Page 40 - Today’s Business Communication; A How-to Guide for the Modern Professional

WhY MUST I PUT MY AUDIENCE FIRST? 29

the world as being so black and white. So, consider a third version of the
email, which we’ve provided for you in Figure 3.3.
Look back at the three sample messages that we just provided to you.
It is our contention that the third message is good because it considers
what we call the Two Ps of Message Prep—Purpose and People. Although
we should approach our messages in a mission-driven manner, we can
only be truly successful if we also place our audience—the people—front
and center. In this book, we will share many failed messages that failed
because the writer thought a great deal about accomplishing his or her
goals and thought very little about other people.
To complicate matters, our messages may serve one organizational
goal while undermining another goal, all while influencing multiple rela-
tionships. In these treacherous waters, taking the time to think about our
purpose and people is sound advice.
Jeffrey Kotz, who you will meet again in Chapter 5,
has experience working in marketing and research
analytics. He shared with us a common problem that
occurs in his line of work. Employees in analytics and
client services work interdependently. Those employ-
ees in client services must get new business and make
clients happy. Those employees in marketing and research analytics

Dear Paul,
Recently, our company’s leadership team made critical decisions about our future that
will present us with considerable challenges and some pain. The decision to pursue
lean management strategy, which means that each unit needs to find new efficiencies,
is one that will be difficult.
I understand that the task that I am asking you to undertake will be awfully hard. But,
I have every confidence in your ability to be creative in accomplishing tough tasks.
Please apply your creativity and talent to suggest a menu of options for us to cut 10%
from your unit’s budget for the next fiscal year. While the easy option would be for you
to lay off two employees, I know that neither of us wants to lay off valuable staff.
This assignment will challenge you, and I understand that I’m asking a lot of you.
Please let me know whether you can prepare and email a plan to me by June 15, or
whether you feel you need additional time, and if so, how much. Feel free to come to
my office to discuss your concerns.
Sincerely,
kristin
Figure 3.3 An even better email about 10% budget cut