MCHS 2015 Reunion: True communication involves meeting others halfway (May 29, 2015 Inc. article)

The planning for the MCHS 2015 Reunion is based upon a standard communications strategy. A recent Inc. blog post sums up the strategy beautifully.

A May 29, 2015 post at the Inc. website has an overview about communication that I really like:

12 Great Communication Secrets You’ve Never Heard Before

The headline is great, is it not? – it’s a wild exaggeration which gets the attention of the reader.

Years ago, when I worked as a ghostwriter at the Toronto Sun in the late 1970s, I learned the first two rules of getting a reader’s attention, at least in a particular environment.

First, the headline is there to grab a reader’s attention.

It doesn’t have to have anything to do with the text.

Secondly, the opening sentence, if you’re ghostwriting a column for somebody, can be about anything you choose, so long as it stops the reader in her or his tracks.

It doesn’t have to have anything to so with the text that follows.

Another things I learned: Stay out of the library (this was in  the pre-Internet days) when you are doing research; the stuff you will write will be dead on the page. Instead, go speak to the experts, and use their information  and turns of phrase when you write your column. Then your text will be alive on the page.

The procedures are followed  for a simple reason. They works. They constitute a triumph of instrumental reason.

Instrumental reason drives climate change

Key points in Inc. article about communication

Key points in Inc. article are nothing new but warrant reading.

Key points (which are good one but not something you’ve never heard before) in the Inc. article:

1. First connect with yourself.

2. Speak with sincerity.

3. Be consistent.

4. Meet people halfway.

5. Truly listen.

Make a point of listening to what the other person is saying.

6. Look beyond the words.

7. Show respect.

8. Connect to identify.

9. Know how to ask.

10. Be genuine in your interest.

11. Mind your unspoken language.

12. Two-way traffic only.