Friday, September 15, 2006

Can you hear me now?

Here's another article I wrote for the Carolina Communique:

Listening is a skill every technical communicator needs to hone. Too often when we speak, we tune out the other person before they’ve stopped talking and start thinking about what we want to say next, or think about something else altogether. I’m just as guilty of this as anyone, and it’s a bad habit I want to eradicate. But kicking that habit requires a commitment, like running a marathon, not a single act, like a mad dash through a rainstorm to your car in the parking lot. It’s something that requires thought, practice, and diligence.

Here’s one simple exercise that anyone can do to sharpen their listening skills. After you make a point or a proposal, or communicate something that requires some degree of buy-in or understanding from your listener, stop and ask “what do you think?”

Four simple words, but the hard part comes after you say them.

Stop talking. Absorb what the other person says. Don’t say a single word until the other person has come to a full stop. Only when you’re sure the other person has stopped, say “now let me see if I understand you.” Then paraphrase what they’ve said.

I don’t intend to pose this exercise as an insult to the conversationally savvy or as a condescending lecture to those who are less so. I do wish to emphasize the power of four simple words, the act of willful, conscious listening, and a sincere paraphrase of what you hear. You’ll gain the trust of the person with whom you’re speaking. If you make this a deliberate practice in every conversation in which you engage, just as you brush your teeth a certain number of times every day, you’ll find you’ll become a better listener. It will become second nature to stop talking and take in what the other person says.

A side benefit of listening is that you won’t talk as much as you used to. This will do wonders for your throat and for the disposition of those around you. You’ll have more time to read and think which is good for your mind.

According to Terry Wildemann (see http://www.itstime.com/apr2000.htm#good for more information), a good listener exhibits the following skills
  • Is always prepared to take notes when necessary. That means having writing tools readily available.
  • Repeats the information he or she heard by saying, I hear you saying ... Is that correct? If the speaker does not agree, repeats the process to ensure understanding.
  • Remains curious and ask questions to determine if he or she accurately understands the speaker
  • Wants to listen to the information being delivered
  • Is physically and mentally present in the moment
  • Listens by using the ears to hear the message, the eyes to read body language (when listening in person), the mind to visualize the person speaking (when on the telephone), and intuition to determine what the speaker is actually saying
  • Establishes rapport by following the leader
  • Matches the momentum, tone of voice, body language, and words used by the speaker
  • Uses common sense when matching. If the speaker is yelling, don't do the same because it will make a bad situation worse.
Listening effectively is challenging enough when you agree with someone. It’s difficult but even more important when you disagree. And how you express that disagreement must be nuanced by your relationship with the other person. Does that person know you or not? Is that person a peer or a boss? Is this someone whose cooperation you need? Michael P. Nichols, Ph.D. at http://www.winstonbrill.com/bril001/html/article_index/articles/151-200/article192_body.html says “keep in mind the difference between dissent and defiance. Defiance means attacking the other person's position and making him wrong. Dissent meant having the courage to stand up for what you think and feel. It's the difference between saying "You're wrong" and "This is how I feel." Clearly, a dissenting message is much easier to hear than a defiant one. The listener is more willing and interested in hearing a dissenter's objection. Someone who hears a defiant objection will tend to either ignore the comment or rudely be counter-defiant. This is a common problem that tends to increase barriers between people, something you don’t want in a work environment where teamwork is necessary.” Someone who hears dissent also needs to know that you, the dissenter, has truly listened to what they have to say.

Listening is critical to dealing with customers effectively. In an article about Teaching Customer Service Reps the
Art of Listening (http://www.businessknowhow.com/marketing/artlisten.htm), Adrian Miller provides these simple tactics for effective listening:
  • Tune out distractions and focus on each call as if it were the most important of the day
  • Concentrate on what the customer is saying rather than thinking about what YOU want to say
  • Don't interrupt; a customer's willingness to talk, within a reasonable time period, represents a golden opportunity to find out the problem / situation
  • Don't jump to conclusions
  • Become attuned to tone of voice and inflection; these can be as telling as the words themselves
  • Occasionally repeat what the customer has said--it shows attention and comprehension
  • Ask for clarification if a statement or objection is vague
  • Create rapport by smiling (even in telephone sales a smile can be HEARD through the phone!)
  • Take notes to be sure you remember the customer's key points
  • Be familiar with common questions and problems and practice responding in a natural, conversational manner
  • Control your emotions and be courteous, no matter how rude the customer might be
  • Continually evaluate whether you are asking the right questions to uncover and solve the problem

If you’re interested in becoming a more effective listener, check out these additional resources:
Although there are many practical reasons to improve your listening skills, ranging from how it positively affects how others perceive you to how it improves your chances for professional advancement, the most important reason is simple and impractical. It’s the right thing to do. Steven Covey, who’s authored the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, says to “seek first to understand, and then be understood.” As Covey points out, as you learn to listen deeply to other people, you will discover tremendous differences in perception. Only then can you begin to achieve win-win outcomes.

