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I like to think that business books, like their fictional counterparts, take their readers on a journey of sorts. If that’s true, then it makes sense to provide a map. This section answers the following questions:

● Who should go?

● Do I need to bring anything?

● Where are we going?

● How will we get there?

● Who will benefit the most from this trip?

● What can I expect to learn along the way?

Central Premise of Book

The central premise of Message Not Received is quite simple and can be stated in six words:

Most business communication simply doesn’t work.

Because of raging technological change, the need to send clear, effective messages has never been more pronounced. All else being equal, the organizations and individuals that communicate well will do better than those that don’t.

Fair enough, but how do we achieve this laudable goal? How do we maximize the chances that our professional messages are truly received and understood? At a high level, we must do two things. First, as a general rule, we need to use simpler language in our business communications as much as possible. Second, we need to wean ourselves from our e-mail modus operandi and related addiction. In its place, we need to adopt new, truly collaborative tools where appropriate.

This last part is just as crucial as the first. I am no anarchist. Message Not Received does not advocate an Edward Snowden–like approach to business communications. Some things ought to remain private, although the line between the two is shifting. Embracing transparency and communities – or ecosystems, if you like – may confer major potential benefits. Recent events demonstrate the outright trendiness of sharing and more open business practices. For example, consider Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, a manufacturer of high-performance electric sports cars. In June 2014, Musk announced a “patent pledge” on his company’s blog making his company’s intellectual property (IP) freely available.17 Tesla will not initiate lawsuits against anyone who “in good faith” wants to use its technology to develop electric vehicles. In Musk’s view, the benefits of such a risky gambit exceeded their costs.

The announcement was certainly newsworthy, but Musk is hardly the only chief executive singing that tune these days. Chris Anderson is the former Wired editor-in-chief, a best-selling author, and the current head of DIYDrones. Anderson believes that “community-driven companies will always win.”18 His company is pioneering tremendous innovation via open-source hardware. For his part, WordPress CEO Matt Mullenweg describes betting on the community as “the difference between long-term thinking and short-term thinking.”

By espousing transparency and platform thinking, Musk, Anderson, Mullenweg, and hundreds of other CEOs are effectively betting that their companies will ultimately gain more than they surrender. Silly is the organization, however, that arbitrarily posts highly sensitive documents for all to see. Examples include IP, financial statements (if the company is privately held), proprietary software code, and employee performance reviews, salaries, and succession plans. Discretion, tact, privacy, and basic common sense still matter and always will. Some things have remained constant.

At the same time, many things have changed. In a nutshell, it’s high time for many organizations and people to reevaluate their internal and external business communications. Aside from avoiding buzzwords and confusing language, Message Not Received argues that e-mail should not represent the default or sole means of sending messages and exchanging information. Better tools have been available for years, and this book introduces many of them, as well as a few of the companies that are reaping their considerable benefits.

Disclaimers

The central premise of Message Not Received is simple yet ambitious. Before continuing, several disclaimers are in order. Let me briefly explain what this book does not attempt to do.

Neither Necessary Nor Sufficient: No Guarantees

The prolific management author Tom Peters once wrote, “Communication is everyone’s panacea for everything.” I couldn’t agree more. There’s something inherently reassuring about getting everyone on the same page. Unfortunately, a bad idea is still a bad idea, even if everyone perfectly understands it. Coca-Cola’s 1985 launch of New Coke was an unmitigated disaster. A better communications strategy would not have changed its fate.

Make no mistake: Clear, concise, timely, and context-appropriate communication is more important than ever. At the same time, though, it guarantees absolutely nothing in business. Communicating well at work is neither necessary nor sufficient for a successful outcome. Consider the following:

● An employee completely understands her manager’s clearly defined expectations. Despite her best intentions, for whatever reason, she still does not meet his goals.

● An employee misinterprets his manager’s vague or even undeclared directions and still somehow knocks his socks off.

● A developer knows her client well enough that, when he says one thing, she recognizes that he really means something else entirely.

● A middle manager has learned to ignore his VP’s demands to immediately implement the latest shiny new thing. He knows that his VP will move on to another toy next week.

● A CEO totally grasps what a software vendor is trying to sell to his organization. Furthermore, he fully believes in the benefits and/or return on investment (ROI) of the product. Despite all of this, he still does not pull the trigger.

● A company president completely misconstrues what a software vendor has sold to her organization. Despite this inauspicious beginning, two years later, the new application is wildly successful.

Each of these scenarios is possible. There’s a world of difference between possible and probable, though. These situations are the exceptions that prove the rule. All else being equal, a better message is more likely to yield better business results. This book stops short of making unrealistic promises. Effective messages in and of themselves won’t ensure a successful project, partnership, merger, acquisition, product launch, new hire, marketing campaign, or sale. All sorts of internal and external variables can derail even the most promising prospects.

Intentional Omissions: Nonverbal Communication, Psychology, and Personality Types

Allow me to state the obvious: To a significant degree, our choice of words determines how – and whether – our audiences ultimately receive our messages. We shouldn’t forget, however, that nonverbal factors are often just as important, if not more so. These include our facial expressions, gestures, body language, posture, and paralinguistics (e.g., tone of voice, loudness, inflection, and pitch). It would be irresponsible to dismiss the importance of nonverbal communication. This meaty topic is well beyond my realm of expertise. As such, it lies outside of the scope of this book. (If you’re curious about the subject, The Definitive Book of Body Language, by Barbara Pease, is worth checking out.)

Next, Message Not Received is not a psychology book. It does not examine the most effective ways to communicate to disparate personality types. You won’t find any overt references to psychometric questionnaires. No Myers-Briggs Type Indicators.19 It also ignores the differences between introverts and extroverts. (If you’re curious about this subject, check out Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, by Susan Cain.)

Tone

Message Not Received delves into our challenges with business communications (hence the subtitle). As I wrote in Why New Systems Fail, failure teaches us a great deal. Business books like Good to Great by Jim Collins suffer from relying exclusively on successful examples – or at least, companies that had been successful at certain points. That is never wise. As you know from reading the Preface, this book cites examples of how not to communicate but does not harp on negativity. Message Not Received is ultimately a positive book with a tone that is intended to be more instructive than paternalistic or snippy. You will not find any criticisms of honest grammatical errors and typos.