1 00:00:00,960 --> 00:00:04,280 Speaker 1: Have you ever sent an email or a text message 2 00:00:04,320 --> 00:00:09,360 Speaker 1: and your tone has been completely misinterpreted. Maybe you were 3 00:00:09,440 --> 00:00:12,160 Speaker 1: really brief because you were in a hurry and the 4 00:00:12,160 --> 00:00:14,840 Speaker 1: person on the receiving end thought you're being a bit rude. 5 00:00:15,600 --> 00:00:18,119 Speaker 1: Or perhaps you've been on the receiving end of some 6 00:00:18,239 --> 00:00:21,680 Speaker 1: abrupt sounding messages and worried that the other person was 7 00:00:21,720 --> 00:00:25,759 Speaker 1: angry with you. As someone who thinks a lot about efficiency, 8 00:00:26,040 --> 00:00:29,000 Speaker 1: my emails can be pretty short. But it's not because 9 00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:32,640 Speaker 1: I'm not a nice person. It's just because I'm probably 10 00:00:32,640 --> 00:00:35,840 Speaker 1: trying to power through my inbox and not putting enough 11 00:00:35,880 --> 00:00:39,000 Speaker 1: thought into the tone of my responses. And my friends 12 00:00:39,040 --> 00:00:41,960 Speaker 1: would sometimes say the same is true of my text messaging. 13 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:45,440 Speaker 1: But what if I told you there was a way 14 00:00:45,560 --> 00:00:49,040 Speaker 1: of being really efficient with your email and messaging but 15 00:00:49,280 --> 00:00:52,960 Speaker 1: also injecting a lot of personality or at very least 16 00:00:53,000 --> 00:00:56,720 Speaker 1: the intended tone that you're going for. Well there is, 17 00:00:57,280 --> 00:01:00,640 Speaker 1: and today I'm going to share this little rick with you. 18 00:01:05,720 --> 00:01:09,559 Speaker 1: My name is doctor Amantha Imber. I'm an organizational psychologist 19 00:01:09,600 --> 00:01:13,280 Speaker 1: and the founder of behavioral science consultancy Inventium, And this 20 00:01:13,480 --> 00:01:16,080 Speaker 1: is how I work a show about how to help 21 00:01:16,120 --> 00:01:20,920 Speaker 1: you do your best work. At my consultancy Inventium, we 22 00:01:21,200 --> 00:01:25,480 Speaker 1: default to asynchronous communication. Now, if you're not familiar with 23 00:01:25,520 --> 00:01:31,360 Speaker 1: this term, asynchronous communication basically means non live communication, so 24 00:01:31,440 --> 00:01:35,720 Speaker 1: that might be email or instant messenger, Slack, or maybe 25 00:01:35,760 --> 00:01:39,640 Speaker 1: collaborating via Google Docs for example. And this is as 26 00:01:39,640 --> 00:01:43,959 Speaker 1: opposed to defaulting to synchronous communication, which is live communication 27 00:01:44,200 --> 00:01:50,000 Speaker 1: like meetings and phone calls. But sometimes when you're communicating asynchronously, 28 00:01:50,320 --> 00:01:52,520 Speaker 1: it can take a long time to write a response 29 00:01:52,560 --> 00:01:56,520 Speaker 1: to something via email or SMS or on Slack. And 30 00:01:56,920 --> 00:01:59,520 Speaker 1: sometimes you know, I'll try to be funny or inject 31 00:01:59,600 --> 00:02:05,480 Speaker 1: some human and tone can unfortunately, and jokes can unfortunately 32 00:02:05,480 --> 00:02:10,359 Speaker 1: be lost or misinterpreted very easily via the written form. 33 00:02:11,200 --> 00:02:14,360 Speaker 1: And another thing is I will be quite brief in 34 00:02:14,440 --> 00:02:19,720 Speaker 1: my asynchronous responses, and briefness can be interpreted as being 35 00:02:19,840 --> 00:02:23,880 Speaker 1: abrupt or cold. That is not ideal because I want 36 00:02:23,880 --> 00:02:27,440 Speaker 1: to come across with warmth. So how do I get 37 00:02:27,520 --> 00:02:33,680 Speaker 1: that warmth across while remaining asynchronous and relatively efficient in 38 00:02:33,720 --> 00:02:36,960 Speaker 1: how I communicate? Well, what I do is I rely 39 00:02:37,120 --> 00:02:41,520 Speaker 1: heavily on audio messages. So an audio message is where 40 00:02:41,560 --> 00:02:46,600 Speaker 1: you basically record yourself talking out your response. There are 41 00:02:46,639 --> 00:02:51,760 Speaker 1: several situations where I really lean into audio messages. So firstly, 42 00:02:51,800 --> 00:02:55,640 Speaker 1: when someone on my team emails me wanting feedback on something. 