Business communication accelerates through continual reinvention of its modality. Letters preceded phone calls, which preceded fax, before email, leading to text messages and other “direct message” tools.
The result with each innovation is increasing immediacy and ubiquity. Messages come flying and we’re expected to reply straightaway. Anyone who has ever stared down multiple pages of unread emails knows the tax that this proliferation of accessibility in communication can create.
For Kasvaa and other businesses in the Information Economy, value creation is experienced through these forms of communication.
It’s worth asking if we are doing it right.
I posit that we often communicate using tools that seem inappropriate for the task.
Other trades don’t have this problem.
A home-builder starts with the objective and then determines the tool to use. The object receiving the work dictates the tool; not the other way around.
Whereas with communication, we tend to use the tool that is best for the sender. To flip it around requires us to empathically embody our counterparty as we consider which tool would best help them.
Today, I’m exploring:
“The Affordances of the Medium”
Matt Sheehan is a guy who knows a lot about China. He’s currently a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Send a fax!?
Here’s Sheehan, “The political system there is not a system of empowered individuals. It’s a system of committees and a system of documents…(It’s) much better to send a document over to their system that they can review, they can bring it to their committee, they can come up with their understanding and response and send something back.”
Again, the insight is to pick the tool that is best for the receiving party.
Also, a fax machine seems outdated. Oftentimes, we choose our business communications based on the vagaries of current trends.
It’s practically banal to note how text messaging has near-complete hegemony over any other form of interpersonal communication. Who calls someone on the phone anymore?
Yet Sherry Turkle, in her book, Reclaiming Conversation, notes the trade-off between texting and real-time conversation, “In person, we have access to the messages carried in the face, the voice, and the body. Online, we settle for simpler fare: We get our efficiency and our chance to edit…”
Turkle points out that what we gain in immediacy and convenience, we lose in emotional connection between the communicating parties.
Both these examples show how a preference for newer forms of communication that prioritize immediacy can be detrimental to the relationship.
A final example of communication misalignment is how we consume information.
Maryanne Wolf, a professor at U.C.L.A. School of Education and Information Studies, is an expert on reading and how our brains process information. Again, in an interview with Ezra Klein, she describes the differences between reading digitally and with a physical text.
Wolf writes, “The affordances of the digital screen are really exciting. They help us skim the extraordinary voluminous nature of information that’s out there. Skimming is a defense mechanism that’s very useful…the print medium's affordances advantage the giving, the allocation of time to words, concepts in a way that when we skim we simply don’t have the same amount of time to process.”
Wolf recommends asking yourself before reading, “Why am I reading this?” If the goal is to grab a nugget of information, then digital reading is best. But if you are attempting to really understand the text and form connections in your brain, there is no substitute for the physical printed word.
Most of you are reading this article in a digital format. If I want to inspire insights, I should actually print and mail this to you. Reach out and you’ll get a letter from me with a stamp and everything!
So let’s review.
Most of us use digital tools to communicate, allowing us to send messages with velocity, but are often fleeting and shallow. These digital tools may be easiest for us to send or receive, but are less suited for deeper connection.
Which brings us to the topic de jour.
You often hear people say that AI is “just a tool.” Fine, but what is the tool for?
Let’s start with what it’s not for. It’s not for the production of creative material.
As tempting as it might be, we shouldn’t use it for writing or other creative outputs. In most cases, the receiver of this AI-created material can tell that it’s hollow and produced by a robot that is making a statistically probabilistic attempt at accuracy.
However, AI can be used to create a derivative business communication product since its fundamental function is to consume information and repackage it.
What do I mean by “derivative business communication”?
This is typically a summary of something that already happened. In this case, a tool that can create a derivative or simulacrum of the original artifact might be sufficient or even preferable.
I often record my Zoom meetings. At times, a relevant party requires access to the summary and next steps. I gladly allow my AI agent to prepare the summary for the absent party. Of course, I still read it and edit it to make sure it’s communicating the most pertinent information.
I also recently produced a blog post that was entirely drafted by AI. Why is this ok when I said I wouldn’t allow it to do anything creative?
It’s because the AI was summarizing an earlier conversation I had during a webinar with one of our Kasvaa consultants. The writing produced a more organized summary of what my partner and I had already said. So there was no risk of missing the mark since we were confident in the conversation we already had.
How to take this knowledge and win in the marketplace
In conclusion, let’s look at how to apply these insights to commercial transactions.
First, a lesson to buyers of tools and services. Remember the adage, “When you are a hammer, the world is a nail.”
If someone is selling a SaaS product, for example, it would be hard for them to concede that the product isn’t right for you. Most salespeople only focus on themselves and not if the tool is right for your needs.
When evaluating a solution, ask the salesperson to define what problem their solution solves. If you have that problem, and you can afford it, the solution is for you. If not, move on.
Flipping it around for you business owners, think about how you sell.
As we have written before, sales should be focused on the customer’s story, not our products.
Selling is the art of listening, not speaking.
Each of my examples above is from someone using a tool that is more convenient for the sender and less so for the counterparty in the relationship or transaction
Instead, the job in sales is to start with the customer and build a solution around them.
And just like any business communication, the key is to start from the objective and work backwards.
Want to improve how you run your business sales or operations?
Book a time here.
Stephen