Is texting killing communications skills?

I’ve seen a fair amount of communication on this topic, usually focused on Gen Y. How does communicating in shorthand, as we do on Twitter or texting, affect our ability to form complete sentences. One communications professional listed four reasons text messages are killing our communication:

 

1. Texting reduces the need for in-depth conversations.

Have you texted people as a form of avoidance? A few abbreviated words keep people from meaningful dialogue and face-to-face communication. It also diminishes the importance of body language in our communication.

 

2. Texting dumbs down spelling and grammar.

"Txtspk" leads to deficiencies in basic language skills. Shortcuts with spelling, punctuation and emoticons don't help children and teenagers learn the necessary writing and communication skills they need for college and the workforce. Are these convenient shortcuts, acronyms and abbreviations giving way to generations of lazy and sloppy communicators? (Oh, gr8.)

 

3. Texting distracts us from being fully present.

Earlier this year, the industry association that represents wireless communications (CTIA) reported that more than 184 billion text messages are sent each month in the U.S.

These messages interrupt our brain function and attention. Texting pulls our focus away from the people and tasks we are experiencing in a moment, which deprives us of being completely present in our lives.

 

4. Texting invites ambiguity.

Joel Willans wrote on Nokia.com: "The format of 160 characters was determined in 1993 by a communications researcher, Friedham Hillebrand. While trying to standardize the technology that would allow cell phones to transmit and display messages, he discovered that the average sentence or question needed just 160 characters."

This leaves too many opportunities to mistakenly read between the lines.

This meeting is called to order

Years ago IBM communications professionals attended a mandatory class in effective meetings. Interestingly, it was not about running meetings, but how to be effective participants. I don’t know why that course is no longer offered, considering the amount of time we all spend in meetings.

One CEO offers his views on ineffective leaders, with the provocative headline: 7 reasons people hate being in meetings with you. He says too many meetings are poorly organized, poorly run and have no objective, which is why they have no value. His complaints:

1. You have no agenda.
2. You talk at them, not with them.
3. You barrage them with data.
4. You're overly familiar.
5. You look at your phone, not at them.
6. You talk over people.
7. You talk just to show you have value, even when you don't.

You say tomato

My father was a stickler for language, including pronunciation. Drop the ‘g’ in recognize, the ‘r’ in library [li-bear-y] or February [Febuary] and I’d hear about it.  To this day, mispronunciation of certain words is jarring, so I took notice when I saw this blog about one writer’s pet peeves. 1. Ex-CAPE. I flee when I hear this version. Same with "ax," as in "Let's ax for an extension." 2. Sim-U-lar. Either "sim-ah-ler" or "simler" are fine, according to the 10th edition of Webster's Dictionary. 3. Mis-CHEE-vee-ous. Never understood this one. Where does that extra syllable come from? 4. IN-ner-resting. Also In-ner-net. 5. NUKE-u-lar. Needs no comment. 6. Per-SCRIP-tion. Watch for "pre" and "per" mix-ups in general. 7=8. SAM-wich. Get salad instead. 8. ASS-trick. Can you figure out what this is supposed to be? (Hint: you get a star if you succeed.) 9. PRAH-straight (instead of prostate). Insert dirty joke here.

Sleep, perchance to dream

About 41 million people in the U.S. — nearly a third of all working adults — get six hours or fewer of sleep a night, according to a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Typically, this leads to suggestions for earlier bedtimes and a longer night’s sleep. But this directive may be part of the problem, says the author of “Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep.”  He questions the assumption of the eight-hour block of sleep -- some of the tossing and turning we do may result from misconceptions about sleep and our bodily needs.
 
He points to studies suggestions that the body would like to naturally settle into a split sleep schedule. Subjects in one study found ways to use “middle-of-the-night awakenings” as a chance to do deep-thinking. A Harvard professor of psychiatry says  sleep — including short naps that include deep sleep — offers our brains the chance to decide what new information to keep and what to toss.