43 00:02:55,800 --> 00:02:58,519 Speaker 1: It might be feedback on some client work that they've done, 44 00:02:58,800 --> 00:03:01,360 Speaker 1: or feedback on a problem that they're trying to solve, 45 00:03:01,480 --> 00:03:04,480 Speaker 1: or on an idea that they've had, and I find 46 00:03:04,520 --> 00:03:07,760 Speaker 1: it's so much more efficient to just record an audio message, 47 00:03:08,040 --> 00:03:11,600 Speaker 1: and importantly, tone doesn't get lost, which is really important 48 00:03:11,639 --> 00:03:16,400 Speaker 1: when giving feedback to someone or about something. Your communication 49 00:03:16,520 --> 00:03:22,480 Speaker 1: becomes so much richer because using audio communication, it's quite 50 00:03:22,560 --> 00:03:27,480 Speaker 1: easy to communicate emotion just through using your voice. Now, 51 00:03:27,560 --> 00:03:30,519 Speaker 1: another time I use audio messages is when a journalist 52 00:03:30,520 --> 00:03:33,120 Speaker 1: wants me to comment on a story. So probably every 53 00:03:33,120 --> 00:03:35,560 Speaker 1: second or third day, I'd get a request from someone 54 00:03:35,640 --> 00:03:38,160 Speaker 1: in the media wanting me to comment on a piece 55 00:03:38,200 --> 00:03:41,000 Speaker 1: that they're working on, and they'll often send me through questions, 56 00:03:41,360 --> 00:03:43,880 Speaker 1: and if we're not doing a phone interview or video 57 00:03:43,920 --> 00:03:46,800 Speaker 1: interview or TV interview, I will often be asked to 58 00:03:46,840 --> 00:03:50,960 Speaker 1: email through responses, which is actually quite time consuming because 59 00:03:51,000 --> 00:03:53,920 Speaker 1: not only does it involve thinking, it involves writing and 60 00:03:54,080 --> 00:03:56,880 Speaker 1: editing my responses to make sure that they make sense 61 00:03:56,920 --> 00:03:59,600 Speaker 1: in the written form. So what I now do is 62 00:03:59,600 --> 00:04:02,800 Speaker 1: I de to an audio message where I'll record myself 63 00:04:02,840 --> 00:04:05,360 Speaker 1: talking out the responses, and I find that to be 64 00:04:05,480 --> 00:04:08,560 Speaker 1: a far more efficient way to respond and help journalists 65 00:04:08,600 --> 00:04:13,280 Speaker 1: with stories and meet tight deadlines quickly. Now I also 66 00:04:13,760 --> 00:04:16,440 Speaker 1: use it in my social life. So when I've got 67 00:04:16,440 --> 00:04:18,560 Speaker 1: something to say to a friend that doesn't warrant a 68 00:04:18,560 --> 00:04:21,440 Speaker 1: phone call but it would be a really long SMS, 69 00:04:21,800 --> 00:04:24,839 Speaker 1: I'll send an audio message, which I found to be 70 00:04:24,880 --> 00:04:28,080 Speaker 1: really useful, and I think my friends find relatively novel 71 00:04:28,400 --> 00:04:32,640 Speaker 1: and fun. I think, and also I even use audio 72 00:04:32,680 --> 00:04:36,240 Speaker 1: messages in my dating life. So for single listeners out 73 00:04:36,240 --> 00:04:38,560 Speaker 1: there that happen to be on Bumble, Bumble has a 74 00:04:38,600 --> 00:04:41,760 Speaker 1: really cool feature where you can record audio messages as 75 00:04:41,800 --> 00:04:45,400 Speaker 1: your response as opposed to texting or typing out your response. 