They will write blogs, not term papers

The words “term paper” strike fear into the hearts of students, followed closely by “essay.”  I remember those dark days of burning the candle to finish a term paper in college. It usually wasn’t fun if you had been assigned a specific topic.

I was lucky that my English professor, Dr. Edward Chalfant, didn’t require term papers, but simply asked us to write what we felt about an American novel or a Shakespearean play.

He was ahead of his time and foretold the coming of the blog, an informal style of writing that can enable a more personal connection between students and professors and between companies and customers in the business world.

Blogging for Grades

The New York Times weighed in on this topic recently, quoting educators who advocate trashing the old-fashioned term paper and those who still preach that students need the discipline of the format: make a point, defend it, repeat it.

Championing the blog as a legitimate and more modern style of writing is Cathy N. Davidson, an English professor at Duke, who has written extensively about learning in the digital age. She wants to replace the term paper with the blog and says, “This mechanistic writing is a real disincentive to creative but untrained writers.”

Instead of term papers, she assigns her students to publish 500-1,500 word entries on an internal class blog as essays for public consumption. Many professors at other institutions are following her lead

The New Way of Writing

There is no doubt that writing has become informal with the advent of the Internet and social media. But don’t blame the Internet for everything. The trend towards a more conversational style started long ago when television entered almost every home. We’ve become accustomed to receiving information in “sound bites.”

Let’s face it: we want to be entertained. Fox News leads the audience ratings because the network understands this new paradigm.

Training students to write term papers and dissertations that no one will ever read again is not training students for the workplace. Yes, students must learn the basic rules of grammar. People won’t read poorly written blog posts just as professors will downgrade poorly written essays.

Out With the Old, In With the New

But the format for writing has changed:

Old

• Make a point
• Defend it
• Repeat it
• Summarize

New

• Grab attention
• Make your point
• Support with evidence
• Persuade to your point of view
• Call to action

Communication Preferences

Students who enter the workforce will soon learn the rules. How do their managers want to receive information: verbally, by email, in a written document? They sure don’t want something that reads like a term paper.

The most important element to any communication – written or verbal – is the call to action.

During our entire work lives we will be required to persuade others to our points of view. That’s how we assume more responsibility and authority. It isn’t good if no one pays attention to you.

George H. W. Bush famously insisted that his staff prepare one-page summaries on important issues. The President had the power to start conflicts, appoint Supreme Court Justices and approve or veto legislation. Yet, he wanted his information in short takes and felt that was enough to make a decision.

Blogging is the New Term Paper

Kudos to those professors who understand that the way we communicate has changed forever. Holding onto to old communications vehicles – like the term paper – is self-defeating. Worse, it doesn’t prepare students for the real world.

[tweetmeme]The lifeblood of a business is sales.  Proven sales and marketing techniques are as valid today for the small business owner as they were before the social media revolution.  They will attract customers and fill your piggy bank.  I learned this the hard way.

Proven sales techniques will attract customers and fill your piggy bank

I reluctantly became an outside salesperson some 30 years ago during the recession in the early 80′s.  I was out of work, almost broke, new house and daughter, stay at home wife, etc.  My resumes went unanswered.  Eventually I secured a starting sales position with a top publicly held company.  I went through a professional in-home sales training course, highlighted by a trip to New York City.

Instructors told attendees to ensure that both husband and wife were present and sitting around a comfortable table in their home.  We would then make a carefully orchestrated  presentation.  They also emphasized handling every known objection.  This would lead to a one-time sales close.  Balderdash!

I already knew that selling is not a one-way street. One of the best ways to establish two-way communications with customers and potential clients is by asking open-ended questions that don’t allow a mere yes or no response.  Let your prospect or customer do most of the talking.  Listen, observe and learn.  They will tell you what they are interested in.

In that entry-level sales job, I dealt with educated people in a higher income bracket.  They could easily see through the high-pressure smoke screen.  I analyzed the situation and applied the above methods.  I asked questions and met with one or both spouses where they wished, applied low pressure consultative sales tactics, came back a second time, etc.  In short, I did whatever I needed to make them feel comfortable with the product and this most often led to a sale.  I diverged from the normal routine and had a successful sales career spanning almost three decades.

Nowadays, you can begin the conversation with prospects on the web by starting a blog, an e-mail campaign, newsletter service, series of videos or other suitable vehicles to communicate your company’s news and information.  Become known as an expert in your field, the go-to person.  In all these communications, request and promptly reply to feedback.

Combine these with innovative marketing techniques that separate you from your competition.  Run contests or offer prizes.  When I owned a retail store, we promoted a student discount for customers who achieved a specific grade point average during a grading period.  This generated free publicity from all the high schools in our area!

As I wrote in my blog earlier this year “Superior Customer Service,” reducing customer stress as well as promoting customer service will succeed over cutting price and high-pressure tactics every day of the week.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Michael Yublosky, MBA, is a successful self taught do-it-yourself Web master and E-Marketer.  He combines 30+ years of professional consultative sales experience with sales and marketing management, training, coaching/mentoring. Michael shares his knowledge with similarly minded small business owners and managers as well as self-employed entrepreneurs through classes and seminars. His free tips and down loadable PDF files can be viewed at DIY Web E-Marketing.

There is much talk and more written about effective business communication with your customers and prospects.  But what about how you communicate with yourself?

I began to ponder this question as I sat waiting to be called for a panel on my first day of jury duty.  The laptops thoughtfully provided for the jurors were hopelessly slow and outdated.  So I had the choice of reading the newspaper, or a paperback or pondering the meaning of life.  Finally, time to THINK!

After some thought, I began a conversation with myself about how to move forward with my redesigned blog, the steps I should be taking in new business development and how I should be balancing my personal and work lives, etc. etc.  Wow.  That’s a lot of conversation.

