Audience Appropriate

What communication strategy do you employ when trying to influence others?

You know, it depends a little bit on the audience, for sure. I mean, when we're communicating with the board, we are laying out a proposal, we are backing it up with a lot of rationale and analysis and helping to sell them on the fact that the proposed strategy that we want to deploy is going to lead to the success of the company. We engage the board in that discussion, because part of the board's role is bringing all of their collective amazing experiences to the table to help us evaluate whether our criteria, rationale, analysis, and thoughtfulness is really as strong as we might think it is, right, so you expect to have that bit of debate. When we're talking to employees in the company, our employees range broadly in types of experiences and roles that they have, we have to speak to MDs that are more informed on these clinical situations than I certainly am as a CEO. So we have to be able to tailor communications to reach everybody, and communicate to them at their place in the company to help them feel the connection to the overall goal.

How do you adjust your communication style then, depending on who you're talking to? Does your demeanor change, the language you choose change?

Media sources might change. I become a really -- I like using a lot of visuals to explain things. Because what I've learned over the years is whether you're a PhD totally informed on the topic or you're an investor that's hearing the Veracyte story for the first time, if you create the pictures that lay out what the unmet need is that you're solving, and how your test is going to move a patient to a better decision, a better outcome, how you're going to save the healthcare system money, and you do that in pictures. It can be then spoken to in many different types of communication environments, but be a really effective tool.