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DRAW AN ISSUE TREE
HARNESS YOUR SOCIAL BRAIN
Imagine a real person walking through the situation or process.
LOOK AFTER THE SMART BASICS
They involve scheduling blocks of deep thinking time, engineering your environment, prioritizing your sleep, and doing a short burst of aerobic exercise.
According to an international survey by the National Sleep Foundation, a third of us are regularly using naps to top up our sleep—and our smarts.14 That includes productivity expert David Allen, author of Getting Things Done, by the way.
BOOSTING YOUR BRAINPOWER
Start with positive framing.
Draw the issue tree. Break a complex task down into its constituent parts, step by step, to allow you to focus on one thing at a time and reduce the load on your brain.
Harness your social brain. Imagine parts of your problem as people;
Look after the smart basics. Remove distractions; surround yourself with cues that you associate with good thinking; don’t skimp on sleep; do some physical activity.
Influence Maximizing the Impact of All You Say and Do
Getting Through Their Filters
PROVIDE A REWARD (SURPRISE! NOVELTY! ANTICIPATION!)
“Are people going to feel like telling someone else what I told them?”
Flag an interesting “reveal.”
Try a different medium for conveying your information.
Adopt an unusual vantage point.
EMPHASIZE THE HUMAN ANGLE
So human interest—people plus (positive) emotion—is an ingredient that makes it easier to engage our audience.
Share a human example.
Highlight the emotional side.
Talk about a positive outcome.
MAKE IT FLUENT
Keep it as short as possible.
Provide signposts.
Use sticky phrases.
Give concrete examples.
Include a visual image to illustrate your point.
OVERCOME THE CURSE OF KNOWLEDGE
Before you open your mouth or start typing, always take a moment to put yourself in the listener or reader’s shoes.
If you’re talking to someone in person, find out where he or she is starting from
GETTING THROUGH THEIR FILTERS
Provide a reward: surprise, novelty, or anticipation.
Emphasize the human angle, with the formula: “people plus positive emotion.”
Make it “fluent.” The easier it is to understand and remember, the more compelling your message will be.
Overcome the curse of knowledge. Don’t assume they know what you know.
Making Things Happen
PROVIDE SOME CONTEXT
when you’re asking people to do something, you’ll probably get more cooperation if you give a brief reason, rather than merely asserting that it’s what you want them to do.
MAKE IT EASY TO CHOOSE (AKA “NUDGE”)
Nudge 1: Remove the Barrier
What might stop people from doing what you would like them to do? How can you solve that problem for them, or make it simple for them to solve it themselves?
Could you even make your desired outcome the “do nothing” option for them?
Nudge 2: Make a Suggestion
Make a specific suggestion as early as you can in any exchange where there’s a joint decision to be made.
If you’re talking numbers, try giving a range that spans your desired outcome and an even better (though still reasonable) outcome.
Nudge 3: Provide Visual Hints to the Outcome You Want
Use visual cues (arrows, graphics, photos) to draw people’s eye to whatever you’d most like them to focus on.
Make the visual layout of your material suggestive of the kind of response you’d like from them.