How we spend time at work

VoIP communications company Fonality asked workers how much time daily they spent on the following tasks:

Trying to contact customers or colleagues  74 minutes
Trying to find key information                    67
Duplicating communications                      39
Attempting to schedule meetings               33
Unwanted communications                        29

The myth of multitasking

Only 2 percent of people can multitask effectively, OnlineCollege.org has concluded. The rest of us lower our IQ by 10 points, lose two hours a day to interruptions, and suffer from distractions every 10 minutes.

Can you participate in a conference call, respond to instant messages and answer an email at the same time? I can’t.

OnlineCollege.org says we actually impair our productivity more than help it.
Technology offers an array of tools and apps that constantly distract us. On average, employees who use a computer for work are distracted once every 10.5 minutes. And, employees with desk jobs lose 2.1 hours a day to interruptions or distractions. Now factor in distractions from incoming calls or emails. That's the equivalent of missing one night's sleep.

How negativity hurts

Too much complaining is bad for your brain.

"The brain works more like a muscle than we thought," says Trevor Blake, author of Three Simple Steps: A Map to Success in Business and Life. "So if you're pinned in a corner for too long listening to someone being negative, you're more likely to behave that way as well."
"Typically, people who are complaining don't want a solution; they just want you to join in the indignity of the whole thing,” he adds. “You can almost hear brains clink when six people get together and start saying, 'Isn't it terrible?' This will damage your brain even if you're just passively listening.”

Blake offers these tips:
1. Get some distance
2. Ask the complainer to fix the problem
3. Block out the griping
4. Mentally retreat to your imagined favorite spot.

The worst job you ever had

Perhaps the worst job I’ve had was assistant sports editor to an editor who had about 20 assistants in a decade. One predecessor supposedly quit the day he started, cursing the editor as he walked out the door. At nearly two years, I was the second-longest in longevity, and I was proud that I didn’t leave the paper. I transferred to the news side.

Most job seekers at the Tech Career Expo in San Francisco told a reporter they left their previous jobs complaining about micro-managers, lack of recognition, and the inability to grow within the organization.

email overload

You’ll find as many articles on managing email as you find on weight loss. Holly Reisem Hanna, the founder of The Work at Home Woman, suggests several tips for managing email. She focuses on managing the inbox, but I think she misses what each of us can do to help our colleagues, such as:

• Short, focused emails
• Reducing number of people on :cc or :bcc
• Reducing email chain by deleting extraneous emails not pertinent to the issue

Vacation or pay?

50% of all U.S. workers in large cities would be willing to sacrifice a workplace benefit in exchange for more paid time off, according to a new Harris poll.

Strangely, most employees don’t even use the vacation time they already receive.

Additional findings:

·         More than 10% of the survey respondents would prefer more time off rather than a salary increase or a promotion; one-sixth would forgo a compensation bonus in exchange for more paid time off.

·         10% of all workers would give up their company’s 401(k) match in return for more vacation time.

·         25% of respondents indicated they’d give up a chance at a private office for more vacation time.

·         Only 5% are willing to take a pay cut for more time away from work.

Solutionism?

This headline grabbed my eye: Dow Chemical’s new tagline ‘solutionism’ is cringe-worthy.

Dow insists it's the new optimism, the company's new B2B marketing campaign.

I understand some genius creates a new word, or a new definition for a perfectly good word, but I'll never understand how it ever gains traction.

Falling asleep at your desk?

According to an infographic by termlifeinsurance.org, the average U.S. adult sleeps nearly 7 hours a night, but needs eight hours.
Two-thirds of Americans do not feel well-rested, which can have dire consequences. Drowsy driving causes one in five car accidents. Lifetime heart attack risk increases by 50 percent for an adult who averages less than six hours of sleep.
Here are more consequences of sleepiness:

• The average U.S. worker pays $20 a week for coffee.
• Getting less than six hours of sleep could add the equivalent of one cheeseburger a day to your diet.
• Risk of stroke increases four times for an adult over 45 who sleeps only six hours a night.

Experts suggest: turn off your cell phone, establish a nightly routine, and don’t use electronic devices 45 minutes before going to sleep.

Flexibility?

A Public Policy Polling survey for Workplace Options, a leading international provider of employee benefits and work-life services, finds that:

• 45% of employees report access to more flexible working arrangements compared to their first full-time job.
• 43% report an increase in work-life benefits and professional development opportunities compared to their first full-time job.
• 28% say work-life benefits available through their employer have increased in the past five years, despite the faltering economy.

