Get your message across the right way with clear communication Message Not Received provides the tools and techniques that make an effective writer and public speaker. Particularly on topics related to data and technology, effective communication can present a challenge in business settings. This book shows readers how those challenges can be overcome, and how to keep the message from getting lost in the face of mismatched levels of knowledge, various delivery media, and the library of jargon that too often serves as a substitute for real, meaningful language. Coverage includes idea crystallization, the rapidly changing business environment, Kurzweil's law of accelerating change, and our increasing inability to understand what we are saying to each other. Rich with visuals including diagrams, slides, graphs, charts, and infographics, this guide provides accessible information and actionable guidance toward more effectively conveying the message. Today, few professionals can ignore the tsunami of technology that permeates their lives, advancing far more rapidly that most of us can handle. As a result, too many people think that successful speaking means using buzzwords, jargon, and invented words that sound professional, but don't actually communicate meaning. This book provides a path through the noise, helping readers get their message across succinctly, efficiently, and effectively. * Adapt your approach for more effective communication * Learn the critical skill of crystallizing ideas * Tailor your style to the method of delivery * Ensure that your message is heard, understood, and internalized It doesn't matter whether you're pitching to a venture capitalist, explaining daily challenges to a non-tech manager, or speaking to hundreds of people jargon-filled word salad uses a lot of words to say very little. Better communication requires a different approach, and Message Not Received gives you a roadmap to more effective speaking and writing for any audience or medium.

The communication role in organizations has changed, just as the nature of organizations has changed in response to the explosion of new communication technologies as well as global networks within organizations. Communication is more complex, strategic, and vital to the health of the organization than it used to be, and it will become increasingly important in the information-driven economy. This book builds upon the authors' 2010 book, Corporate Communication: Strategic Adaptation for Global Practice, which focused on the role of the communicator. This volume examines, analyzes, and illustrates the practice of corporate communication as a critical business asset in a time of global change. It looks at the major communication needs in the lifecycle of organizations: M&A (mergers and acquisitions), structural change, culture change, innovation, new leadership, downsizing, global expansion, competition, ethical decision-making, political action, and employee engagement. These are all significant value-creating, and potentially value-destroying, events in which corporate communication, if used correctly, functions as a critical and strategic business asset.

Explore different perspectives and approaches to create more effective visualizations #MakeoverMonday offers inspiration and a giant dose of perspective for those who communicate data. Originally a small project in the data visualization community, #MakeoverMonday features a weekly chart or graph and a dataset that community members reimagine in order to make it more effective. The results have been astounding; hundreds of people have contributed thousands of makeovers, perfectly illustrating the highly variable nature of data visualization. Different takes on the same data showed a wide variation of theme, focus, content, and design, with side-by-side comparisons throwing more- and less-effective techniques into sharp relief. This book is an extension of that project, featuring a variety of makeovers that showcase various approaches to data communication and a focus on the analytical, design and storytelling skills that have been developed through #MakeoverMonday. Paging through the makeovers ignites immediate inspiration for your own work, provides insight into different perspectives, and highlights the techniques that truly make an impact. Explore the many approaches to visual data communication Think beyond the data and consider audience, stakeholders, and message Design your graphs to be intuitive and more communicative Assess the impact of layout, color, font, chart type, and other design choices Creating visual representation of complex datasets is tricky. There's the mandate to include all relevant data in a clean, readable format that best illustrates what the data is saying--but there is also the designer's impetus to showcase a command of the complexity and create multidimensional visualizations that "look cool." #MakeoverMonday shows you the many ways to walk the line between simple reporting and design artistry to create exactly the visualization the situation requires.

A one-stop source for scholars and advanced students who want to get the latest and best overview and discussion of how organizations use rhetoric While the disciplinary study of rhetoric is alive and well, there has been curiously little specific interest in the rhetoric of organizations. This book seeks to remedy that omission. It presents a research collection created by the insights of leading scholars on rhetoric and organizations while discussing state-of-the-art insights from disciplines that have and will continue to use rhetoric. Beginning with an introduction to the topic, The Handbook of Organizational Rhetoric and Communication offers coverage of the foundations and macro-contexts of rhetoric--as well as its use in organizational communication, public relations, marketing, management and organization theory. It then looks at intellectual and moral foundations without which rhetoric could not have occurred, discussing key concepts in rhetorical theory. The book then goes on to analyze the processes of rhetoric and the challenges and strategies involved. A section is also devoted to discussing rhetorical areas or genres--namely contextual application of rhetoric and the challenges that arise, such as strategic issues for management and corporate social responsibility. The final part seeks to answer questions about the book's contribution to the understanding of organizational rhetoric. It also examines what perspectives are lacking, and what the future might hold for the study of organizational rhetoric. Examines the advantages and perils of organizations that seek to project their voices in order to shape society to their benefits Contains chapters working in the tradition of rhetorical criticism that ask whether organizations' rhetorical strategies have fulfilled their organizational and societal value Discusses the importance of obvious, traditional, nuanced, and critically valued strategies such as rhetorical interaction in ways that benefit discourse Explores the potential, risks, paradoxes, and requirements of engagement Reflects the views of a team of scholars from across the globe Features contributions from organization-centered fields such as organizational communication, public relations, marketing, management, and organization theory The Handbook of Organizational Rhetoric and Communication will be an ideal resource for advanced undergraduate students, graduate students, and scholars studying organizational communications, public relations, management, and rhetoric.

