Get heard by being clear and concise
The only way to survive in business today is to be a lean communicator. Busy executives expect you to respect and manage their time more effectively than ever. You need to do the groundwork to make your message tight and to the point. The average professional receives 304 emails per week and checks their smartphones 36 times an hour and 38 hours a week. This inattention has spread to every part of life. The average attention span has shrunk from 12 seconds in 2000 to eight in 2012.
So, throw them a lifeline and be brief.
Author Joe McCormack tackles the challenges of inattention, interruptions, and impatience that every professional faces. His proven B.R.I.E.F. approach, which stands for Background, Relevance, Information, Ending, and Follow up, helps simplify and clarify complex communication. BRIEF will help you summarize lengthy information, tell a short story, harness the power of infographics and videos, and turn monologue presentations into controlled conversations.
- Details the B.R.I.E.F. approach to distilling your message into a brief presentation
- Written by the founder and CEO of Sheffield Marketing Partners, which specializes in message and narrative development, who is also a recognized expert in Narrative Mapping, a technique that helps clients achieve a clearer and more concise message
Long story short: BRIEF will help you gain the muscle you need to eliminate wasteful words and stand out from the rest. Be better. Be brief.
Table of Contents:
Foreword xiii
Acknowledgments xv
Preface xvii
Part One Awareness: Heightened Awareness In a World Begging for Brief 1
1 Why Brevity Is Vital 3
Get to the Point or Pay the Price 3
Executive—Interrupted 5
Who’s Responsible for Adapting When the Message Is Not Being Heard? 9
Timing Is of the Essence 9
BRIEF Balance: The Harmony of Clear, Concise, and Compelling 10
A BRIEF Timeout 11
2 Mindful of Mind-filled-ness 13
Brevity Is Like an Instant Stress Release 13
Battling Overcapacity 14
1. Information Inundation—The Water's Rising 15
2. Inattention—The Muscle Is Weakening 17
3. Interruption—The Rate Is Alarming 19
4. Impatience—The Ice Is Thinning 21
What Does It All Mean? 22
Your New Reality: There's No Time for a Slow Buildup 22
Test Yourself 24
Examination of Brevity 24
A New Professional Standard 25
3 Why You Struggle with Brevity: The Seven Capital Sins 27
Why Is It So Difficult? 27
1. Cowardice 28
2. Confidence 29
3. Callousness 29
4. Comfort 30
5. Confusion 31
6. Complication 31
7. Carelessness 32
4 The Big Bang of Brevity 35
A Success Story 35
Part Two Discipline: How to Gain Discipline To Be Clear and Concise 41
5 Mental Muscle Memory to Master Brevity 43
The Exercise of Brevity 43
6 Map It: From Mind Mapping to BRIEF Maps 45
Your 11th Grade English Teacher Was Right 45
An Outline Is Missing, and So Is the Sale 47
Mind Mapping and the Modern Outline 49
BRIEF Maps: A Practical Tool for Delivering Brevity 51
How a BRIEF Map Can Be Used 52
Wrong Approach: Bob Chooses to Share but Not to Prepare 52
Right Approach: Bob Prepares a BRIEF Map and Maintains Executive Support 53
BRIEF Maps: What's the Payoff? 57
7 Tell It: The Role of Narratives 59
I'm Tired of Meaningless and Meandering Corporate Jargon. I'm Ready for a Good Story 59
Where's the Disconnect? When a Story Is Missing 62
The Birth of Narrative Mapping: A Way to Organize and Deliver Your Story 64
Rediscovery of Narratives and Storytelling: Breaking through the Blah, Blah, Blah 66
Listen, I'm Ready for a Story 67
Think About Your Audience: Journalism 2.0 and the Elements of a Narrative 69
Narrative Map (De)constructed 75
Seeing and Hearing Is Believing: The Story of the Evolution of Commerce 76
8 Talk It: Controlled Conversations and TALC Tracks 81
Risky Business Trip 82
Controlled Conversations Are a Game of Tennis, Not Golf 84
TALC Tracks—A Structure for Balance and Brevity 84
Be Prepared for Anything 86
Audience, Audience, Audience 88
9 Show It: Powerful Ways to Make a Picture Exceed a Thousand Words 91
Show-and-Tell: Which Would You Choose? 91
You Can See the Shift 92
Seeing Supersedes Reading 93
A Visual Language 94
Connect an Image with Your Story 96
Momentary Magic: Infographics in Business 97
Breakdown of Complex Information 98
The Age of YouTube and Business 99
TL; DR: Too Long; Didn't Read 101
10 Putting Brevity to Work: Grainger and the Al and Betty Story 105
Part Three Decisiveness: Gaining the Decisiveness To Know When and Where to Be Brief 111
11 Meeting You Halfway 113
Defeat the Villains of Meetings 113
Meeting Villain #1: Time 114
Meeting Villain #2: Type 115
Meeting Villain #3: Tyrants 116
Change the Format and Tone—Make It a Conversation 118
Put BRIEF Back into a Briefing 119
12 Leaving a Smaller Digital Imprint 123
The Digital Flood 123
BRIEF Hall of Fame: Verne Harnish 126
From Social Media to Venture Capital 128
Social Media Squeeze 130
13 Presenting a Briefer Case 133
Practicing What You Preach 133
The Discipline of Brevity 134
Putting the Power Back in PowerPoint 138
Training as a TED Talk 139
14 Trimming Your Sales (Pitch) 143
Shut Up and Sell 143
Billboard on a Bumper Sticker 144
Time to Be Convincing and Concise 146
Cut to the Customer's Chase 149
15 Whose Bright Idea Was That Anyway? 153
Your Big Idea 153
A Mission-Critical Narrative 154
Clear Picture with Radical Focus 157
The Entrepreneur's Dilemma: Mixed Messages 158
Tailor Your Pitch to Your Investor's Needs 161
16 It's Never Really Small Talk 165
Brevity as a Conversational Life Raft 165
Momentary Misgivings Stall Momentum 166
Walk the Walk; Talk the Talk 168
17 Help Wanted: Master of Brevity 173
Not the Time for Anxious Rambling 173
Let Others Lead the Conversation 175
Talking Your Way out of a Job Offer 177
18 I've Got Some Good News 183
Pay the Favor of Brevity Forward 183
Let the Brilliance Shine Through 184
Speak the Language of Success 186
Get into the Habit of Saying, "Thank You" 187
19 And the Bad News Is... 189
The Bright (and Brief) Side of Bearing Bad News 189
Give It to Them Straight 190
Serving up the S#&$ Sandwich 192
20 Got-a-Minute Updates 197
The "Say-Do" Ratio 197
Be Prepared to Be Lean and Drive Out Wasteful Words 199
The Most Important Question: Why Am I Here? 204
Part Four Being Brief Summary and Action Plan 207
Resources 219
Notes 221
About the Author 225
Index 227
About the Author :
JOSEPH McCORMACK is the founder and CEO of Sheffield Marketing Partners. Sheffield specializes in message and narrative development, and also provides video production and marketing communications services to help package stories to suit the right audiences. Joe has more than 20 years of experience as a senior marketing executive helping companies develop strategic communications that make them stand apart in a challenging marketplace.