Here's the article.

Where does the day go?

Ridiculously Efficient reports the average American worker wastes 1.7 hours a day. What distracts them?

• Internet: 44.7 percent
• Socialize: 23.4 percent
• Personal business: 6.8 percent
• Space out: 3.9 percent
• Apply for other jobs: 1.3 percent
• Other: 19.9 percent

Here's why employees say they slack off:

• 1 in 3 say it's because they don't have any work to do.
• 1 in 4 say it's because they think they are underpaid.
• 1 in 6 say it's because their co-workers distract them.

Isn’t the measurement itself a relic of an outdated era? The concept of working a fixed number of hours a day or week?

The seven biggest workplace distractions

The seven biggest workplace distractions, according to an employee poll from employee assistance program provider ComPsych.

1. Personal relationship issues
2. Coworkers who want to chat
3. Challenges with work relationships
4. Financial/legal problems
5. Child-related or caregiving issues
6. Personal health problems
7. Personal communications: smartphones, email/instant messenger, or social media

I could care less

This headline -- please, stop misusing 'I could care less' -- jumped out at me because my father, a stickler for good grammar, regularly pointed out this error. He ranked it at the top of his annoyance list, along with "irregardless."
 

Transactional or emotional?

Researchers say there are two types of employee engagement — transactional and emotional — and the type that’s most prevalent within an organization makes a difference.
 
Employees who are transactionally engaged are engaged only with the task or job role at hand, say the researchers, from UK’s Chartered Institute of Personnel Development and Kingston University. They are mainly concerned with earning a living and meeting the minimal expectations of the company and their coworkers, World atWork says. They may appear outwardly engaged — focused, disciplined, organized — and show high engagement on employee surveys, they actually are less likely to perform well and are more likely to leave for a better job offer. 
 
Researchers say desired workers are emotionally engaged, which goes beyond the job itself and is driven by a desire to do more for the organization than is normally expected. These employees have higher levels of job performance and well-being, and are more likely to remain engaged through good times and bad, WaW writes. They also are less likely to be stressed and more likely to have a positive work-personal life balance.

Don't just sit there - stand

Exercise only slightly lessens the health risks of prolonged sitting, scientists with the National Cancer Institute have concluded, after eight years following almost 250,000 American adults.

When we’re stationary, blood sugar spikes and insulin levels get out of whack.

Interestingly, jogging doesn’t improve blood sugar regulation any more than standing and walking does. Scientists say what’s important is to break up long hours of sitting.

 

Experiments at the University of Massachusetts show that when volunteers stood all day — nothing else; no walking or jogging; just standing — they burned hundreds more calories than when they sat for the same period of time.

The magic retirement age

Conventional wisdom holds that most Americans entering their 50s and 60s will have to keep working well past their planned retirement dates to make up for shortfalls in savings.
 
But a new report from the MetLife Mature Market Institute, “Transitioning into Retirement,” suggests that might not be true. It found that among the oldest Baby Boomers, those who turned 65 in 2011, almost twice as many told researchers that they were fully retired as were working full time: 45% and 24%, respectively.
 
The average age at retirement for those surveyed was 59.7 for men and 57.2 for women. This is a small segment of Baby Boomers, of course, and the reasons for retiring vary.

Open offices and noise

I began my career in newsrooms, quickly learning how to focus on a phone interview or write my story surrounded by noise -- reporters on the phone, editors shouting and everyone pounding away on typewriters.  I longed for my own office and some quiet, which I eventually enjoyed when I moved to the corporate world.

Cubicles and open space became the norm in recent years, with lack of privacy and the requisite loud neighbor discussing family or medical issues common complaints.

Fortunately, I have a quiet workspace, but many employees do not. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, after surveying 65,000 people in North America, Europe, Africa and Australia over the past decade, report that more than half of office workers are dissatisfied with the level of “speech privacy.”  

“In general, people do not like the acoustics in open offices,” said John Goins, the leader of the survey conducted by Berkeley’s Center for the Built Environment. “The noisemakers aren’t so bothered by the lack of privacy, but most people are not happy, and designers are finally starting to pay attention to the problem.”

