Brief: Make a Bigger Impact by Saying Less

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.