Clarity Handbook (PowerPoint PPTX)

We all understand the challenges that surround business communication: preparing "it," receiving "it," making decisions based up on the information inside "it."

The challenge we all face, however, is how to do "it:" How to communicate clearly so we can enjoy the same results as Kelly did.

Kelly was a junior finance administrator who got far more from our clarity techniques than the senior lawyers who were in the same workshop. After the workshop, Kelly immediately changed the way she wrote her emails which radically improved the speed and frequency with which people responded to her – and the speed with which she could get things done. Interestingly, the lawyers from her workshop got much poorer results as they waited for a big, meaty piece of work to apply the techniques to rather than starting with the small stuff.

So the challenge for all of us is how do we make our ideas become so clear in our own minds that we can transmit them quickly, powerfully and helpfully to someone else – whether we have something large and complex to communicate, or something small and relatively mundane but still important?

This handbook will take you through a logical nine-step process that will help you
•  Crunch (the right) analysis (so you have useful data to work with)
•  Clarify your thinking (so you know what you are really recommending)
•  Communicate your message (so you can get "it" out of your head into someone else's)

Each page includes some simple prompters plus places to write your notes as you clarity your thinking.

This handbook is the perfect companion to Structured Thinking 101: Clarity Through Storylines as it will guide you through the steps that 101 explains.

You may copy the handbook's pages as often as you like – whenever you need to clarify your thinking around a problem or around something you need to communicate.

The appendix at the end also includes some stories from others who have tried the structured thinking techniques we recommend, and also to find some resources to help you on your own journey toward creating clarity.

The Clarity Handbook was prepared by Davina Stanley and Gerard Castles, two communication specialists who specialise in structured thinking, having learned their craft at McKinsey & Company.