How to Express Your Ideas with Precision, with Chris Fenning

Discover how to make your messages clear and concise in professional English, especially as a non-native speaker. This episode tackles the biggest communication barrier: confidence, and provides practical frameworks to structure work conversations, adapt your message for diverse stakeholders, and navigate cultural differences to communicate with impact.

Meet Our Guest: Chris Fennig is a communication expert whose background spans engineering, project management, and leadership in over 20 countries. He shifted from corporate life to teaching, sharing "hard-won experience". Chris believes that communication is "absolutely a learnable skill set".

Top Takeaways:

• Boost Confidence: Speak with conviction; mistakes are part of learning, not a barrier to clarity.
• Structure Work Talks: Use Topic, Intent, Point (TIP), then Goal, Problem, Solution (GPS) for clarity.
• Adapt for Your Audience: Translate technical terms into "efforts and outcomes" they value.

Vocabulary Corner:

• Go by the bushes: Meaning: To avoid direct communication, often using elaborate or indirect language. Example: "Instead of going by the bushes, please get straight to the point about the project deadline."
• Culture shock: Meaning: A feeling of confusion or discomfort experienced when encountering a new culture or way of doing things. Example: "Moving from a highly social work environment to a very direct one gave me culture shock."
• Hard-won experience: Meaning: Valuable knowledge or skill gained through significant effort and challenges. Example: "Chris Fennig's communication expertise comes from hard-won experience in over 20 countries."
• Stakeholders: Meaning: Individuals or groups who have an interest in or are affected by a project or business. Example: "It's crucial to tailor your message to different stakeholders, like technical teams versus management."
• Sugar coat: Meaning: To make something difficult or unpleasant seem more appealing or less severe. Example: "She preferred not to sugar coat the bad news, but to deliver it directly."

Helpful Links & Tools:

• Chris Fennig's Website: https://chrisfenning.com/
• Chris Fennig on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-fenning/
• Chris Fennig's Books (e.g., "The First Minute"): https://chrisfenning.com/books/
• Book Recommendation: "The Culture Map" by Erin Mayer: https://erinmeyer.com/books/the-culture-map/

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