My barbecue team, the Butt Shredders, reunited last weekend after a two-year break to compete in the Canadian National BBQ Championships in Whistler, B.C. It was great fun. We cooked, we trash-talked, we had more than a few drinks, and in the end we took home a couple of ribbons and enough prize money to pay some of our expenses.
It was also a lot of hard work, involving weeks of planning and preparation, a gruelling eight-hour drive to the contest and an intensive bout of heavy-duty cooking and cleaning that saw us turn in entries in seven food categories over two days.
As the contest progressed I couldn't help being reminded of what a great metaphor barbecue is for communication -- and for life in general, for that matter. Here are a couple of things I learned from this contest:
- Old habits die hard. For the last several years we've always turned in ribs that were undercooked. This year we did the same, even though, deep down, we should have known to put them on an hour or two earlier than usual. But we didn't, and we came a disappointing 11th in ribs. It's the same in communications. Sometimes we know what a great product looks like, but we continue to produce a mediocre one because, well, that's what we've done for as long as we can remember and we just can't break out of the old mold. Sometimes the best way to get out of that habit is to change companies so you can start afresh, and your employer can turn around and hire someone fresh. As far as the ribs go, NEXT TIME we're going to put them on sooner. Which, unfortunately, means starting to prep them at 4.30 a.m. Yuck.
- Practice and diligence lead to success. One of my team members, Vince, has been in charge of the chicken category for years and inherited an old recipe that used to win ribbons, but it hadn't for years -- even though we stuck with the exact same procedure to the letter. Vince finally broke with the past and developed his own version of the recipe. He created a new pomegranate juice-based brine and a finishing technique that involved transferring the chicken thighs from the smoker to a charcoal grill to crisp up the skin and add some classic charred flavor. And it worked, with a very strong second place finish. What does that mean for communication? I guess it's pretty simple. Most communicators go through periods where we're plagued by problems and can't seem to find a way out. The mark of a great communicator is to work so hard that the problems end up turning into successes that we're ultimately proud to own. One of my favorite career management gurus, Marilyn Moats Kennedy, says the way to solve the many work-related problems that come with most jobs is not to be overwhelmed by all of them, but to "kill the Bogeys, one at a time, till they're all gone." That's what Vince did, finally, with that chicken recipe, and that's what we can all do in difficult circumstances at work.
Presentation is as important as content. Our finest moment of the contest was a first place finish in the chef's choice contest, which is kind of an unlimited category. We presented one of my favorite dishes, alder-planked salmon with a glaze made with Jack Daniel's, maple syrup, crushed chiles and butter. It's a great tasting dish, but it also presents extremely well, a beautiful, glistening side of salmon on a big, thick, rustic alder plank that was still crackling and smoking when it got to the judging table. In barbecue contests there's an old saying that goes, "the judges eat first with their eyes." The same goes for any kind of communication. If it's presented in an appealing way, there's a much better chance of it being understood.
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