Effective communication for engineers

Ok so I'm an engineer.  I studied engineering when I was in college, like many other students.  I chose engineering because it's fun, and I get to build things.  But one thing I've noticed about engineers is that, we're not really known for being great communicators.  When was the last time you saw an engineer giving a TED talk?  (Ok that's not really fair, there are plenty of good TED talks hosted by engineers, but you have to admit, out of all of the TED talks that's only a small percentage.)

Not to be stereotypical about engineers, but there is some truth to this.  How many times have you sat in a meeting with an engineer presenting, and he/she goes on and on about you know, current progress, challenges and obstacles, technical jargon, but not really making a point?  Maybe it's just you ... you went to bed last night late, you didn't get your coffee this morning, and so you think, "Maybe it's just me that's tuning out."  But you look around, and everybody in the meeting room is tuning out.  Colleagues are unattentive, playing with cell phones, checking stock quotes or last night's game scores, or even just dozing off.  What an unfortunate waste of time!  The presenter, with all good intentions, failed to get the point across.  And think of the time investment from the presenter to prepare, as well the cumulative time investment by the meeting attendees.  Communication skills should be a basic cornerstone of all academic areas, and I don't think most engineering curriculum have put much emphasis on this aspect.  Furthermore, in today's modern workplace with remote meetings and skype calls, we are faced with even more obstacles for effective communication.

Luckily, there's hope.  I'm not trying to turn everyone into Steve Jobs, the master puppeteer who can control emotions from the audience at his whim.  I'm saying with only a few small changes, you can raise your communication effectiveness from 40% to 80%.  Key points:

1. Use less words, not more.  If a picture helps, use it.
2. Apply structure to the meeting agenda.  For instance, the PPOC structure is fairly popular (Purpose - Plan - Outcome - Check)
3. Is your information valuable for the audience?  What is the main point that you want them to take away?

I could go on and on, but these are my 3 main principles, and they've worked for me.  It's as my high school teacher said, "If your paper does not have a clear thesis statement, then everything else will fall apart."  So challenge yourself.  Next time when you host a meeting, ask yourself, what's your "thesis statement"?  If you don't have a good answer, chances are the meeting participants won't have a good answer as well.