Communication Quotes

“Companies that out-execute their competitors have communicated crystal- clear messages to all their employees.” Louis V. Gerstner

“Failure to communicate strategy results in staff members making up their own actions.” Robin Speculand Author & Consultant

“All of this takes enormous commitment from the CEO to com­municate, communicate, and communicate some more. No institu­tional transformation takes place, I believe, without a multi-year commitment by the CEO to put himself or herself constantly in front of employees and speak in plain, simple, compelling language that drives conviction and action throughout the organization.” Louis Grestner, former CEO of IBM

“Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something.” Plato ( B.C.)

“Proof read carefully to see if you any words out.” Anonymous

“Senior managers get lulled into believing that a well conceived strategy communicated to the organization equals implementation.” Michael Beer & Russell Eisenstat

“Great speakers create change. Their worth is measured, years after the speech, by the change their words create in the actions and attitudes of those whose lives they have touched.” Lilly Waiters

"You've got to be able to speak so that people can understand you. You have to practice all the time. One of the best methods is to put a bunch of marbles in your mouth while you talk. Slowly but surely, you take away one marble at a time. And then, when you've lost all your marbles, you're a public speaker.” George Jessel

" My job is to speak. Your job is to listen. Let's hope we finish our jobs at the same time.“ Adlai Stevenson

“ The real message is not what you say. It’s what the other person remembers.” Harry Mills

“In many turnarounds and corporate transformations, the hardest battle is simply to make people aware of the need for a strategic shift and to agree on its causes.” W. Chan Kim & Renee Mauborgne, Blue Ocean Strategy

Old English A mouse was a rodent A keyboard came attached to a piano A curser used profanity A virus was the flu A hard drive was a long car trip A web was a spider’s home A net caught fish A program was a TV show A CD was a bank account A back up was a clogged toilet An application was for employment Log on was adding wood to the fire Memory was something that got worse with age A window was something you gazed out of

The greater the communication the lower the level of resistance. Robin Speculand, Author & Consultant

I forget what I hear. I remember what I see. I learn what I do. Chinese Proverb

“When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.” Earnest Hemingway

“Put it before them briefly so they will read it, clearly so they will appreciate it, picturesquely so they will remember it and above all accurately so they will be guided by its light.” Joseph Pulitzer ( ), newspaper publisher

“If you can’t convince them, confuse them.” Harry Truman, 33 rd American President

“Without credible communication and a lot of it, employees’ hearts and minds are never captured.” Paul Niven

If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. The come back and hit it again, then hit it a third time with a tremendous whack Sir Winston Churchill

After all is said and done, more is said than done. Anonymous

Two monologues do not make a dialogue. Unknown

“To live effectively is to live with adequate information” Norbert Weiner ( ), cybernetician