“Many studies show that people have shorter and more superficial conversations in open offices because they’re self-conscious about being overheard,” said Anne-Laure Fayard, a professor of management at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University who has studied open offices. “Everyone is still experimenting with ways to balance the need for collaboration and the need for privacy.”

As to the noise, you can try tuning it out. You can try headphones. And if all else fails, you may need to talk to the person when your coping strategies have failed. Experts advise you be as neutral and nonjudgmental as possible, understanding that people may be completely unaware that they are being annoying. And remember they may see you the same way.

Now they tell us: Coffee makes you live longer

In his 1973 hit "Sleeper," Woody Allen's character wakes up 200 years in the future to find smoking is good for you. I think of that every time I read that something we've been told is good for us, or vice versa, This is the latest: Study: Coffee makes you live longer

Disturbing stats about saving

Half of Americans say they aren’t contributing to a retirement plan, according to a LIMRA Retirement Research survey, but the numbers are more lower for those 18-34.  

The research director calls that disturbing, emphasizing it’s critical to begin saving regularly early in your career to earn enough for retirement. 

A quarter of all Americans and less than a third of of those older than age 50 work with a financial professional to plan for retirement, but those who do are more likely to be contributing to their retirement.  

What good managers don't say

Three things you only hear from bad managers, courtesy of former Fortune 500 executive Liz Ryan.

• “I don’t pay you to think.”
• “Who gave you permission to do that?”
• “In these times, you’re lucky to have a job at all.”

You can see the complete list here.
The common point is an overbearing approach to management, a style which costs businesses money, the Market Research Executive Board says:

• Employee agility is the leading driver of employee performance. It matters 3 times more than expending additional effort or being responsive.

Sobering numbers: Projecting retirement medical costs

Fidelity estimates a 65-year-old couple retiring this year will need $240,000 to cover medical expenses throughout retirement, a 4% increase from last year. The estimate has increased an average of 6% annually in a decade.

The overweight worker: The price we pay

That too many Americans are overweight is not news, but the cost to businesses, governments and individuals is even greater than believed only a few years ago: Additional medical spending due to obesity is double previous estimates and exceeds even those of smoking, a new study by the National Opinion Research Center shows.
There are higher health insurance premiums, of course, because we all pay to cover those extra medical costs. What economists are discovering is that just as we learned about the costs associated with second-hand smoke, there is now a price tag on high body mass indexes.

• The percentage of overweight Americans (BMI of 25 to 29.9) has held relatively steady: It was 34% in 2008 and 32% in 1961.
• The percentage of Americans who are obese (with a BMI of 30 or higher) has tripled since 1960, to 34%.
• The incidence of extreme or "morbid" obesity (BMI above 40) has risen sixfold, to 6%.

In addition to a host of medical conditions, from heart disease to chronic pain, overweight people miss work more frequently, and can be less productive. Studies also show that overweight workers are less likely to be hired and promoted. 

Retirement savings: Men compared to women

Women have $41,000 less saved than men over the course of a lifetime, according to a new study from ING Retirement Research Institute shows. For women with children, that gap expands to $61,000.

According to the study, among those who have savings in or outside of an employer-sponsored retirement plan, men have substantially more saved than women, $149,000 on average, compared to women, who averaged $108,000 in total savings. For women with children at home, this retirement savings figure dropped even further, to $88,000. 

A key driver of total retirement savings is the percentage of salary that individuals contribute to their employer-sponsored retirement plan. Mothers face additional hurdles when it comes to building their retirement security — while the income gap between men and women has narrowed in recent years, mothers tend to spend more time out of the workforce due to caregiver responsibilities. This reality reduces their earning and savings potential and also lowers Social Security benefits.

See earlier post: Will you have enough?

The mail bag gets heavier

Corporate email storage is growing 20-25% a year, thanks in part of heavier file sharing, according to Osterman Research. The data dump sucks $997B in productivity out of the U.S. workers annually, says research firm Basex.

 

Much of the drag is due to bad habits: an estimated 30% of email is occupational spam, causes by overuse of :cc, :bcc and "replay all."