What do you do for a living?

Here's an article I submitted to the Carolina Communique:

We need to revise our job descriptions. Rather than authoring printed manuals and on-line help panels, we should be involved in or leading projects that make them unnecessary. Why? Because consumers increasingly demand intuitive interfaces to the products they use. Users and administrators of more complex products expect interfaces that guide them through decisions rather than require them to read details. We must stay ahead of this trend, rather than allow ourselves to be flattened by it.

Examples of intuitive interfaces to technology abound on the Internet. Who isn’t familiar with Amazon.com? The site will create “your store” and update the information it displays based on your previous searches and purchases. After you buy something, Amazon easily lets you track your purchase as it makes its way to you. You don’t need documentation to use the site effectively.

But Amazon.com hires technical writers. I found this job description on their careers site:

Amazon.com is looking for an exceptional technical writer to join our Voices team, a group dedicated to drive platform improvements based on community feedback and involvement. We help to ensure that the experience of Amazon's partners is smooth and problem-free. … As a technical writer on this team, you will lead initiatives to develop documentation and training that (users) will depend on to help them quickly and efficiently launch and manage their stores on Amazon’s website. You will also design and write documentation (for those who) interact with our clients on a daily basis, to help them through all phases of the client lifecycle: from sales, through the development and data integration process, and on into operational maintenance of the Web site solutions we provide them.

Look at the emphasis here – “drive platform improvements,” “ensure the experience …is smooth and problem free,” “lead initiatives,” ” (help users) quickly and efficiently launch and manage their stores.” Not your traditional job description, is it?

And here’s a qualification for that same job that you don’t see every day.

You should have a demonstrated affinity for technology and software and a genuine desire to consolidate and streamline workflow.

I thought only managers desired to consolidate and streamline workflow. It shows you how things are changing.

Now consider www.pandora.com. Created by the Music Genome Project, Pandora asks you questions and customizes an Internet radio station based on your responses. When I started out, Pandora asked me the name of a group or a song. I responded “The Beatles.” So it played a tune from the first Beatles LP, “Please Please Me.” I gave that song a “thumbs up.” Pandora next played something by the Who. I gave that song a “thumbs up.” The next song played got a “thumbs down,” and so on. The site also gave me an opportunity to tune my preferences – naming another group or another song I liked.

The engineers at Pandora analyzed hundreds of thousands of songs and tagged them with attributes, which they then stored in a database. For example, that Who song I liked, “Glittering Girl,” has these attributes:

basic rock song structures
a subtle use of vocal harmony
mixed acoustic and electric instrumentation
major key tonality
a dynamic male vocalist
romantic lyrics

When I responded to a song, Pandora referred to its database and offered me a choice with similar attributes, refining the mix each time. The site, as the New York Times puts it, provides “a stream of music with similar ‘DNA,’ …micro-tailored to each user’s tastes.1” I needed no documentation to use Pandora – I simply interacted with the site and got results. Can you see how similar technology and analysis could yield a site providing a stream of relevant information micro-tailored to your needs as you use a software application or attempt to install a client or a server?

I certainly can. Last year my company rolled out something similar to, but not as sophisticated as Pandora - the first phase of “user personalized documents.” Now EMC users can visit a company website, choose among several system characteristics, and receive a customized document based on those choices. Customized documents comprise XML chunks stored in a database and rendered into PDF format.

Writers at my company were involved with chunking material and writing the rules combining chunks. Still, as I’ve suggested, the trend is toward having a user rely on documents like these only when stuck or when attempting to do something complex or extraordinary. Otherwise, why bother? The interface should step me through the process.

I’m not suggesting that the need for printed documents and help panels will vanish. I do foresee these products becoming a commodity, and their production being shipped to lower cost workers. We’ll continue to write, but our value will be in designing interactive scripts or shaping the repositories of information tapped when using sites like Amazon, Pandora, or my company’s UPD. We’ll be doing more “developing content re-use and single-sourcing strategies” and less “employing various authoring and desktop publishing tools to produce printed or electronic publications and integrated online help systems.” And that’s fine with me – learning and doing new things should be second nature to anyone whose career is in technology.

Sunday, September 03, 2006

Is it just Delta, or do all the airlines do this stuff?

I am on the Mass Pike, driving to Logan, when my wife calls. "Your flight's been canceled," she says.

Tropical Storm Ernesto was making a beeline at the North Carolina coast. So Delta Airlines cancels my 6:20 p.m. direct flight to Raleigh and promises me a spot on a flight the next day at 6:00 a.m. It would make a connection in Atlanta and arrive at RDU close to noon.

Ugh.

"Let me call you back when I get to the airport," I say. I had left work in Southborough early because I didn't know how long it would take me to navigate the detour around the I-90 connector. Also, having tracked Ernesto on the Weather Channel web site over the previous two days, I thought something like this might happen. Perhaps I could snag an earlier flight out of Logan.

