Monthly Archives: July 2015

The GRABS Acrostic

Communication

communicate-icon-pictures-2Source: From Globe and Mail Article – July 27, 2015 by Doug Mollenhauer

Context:

This acrostic has a bit of an edge to it which I really like. Its connotation is that when a subject or idea GRABS your attention it has power and impact. Doug Mollenhauer, a communications-training consultant based in Vancouver, developed this acrostic to reinforce five key principles for connecting effectively when communicating. His article can be accessed at http://tinyurl.com/pkmfxwf

GRABS

Get It:

Main Idea: Help them understand it by stripping complexity and ornamentation from your communication – less is more.

Relate to It:

Main Idea: Help them care and feel something by zeroing in on the emotion that will connect a smaller but potentially more motivated segment of your audience.

Act on it:

Main Idea: Help them want to act on it by articulating an appealing call to action like Nike’s “Just Do It!”

Believe it:

Main Idea: Help them be believers by persuading acceptance through trustworthy authority and personal experience appeals. As Doug puts it, “If the gut says yes, acceptance often follows.”

Surprise and Delight:

Main Idea: Help them notice by injecting humour that both delights and focuses attention by breaking the pattern.

Final Word:

I believe that ordinary things done extraordinarily well, make the difference in leadership. What could be more ordinary than communication? Communicating extraordinarily well is about connecting by paying attention to what people value and need. Embedding GRABS as a habit will help you do this more effectively.

The SPIN Acrostic

Sales

51ay1tLmaHL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_Source: SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham

Context:

This acrostic is an example of a framework that while intended for a sales audience, has application in many complementary disciplines. Neil Rackham and his team, wading through mounds of research information over 20 years ago, discovered that asking the questions in the investigation stage of a sale was a big predictor of success. They found that questions in the successful sales call tend to fall into a sequence they called SPIN. Situation, Problem, Implication, and Need-Payoff.  Studies of negotiations, management interactions, performance interviews and group discussions confirmed their findings – questions persuade more powerfully than other forms of behavior. The SPIN model provides a powerful tool for connecting the what, how and the why of any business situation.

Situation Questions:

Main Idea: Collect helpful data by asking questions about facts and background. Typical Situation Questions could be: “How long has the current organization structure been in place?” or “Could you tell me more about your organizational culture” or “What is your top strategic priority?” While Situation Questions can have any important fact finding role, people typically fall into the trap of asking too many of them before moving on to the natural next step.

Problem Questions:

Main Idea: With the right context in place from the Situation Questions, successful people then transition into exploring problems, difficulties and dissatisfactions especially in the areas where your product or service can be of value. For example they would ask, “Is this process difficult to manage?” or “Are you worried about the quality you get from current system?” or “Is your group meeting their productivity targets?” In contrast to the Situation Questions, people typically do not ask enough Problem Questions. As a result, both parties prematurely begin focusing on solutions before a validated problem statement is agreed upon.

Implication Questions:

Main Idea: Questions focused on the implications or impacts of the problem help successful people explore its effects or consequences. In the sales world, these type of questions help the customer understand the problem seriousness and urgency. This same principle holds true when leaders need to sell concepts and ideas to their team who may not understand the “burning platform” nature of the situation. Examples of implication questions could be “What effect does this reject rate have on customer satisfaction?” or “How will this problem affect your future profitability?” Just like in the sales context, even experienced leaders and managers seldom ask them well.  

 Need Payoff Questions:

Main Idea: Questions focused on flushing out the benefits for solving the problem help your client or stakeholder both understand the context and take ownership for taking action. Successful people are as adept at facilitating the right answer as they are providing the right answer. Key facilitating questions in this step could be “Would it be useful to speed up this operation by 10%?” or “If we could improve the quality of this operation, how would it help you?” In the sales world Neil Rackham and his team observed that top sales performers particularly in large sales, asked more than 10 times as many Need-Payoff questions as average performers.

Final Words: While the SPIN model implies a logical question sequence, its real power is in its flexibility of application. Think of it as a proven framework, not a methodology, for helping your client articulate explicit needs. Successful people in any field pay attention to what their stakeholders’ value and need.

