate College Communication Skills articles: https://grad.illinois.edu/careers/communication-identifying-audience-focus
Presentation Training Institute: https://www.presentationtraininginstitute.com/how-to-focus-on-your-audience-2/
How to keep your audience focused on your presentation: https://www.americanexpress.com/en-us/business/trends-and-insights/articles/how-to-keep-your-audience-focused-on-your-presentation/
Risk Management for Marketing & Communications: https://www.skillshare.com/classes/Risk-Management-for-Marketing-Communications/1464914294
https://www.udemy.com/
https://www.coursera.org/
Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer


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In this episode, Serah discusses communication in a volunteer setting with Bart Gibson, Volunteer Coordinator for the Mystic Moon community.

Bart has been a member of his community for about 10 years. Now the group has enough volunteer help to organize service projects and put on large special events that benefit hundreds of people.

To make this happen, Bart recommends first understanding the abilities and time constraints that each potential volunteer has. Truly listening to their intentions and helping to overcome any barriers they face goes a long way toward helping them contribute to the best of their abilities.

Second, develop a core group of reliable volunteers and plan around their schedules to make sure things are well-attended.

Another principle of great community organization is to clarify roles and responsibilities whenever there is confusion or overlap. When people start to wonder who is doing what, it's hard to get things done in a timely fashion.

Setting standards for the community in advance helps to resolve any conflicts that might come up. Bart says it's easier to bring these up before there's any issues, but anytime is better than not at all.

For these and other insights, listen to the full interview with Bart Gibson, Volunteer Coordinator with Mystic Moon. Reach Bart at http://www.mysticmoonevents.com/.

Resources


Five volunteer coordination tips: https://www.volunteerhub.com/blog/5-volunteer-coordination-tips-nonprofits/
How to recruit and manage volunteers effectively: https://www.eventbrite.com/blog/academy/how-to-recruit-and-manage-volunteers-effectively/
Ways to motivate and engage your nonprofit's volunteers: https://donorbox.org/nonprofit-blog/motivate-and-engage-your-nonprofits-volunteers/
Seven ways to keep volunteers coming back: https://blog.mobileserve.com/7-ways-to-keep-volunteers-coming-back


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This week on Say, Listen!, we cover the variety of abilities that your audiences have, whether it's vision, hearing, health, mental health, or other aspects of life. How can you keep accessibility in mind for people who have different ways of interacting with information and your organization?

Send me your questions and comments at [info@saylisten.net](mailto: info@saylisten.net).

Links mentioned in this episode:


Free website checkers: https://www.webaccessibility.com/ and https://allyable.net/
Inclusive design resources: https://digital.gov/resources/introduction-accessibility/
Game designer group https://accessible.games
https://www.justice.gov/crt/software-accessibility-checklist
Tips for handling invisible disabilities in the workplace: https://hiring.monster.com/employer-resources/workforce-management/diversity-in-the-workplace/workplace-disability/
https://www.respectability.org and Resources - Respect Ability
https://www.i4sdi.org/special-events-page
axe DevTools browser extension - https://www.deque.com/axe/
https://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/tools/

This week on Say, Listen!, we cover apostrophes, commas, forward slashes, colons, semicolons, and terminal punctuation. As an editor, I see lots of missing punctuation, and there are some common things people do or don't do with these marks that I'd like to bring up here to prevent you from continuing to make these mistakes.

Send me any questions you have to info@saylisten.net!

Links mentioned in this episode:


Join the FREE Loud and Clear Community! (https://loud-and-clear.mn.co/)
The Definition and Basic Rules of Punctuation (thoughtco.com)
The Elements of Style, Strunk and White (https://faculty.washington.edu/heagerty/Courses/b572/public/StrunkWhite.pdf)
The Associated Press Style Book (https://www.apstylebook.com/)
Chicago Manual of Style (https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/)


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This week on Say, Listen!, we cover communication at work with Tara Paton, founder of Red Blaze Solutions.

Topics discussed:


Red Blaze gets teams unstuck and performing better by digging into team dynamics. Clues might include how they handle mistakes, or how they handle violations of norms, like someone always being late to meetings.
Tara's special word or phrase about communication at work was taught to her by her mother. When Tara faced problems at school, her mother would listen carefully and then ask, "What are you going to do about it?" Tara recommends the following steps to address the inevitable bumps in team communication:

Express yourself
Vent if needed
Then look for solutions and things you personally can do

Tara says that it is important to make sure everyone is solving the same problem before jumping to solutions. She facilitates team workshops and will often use a technique she calls the "sailboat exercise." It involves each person on the team doing some solo writing about what is moving the group forward, "wind in our sails," and what are the "anchors holding us back." She recommends doing this before coming together as a group to discuss the ideas for improvement. "Don’t brainstorm, brain write," says Tara.

Links mentioned in this episode:


Reach Tara Paton, principal consultant at Red Blaze Solutions, at www.redblazesolutions.com.
Try out the Loud and Clear community to learn more and share insights on communication: https://loud-and-clear.mn.co/


This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm

This week on Say, Listen!, we cover repetition. Let’s talk about avoiding duplication in your communication at work.

Links mentioned in this episode:


Join the Loud and Clear Community! https://loud-and-clear.mn.co/
Pro Writing Aid, https://prowritingaid.com/
Ginger Software, https://www.gingersoftware.com/
White Smoke, https://www.whitesmoke.com/
The Elements of Style, Strunk and White, https://faculty.washington.edu/heagerty/Courses/b572/public/StrunkWhite.pdf
An Introduction to Punctuation, Nordquist, Richard, ThoughtCo, Aug. 27, 2020, thoughtco.com/punctuation-definition-1691702
Formal writing tips: http://www.learnenglish-online.com/writing/formalwriting.html


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