I call my administrative assistant, alerting her that I might need to book a room close to the airport. What kind of deals could Corporate Travel scare up for me?

After arriving, I was directed to the phone bank. I explain my situation to a polite young lady, who offers me a direct flight at 7:45 a.m. the next day. OK, but wasn't there an eariler flight out of Logan that I could catch today? "Well, there's a 5:00 p.m. that connects at JFK and arrives at RDU after 11:00. Do you want that?"

I let this sink in. "Wait a minute. My direct flight, which would have arrived at RDU around 8, has been canceled because of bad weather. This earlier flight, which connects, arrives at RDU later, when the weather is going to be worse. Aren't I likely to get stranded at JFK if I take this flight?"

Silence on the other end. "I don't know," she finally says.

So I book the 7:45. I'm going to have to get a room. "Can I print my boarding pass now, and check my bag in the morning?" I was going to be barely conscious at 4:00 in the morning, so the fewer details I have to fuss with, the better.

"Oh yes, I'll print your boarding pass at desk 6."

"Now wait a minute..."

But before I knew it, a lady behind desk 6 was calling out "Harvey!"

I quiz the lady at desk 6 about the logic of these flight arrangements. "It seems to me that the weather's going to get worse tonight and not get better until Friday afternoon." She looks at the boarding pass. "You going to Raleigh?" I nod. She types. She picks up the phone, and asks the person on the other end "you still boarding?" She types some more. "OK, I have one more for you."

She looks up and tells me "we got you the last seat on the 4:00, but it's boarding now."

I almost kissed her.

"What about checking my bag?" Too late for that. I throw away 3/4 of the contents of my toiletry bag and follow another lady through security. My cell phone is ringing as it passes through the screening machine. It's my assistant. "Call me now if you need a room!" I call her back and tell her about my stroke of good fortune.

I run to the gate. "I'm here for the 4:00 to Raleigh!" I puff.

"Oh, we're not boarding that flight just yet."

I turn around. A phalanx of disgruntled travelers hovers in a semicircle around the gate. Two of these travelers tell me that they had been booked on the 2:00 direct flight to RDU, but it had been canceled. "Is is just Delta, or do all the airlines do this stuff?" one of them asks me.

So we all wait to board the 4:00 direct to RDU. Until 4:30 or so. Finally we board. I was sitting in a seat! I was going to make it home! I call my wife. "Guess where I am?"

After I turn off my phone, the woman beside me says "I bet the 2:00 and the 6:40 weren't full, so they did this! They have to fill these flights or they don't make money."

Fifteen minutes later, the plane was still on the ground and the hatch was open. "Water?" asks the attendant as he makes his way down the aisle, handing out small bottles. It wasn't looking promising.

Then someone, I think it was the grim reaper, boards the plane and announces that there was "a weight situation." He needs nine volunteers to leave the flight, accept a $400 voucher good for any flight within the continental United States, a free motel room, a free meal, and a promised spot on the 7:45 flight the next day. If there weren't nine volunteers, he'd have to call out names.

Two folks depart immediately. "Folks, I need seven more volunteers." A man behind me mutters "I ain't gettin' off this plane!"

Moments pass.

Finally, we're down to two volunteers needed. Tick tick tick. "OK folks, I really hate to do this." The reaper calls out two passenger names - neither of them mine.

OK, now I'm going home!

Tick tick tick. The hatch is still open. I look out the window. A conference between the reaper and two other flight personnel is underway. They don't look cheerful.

The reaper comes back on the plane. "Folks, I'm sorry but I'm going to need ten more volunteers." What!

I'm beginning to wonder whether the passenger manifest will dwindle down to just me and the guy who declared he "ain't getting off this plane" by the time this weight situation is resolved.

And I'm wondering whether the longer we wait, the more likely this flight will be canceled because of bad weather. Like my original 6:40 flight. I call my wife. "I can understand why you're grumpy" she says.

The reaper comes back to announce that they're going to remove some fuel. They had loaded extra in the event the plane needed to circle RDU to wait for weather to improve. With that and the baggage they'd removed to accomodate the earlier volunteers, we'll be airborne in about 15 minutes.

Thirty minutes later, a truck arrives to remove the fuel.

It's almost 6:00 when the plane finally takes off. There were some bumps during the flight, but nothing as turbulent as I had anticipated, given the approach of a tropical storm.

When I arrive at RDU, it's raining hard, but it's not very windy. Inside the terminal I find a replica of the scene in Boston - anxious passengers, long lines, and a stream of red CANCELED notices next to many flights on the departure screen.

When I get home, morbid curiosity compels me to check the Delta web site.

The 7:45 direct flight from Logan to RDU has been canceled.

Summer vacation is over

And so is my five month hiatus from this blog. It's been a busy summer - swim meets, sports practices, and two trips away from home.