Greetings,

Someone once said to me, “There isn’t anything you can say, that I can’t fix.”

In 1995, I was overjoyed to be a new hire at Adobe. As a technical consultant, someday I would visit client sites all over the east coast such as DEC and Polaroid. I would deliver presentations and meet with engineers and technical staffs who were building Postscript printers that would make companies millions of dollars.

As the new kid on the block, I had a lot to learn. The sales reps gave me a lot of information about the people and the projects. I attended an enormous amount of technical training. Sometimes it felt like I was drinking out of a fire hose. Even after the fire was out, no one turned off the water. I was sopping wet.

Early on I wondered out loud if I would ever be ready to visit clients. I was worried I would make a mistake or say the wrong thing. My sales rep Tom was very experienced and knowledgeable in the ways of the printer world. Born with ink under his finger nails, he offered the following advice. “There isn’t anything you can say, that I can’t fix.”

Tom and my new friends explained some basic rules of communication that helped me to feel a whole lot better:

• Where there are words, there is ambiguity.
• Be really clear with your words – and somebody in the room will misunderstand you.
• You mean one thing – and someone else will interpret it another way.
• People interpret words based on their own experiences.

Some of these situations happen in conversation, and some of them happen in email. As my experience has shown,

Email is an even bigger opportunity for you to confuse and confound your audience.

Do your best to be a good communicator, but don’t be so worried about everyone getting the message. Not everyone will and that’s ok. You’re not trying to address everyone with your communications – you’re just trying to speak to your audience. And if you still need some help - I can fix it.

If you would like some great eats and more conversation about this, I encourage you to join me on March 14th for dinner, networking and a presentation at the Acton Jazz Café. I will be speaking to Women In Networking(WIN) on:

• Extreme EMail Etiquette:
• What your Momma and Miss Manners didn’t tell you about EMAIL

I’ve pulled together a collection of funny stories about misunderstandings.

I would also love to include your stories about embarrassing email situations and communication foibles and faux pas. I look forward to your emails and calls!