This week in the world’s #1 newsletter on leadership communication:
- How to Make Your Message Stick
- Secrets to Turning Tech Topics into Captivating Communications
- Move Fast and Fix Things
How To Craft a Message That Sticks
It’s not what you say. It’s what people remember.
We have all heard the advice: Make it simple! People remember it when it is simple enough. Sure, that’s the secret to an effective message.
But how?
Ben Guttmann's excellent book "Simply Put" tells us how to design clear messages that win big.
The book draws from the latest science to show us why some messages work while most fall on deaf ears.
Why does it matter?
We live in a world of distraction and great complexity in which:
- Simple messages stick.
- Simple messages win.
- Simple messages motivate others to act.
A simple message is “easily perceived, understood, and acted upon.”
Here are the 5 principles to create a simple message:
#1 Beneficial
Simple messages prioritize the receiver. They don’t focus on the features, but on the benefits or on solving someone’s problems. People don’t want a drill, nor a hole in the wall. They want a picture on the wall.
#2 Focused
You cannot be everything to everybody. Make one big point, not four or five smaller ones.
#3 Salient
Simple messages stand out.
The best way to achieve salience is by doing something that others aren’t. The best way to do something different is to play by rules others don’t.
Use the power of constraint.
#4 Empathetic
Simple messages show understanding of the receiver.
Remember that you are not your audience. What works for you might not work for someone else. Make sure to test your message on other people.
#5 Minimal
Simple messages contain everything they need but only what they need.
Complex messages fail because they have multiple points of possible failure. Cut the fluff.
While our brain is wired to filter out almost everything, this example for a from Ben’s book stuck with me:
“You only have to floss the teeth you want to keep.”
The good news is: you can turn even the most complex topics into compelling narratives, as this week’s podcast guest shows...
PODCAST
How to Turn Tech Topics into Captivating Communications
I do a podcast to help you become a top 1% communicator. Please subscribe on Apple or Spotify.
How many times has your technical presentation fallen flat? Or perhaps you have been in the audience and have not understood the subject matter.
This week, I am joined by Mark Bayer to share his expertise on the art of making complex subjects understandable and engaging. Mark is one of the leading experts in the world on how to translate scientific or technical topics into clear communication.
We take a deeper look at something missing in many of our presentations – connection. Many of us start presenting without any attempt to connect with our audience. By understanding and relating to your audience, you can communicate complex ideas without dumbing them down.
If you’re a scientist, engineer, or anyone who deals with technical subjects, this episode provides actionable strategies to help you inform your audience and keep their attention.
Listen on Spotify and Apple:
BOOK
Move Fast and Fix Things
In Move Fast and Fix Things: The Trusted Leader's Guide to Solving Hard Problems, Harvard’s Frances Frei and Anne Morriss refute a widely held belief: that leaders can either make progress or take care of people, but not both.
To move fast and fix things, leaders need to tell a good change story. Up to 70% of organizational change efforts fail, partly because leaders fail to tell a compelling story that channels the team’s energy and overcomes the inevitable resistance to change.
Frei and Morris share the 3 steps of a good change story. It:
- Honors the past to open their hearts
- Provides a clear and compelling change mandate
- Describes a rigorous and optimistic way forward
Their final advice: Go as fast as you can but take the weekend off :)
On that note…
Have an inspired weekend!
Best,
Oliver
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