As I pondered how I should be communicating my ideas to myself, I realized I had several options:

• Free Association. Just let the ideas rip.  I guess nowadays that would be known as mind mapping, should I choose to write down the ideas.  But doesn’t this slow down the flow of ideas to myself?
• Make a list. If all else fails, make yet another list to myself.  Hey, Jeannette, what are your top three priorities for the next week, month, year?  Go ahead, write them down.  Wait a minute.  Didn’t I just write a list, ummm, last month?  Wonder where it is.
• Communicate through a friend. Yes!  I’ll call Janet or Andrea and discuss possible courses of action and then ask them to feed back to me, through their lenses, what my priorities should be.  This is a roundabout way to communicate with myself, but it takes a lot of responsibility off my shoulders.  It’s also called avoidance.
• Say and do nothing. Now we’re getting to the heart of the dilemma that I think afflicts a lot of people.  It’s easier to ignore this essential inner conversation and just keep trying stuff to see what sticks. No thinking needed for that.

What I’ve noticed in the complex world of the blogosphere is that my conversations with myself are shorter and less reflective.  Got to keep checking email every two minutes.  Need to get another blog written.  And don’t forget a quick look at Twitter and Facebook.

No time to communicate with myself.  Too busy for meaningful conversation that would replace a lot of wasted time on the web.

I just returned from seeing the excellent film, “Invictus,” starring Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela, shortly after he was elected president of South Africa in the mid-1990s. What I didn’t remember, or possibly ever know, is that Nelson Mandela is one of the most powerful communicators ever to lead a nation.  He succeeded in communicating to whites that they were essential to his vision of a united nation.

After his election, he sought rapprochement with white Afrikaners, not revenge.  He didn’t clear out white staffers and the security detail in the President’s office; rather he offered whites the opportunity to stay, if they wished.  When he pushed the national rugby team to improve so that South Africa could win the Rugby World Cup, he retained the hated name and colors of the team.  His black staff members were furious because the team symbolized years of white oppression.

President Mandela understood that whites were essential to the economy and the path to a multi-racial democracy.  He recognized the urgent need to avoid another war of the races. His actions in keeping white staffers and supporting the mostly white rugby team were more powerful in communicating to whites than any words could possibly be.

In the age of text messaging, the Kindle and email, it is important to understand that words are only one of three communications channels.   Photos and actions speak more powerfully than words.  Nelson Mandela reached out to whites and they got the message.

There is much talk and more written about effective business communication with your customers and prospects.  But what about how you communicate with yourself?

I began to ponder this question as I sat waiting to be called for a panel on my first day of jury duty.  The laptops thoughtfully provided for the jurors were hopelessly slow and outdated.  So I had the choice of reading the newspaper, or a paperback or pondering the meaning of life.  Finally, time to THINK!

After some thought, I began a conversation with myself about how to move forward with my redesigned blog, the steps I should be taking in new business development and how I should be balancing my personal and work lives, etc. etc.  Wow.  That’s a lot of conversation.

As I pondered how I should be communicating my ideas to myself, I realized I had several options:

• Free Association. Just let the ideas rip.  I guess nowadays that would be known as mind mapping, should I choose to write down the ideas.  But doesn’t this slow down the flow of ideas to myself?
• Make a list. If all else fails, make yet another list to myself.  Hey, Jeannette, what are your top three priorities for the next week, month, year?  Go ahead, write them down.  Wait a minute.  Didn’t I just write a list, ummm, last month?  Wonder where it is.
• Communicate through a friend. Yes!  I’ll call Janet or Andrea and discuss possible courses of action and then ask them to feed back to me, through their lenses, what my priorities should be.  This is a roundabout way to communicate with myself, but it takes a lot of responsibility off my shoulders.  It’s also called avoidance.
• Say and do nothing. Now we’re getting to the heart of the dilemma that I think afflicts a lot of people.  It’s easier to ignore this essential inner conversation and just keep trying stuff to see what sticks. No thinking needed for that.

What I’ve noticed in the complex world of the blogosphere is that my conversations with myself are shorter and less reflective.  Got to keep checking email every two minutes.  Need to get another blog written.  And don’t forget a quick look at Twitter and Facebook.

No time to communicate with myself.  Too busy for meaningful conversation that would replace a lot of wasted time on the web.

The 2008 corporate annual reports have rolled off the presses and are on view on company websites.   I flipped through some of them online and, as usual, they are the same old dullards.  A letter from the president, a few words about the past year and what the future holds, followed by the financial results.

But you know what?  Several of the very largest Fortune 500 companies had not a single photo or story about an employee.  None. Aren’t employees the ones who make the company successful?  Where did they go?  It is a little shocking to think that they merit so little recognition.  Granted many companies have had layoffs.  Maybe they think that if they don’t highlight the employees who are left people will forget about the ones who are gone.  Or maybe it’s something else.

In a recent column, David Brooks, an op-ed writer for The New York Times cited a study “Which C.E.O. Characteristics and Abilities Matter,” by Steven Kaplan, Mark Klebanov and Morten Sorensen.  What they learned, says Brooks, is that “strong people skills…and being a great communicator…correlate loosely or not at all with being a good C.E.O….what mattered were execution and organizational skills.”  Their findings apparently were consistent with other research on the subject of successful C.E.O.’s.

Maybe that’s why employees are so little recognized in the most successful companies.  The C.E.O.’s need to be a good communicator isn’t as important as sweating the small stuff, like being attentive to detail.  OK, not all C.E.O.s think team building and communications with employees are unimportant.

But it does make one pause and wonder if companies just don’t value their employees as much as in the old cradle-to-grave days when an employee lived out his entire work life with one company.  Maybe employees are fungible.  That’s it.  Employees come.  Employees go.  Welcome to the new world.