The S.B.A.R. Method: Write Better at Work

Hello.

My name is Emma, and today I am going to teach you my communication secret.

I'm going to teach you how to improve your communication by using the SBAR method.

Now, this is not my method.

I did not create this, but I use it all the time.

So, SBAR is a way to organize your speech or your writing or your emails to make your

message easier to understand.

So it's a way to be clear in your speech or your writing.

So, SBAR stands for "situation", "background", "assessment", and "recommendation".

I'm going to give you some examples of SBAR communication, and we'll talk about how to

write an SBAR communication in a moment, but what I first want to say is that SBAR is used

very frequently in hospitals, it's used in the military, it's used by a lot of companies,

because a lot of places know this is a great way to communicate, so they actually encourage

people to use this method in their workplace environments.

And as I mentioned, we're going to talk mainly about writing today, such as emails, but you

can also use SBAR when you're talking to people in a workplace environment, when it's

important for you to communicate something clearly and concisely, so in a clear, short

way.

So, let's get started by finding out about "situation", "background", "assessment", and

"recommendation".

The "s" in SBAR stands for "situation".

The first thing you want to do after you say, you know, "Dear so-and-so" or "Hello, team",

is you write the situation.

What is the problem?

Why are you writing?

So, let's look at some examples.

So, imagine I want to write to my boss, and I want to tell my boss, you know, "I'm feeling

sick today.

I'm not coming to work."

That would be a situation, so I could write, "I'm feeling unwell today and am unable to

come to the office."

So that's one example.

Here's another example of a situation in a workplace.

There are these types of emails called "phishing emails" which are scam emails, so maybe there's

a problem at the workplace where they're getting too many of these emails, and they want to

tell people what to do.

So, IT might write something like, "We've noticed an increase in phishing emails."

Here's another situation.

Maybe you work at a company, and your team has not finished the work on a report, and

you need to let your manager know that the report isn't finished, and you need more time.

So, you might write something like, "We're experiencing a delay in completing the report.

The team needs more time."

Or a fourth example, "At work the other day, the coffee machine broke, and we needed to

figure out what to do about it because we need coffee.

It's very important in the workplace."

Out of all of these, I think this is the biggest emergency.

So, a situation might be that you have a broken coffee maker.

What do you do?

Well, here's the situation.

I might write to somebody, "The coffee machine is not working."

You can also, as I mentioned, use "S-bar" in conversation as well if you need to explain

something well.

So, maybe, imagine I want to invite somebody to a party.

That's the situation.

So, I might say, "On Friday night, I'm having a party, and I'd like to invite you to it."

So, the situation is just explaining what is happening.

Now, let's talk about the "B" in "S-bar", which stands for "background".

When you use "S-bar", the situation should be pretty short and to the point.

You want to communicate the main idea of why you're writing, or why you're communicating.

So, it should just be one or two sentences, ideally, very short and to the point.

After you explain the situation, then you're going to give the background, or the history,

or the important details about the situation.

So, this way, people can appreciate, okay, here's the situation, what are some of the

details about the situation I should know?

So, let me give you some examples.

So, again, "background" is what are the past events that created the situation, or what

are the important details about the situation we should know?

So, I mentioned...

The first situation I mentioned was somebody is sick, and they need to let their boss know

that they're not coming to work because they're sick.

Here's an example of some background information, or some more details.

They might say, you know, "I've developed flu-like symptoms.

I'm worried I'll spread my illness to others."

For the second example I gave before, I was mentioning phishing emails.

Maybe the IT department has sent out a communication where they've mentioned there has been an

increase in these phishing emails.

So that's the situation.

Now they would give some background information.

So, for example, they might define what a phishing email is.

A phishing email or phishing emails may appear legitimate, but contain malicious links that

can compromise sensitive information.

So they might give more information about what a phishing email is or the background

of this.

Here's another example.

So, I had mentioned a situation where these workers have a report, but they're not going

to have the report done in time.

So they might give some reasons why they're not going to have the report done in time.

That would be the background.

