Brief: Make a Bigger Impact by Saying Less

by Joseph McCormack

Mixed messages keep missing the mark. People are not on the same page. Long-winded presentations go nowhere.

a new form of ADD: awareness, discipline, and decisiveness.

Awareness—the conviction to hold yourself and others to a higher standard of succinctness

Discipline—the BRIEF approach to producing the mental muscle memory necessary to make you a lean communicator every time

Decisiveness—the ability to recognize key moments when you need to convey what really matters...

“Being brief is not just about time. What's more important is how long it feels to the audience.”

It's not about using the least amount of time. It's about making the most of the time you have.

It's a balancing act of being concise, clear, and compelling. All three need to be in harmony.

To be brief doesn't just mean being concise. Your responsibility is to balance how long it takes to convey a message well enough to cause a person to act on it. That's the harmony of brevity when it's striking the right chords.

Today's fast-paced world of information, inattention, interruptions, and impatience requires you to make your point before your audience gets distracted.

Now is the time to turn the negative force of our attention economy on its head. Lean communication is your new advantage.

1. Cowardice: “I am afraid that it's hard to say. There are a lot of perspectives on that topic.” Please take a stand and tell us what you really think.

2. Confidence: “I know the material so well I could talk about it for days.” Save us the time, and don't. 3. Callousness: “This will only take a minute…” Really? Do you not see how busy I am? When you don't respect people's time, it always turns into an hour. 4. Comfort: “Once I start talking, it feels so soothing and I just get on a roll.” Can you have the discipline to hit the Stop button? 5. Confusion: “Bear with me; I am just thinking out loud.” Well, your mind is a mess—why do you have to share it with us? 6. Complication: “That is a really intricate issue. You cannot explain it easily.” But your job is to simplify it for us. 7. Carelessness: “Did I say that out loud?” Um, yes you did, so use a filter next time.

Brevity is a habit, and this short list of vices must be addressed to develop it.

Brevity is difficult to master because there are many subtle, unconscious “seven capital sins” that can interfere.

Be disciplined, respectful, and well prepared, and your clients will thank you.

Map it. BRIEF Maps are used to condense and trim volumes of information. Tell it. Narrative storytelling is used to explain in a way that's clear, concise, and compelling. Talk it. TALC Tracks turn monologues into controlled conversations. Show it. Visuals attract attention and capture imagination.

Outlines organize and prioritize thoughts with clarity and logic, and help stop nonsensical rambling.

Five immediate benefits to outlining are they keep you: Prepared: I'm ready to deliver. Organized: I understand how all my ideas connect. Clear: I'm certain what my point is. Contextual: I can draw a bigger picture so my point stands out. Confident: I know what to say, inside and out. Outlines are worth the effort. The potential pain it takes to create one is a small sacrifice for the confusion you avoid and the time you save.

Mind maps are spreading organically

“they provide a skeletal view that lets you think about your thinking.”

B: Background or beginning

R: Reason or relevance I: Information for inclusion E: Ending or conclusion F: Follow-up or questions you expect to be asked or that you might ask

Just a century ago, storytelling was a skill widely used. And although it's been mostly lost in the information age, people still love stories.

We need to spread the love and learn to embrace—and engage in—solid storytelling.

1. Passive listening: Let the other person ramble on about everything and say nothing (result: no control). 2. Waiting my turn: Let the person talk and then jump in to say my part (result: two conversations). 3. Impulsively reacting: Respond to a word or thought the person has said (result: no clear direction).

make the conversation about the other person by asking thoughtful and intentional questions centered on him or her.

Talking is more like tennis; it's about active listening, asking good questions, and bantering back and forth. After a while, a balanced rhythm emerges.

Two keys for you to consider: Ask open-ended questions that are connected to what you've heard. Tap into the parts of the topic you're genuinely interested in.

To be brief means to avoid endless monologues and to start having controlled conversations with a rhythm, a purpose, and a point.

“Make sure they always see you working.”

Just do the hard work up front. It will have an enormous payoff for the audience on the back end.

1. Google images that relate to your presentation. 2. Draw during your presentations. 3. Find short videos online. 4. Make short videos of your own. 5. Use a whiteboard to illustrate.

6. Bring in small items for show-and-tell lessons. 7. Look into prezi.com for a different kind of presentation. 8. Show stunning photography instead of words. 9. Color-code your memos. 10. Substitute icons for frequently used words.

Make it inviting. Deliver a strong title or subject line that's your invitation. Limit your e-mail to the original window. Your message is too long if the recipient has to scroll down to read it. Embrace the white space. Make sure there's white space and balance throughout the text. Instead of 8- to 10-sentence paragraphs, make them three to four sentences with returns in between. Make it bold. If you have a key idea in a document, call it out by making it bold.

Use bullets and numbers. Start each point with a strong word or catchy phrase. Cut the fluff. Trim what's unnecessary, leaving a consumable and concise size.

Assign active listeners.

“Stick” to one speaker at a time.

Designate time slots.

You're doubtlessly connected to people who are serial online updaters, begging for constant attention, yet unwittingly screaming to be passed over. Don't imitate their bad habits. These people clearly don't practice any self-control and abuse their newfound online freedom to share whatever comes to mind. Do I really need to know when they missed a flight connection or that they just ate a delicious ham sandwich?

you see his discipline in action in every correspondence. Catchy headline: There's always a strong attention-grabber in bold. Predictable length: The paragraphs are never more than a few sentences. Tightly written: He's never wordy and always relevant. Time saving: There are often direct references to saving you time, from “take 3 minutes to read this whitepaper” to encouraging

growth leaders to huddle for 15 minutes a day.

Social media is an arena where masters of brevity thrive. Your content can reach an unlimited audience; so make sure it is finely tuned to meet customers' expectations of brevity.

being active means being succinct.

Cast out the following excuses for untrained presentation skills.

1. You're afraid of losing your audience.

2. You're devoted to the slides, not the content.

3. You're afraid of missing the point.

4. You're passionate about the topic.

5. You don't have time to make an outline.