76 00:04:45,760 --> 00:04:47,919 Speaker 1: And again I found it such a good way to 77 00:04:47,960 --> 00:04:51,120 Speaker 1: communicate with people. Obviously, phone in face to face is 78 00:04:51,160 --> 00:04:54,560 Speaker 1: better I've been in those early early days, And when 79 00:04:54,640 --> 00:04:57,719 Speaker 1: I receive audio messages back from people on the app, 80 00:04:58,080 --> 00:04:59,840 Speaker 1: I find that I can in fers and really use 81 00:05:00,240 --> 00:05:04,160 Speaker 1: things just by that person's audio message that I wouldn't 82 00:05:04,200 --> 00:05:07,040 Speaker 1: have been able to get from just the written form. 83 00:05:07,839 --> 00:05:09,960 Speaker 1: Now let's get into the nitty gritty of how this 84 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:13,919 Speaker 1: works in practice when it comes to work communication. So 85 00:05:14,040 --> 00:05:16,880 Speaker 1: for longer audio messages, let's just say someone's asked me 86 00:05:16,920 --> 00:05:19,559 Speaker 1: to give feedback on an idea, I will often gather 87 00:05:19,680 --> 00:05:22,880 Speaker 1: my thoughts and make some brief notes in ever note, 88 00:05:23,240 --> 00:05:26,360 Speaker 1: and then when I'm recording the audio messages, I'll talk 89 00:05:26,400 --> 00:05:28,880 Speaker 1: to those points just so I'm not wasting the other 90 00:05:28,920 --> 00:05:31,240 Speaker 1: person's time and being a bit waftly or not getting 91 00:05:31,240 --> 00:05:34,760 Speaker 1: straight to the point. But I find for shorter messages, 92 00:05:35,360 --> 00:05:37,520 Speaker 1: I will generally just speak off the cuff, and I 93 00:05:37,560 --> 00:05:42,039 Speaker 1: find that that is quite adequate. Now, technology wise, I've 94 00:05:42,040 --> 00:05:45,280 Speaker 1: got an iPhone, and if I'm communicating with another iPhone user, 95 00:05:45,360 --> 00:05:48,640 Speaker 1: it's really easy. My iPhone just lets me hold down 96 00:05:48,680 --> 00:05:52,320 Speaker 1: a little microphone icon in the messaging app, and I 97 00:05:52,360 --> 00:05:55,120 Speaker 1: hold that down, I talk out my audio message, and 98 00:05:55,160 --> 00:05:58,320 Speaker 1: then I hit send after I've recorded the message. But 99 00:05:58,360 --> 00:06:02,320 Speaker 1: when I'm communicating to people on Android devices or I 100 00:06:02,360 --> 00:06:05,560 Speaker 1: need a workaround. So what I do is I record 101 00:06:05,640 --> 00:06:08,800 Speaker 1: the audio message using the Voice Memos app, and then 102 00:06:08,839 --> 00:06:13,480 Speaker 1: I share that audio recording using SMS or WhatsApp. And 103 00:06:13,520 --> 00:06:17,120 Speaker 1: the other workaround is that I just communicate directly using 104 00:06:17,240 --> 00:06:22,280 Speaker 1: WhatsApp now. Not surprisingly, research from the University of California 105 00:06:22,600 --> 00:06:26,760 Speaker 1: found that social connectedness or bonding is stronger between friends 106 00:06:27,040 --> 00:06:31,240 Speaker 1: who communicate via audio message rather than instant messenger. The 107 00:06:31,240 --> 00:06:34,840 Speaker 1: research also suggested that video communication takes this up another 108 00:06:34,920 --> 00:06:38,560 Speaker 1: notch if you want to get even more fancy and 109 00:06:38,880 --> 00:06:43,799 Speaker 1: record video messages. So this week, why not try sending 110 00:06:43,960 --> 00:06:47,719 Speaker 1: or replying to someone via an audio message and see 111 00:06:47,760 --> 00:06:50,719 Speaker 1: what kind of response it gets. I'd love to hear 112 00:06:50,800 --> 00:06:54,640 Speaker 1: how you go if you are looking for more tips 113 00:06:54,680 --> 00:06:56,920 Speaker 1: to improve the way that you work. I write a 114 00:06:56,960 --> 00:07:00,159 Speaker 1: short fortnightly newsletter that contains three cool things that I've 115 00:07:00,200 --> 00:07:03,520 Speaker 1: discovered that helped me work better, which range from interesting 116 00:07:03,520 --> 00:07:06,920 Speaker 1: research findings through to gadgets that I'm loving. You can 117 00:07:06,960 --> 00:07:09,720 Speaker 1: sign up for that at Howiwork dot co. That's how 118 00:07:09,760 --> 00:07:13,280 Speaker 1: I Work dot Co. How I Work is produced by 119 00:07:13,360 --> 00:07:16,680 Speaker 1: inventing them with production support from Dead Set Studios, and 120 00:07:16,760 --> 00:07:19,080 Speaker 1: thank you to Martin Nimba who does the audio mix 121 00:07:19,120 --> 00:07:21,880 Speaker 1: for every episode and makes everything sound so much better 122 00:07:21,880 --> 00:07:24,680 Speaker 1: than it would have otherwise. See you next time.