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Communication
Writing, speaking, and listening as instruments of leadership: the briefing, the difficult conversation, and the case made in public.
Chapter contents
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Difficult Conversations 6 entries The four sentences that do the work, feedback that changes behaviour, saying no, and delivering a decision people will dislike.
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Foundations of Communication 5 entries What communication is for, why clarity and simplicity differ, and why a message must be delivered far more often than feels necessary.
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Institutional Voice 5 entries Speaking for an organization rather than yourself: message consistency, the public statement, open records, and when to say nothing.
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Listening and Inquiry 5 entries Listening as an information system: questions that get real answers, what silence means, and hearing bad news well.
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Persuasion 5 entries Making a case: evidence and its presentation, pre-wiring, building a coalition, and recognising when persuasion has failed.
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Spoken Communication 7 entries The briefing, presenting to a board, speaking without notes, hostile questions, and talking to a reporter.
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Written Communication 7 entries Conclusion first, the one-page discipline, documents that survive the room, and email as a governance instrument.
Entries filed directly to this chapter
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01
When Persuasion Fails
Recognising an unwinnable case early preserves the capital you will need for the next one. The most expensive mistake is continuing to argue after the room has decided and you have not noticed.
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02
Building a Coalition
Support assembled by trading away substance produces a proposal that passes and does not work. The useful coalition is built on different reasons for the same action, not on compromise.
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03
Pre-Wiring
Most decisions are settled before the meeting. Working inside that reality is ordinary practice; the line between preparation and manipulation is whether the meeting can still change the outcome.
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04
Evidence and Its Presentation
More evidence is frequently worse. Volume signals anxiety, invites methodological argument, and buries the two figures that would have decided the matter.
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05
Making a Case
Persuasion is structured argument addressed to somebody else's criteria. Enthusiasm persuades nobody who is not already inclined, and the case that works is usually built around the obstacle rather than the benefit.
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06
When the Institution Should Say Nothing
There are four legitimate reasons for an organization to stay silent. There are considerably more common illegitimate ones, and they are easy to mistake for the real thing from the inside.
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07
Public Meetings and Open Records
Serving on a public body changes what communication is. Deliberation belongs in the room, the record is the institution's memory, and the traps catch conscientious people rather than careless ones.
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08
The Statement
A statement that closes a subject and one that extends it are built differently. The difference is whether it contains anything a reader can argue with, and most statements are written to be arguable.
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09
Message Consistency Across People and Time
An organization that contradicts itself is assumed to be concealing something, and the assumption is usually wrong. Most inconsistency is drift, and drift is a design problem rather than a discipline problem.
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10
Speaking for an Organization
The shift from your view to the institution's position is a real change in what you are permitted to say. Leaders who never make it stay personally authentic and quietly commit the organization to…