Tools for Professional Communication

Browse this repository to extract ready-made tools and ideas for use in your own toolkit!

These tools are primarily intended for people who take coaching or training from ICONDA. They simplify and make it easier to remember complex problem-solving techniques.

Like all tools, they must be used skillfully. You wouldn’t drive a car without learning how, would you? The same rule applies here – you have to understand where your blind spots could be, and use your mirrors!

If in doubt, get in touch!

The TWO-MINUTE MESSAGE (TMM)

The guiding principle: excessive dependence on slides to drive client interactions is dangerous.

The golden rule: start the TMM plan ‘blindfold’, doing initial preparation without looking at existing material.

For formal presentations, this initial preparation should start with MAP, and the Plan part of MAP should be a synopsis of the presentation.

There are many different ways to go from a completed TMM to a finished presentation or document.

Producing a TMM puts you in a position to make better presentations, and to be able to respond to questions with more assurance, since it helps you to clarify my message to yourself.

Steve Jobs did not prepare his presentations by sifting through a mountain of old slides, and neither should you!

The TASK MANAGEMENT CANVAS (TMC)

The TMC was inspired by David Allen’s Getting Things Done.

Its purpose is to help you quickly review where all that stuff you have to do is coming from (the sources), think about how you can express it as tasks and projects, and optimise the way that you follow through on them (your systems). In brief:

THINGS == unstructured stuff to do; TASKS == doable action items; PROJECT == ∑ TASKS, with objectives, schedule, etc.

Identify your Sources and Systems
Minimise their number
Adhere to the visit frequency decided for each of them
Expect your Canvas to change with time and experiment

If you feel (more or less) in control, then that’s Ok
If you feel overwhelmed, then it’s not Ok
If you feel completely in control, something’s wrong!

Working Under Pressure: Bugs and Fixes

Excessive pressure and stress compromise learning, development process, and performance

There exists a handful of specific patterns of behaviour under stress, and this tool will help you identify the one you tend to follow.

Each pattern results in particular “bugs” – behaviours that you should try to avoid, and which you should notice when you fall into them.

Fortunately, each bug can be fixed, and the tool also helps you learn these fixes.

The ICON9 Cheat Sheet

ICON9 is a set of tools and a methodology for using them.

This cheat sheet can be printed double-sided and then folded, concertina-style. It gives an at-a-glace reminder of the core ICON9 tools, arranged around the ICON9 Client Encounter Process (Prepare, Engage, Do, Check, Follow-Up).

Notice the Hurry Monster, top-right. He’s the guy that will prevent you from using these tools, though you know you should!

The ICON9 Client Encounter Process

The Client Encounter Process is a mainstay of the ICON9 methodology, and is described in the abbreviated version of Client Encounters of the Technical Kind, below.

While you can obtain the A4 pictorial summary by clicking on the image, left, an A1 poster is also available.

DISCOVER-Y

Here is one of my favorite tools for field encounters – Discover-Y (pronounced “discover why”). It is a kind of preconfigured mind map, for use to quickly prepare any type of customer encounter. It is also a fantastic tool for use during the encounter itself, and afterwards, for debriefing and reporting.
One of the challenges when gathering information from customers – a process that is called Discovery in the literature – is to move away from obvious subjects and encourage the emergence of unexpected (and often very valuable) data.
I need some kind of tool to help with this, else I will tend to stay in my comfort zone, letting the discussion revolve around familiar subjects.

The Discover-Y tool is a “Y” on its side. I am at the left-hand end of the Y, and my customer is (of course) at the centre. Above and to the right of my customer are the people and organisations that he or she is linked to (the “who” of the situation). Below and to the right of my customer are his or her problems, projects, ideas and fantasies (the “what”). That makes 4 nodes, and the lines joining them represent the relationships between the customer and the other nodes. Of course, since this is a mind map, we are free to draw other inter-nodal relationships, and to add nodes, but the basic Y is already incredibly useful, and it is simple.
The Discover-Y tool is a bit like a tennis racket. Anyone can quickly understand how to use a racket to hit a ball, and the basic rules of of tennis are not so hard either. However, to become a champion tennis player takes coaching, practice and time! For Discover-Y, you have probably already understood the basic idea (how to hit the ball), and I will now explain the basic method for using the tool (the rules of the game). I ask you not to get frustrated if Discover-Y does not immediately transform your life with customers – becoming a champion will take a little time, practice and maybe some training or coaching.
Using the tool in “encounter preparation mode” is a little like visual brainstorming. I annotate my Discover-Y with things that I know and – most important – things that I need to find out, positioning them next to the corresponding nodes and lines on the diagram.
It is important to remember the relationship lines. For example, “what does the customer expect from me/my organisation?”, can annotate the line joining me with my customer. Don’t forget to include questions about your competition on the “who” node, top-right. Also, build yourself a picture that is likely to take your questioning in the right direction. Although it is important to find out about the customer’s history and problems, your ultimate aim is to lead him to solutions. Including questions about his project and ideas will favor this trajectory.
In brief, Discover-Y, simple as it may be, quickly gets me asking good, constructive questions, uncovering surprising information and guiding my customer in a positive direction. It is simple enough to bring to mind during an encounter, if ever I find myself getting into a conversational rut. After a meeting, an update to the Discover-Y diagram helps me to remember what was said, and I can even use it as a visual aid to pass on what was learnt to others.
Discover-Y was inspired by the “8 intervention zones” coaching tool of Vincent Lenhardt.

Read more…

The ICON9 Toolkit

This ICON9 toolkit complements the book Client Encounters of a Technical Kind.

The kit is provided with Iconda’s coaching and training, and taking a program or participating in other Learning & Development events will help you to get the most from the tools. However, even if you have not (yet J) taken the course, I hope that you find the toolkit valuable.

While you can obtain a PDF version of the kit by clicking on the image, left, templates are available in Excel, Word and other other format through this link.