“Land the Plane, Dawn”
As I’ve established previously, I am a woman of many words.
However, I have had to adapt my verbose speaking style, especially to work in the commercial construction industry.
For those unfamiliar, the fast-paced, big leagues of working with large, international general contractors draws quick decision-making, hard driving personalities — the stereotypical “D’s” if you’re familiar with the DISC profile assessment.
If you are unfamiliar with DISC, this video is one of my favorites to demonstrate how “People are Different”
Therefore, I had to morph my message delivery to encompass what I learned from my college journalism classes. Namely, I taught myself to speak in the Inverted Pyramid Style of writing.
This style puts the headline first and covers the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How (or The 5 W’s and the H) at the beginning of the conversation.
Once you’ve done so, you then fill in the gaps as you draw the listener in to your message. That way if you’re in a time crunch or with an extreme attention deficit type person, you can at least relay the most important point to your messaging.
I can still slip and wander aimlessly in thought, though. That’s when it’s good to have a family member or friend to keep you in check.
As my Uncle Randy reminds me, “Land the plane, Dawn; land the plane!”