Lighter = happier?

From a Fitness Magazine survey:

• 38% of adults feel fat on weekly basis
• More than half want to lose 10-20 lbs
• 74% aren’t at their goal weight
• 41% said they’d be happier if they were at goal weight
• 18% thought they’d have better love life
• 7% said they’d make more money
• 4% said they’d have more friends

Interesting that so many think they'd be happier if they were lighter.

Will you have enough?

According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, only 22 percent of workers 55 or older have more than $250,000 put away for retirement. Stunningly, 60 percent of workers in that same age bracket have less than $100,000 in a retirement account. The average savings for someone near retirement in America right now is $100,000. Even with Social Security, that’s not going to last very long.

Connecting, not conversing

The allure of texting, email and posting is that they let us present the self we want to be. 

Sherry Turkle, a psychologist and MIT professor, suggests this means we can edit, we can delete, or retouch. Not too much, not too little — just right. 

We are tempted to think that our little bits of online connection add up to real conversation, but they don’t. She says email, Twitter and Facebook all have their places in work and play, but they do not substitute for conversation. 

We use conversation with others to learn to converse with ourselves. What we lose in substituting connections for conversation is the chance to learn skills of self-reflection. We have little motivation to post something truly self-reflective. Self-reflection in conversation requires trust, she says. It’s hard to do anything with 3,000 Facebook friends except connect. 

Read the complete article.

Social networks - is smaller better?

The average Facebook user in the U.S. has 245 friends, according to a study published by the Internet and American Life Project of the Pew Research Center.

The Dunbar number, however, is 150 – anthropologist Robin Dunbar suggests that is the effective neurological limit the human brain can handle. Dunbar says social networks resemble a set of concentric circles: 150 is the outer boundary; 50 is the limit for trusted friends; 15 for good friends, 5 for best friends.

What are the implications for social media tools inside companies? I tend to think we view those networks and communities differently than a social network. What do you think?

70 is the new 50?

One of the running gags among aging Baby Boomers is some twist on "50 is the new 40." I have no idea if this thinking is unique to my generation, but there is a good deal of truth in the axiom. We are living longer, so it's logical that someone 50 today with a life expectancy of 80 is "younger" than when my parents were 50. But there are inherent stereotypes associated with age that hold back progress. (The phrase "don’t trust anyone over 30” was coined during The Free Speech Movementat U.C. Berkeley in 1964.)

The World Health Organization has identified these:

- Older people are "past their sell-by date"

- Older people are helpless

- Older people will eventually become senile

- Older women have less value than younger women

- Older people don't deserve health care

The WHO concludes: It is not age that limits the health and participation of older people. Rather, it is individual and societal misconceptions, discrimination and abuse that prevent active and dignified ageing.

We are getting older

5 interesting stats from the World Health Organization:

- The number of people age 60 and over has doubled since 1980

- The number of people age 80 and over will almost quadruple by 2050

- The number of people 65 and over will outnumber children under the age of 5 within the next 5 years

- People 65 and older will outnumber all children under the age of 14 by 2050

- The majority of older people live in low- or middle-income countries. By 2050 the number will have increased to 80%.

Why criticism lingers when praise is fleeting

Turns out you’re not alone in holding on to criticism far longer than compliments.

“Some people do have a more positive outlook, but almost everyone remembers negative things more strongly and in more detail,” says Clifford Nass, a professor of communication at Stanford University.

We tend to linger on negative emotions because they generally involve more thinking, so we process the information more thoroughly.

A summary of much of the research on the subject: “Bad emotions, bad parents and bad feedback have more impact than good ones. Bad impressions and bad stereotypes are quicker to form and more resistant to disconfirmation than good ones.”

Professor Nass also says we tend to see people who say negative things as smarter than those who are positive, so we are more likely to give greater weight to critical reviews.

Managers should be acutely aware of the impact they have when they fail to recognize their employees, pass on negative information without filtering, or don’t listen when employees try to express grievances.

The answer is not to heap meaningless praise on employees, but to criticize constructively — and sparingly.

One additional interesting point from Professor Nass -- it’s better to offer the criticism right off the bat, then follow with a list of positive attributes.

