Communication Optimization

Everything the Guide points you to.

The Communication Optimization Implementation Guide never prints a web address. It prints an ID — C4.1, C8.2 — and the ID is on this page. That way the book can stay right for years while what sits behind an ID gets rebuilt, renamed, or replaced.

Start here

Four lenses. No stages, no ladder.

Communication is not one of the five pillars, and nothing here assigns you a stage. The Guide works in four lenses — Read, Translation, Candor and Responsiveness — with ten mechanisms underneath them. The assessment scores the four, names the one mechanism that is weakest, and tells you which chapter to open first.

Forty-two questions, ten to fifteen minutes. Nothing you enter leaves the page — there is no form on it, and nothing is stored once you close the tab. Prefer a pen? C0.3, the map, does the same job by hand.

Take the assessment or use the map

How to use this page

Find the ID printed beside the exercise you are working on. The number in an ID is the chapter of The Communication Advantage the sheet came from — C8.2 is the second sheet drawn from Chapter Eight — so the ID tells you where to read more without a cross-reference table.

Every printable is a clean copy you can print as many times as you need, for yourself or for forty people. Print a fresh copy per person and per instance — a worksheet somebody has already filled in is not a worksheet anybody else can use, and these are per-person by design.

They all live in one free library. You give a name and an email once and have every sheet from then on — there is nothing to buy. Your name is never shared with your organization, and you are not added to a mailing list.

Get the printables

Before you start

Three sheets from the front of the Guide. None of them belongs to a lens.

C0.2

The Two QuestionsTwo questions, a grid, and the quadrant you land in — with no number anywhere on the page. Then the same two about one person you have friction with.

C0.3

The MapFour lenses, ten mechanisms, and the chapter each one came from. Score the four and circle the lowest.

C0.6

The Five FiguresThe completion page. Five figures for the five things to work — this front matter and the four chapters — shaded in one at a time as each is finished. It records what you have done rather than diagnosing you, which is why it can show progression when nothing else here does.

Read · chapters 2, 3, 4 and 10

Whether you are reading the person in front of you accurately — and what you do once you find out you are not.

C2.1

Two Versions of YouThe version under pressure beside the version on a quiet Saturday, across four columns. The widest gap is the one other people have to live with.

C3.1

One Person, One AdjustmentOne person, one change. Deliberately singular — and it closes with what to do when the adjustment feels fake.

C4.1

Your Blind Spot, NamedIf a name arrived immediately, that is one finding. If no name came at all, that is a different and larger one.

C4.2

Before You Get ThereThe early warning, and the move decided in advance — then the part almost nobody does, which is telling one person what your early warning looks like.

C4.3

What, Then WhyThree columns: what they actually did, what you think was underneath it, and what you would have to ask to find out whether you are right. Acting on column two as though it were column one is where most of the damage gets done.

C4.4

Strengths, Struggles, StrategiesOne relationship, run in both directions — then a second pass for what changes when either of you is under pressure, which is a different pair of people entirely.

C10.1

The Label AuditThe label you have been using for somebody, and the one thing you would have to find out to replace it.

Translation · chapters 6 and 8

Whether what you believe reaches the people who work for you in a form they can act on.

C6.1

Four Ways to Say the Same ThingOne message, four versions. The one you wrote first is your own style, and it is the version the other three have been getting.

C6.2

The Line From Their Week to the DirectionOne person, one real task from this week, the joining sentence in their language — and the date you said it out loud.

C8.1

When Two Values Pull Against Each OtherOne real collision, and the sentence about which value bends first. If you cannot think of a collision, it is being absorbed below you.

C8.2

What This Value Looks Like on an Ordinary TuesdayOne value, the observable behavior that settles what you meant by it, and one real story from the last ninety days. An empty story box is the finding.

Candor · chapters 7 and 9

The conversation you are not having, and the recognition you are not giving.

C7.1

The Conversation You Are Not HavingThe person, the specific behavior, how long it has been in weeks — and what you have been telling yourself about why it can wait. That last sentence is the one worth looking at.

C7.2

Before You Have ItFour uncomfortable questions, then what success looks like in a sentence they could repeat back. If you cannot write that sentence, you are not ready.

C9.1

Is It Actually On the CalendarThe three structures audited against your real calendar. An intention with no date on it is not a practice, and this is the sheet that changes next month rather than this week.

C9.2

Who Have I Not RecognizedEvery person you lead, when you last said something specific about their work, and what you noticed and never said. The blanks are the finding.

Responsiveness · chapters 5 and 11

What your silence says, and what the channel says before the message does.

C5.1

The Open Loop AuditTwo columns, and the right one is the point. Find the oldest item and close it today — closing does not mean solving.

C5.2

Your Response StandardThe window, the named exceptions, and telling people — the step almost nobody takes.

C11.1

The Channel TestThree questions before you send, and an honest note on what video does and does not give back.

C11.2

The Worst-Day Read-BackRead it as them, on their worst day, and name the line most likely to be misread.

When you would rather measure it than estimate it

The Read lens asks you to estimate how somebody is wired, and an estimate is enough for every sheet above — the Guide never asks for more than that. When you would rather have it measured, Dove Development & Consulting runs the DISC instrument behind this work, and there is a person there to run it with you: dove-development.net/EffectiveCommunication

The printables

Every sheet above is marked in the library, and all twenty-two are ready now. One free library, one name and email, every sheet from then on — including anything added or revised after the book was printed.