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A better use of your time

If you feel the need to check Instagram while watching a movie, it might be that you’re watching the wrong movie.

If you feel the need to check your phone while in a meeting, it might be that you’re in the wrong meeting. Or meet wrongly.

If you feel the need to do other things while you’re doing one thing, it might be that that one thing wasn’t the best use of your time to start with.

Instead of looking for ways to re-use your time, it might be a better idea to use your time better in the first place.

When a story spreads

Your story spreads when your audience is able and eager to tell your story.

So.

Are they able to tell it? Do they get it? Is it crystal clear? Can they repeat it? In their language?

But also: Are they eager? Why would they want to tell it? Does it boost their status?

You need both. Easy doesn’t help if there’s no reason for your audience to tell your story. On the other hand, a strong reason to spread your story won’t help if it’s hidden underneath a layer of confusion.

The easier it is for your audience to tell your story and the more the telling of your story boosts their status, the more likely it is that your story actually spreads.

About coaches

There are two kinds of coaches. Those who give you answers and those who give you questions.

There’s a place for both but it’s likely that only one is a good match for you.

The one who has the answers tells you what to do to achieve your goals, the other one helps you figure this out for yourself.

In the first case you trust the coach to have the experience to know what’s best for you, in the second case the coach trusts you to have the ability to know what’s best for you.

In the former case the job of finding the right question is yours, in the latter case it’s the coach’s job.

It pays to become conscious about which one you need before hiring your coach.

(And if you’re a coach, it’s just as valuable to understand your approach in this regard.)

Speaking with clarity is a habit

Speaking with clarity is a habit.

As is the lack of clarity. If a team tolerates lack of clarity it trickles into every corner of the team. It becomes ok to use complex and confusing language. Even though that slows everything down. And leads to a lot of time being wasted as the team fights over what was actually being said or meant.

Turning that habit around and making speaking with clarity the habit is among the most valuable investments a team can make. And it starts with you, as the leader.

If you don’t settle with confusing communication, your team won’t, either. Try pushing your team for one week:

  • to use simpler words whenever you don’t understand something
  • to design simpler graphs that show exactly what they want it to show
  • to find anecdotes that we all can relate to rather than only the speaker

And even force them sometimes to go back to the drawing board and find those simpler words instead of having the team figure it out together. As Wolf Schneider famously said: “Someone’s got to suffer, either the reader or the writer.”

Yes, it might slow things down in the beginning. But the acceleration you’ll experience down the road overcompensates for it manifold.

Clarity really is a habit. Start looking for it and you’ll discover it – or the lack of it – everywhere. Start speaking with clarity and you’ll gradually transform the way you communicate.

And that of your team.

The magic of a great story

That brilliant keynote speech that told a story about climbing the Mount Everest and inspired you to finally start your company.

That fascinating book that told the life of a pianoman and inspired you to never give up.

Or that YouTube video that showed you how to capture beautiful pictures and inspired you to capture some yourself.

It’s the magic of a great story.

We look at the hero but we see ourselves.

It’s also the source of confusion in storytelling and why many marketers get it wrong. It’s not about you.

You might be telling a story about yourself. But you’re telling it on behalf of your audience. So that they can project themselves onto the canvas of your story. Learn from it. Change their path based on what they see.

That’s why they listen to our stories.

If you want their attention

If you want to be seen by someone, see them first.
If you want their attention, pay attention first.

What are they proud of? What do they care about? What are their struggles? What do they desire?

Refer to it. Care for it. People love to have a conversation with other people about the things they care about.

When people want to be seen, they tend to speak a lot about themselves and ignore the fact that most people are concerned much more with themselves rather than with cheering for strangers.

Directing the light onto the people whose attention you seek is way more likely to get you their attention than directing it at yourself.

Most delicious

The bakery shows us one piece of each of their three most delicious cakes, each one more delicious than the other. Each one so delicious that we can’t resist. Each one so delicious that we’re dying to try the second one, too.

And when we come back, a week later, to try the third piece, we bring our friends. And the bakery will have enough cake for everyone. And maybe a fourth cake. And the next time, the friends bring their friends.

Too often we try to sell people a whole cake instead of a single piece … just an hour after they had lunch. So it’s no wonder they decline: “Thanks, but no thanks!”

Or maybe they are overwhelmed by the selection, all the more when we start to explain in excessive detail the recipes of all 32 cakes so that by number 25 they no longer recall number 7 (although they actually love cheesecake).

When we’re bursting with pride, we tend to speak far too much and listen far too little. We try to sell as much as possible and risk selling nothing at all. We oversell and overwhelm rather than satisfy and delight.

People don’t need to change their entire diet to eat our cake exclusively, let alone immediately. Let’s rather turn them into fans who come to us permanently and keep bringing new friends.

Sweat the details: What it really means

Focusing hurts. It means letting go of details. Details that we care about. Details that we feel we can’t possibly leave out. Details that are crucial to the conclusion that our product is superior to other offerings.

Here’s the catch: If you feel that you can’t leave it out because it would hurt your message too much, your audience will happily do it for you. There’s no way they will recall all of the 53 details that you’d like to share with them because you can leave none of them out.

There’s no doubt that the reason you are extraordinary at what you do is because you care. You sweat the details. You connect the dots.

But when it comes to communicating your product, there’s a crucial difference as sweating the details means something completely different.

It means condensing the details into a clear and concise message that’s the perfect summary of your details. A message that represents the details but is not just an enumeration of all the facts. Ideally, it’s a message that’s distinct from any other message because it’s only these details that lead to this message.

And so, focusing empowers.

If it absolutely has to be a meeting

A boring meeting is a great opportunity to catch up with unread mails. Sure.

But why not address the cause instead of the symptoms? Why not work to prevent boring meetings from happening rather than look for ways to re-use boring meeting time?

The best way is to turn it into a doing.

But if it absolutely has to be a meeting, here are a couple of ideas:

  • Cut the meeting time to one-third. And mean it. This is easy if everyone leaves out the boring two-thirds.
  • Take a vote 5 minutes into each presentation asking: “Do you want to learn more?” Only move on if the majority vote is “Yes.” (You will be amazed at how much relevance you can fit into 5 minutes.)
  • Use the Saari principle: anyone may ask “Who gives a damn?” at any time during the meeting. If the presenter or meeting leader doesn’t have an answer to that, the presentation is over.
  • Like Amazon, forgo presentations in favour of a study hall. Instead of presentations, employees prepare memos. Reserve (let’s say) 30 minutes at the beginning of each meeting exclusively to reading these memos.
  • Publicly rate the meeting as well as the organiser. This way you can quickly see who organises and leads meetings in a way that makes a difference.

Don’t give in to boring meetings, change them.
(And it always starts with ourselves).

The innovator’s communication dilemma

Many innovators spend an enormous amount of time trying to make us appreciate their innovation. After all, it’s the innovation that they sell and so for us to buy we need to understand how it works, right?

The problem, of course, with explaining an innovation is that it’s, well, new. Which is why it’s probably hard to understand. On top of the fact that a lot of people are not particularly eager to embrace the new.

And so, many innovators struggle with getting the love they feel they deserve.

A shift in perspective might help.

Because, after all, the innovation is likely a new solution to an old problem. Which is familiar to the audience. And easy to understand. They get it immediately because they feel the pain when you reference it.

And so, instead of making us get them, the innovator’s communication efforts might be better spent in getting us. Rather than making us appreciate their solution, it might help for them to appreciate our struggles.

Because when we trust that they do the latter, we might be willing to learn about the former.

Spread the Word

Dr. Michael Gerharz

Dr. Michael Gerharz