lavacon 2014 - grapevine: how to enhance your content processes and communications
DESCRIPTION
“He said… she said…” Play a game that demonstrates how sketchy communication methods can disrupt your business processes and prevent your technical documentation from getting done timely and accurately. Learn what you can do to avoid these disruptions and create smoother communications and processes in your tech comm team.TRANSCRIPT
GrapevineHow to Enhance Your Content Processes and
Communications
Suzanne MescanVasont Systems
@VasontSystems #LavaCon
Grapevine
Suzanne MescanVasont Systems
How to Enhance Your Content Processes and Communications
To illustrate a point, we played a game
• Grapevine (alias “Telephone” or “Whisper Down the Lane”) – with a twist
– The first person was given a sentence to communicate to the rest of the group.
– Odd-numbered people drew a picture representing the sentence they were given.
– Even-numbered people wrote a sentence that represented the picture they were given.
• And here were the results…
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Grapevine Results
Group 1 was doing OK until the milk somehow transformed into muffins!
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The original sentence
The final communication
Grapevine Results
Group 2 took a violent turn from the beginning by crushing the people!
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The original sentence
The final communication
Conclusion: Grapevine communications
are not always reliable!
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66% of all communications come throughthe grapevine.
Communication Failures
Distracted communications
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Communication Failures
Nothing documented in writing
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Communication Failures
Blind decisions from people who are out
of the loop
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Communication Failures
Incomplete information
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Communication Failures
ASS
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People
UME
How to Minimize the Grapevine Effect
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How to Minimize the Grapevine Effect
Use automated workflow to establish consistent processes
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How to Minimize the Grapevine Effect
Automate notifications to alert users of significant communications
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How to Minimize the Grapevine Effect
Govern the authoring process through
the use of templates
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How to Minimize the Grapevine Effect
Control vocabulary automatically for governance over messaging
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