Have you ever attended a meeting which goes on and on and on and doesn’t achieve anything? Or where people keep repeating themselves or talk just for the sake of talking while others sit there huffing and puffing because they want to be elsewhere?
A number of years ago I came up with a formula which I have found really useful as an ‘on the spot’ communication strategy. This strategy I call ORFF. You can use it in any communication situation – meetings, one to ones, presentations, video conferencing, whatever, to help create focus and realise objectives. It’s not a 100% guaranteed but with practice it will not only help you achieve the objectives of the communication situation it will save loads of time! So what is ORFF?
O – Objectives
R – Rapport
F – Feedback
F – Flexibility
O-Objectives
Consider the objectives from three points of view – the people you are communicating with, the company you are representing and your own.
First Point of View: ask yourself why are the other people at the meeting? What do they want to achieve? If you’re not sure ask them – as Stephen Covey said in the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, “seek first to be understood and then to understand”. So listen to them first and put all your attention on understanding why they are there. To be really sure you know their objectives summarise them back and clarify if needs be.
Second Point of View: what are the objectives of the company you represent? What would they like to achieve in the meeting? For example what image do they want you to portray? What products do they want you to sell? Last night I was in a supermarket and there was only one girl at the checkouts. The queue was huge. She kept ringing for help from another girl who was packing shelves. This girl eventually came around and said in front of all the customers in the queue – “I’m doing something, where’s Kim?” Not exactly a great message to display in front of customers! Before you go into a meeting ask yourself what are the objectives of the company you represent?
Third Point of View: what are your objectives? Again a few moments spent creating positive focussed objectives before a meeting will save time and help you hit the target. You can of course use the SMART strategy to help focus your objectives or simply ask yourself – what is your objective(s) and how will you know it is achieved?
Suggested Exploration
For the next week decide to make sure you know the above three objectives for all your communication situations – the people you are communicating with, the company you represent and yourself. Notice what works and make it work better!
Next week I’ll write an article on the second step in ORFF – Rapport – going a bit deeper than simply asking a few light hearted questions like – “how did you get here?”
Until then, carpe diem and focus your communications!