Thanks to all who attended Aurora’s April 16 IntelCollab where I talked about improving Intelligence Communication!

I’ve had some great conversations following from the webinar. One friend asked what I thought was at the root of bad Intelligence Communication? Well, at the risk of angering and alienating some, here goes:

  1. Bad written and oral communication training in college (like everyone else!).

  2. The need to show off how smart we are … which may be particularly prevalent among intelligence and analytical functions, owing to the often difficult position of trying to influence direction from an external perspective.

  3. The need to prove we know what we’re talking about … which, again, is likely common to our positions since we are so often combating wisdom.

It takes a mighty effort to throw off these habits. In my case, it’s taken 25 years of practice and lots of battle scars just to get close. But you can climb that learning curve a lot faster!

There is a path to simple, crisp and “to the point” intelligence communication. You have to throw out much of what you’ve learned. And you have to design to the customer’s need.

Back in my P&G days, AG Lafley came and talked to our intelligence organization one afternoon. He looked the audience in the eye and said, “I know you guys work very hard to analyze the competitive situation. I appreciate the depth and complexity of what you do. But what I need from you is just one thing … Insight! I know you get very tired trying to get our attention, but give me that insight, and you will be successful.”

That is a great place to start your journey to better communication!

For those who wanted the slides (and aren’t linked up to SlideShare) they are here.