By Julie Adamen

We begin the year by following up on our promise to help give managers tools they can start using right now to make life easier.

There are many forms of communica­tion. To talk about five or six of them is just the tip of the iceberg. But this month, let's focus on the very, very critical skill of being able to communicate in writing. And, as with everything, obtaining good writing skills is a long-term commitment on your part for the betterment of you and your opportunities for professional growth.

OBTAINING GOOD WRITING SKILLS

Good writing skills are critical to your career in CID management. It is a profes­sional polish that cannot be replaced. Unfortunately, many of us are not as skilled in writing as we might be. To you I say GET HELP. Pick up a book on writing for busi­ness, take a class, do whatever it takes. Find a colleague with the writing skills you wished you possessed and ask them for copies of their letters. Use those as boiler­plates: Many of the same "catch phrases" are used over and over. Beyond that, READ, READ, READ. The more you read, the bet­ter your skills become at writing. You will be able to look at your written work and pick up misused words and poor syntax. No time, you say? Re-prioritize your time placing this at the top of your professional goals. On a scale of 1-10, good writing skills are a 12.

EFFECTIVE WRITTEN COMMUNICATION

Organize your thoughts/Organize your written communication. You can't become an effective writer by simply sitting down at the keyboard and pounding out a train of thought. Create an outline to organize your thoughts, thus organizing your correspon­dence. This can be critical when addressing a hot political issue. I know, time is of the essence for all managers, so here's a tip: Take five (uninterrupted) minutes, and write or type out your thoughts for the written communication in an outline form—don't worry about whether the outline itself is right, just get your thoughts down.

Example outline:

Letter to Architectural Committee

1.      Note discussion at BOD meeting
     a)     All Committee minutes to be given to management
     b)     No correspondence to go out on letter­head w/o BOD review
     c)      Do not draft and adopt policies with­out BOD review

2.      In addition ...
     a)     Please notify management of next meeting

From these few points, a four paragraph, one page letter can be composed quickly, looking organized and polished.

CLARITY

Is the point of the written commu­nication apparent very quickly? Or does it get lost amid rambling sen­tences and voluminous quotations from the CC&Rs? Take a moment to read your correspondence out loud before it goes out—or have a colleague proofread it. A clear and concise written communication can mean the difference between 15 minutes spent on an issue —and several hours on the phone and writing letters trying to clear up what you "meant" to say. Again, a few minutes spent giving your correspondence a critical eye and ear before it hits the mailbag is vital!

BE BRIEF

One of my favorite lines comes from an episode of M*A* S*'H'` —"Be brief and be gone!" Apply that to the vast majority of your written com­munication. Violation letters, minutes, follow-ups, memos, e-mails, response correspondence, the list goes on and on. Most correspondence should he three to four paragraphs at the most—on one page—with a beginning, mid­dle, and an end, emphasis on "end."

Why is brevity so important? Because ours is a difficult business where it is easy to fall in to a "siege mentality." This mentality can be a fertile breeding ground for defensive behavior and reactive management techniques — and reactive written communication. Being brief and con­cise promotes responsive, not reac­tive, correspondence. The more you write "fill," "gobbledygook" or "yadda yadda," the less likely the reader is to comprehend and retain the information you have intended. And depending upon the content and purpose of the written communica­tion, you may appear defensive (read: guilty) to the reader.

Reactive correspondence is gener­ally not well thought out, probably feels good when you write it and is much longer than it should be. Responsive correspondence is brief and to the point, professional in nature and keeps you out of trouble.

When it comes to "fill," less is more (the "delete" button is your friend!).

KNOW YOUR READERSHIP

Effective communicators know their readership —they are aware who will be reading the material they are composing. The "spin," or tone of the communication is everything here, and very, very, important.

If you are composing a news­letter article for publication to your association, your tone should be posi­tive and upbeat as you ask them not to park in front of each other's homer and clean up after their pets. Why. Because the image you want to project, as a representative of the association, is the friendly enforcer, being very helpful to the community!

Change gears to compose a very serious mail out to the homeowners regarding newly discovered construc­tion defects.

The tone of a serious written com­munication should be professional, reassuring, informative and positive—leaving the homeowners feeling the association is in good hands.

The same principle applies to cor­respondence to an individual. Are you responding to a homeowner's concern over a lack of common area lighting? You must appear be empathetic to the complainant's cause — meaning you have completely comprehended the issue, giving it weight and substance (even if installing one more PL-13 would make the association look like the grand opening of a Wal-Mart). And don't forget to thank them for their innovative ideas, and would they mind serving on a committee to inves­tigate this matter, if the Board should so decide?

Before your fingers hit the key­board, think about to whom this written communication will be sent (put it in ^your out­line!). What will be the message? Who will be my reader(s)? How can I make the tone of the message posi­tive, even if the answer is negative?

If you know you have a good piece of written commu­nication—by you or someone else—save it in a file for future use.

We talk on the phone. We write letters, documents, e-mails, minutes, and newsletters. We participate in Board Meetings. We discuss issues with our vendors. We give direc­tion, counsel and solace to our homeowners. We dish with our co-workers in the lunchroom. Each of these forms of communication is critical to our jobs, and our lives. But being able to communicate effectively, in these and the other myriad of forms available to us can be the difference between success, mediocrity or failure in the common interest development industry.