How to choose business communication methods

Business communication is sharing information internally between employees or externally between businesses or with consumers to help a business achieve a fundamental goal. What is the right way to communicate in different business situations, and how can you choose it? The lessons consider how communication choices shape the clarity, direction, and effectiveness of business exchanges.

3 articles, 1 video, 1 book · about 23 min of reading and viewing

The reading path

1. Read
   business communication · Wikipedia · 9 min read

   In business communication, electronic communication includes emails, text messages, voice and video calls, and employee intranet and HR software. Email is the most dominant genre of this communication in modern businesses. Upward business communication passes through the business hierarchy from the bottom upwards; a suggestion box lets low-level workers communicate with management anonymously. Business communication standards offer practical proposals for designing comprehensible reports and presentations, both conceptually and visually.

2. Read
   

   Email lets other people schedule your life—here's how to stop it · Quartz · 4 min read

   If an issue truly is urgent, employees should not be sending emails to one another. Email wasn't designed as a task-management application, yet many employees use email for precisely this purpose.

3. Read
   

   The Need for More Effective Communication in the Investment Business - A Wealth of Common Sense · A Wealth of Common Sense · 3 min read

   Clients need someone to tell them the truth in a way that makes sense and resonates with them. This piece argues the investment industry needs more people willing and able to communicate honestly and transparently.

4. Watch
   

   Good Communication 101: Mirroring, Jargon, Hifalutin Words | Alan Alda | Big Think · YouTube · 7 min watch

   Alan Alda discusses mirroring as a technique to enhance communication and explains that jargon can help people who share specialized language but confuse others. The video describes communication as more than conveying facts, saying language can also offer understanding.

5. Book
   

   Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High · Bookshop.org

   Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High is a business self-help book written by the four co-founders of VitalSmarts: Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler. It was first published in 2002 by McGraw-Hill, with a second edition coming out in 2012 and a third in 2022.

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