WINNER: Business Book Awards 2018 - 'Selling The Dream' category (1st edition) In an increasingly competitive professional services sector, it is vital that firms have an effective tendering strategy. The advantages gained from winning and retaining clients can be transformative, and the cost of losing key tenders can be catastrophic. Strategic Tendering for Professional Services provides end-to-end best practice guidance, from the crucial decision of which request-for-proposals to respond to, right through to the all important face-to-face presentation and post-pitch follow-up. Now in its second edition, this practical book captures insights from both sides of the market through interviews with both proposal professionals and decision makers from the client side. Focusing on key considerations, including the need for diversity and inclusion, providing evidence of global citizenship and how public sector pitching differs from the private sector, this book is packed with features and tools to help professionals turn guidance into practice. Strategic Tendering for Professional Services is the essential guide to improving your pitches, honing your tendering skills and boosting your win rate.

Praise for Reading the Room

"If you believe, as I do, that tackling our toughest problems in organizations and societies will require significant advances in the human domain of how we think and interact, then you will find this book a wonderful resource for a healthier future."--Peter Senge, senior lecturer, leadership and sustainability, MIT Sloan School of Management; and founding chair, Society for Organizational Learning (SoL)

"A must-read for anyone truly interested in gaining access to and managing their own actions/behavior as well as all those we work with, live with, and interact with. It will shift the way you, others, and the world occur for you."--Michael C. Jensen, Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business Administration, emeritus, Harvard Business School

"David Kantor is one of the very few master innovators and theorists in organizational leadership. In this combined story and practice guide, Kantor helps leaders see the hidden dynamics of the groups they lead, and the personal and social factors that shape their relationships with those groups." --Art Kleiner, editor in chief, strategy+business

"Kantor addresses the fundamental issue that leaders are surprisingly inept in conversation and in managing groups. Leaders and managers at all levels should be learning these concepts in order to improve their own ability to analyze what is going on and react appropriately."--Edgar H. Schein, professor emeritus, MIT Sloan School of Management; and author, Helping: How to Offer, Give, and Receive Help

"An exceptional book in the true sense of the word. It stands alone in its grasp of what it takes to succeed as a leader. It's not simply about mastering the five forces, milking cash cows, accelerating experience curves, or even spurring disruptive innovation. It's about reading the room. Leaders who gain mastery of what David Kantor has to teach in this book will achieve true success, not just as leaders, but as people." --Diana M. Smith, chief executive partner, New Profit Inc.; and author, The Elephant in the Room: How Relationships Make or Break the Success of Leaders and Organizations

"There are only a few wise masters in the world when it comes to any real understanding of leader-ship, and even fewer who share their secrets. David Kantor is one of them, and in Reading the Room we have brilliantly laid out before us both a unique lens and a highly practical method that will change for good the way you lead, and more, the way you think. Not to be missed " --William Isaacs, author, Dialogue and the Art of Thinking Together; and senior lecturer, MIT Sloan School of Management

In today s data-driven world, professionals need to know how to express themselves in the language of graphics effectively and eloquently. Yet information graphics is rarely taught in schools or is the focus of on-the-job training. Now, for the first time, Dona M. Wong, a student of the information graphics pioneer Edward Tufte, makes this material available for all of us. In this book, you will learn: to choose the best chart that fits your data; the most effective way to communicate with decision makers when you have five minutes of their time; how to chart currency fluctuations that affect global business; how to use color effectively; how to make a graphic colorful even if only black and white are available.

The book is organized in a series of mini-workshops backed up with illustrated examples, so not only will you learn what works and what doesn t but also you can see the dos and don ts for yourself. This is an invaluable reference work for students and professional in all fields."