The THINK Acrostic

Communication

THINK

Source: unknown

Context:

This acrostic is one of the most impactful frameworks for helping people change the way they interact with other people both one on one and in teams. Because we are hard wired as humans to be self centered especially when under stress, our communications often lack empathy and clarity. This acrostic serves as a behavioral script to help people press the “pause button” before speaking especially in high stakes situations. Once embedded as a habit its application can have a dramatic effect on both personal and business relationships.

True:

Main Idea: Test the veracity of what you are about to communicate by factoring in your current emotional state and the quality/quantity of information at hand. If you are in a highly emotional state there is very good chance your objectivity has been reduced and or distorted. Remember that truth can be a matter of perspective and highly influenced by culture and protocol.

Helpful:

Main Idea: As in the truth, our perception of what is helpful is also a matter of perspective. Generally, when under pressure our ability or willingness to put curiosity in front of judgement is compromised. We are hard wired to judge the threat or reward nature of everything we perceive minute by minute. In these moments we need to exercise a certain level of discipline in order to accurately determine whether what we are about to say will be helpful for the relationship versus what will be helpful for us.

Inspiring:

Main Idea: I am reminded about an anonymous quote, “long after people forget your words they will remember how you made them feel.” Basically it means when you communicate or mobilize people to action, how you communicate your message will either inspire them to be committed and engaged, or discourage them to the level of compliance and helplessness. Before you speak, again hit the pause button to determine which you want, inspiration or discouragement. The bad news is that despite your best efforts to the contrary, your body language, tone and volume likely make the difference. The good news is all three of these elements can be easily changed.

Necessary: Quite often in intense but friendly debates with my wife, especially about politics, I have caught myself going farther and deeper on particular point than is really needed or required. You might have witnessed this same phenomenon in the work setting where people will be more concerned about being right than actually learning either new information or better information about the other person’s perspective. Testing for “is it necessary” is perhaps one of the best strategies for communicating effectively especially in executive presentations. This is particularly true when the audience believes your intent is to show off versus be clear. In my coaching practice I promote the B.L.U.F approach – bottom line up front.

Kind: For me, this is the most important element in this wonderful acrostic. Testing for kindness is very seldom done in either the personal or business realm. In fact in my experience, kindness is sometimes considered a sign of weakness. The challenge for this one is that we deceive ourselves into believing that kindness takes time, a lot of energy and because we are busy and overwhelmed ourselves, we have an implicit licence to simply express ourselves. This is especially true when we are in a state of overwhelm because our company has launched more airplanes (aka projects and initiatives) than it can safely land. The fact is that we are social animals and how we connect with others makes the difference in how well we are able to cope with the pressures of  today’s fast paced, multicultural business environment. Kindness matters as does this whole THINK acrostic.

What do you THINK?

Why Acrostics Matter!

Communication, Leadership, Sales

Picture5My name is Bill Richardson and my passion is helping people be the best version of themselves. I am an international trainer and consultant specializing in soft skills development especially in multicultural, cross generational environments. I believe soft skills have a hard impact.

 Ever since I was a boy growing up on farm in Southwestern Ontario Canada, I had this dream of making a difference in people’s lives. Back then I did not have any idea how I could or should do this. During my 35 years working with a Canadian major bank in many varied leadership and management roles, I discovered that the key for individuals to become the best version of themselves always had something to do with personal learning and development. Long story short, it became the driving force for me to take early retirement from a safe, well paid job to pursue facilitating learning and growth on a full time basis which is what I do today.

 I believe the key to learning is not so much about what information you take in, as much as it is about how much of the information is actually retained and applied. A key strategy to independent learning is called the acrostic – a mnemonic device that helps learners effectively learn discreet pieces of information. In an acrostic, the first letter of each word spells out a word or message and provides a powerful framework for both understanding and recall. For example a popular team leadership acrostic spells the word TEAM – Training, Empowerment, Accountability, Motivation.

 Over the past years doing my dream job I have extensively used and evolved this simple device to an art form in my talks and workshops. In addition to being a friend to all teachers and facilitators, the acrostic can be a powerful personal and team development tool that can assist managers and leaders in explaining complex topics in clear and concise ways. In the world of business, ambiguity is the enemy of commitment.

 As I share in this blog my acrostics accumulated from many years experience, I extend an invitation to all of you to send me your favourite acrostics to bill.richardson@perdixgroup.com so I can showcase them as well in this blog.