So they might say, you know, "The report was due June 10th," so that's a detail.

"However, due to staff absences, it's taking longer than planned."

I also mentioned an example with a coffee machine being broken.

That's the situation.

So the background would be more details about this.

"How long have we known it was broken for?

How do we know it's broken?

Did anybody try to fix it?"

So here I've written, "The coffee machine has been making odd noises for a week."

So that's the past information.

"Now it won't work at all."

Okay, so again, the situation is short.

You tell people the main idea of what's happening, and then the background is where you put the

details.

That's where you add if there's definitions or dates or the past events that led to the

situation.

That would be under background.

So now let's look at what "assessment" means and how we would write an assessment statement.

Okay, so we've covered situation, which is what is the problem.

We've covered background, which is details about the problem or telling us about the

past events that created the problem.

Now let's talk about the "a" in S-bar, which stands for assessment.

Assessment is when you say your opinion or what you think.

So here are some examples.

"I had mentioned the situation about being sick and having the flu."

So somebody might write as an assessment, "I expect to recover from my cold soon."

So that's their opinion.

They think that they'll be over their illness soon.

In terms of that phishing email I mentioned, the IT department might write something like,

"It's important to be careful when clicking on email links to prevent security risks."

So this is their assessment.

This is what they think and their opinion.

For that report I mentioned where those poor people did not have the report finished and

it was going to take them more time, an assessment statement might look like this.

"We are 80% done with our report, but we will need three more days to finish it."

So again, this is what they think.

This is how they're evaluating the situation, what's still needed.

Okay, and number four, my favourite example, the coffee one.

So somebody might say, you know, "The coffee machine is broken.

That's the situation."

They gave the background that the coffee machine was making noises all week, and now

it's broken and they can't fix it.

So their assessment might be, "Without coffee, I can't work.

Fixing the coffee machine is urgent."

So that's their opinion.

It's an urgent issue that needs to be dealt with right away.

All right, so we've talked about situation, background, assessment.

Now let's look at the "r" in "S-bar".

So now we are at the "r" of "S-bar", and the "r" stands for "recommendation".

So "recommendation" is where you write what needs to happen next.

So what's the plan?

What do you think is the best thing to do next?

So here are some examples of recommendations at the end of an S-bar communication.

So going back to talking about being sick and calling in sick to work, the recommendation

might be what you plan next.

"If I feel better, I will return to the office tomorrow."

So that's the plan.

Here's another example.

So for that email phishing situation where, you know, IT is telling people don't click

on these bad email links, they might say something like, "Please review our cybersecurity guidelines

and report any suspicious emails to IT immediately."

So they're telling you what to do next.

The third example was about that report where those people haven't finished the report on

time.

So what they might say for their recommendation is, "I recommend we extend the deadline to

June 15th and inform our client.

Let me know if you approve."

So, again, the recommendation is extending the deadline.

That's the hope and the plan.

In the fourth example, my favourite example, which is the coffee example, so "Coffee machine

is broken.

We need coffee ASAP.

It's an emergency."

The plan might be, "I suggest calling maintenance ASAP.

For now, we'll get coffee from Tim Hortons", which is a popular coffee chain in Canada.

Okay, so these are just examples.

A lot of the times the recommendation might have a "I recommend" statement, or "I suggest",

or "Why don't we", "We should", "We could", "I plan to".

These are the types of sentences you might hear with a recommendation statement.

So, quiz.

What does "S" bar stand for?

The "S" stands for situation.

What does the "B" stand for?

The "B" stands for background.

What about the "A"?

The "A" stands for assessment, and the "R" stands for...

You got it.

Recommendation.

So, again, if you struggle with writing emails, the "S" bar technique can make your emails

easier for the audience or the reader to understand.

And again, you can also use this in conversation if you need to give important information.

It's a clear way to communicate.

So thank you so much for watching this video.

You can go to www.engvid.com, and there you can find a quiz to practice what you learned

here today.

You can also find many different videos on topics related to writing, the workplace,

vocabulary, and so much more.

So thank you so much for watching, and until next time, take care.