Are your sales presentations stuck in the 20th century? Sales Presentations For Dummies rises to the challenge of guiding you through the process of engaging and persuading busy buyers in a world that's constantly bombarding them with sales pitches. Motivating today's buyers to pull the trigger on a new deal requires a certain set of skills, and this straightforward text guides you through what you need to know to create and deliver compelling presentations. Pulled from examples and experiences of thousands of actual sales presentations, the information in this innovative resource offers the tools and tips you need to keep your leads engaged from hook to call to action. Today's business landscape is competitive. When your sales presentation is being compared to countless others, it's important to stand out for all the right reasons. Instead of using dated sales approaches,, update your understanding of the art of selling and create compelling, engaging presentations that hook audience members from the beginning. * Leverage a proven, blockbuster formula that engages audiences in any industry * Use the power of storytelling to connect with prospective clients and soften their resistance to your sales pitch * Understand and apply customer insights to ensure that your solution is top-of-mind in purchasing decisions * Update your professional skill set to encompass today's most motivating sales tactics Sales Presentations For Dummies brings your sales style into the 21st century and connects you with the skills you need to excel in today's complicated business landscape.

Bringing together prominent scholars from a variety of disciplines, "Communicative Practices in Workplaces and the Professions: Cultural Perspectives on the Regulation of Discourse and Organizations" offers readers an engaging set of essays on the complicated relationship between discourse and the many institutions within which people act. Each author brings a unique theoretical perspective to conceptualizing how discourse is regulated and how it regulates when human activity is organized for such purposes as work or belonging to a profession. Together, the contributors to this collection offer a provocatively complex picture of what regulation means and the means of regulation.

Make information memorable with creative visual design techniques Research shows that visual information is more quickly and easily understood, and much more likely to be remembered. This innovative book presents the design process and the best software tools for creating infographics that communicate. Including a special section on how to construct the increasingly popular infographic resume, the book offers graphic designers, marketers, and business professionals vital information on the most effective ways to present data. * Explains why infographics and data visualizations work * Shares the tools and techniques for creating great infographics * Covers online infographics used for marketing, including social media and search engine optimization (SEO) * Shows how to market your skills with a visual, infographic resume * Explores the many internal business uses of infographics, including board meeting presentations, annual reports, consumer research statistics, marketing strategies, business plans, and visual explanations of products and services to your customers With Cool Infographics, you'll learn to create infographics to successfully reach your target audience and tell clear stories with your data.

Excellence in Business Communication takes a close look at the fundamental skills and principles of business communication. Featuring practical advice, time-tested processes, and real-world examples, this is the premier text for helping you hone and develop essential communication skills. The 14th edition continues to set new standards for currency and innovation. The authors performed extensive research to ensure up-to-date coverage of diversity, equity, and inclusion in communication skills, innovative technology usage, and contemporary business practices.

You may be a senior executive wondering how to engage hundreds or thousands of employees in your vision, strategy or the transformation of the business; or a specialist in HR, communication and change, tasked with the challenge of 'aligning and mobilising' your people. In either case, you no longer want compliant people, you want individuals who will engage their creativity at work. For their part, engaged employees want a say in their work and in how the business changes. The Chief Engagement Officer explores a management philosophy which recognises the value of opening up decision making to the right groups to improve the quality of decisions and change, accelerate execution and broaden ownership. John Smythe asks what the concept of engagement means for employer and employee; tests whether and how it is different from internal communication and provides a practical framework for those who want to engage colleagues but need advice based on applied experience. The book includes a tapestry of reports from organisations who are engaging their employees to drive performance and change. The author demonstrates how powerful models, developed from his work at SmytheDorwardLambert, his time as an organisational fellow with McKinsey and Company, and his consultancy with Engage for Change, can be used to take this process forward in any organisation. The Chief Engagement Officer is a highly readable guide to the revolution that is needed in employee communication and organisational leadership from one of the most experienced and well-regarded experts on employee communication.

WINNER: Independent Press Award 2022 - Career Are you avoiding an uncomfortable conversation at work? If you're an executive or a team leader, strengthening your organization's ability to have difficult conversations is necessary and worth the discomfort. The key to successful dialogue starts and ends with changing the conversation. Recognizing that it takes two people to engage in meaningful outcomes, Can We Talk? outlines what each contributor needs to do to achieve the best possible result. Using examples from everyday work situations, this book offers guidance on how to create the right conditions for a meaningful discussion. The author identifies the seven key principles that enable both parties to gain a deeper understanding of what the other person may be thinking and will help establish their point of view more clearly: confidence, clarity, compassion, curiosity, compromise, credibility, courage. Can We Talk? includes examples and advice from those who have been there and thrived, as well as lessons learned from conversation failures and example scripts of productive conversations. Readers will learn how to prepare, start and manage the potentially challenging exchange of words that typically occur at work, and come away with an understanding that for any conversation to take place, both parties must be engaged.

