Mark Buchanan

Program Lead, Cisco Brand Language

February 2016

Lessons from the Cisco language program

Bold and Human

50% can’t connect their work to business strategy

70% aren’t engaged

$26,000/employee/year

The primary goal of any comprehensive operation solution is to plan, design, implement and manage a standardized, structured, and well defined operational framework that is underpinned by necessary people, processes, tools, metrics, governance and organizational requirements which pertain to complex converged, virtualized and automated environments.

Cisco Engineer

“I’m an engineer here…and I don’t even understand what we’re talking about half the time.”

Cisco Confidential 15© 2013-2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Cisco Customer, 2012

“I am a solid Cisco fan, but how many hours do they expect me to waste trying to understand their shit.”

Chuck Robbins, CEO, Cisco

“We need clear, concise communication to keep pace with the rate of change.”

Trust.

Jim Rohn

“Success is a few simple disciplines, practiced every day; while failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day.”

Big tip #1 The simple brief

26

KnowFeel Do

© 2010 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential

As an enterprise, it’s critical to drive tight coordination across multiple organizations and align our resources effectively through the use of Collaboration technology. Jabber makes it easier to share and collaborate on information, thoughts, and ideas by offering a converged platform of communications, video and messaging.

Today we announced new functionality in our latest release and continue to deliver on our commitment to ongoing feature enhancement to enable engagement with our most important asset – our employees.

Before

Know: the new release is out

Feel: excited

Do: use it, tell customers about it

The simple brief

28© 2010 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential

As an enterprise, it’s critical to drive tight coordination across multiple organizations and align our resources effectively through the use of Collaboration technology. Jabber makes it easier to share and collaborate on information, thoughts, and ideas by offering a converged platform of communications, video and messaging.

Today we announced new functionality in our latest release and continue to deliver on our commitment to ongoing feature enhancement to enable engagement with our most important asset – our employees.

Did we nail it?

It’s time to work together better. And to tell the world about it.

The new release of Jabber is out today. It’s even better than ever.

Let’s talk. Let’s share ideas. Let’s work together, and wherever. Use it, and get our teams using it. Let’s be the best case study for our own technology.

After

Big tip #2 Keep it simple

100Source: Flesch-Kincaid Readability Index

36.7Source: Flesch-Kincaid Readability Index

62 Wall Street Journal

60 Our target

58 The Economist

36.7 Our starting average

32 Harvard Law Review

60~ Our target

48.7 Trained teams in 2015

36.7 Our starting average

Cisco Employee

“I used to read our articles and felt like there was so much I didn’t know. Now, I know what’s going on. I feel smarter when I read them. I like that.”

Big tip # 3 Practice empathy

blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah bl (Oh. And bring your passport.)

What’s your favorite word?

Big tip #4Think about tone

Do not hesitate to contact us. We are ready for your call.

Before

Don't hesitate to contact us. We're ready for your call.

After

Big tip # 5 Ask “So what?”

Note: When the review input is only received via a live meeting there are many methods to provide a closed loop and retain the review record. For example, the WebEx recording of the review can be retained in the project wiki or appended to the document (e.g. EDCS-855230); review comments and resolution can be included in the document itself (e.g. EDCS-840649); PRRQ can be updated with a record of the live review etc.

Note: When the review input is only received via a live meeting there are many methods to provide a closed loop and retain the review record. For example, the WebEx recording of the review can be retained in the project wiki or appended to the document (e.g. EDCS-855230); review comments and resolution can be included in the document itself (e.g. EDCS-840649); PRRQ can be updated with a record of the live review etc.

Note: When the review input is only received via a live meeting there are many methods to provide a closed loop and retain the review record. For example, the WebEx recording of the review can be retained in the project wiki or appended to the document (e.g. EDCS-855230); review comments and resolution can be included in the document itself (e.g. EDCS-840649); PRRQ can be updated with a record of the live review etc.

Note: When the review input is only received via live meeting, there are many methods to provide a closed loop and retain the review record.

The WebEx recording of the review can be retained in the project wiki or appended to the document (e.g., EDCS-855230)

Review comments and resolution can be included in the document itself (e.g., EDCS-840649)

PRRQ can be updated with a record of the live review

Note: When the review input is only received via live meeting, there are many methods to provide a closed loop and retain thereview record.

The WebEx recording of the review can be retained in the project wiki or appended to the document (e.g., EDCS-855230)

Review comments and resolution can be included in the document itself (e.g., EDCS-840649)

PRRQ can be updated with a record of the live review

Keep good records of your reviews, even when they happen in live settings. Here’s how:

• Record your WebEx meeting. Post it in the project wiki or keep with the document as an attachment (e.g. EDCS-855230)

• Put notes and recommendations in the document as comments or keep them as an attached file (e.g. EDCS-840649)

• Update the peer review request queue (PRRQ) with a record of the live review

So, how do you save the world?

Start small

Structural Priming

Kevin gave Sally a pen.

Priming

Kevin gave Sally a pen. A. John sent Tim the files.

B. John sent the files to Tim.

PrimingSyntactic Persistence

Kevin gave Sally a pen. A. John sent Tim the files.

B. John sent the files to Tim.

A crucial element in Enabling a Digital Transformation is to dramatically simplify the network by leveraging controller based abstraction and automation, embracing virtualizing to deliver elastic services on demand and leveraging the power of the cloud to enable continuous innovation, and digital service integration – realizing digital experiences.

I’ll action that.

Let’s level set.

Let me circle back to you and close the loop.

The mantra

The Cisco Sales Orientation course has been developed to provide to sales professionals who are new to working with Cisco or who want to strengthen their overall sales skills. Our goal is to help you become more productive, knowledgeable, and competent in selling Cisco solutions through providing you access to tools, resources and guidance on how to engage in the field.

If you’re new to selling Cisco, or want to sharpen your Cisco selling skills, this course is for you. You’ll get to know us, and get comfortable selling our solutions.

We’ll show you proven ways to engage the field. We’ll give you tools and resources to help you sell more and sell faster.

Prove it and move it

Cisco Employee

“Payroll got compliments on the email about imputed income. People actually took the time to say ‘Wow.’ ”

Questions?

Bonus tip Remember you are powerful

You are the hero

You!

You!

Your team

How you change the world

You!

Your team

Key influencers

How you change the world

You!

Your team

Key influencers

The rest of the business

How you change the world

You!

Your team

Key influencers

The rest of the business

Do it everywhere

How you change the world

Employee

Delivering a better experience for each other

Customer

And transforming the experience for customers

5 practical tips

1. Use a “know, feel, do” brief.

2. Keep it simple.

3. Put your audience first.

4. Read out loud and listen to how you sound.

5. Ask “So what?”

Fletcher Thomas Buchanan

Thank you.

Auxillary slides

Using Flesch-Kincaid in MS Word

Look right here.