Our digital habits

Duke University researchers calculate that more than 40 percent of the actions we take are governed by habit, not actual decisions. These range from the products you buy in the grocery store to when you snack. Habits are ingrained so deep in the brain that a patient with brain damage sitting in his living room can’t tell you where the kitchen is, but if he is hungry, he can get a jar of peanut butter out of the pantry.

Charles Duhigg, a reporter at the The New York Times, writes about how our habits shape us in his book “The Power of Habit.” Researchers now understand the structure of habits — cue, routine, reward. Duhigg’s book is about people who have learned to replace bad habits with good habits.

You can change your own personal habits. Leaving running shorts on the floor at night is a cue to run in the morning. If you have an afternoon snack craving, insert another routine.

It got me to thinking about our digital habits, such as frequently checking email or Twitter. How much do we do out of habit, and could we improve productivity by being more aware of the choices we make?

Why we don't juggle as well as we think

A growing body of studies suggests that juggling several activities at once may be less valuable than many people assume.

The reason, researchers say, is that the brain can effectively perform only one difficult task at a time. A Michigan professor found that when someone tried to multitask, important neural regions must switch back and forth, taking time and creating inefficiencies.

UCLA researchers used brain imaging to show that multitaskers were less effective learners. According to that research, a person focused on a single task remembers what he has learned using the hippocampus, a part of the brain critical to storing and recalling information.

But when that person multitasks — like trying to learn something new while driving — the brain relies more on the striatum, a part of the brain used more for learning motor skills.

The researchers concluded, “Don’t multitask while you are trying to learn something new you hope to remember.”

“The brain is fundamentally built to unitask,” says Clifford Nass, a communications professor at Stanford.

And here's another sobering thought. Research shows that the brains of heavy multitaskers can become so accustomed to hopping from task to task that they have trouble focusing on longer, more in-depth ones.

Farewell email?

In 2009, the Wall Street Journal reported that email's reign was over. Long live Twitter and Facebook.

The paper wrote this "promises to profoundly rewrite the way we communicate — in ways we can only begin to imagine." There's usually several reasons behind a technology shift, but the article suggested the "always-on connection" crhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifeated a host of new ways to communicate that are much faster and more fun than email.

We've all seen the transformation since.

Fun and immediacy are great, but have we lost a sense of proportion and context? Sheer speed can overwhelm us with information, and demand hasty reaction or response. We may also lose some personal touch when we don't use email.

It always seems to come down to moderation. Everything has a place, but there's no one solution.

For effective solutioning, you gotta orientate

The challenge, at the end of the day, is to ensure we have the bandwidth to optimize.

We all suffer through poorly written communication, which only demonstrates the author has fallen in love with bizspeak, where perfectly useful words have been misappropriated for a new use.

How does this descent into indecipherable acronyms and meaningless jargon happen?

Experts suggest it’s because every company has both its own culture and its own language. We all move so fast that it’s more efficient to develop corporate shorthand. These short-hand references are meaningless to the outside world, but well understood within the corporate micro-culture.

That works to a point, but the rationale doesn’t work for the awful jargon. Whatever the rationale, it impedes effective communication. And if we don’t each make an effort to get back to basic English, we’ll be doomed to read pronouncements such as: "It's all a matter of the specifics of who you're looking at and what you're talking to depending on where you are in the world."

10 most outrageous excuses for arriving late for work

Courtesy of Employee Benefit News:

1. Employee’s cat had the hiccups.

2. Employee thought she had won the lottery. (She didn’t.)

3. Employee got distracted watching the “Today Show.”

4. Employee believed his commute time should count toward his work

5.Employee’s angry roommate cut the cord to his phone charger, so it didn’t charge and his alarm didn’t go off

6. Employee claimed a fox stole her car keys

7. Employee’s leg was trapped between the subway car and the platform. (This one actually turned out to be true!)

8. Employee said he wasn’t late because he had no intention of getting to work before 9 a.m. (although his start time was 8 a.m.

9. Employee was late because of a job interview with another firm.

10. Employee had to take a personal call from the state governor. (This one turned out to be true as well.)