This work provides an exceptional case study, shedding light onto the functioning of an actual corporate board of directors. It presents analysis of a series of corporate  management meetings shown in the 1974 documentary film, "Corporation: After Mr. Sam," The film chronicles the discussion and communication processes as a company considers how to replace its president, and it  serves as  a unique opportunity for analysis of real-world organizational discourse.
 
With an impressive list of prominent contributors, "Interacting and Organizing: Analyses of a Management Meeting" employs the dual perspectives of organizational communication and language and social interaction (LSI) to examine the film. It is arranged around specific topics, analyzed separately by organizational communication and LSI scholars. Editor Franois Cooren provides an introduction for each topic, and a comparison and synthesis conclude each part. Readers will appreciate the information presented, as it is an arena typically off-limits to outside eyes. The transcript of the film is included as an appendix to the volume.
 
This volume is appropriate for use in advanced courses and seminars in organizational communication, LSI, management, and organizational behavior. With its distinctive approach to studying the film's content, it will be invaluable to scholars, researchers, and graduate students in organizational communication, LSI, and management.

Good ideas don't sell themselves. In today's business world it's no longer just sales people who are responsible for winning business. Many people, from TV producers to landscape gardeners, consultants to builders, need to employ convincing communication skills to win clients and commissions. Even managers within a business have to 'sell' their ideas, proposals and plans as they compete for support and scarce resources. With increasingly competitive markets the norm, your customers and clients are almost certain to have a choice. It's not just what your business can do that matters - it's how you pitch your offer that determines success. Poor preparation or presentation at the pitching stage will lose the business to a competitor. Getting the basics right is not enough: you have to get ahead of the competition. This guide is packed with practical ideas, tips and checklists that will ensure you are ahead of the crowd. It takes you right through the process, from deciding whether or not to pitch, getting to know the client, doing the essential preparation and then pitching for success. Unlike most of the titles available, this book covers both written proposals and oral presentations, showing you how to harness effective business communication skills to make the perfect winning pitch. The Definitive Business Series will ensure you get up to speed fast with all the business essentials you need to be a success. With their guided step-by-step approach the latest practical business techniques and concepts and their easy-to-read style, The Definitive Business Series cover every aspect of the topic from the business basics to the essential skills needed to progress in your career. The Definitive Business Series. Your fast-track to business success.

You've heard how story is the latest-and-greatest business tool and that storytelling can do everything, from helping leaders better communicate to motivating sales teams and winning customers away from competitors. But what stories do you need to tell and how do you tell them? Stories That Stick provides a clear framework of ideals and a concise set of actions for you to take complete control of your own story, utilizing the principles behind the world's most effective business storytelling strategies. Professional storyteller and nationally-known speaker Kindra Hall reveals the four unique stories you can use to differentiate, captivate, and elevate: the Value Story, to convince customers they need what you provide; the Founder Story, to persuade investors and customers your organization is worth the investment; the Purpose Story, to align and inspire your employees and internal customers; and the Customer Story, to allow those who use your product or service to share their authentic experiences with others. Telling these stories well is a simple, accessible skill anyone can develop. With case studies, company profiles, and anecdotes backed with original research, Hall presents storytelling as the underutilized talent that separates the good from the best in business. Stories That Stick offers specific, actionable steps readers can take to find, craft, and leverage the stories they already have and simply aren't telling. Every person, every organization has at least four stories at their disposal. Will you tell yours?

Based on primary research into the public lectures of management gurus, this fascinating new volume analyzes how such gurus disseminate their ideas, values and visions on the international management lecture circuit. Adopting a novel conceptual/theoretical perspective, it brings together insights from the fields of management, sociology, media studies, communications and social psychology.

Written by leading figures in the field, this topical book covers such broad ranging areas as the live presentation of management ideas, using rhetoric, legitimating ideas, values and visions, the grammar of persuasion and charisma and oratory and is a valuable resource for students academics and researchers in the fields of management, sociology, and communications.

Find out how being more LGBT inclusive can increase your organization's productivityand revenues! Workplace diversity can provide creative strength and greater productivity regardless of the organization. Straight Talk About Gays in the Workplace: Creating an Inclusive, Productive Environment for Everyone in Your Organization, Third Edition presents a frank discussion about all the relevant aspects of sexual orientation and gender identity in the workplace. The author reveals how to incorporate diversity in your organization to foster greater loyalty, greater understanding, and greater productivity. Straight Talk About Gays in the Workplace: Creating an Inclusive, Productive Environment for Everyone in Your Organization, Third Edition is the latest edition of the National Library Award-winning guide that explains terms, provides strategies for implementation of policies and programs, and gives you practical tools to educate and inform employees about a workplace environment inclusive of diversity. While previous editions concentrated on the diversity of sexual orientation, this edition has been expanded and extensively updated to include the needs and issues of transgender people. Other updated information includes showing the advantages of creating an LGBT inclusive environment, discussing in-depth about the financial rewards of marketing an organization as being open to the LGBT community, and explaining the benefits of presenting these topics in public schools and higher education. Several appendices are included to provide additional resources divided into categories such as workplace education, transgender, marketing, family and the schools, legal, and business. The book also features a useful bibliography, an assessment tool to gauge sexual diversity in your organization, a guide for transitioning transsexuals, and another appendix that presents research and recommendations as to how school campuses can make themselves more inclusive and less discriminatory. Straight Talk About Gays in the Workplace: Creating an Inclusive, Productive Environment for Everyone in Your Organization, Third Edition discusses: updated information on domestic partner benefits educating employees about sexual orientation and gender identity the latest information on non-discrimination policies effective employee networks and alliances sensitive issues that involve transgender people opportunities and benefits of marketing to the LGBT community internal and external outreach programs crucial tax and insurance information new information focused on LGBT youth and academia inclusive of sexual orientation and gender identity and much more! Straight Talk About Gays in the Workplace: Creating an Inclusive, Productive Environment for Everyone in Your Organization, Third Edition makes essential reading for human resource professionals; executives of every type of organization; LGBT employees involved with diversity efforts; affinity groups focused on orientation and/or gender identity; educators; students; and anyone interested in studying the role of sexual orientation or gender identification diversity in the workplace.

Relationships are at the heart of everything in life. But whilst we invest a considerable amount of effort into our personal relationships, we often overlook the professional kind. Yet this is the area of our lives where our investment of positive effort will generate significant benefits. Great Networking is full of candid, personal accounts of the ups and downs faced on the journey to become good at professional relationships, with real-life lessons from those who have developed mastery in connecting with others. Bringing into play social media and the virtual angle, this is a complete, unique guide for soulful professional relationship-building in the 21st century, from a practitioner who has walked the walk and who is sharing what she has learned over a 20-year career in professional services.

The official style guide followed by The Times and The Sunday Times. Uncover the rules, conventions and policies on spelling, grammar and usage followed by the journalists, contributors and editors working on the Times and Sunday Times newspapers. Now updated with all the latest policy decisions. Royal Family or royal family? Frontrunner or front-runner? Assure or ensure? Affect or effect? Even the most accomplished writer will run up against these and many similar problems in the quest for clear, elegant and grammatical writing. The Times and Sunday Times editors answer these and hundreds of other usage conundrums with a comprehensive collection of entries covering the quirky minefield of the English language. Although no literary straitjacket, this authoritative guide is the foundation of correct English usage for all Times and Sunday Times journalists and contributors and provides a benchmark style, the essential ingredient of all well-written English.

Increase tourism in your community by designing and expanding your local convention and exposition services! This book provides you with solutions to the issues that can arise during the planning and production phases of constructing a facility as part of a community's tourism infrastructure. In Current Issues in Convention and Exhibition Facility Development, you'll find diverse perspectives from experts in a range of disciplinesincluding public policy, tourism, convention management, and urban planning. As more communities attempt to gain a share of the economically important meetings and exhibition market, this critical resource will aid university faculty, state and city government officials, and convention and visitors' bureaus. Current Issues in Convention and Exhibition Facility Development examines the reasons why certain communities should create convention, event, or tourism centers. The strategies and tips presented in this book can help you select the most appropriate course of action for any given community, from locating the best area to build a center, to allocating space for an exhibition center in an already existing public building. This extensive guide addresses the political, economical, and environmental concerns that can prevent a convention center from ever leaving the drawing board. This book offers you practical advice on a number of concepts, including: linear planning in the first phaseten questions communities must confront Dedicated Convention Centers (DCC)the mother lode of convention/exhibit tourism capitalizing on the union of two industriesconventions and casinos the definition of success in the lifetime of a convention center capturing a share of the market without interfering with local venues the facts behind the illusionsinvestigating the empirical evidence behind the central myths of the convention and tradeshow industry Current Issues in Convention and Exhibition Facility Development is generously enhanced with figures, tables, models, and case studies to illuminate the facts you need to know to stay competitive.