Chip Heath and Olivier Sibony on “Making great decisions”

Here is an excerpt from the transcript of a conversation featured by The McKinsey Quarterly during which Stanford’s Chip Heath and McKinsey’s Olivier Sibony discuss new research, fresh frameworks, and practical tools for decision makers. To read the complete transcript, check out other resources, learn more about McKinsey & Company, and register for Quarterly email alerts, please click here.

Source: Strategy Practice

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Every few years, Stanford University professor Chip Heath and his brother, Dan, a senior fellow at Duke University’s Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE), distill decades of academic research into a tool kit for practitioners. The bicoastal brothers offered advice on effective communications in Made to Stick, on change management in Switch, and now, in their new book, Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work, on making good decisions. It’s a topic that McKinsey’s Olivier Sibony has been exploring for years in his work with senior leaders of global companies and in a number of influential publications. 1

Chip and Olivier recently sat down to compare notes on what matters most for senior leaders who are trying to boost their decision-making effectiveness. Topics included Heath’s new book, research Sibony and University of Sydney professor Dan Lovallo have under way on the styles of different decision makers, and practical tips that they’ve found make a big difference. The discussion, moderated by McKinsey’s Allen Webb, represents a state-of-the-art tour for senior executives hoping to help their organizations, and themselves, become more effective by benefiting from the core insight of behavioral economics: systematic tendencies to deviate from rationality influence all of our decision making.

The Quarterly: What’s the current state of play in real-world efforts to improve decision processes through behavioral economics?

Olivier Sibony: The point we haven’t conveyed effectively enough is that however aware you are of biases, you won’t necessarily be immune. You should see yourself as the architect of the decision-making process, not as a great decision maker enhanced by the knowledge of your biases.

Chip Heath: The analogy I like is how we handle problems with memory. The solution isn’t to focus harder on remembering; it’s to use a system like a grocery-store list. We’re now in a position to think about the decision-making equivalent of the grocery-store list.

Olivier Sibony: We’re doing ourselves a disservice by calling it a decision-making process, because the word “process,” as you point out in your book—

Chip Heath: — It’s boring.

Olivier Sibony: It immediately conjures up images of bureaucracy and slowness and decisions by committee—all things associated with bad management.

Chip Heath: Early in the history of decision making, people were optimistic about a better process called decision analysis. But nobody ever used it, because very few people have the math chops to fold back probabilities in a three-layer decision tree. The process that we’re advocating runs away from decision analysis and bureaucracy. We wanted some tools that someone could use in five or ten minutes that may not make the decision perfect but will improve it substantially.

Olivier Sibony: There are individual solutions and organizational solutions. Perhaps because we’re a consulting firm, we tend to look for organizational solutions. In an article you wrote long ago, Chip, you quote somebody who asks something like, “If people are so bad at making decisions, how did we make it to the moon?” Your answer was that individuals didn’t make it to the moon; NASA did. 2 That insight has been translated into all sorts of operational decision making. It is the fundamental insight behind work in continuous improvement—for instance, when people are trained to go beyond the superficial, proximate cause of a problem by asking “five whys.”

But we don’t apply that insight when we move from shop floors to boardrooms. Partly, that’s because of a lack of awareness. Partly, it’s because the further up the hierarchy you go, the harder it becomes to say, “My judgment is fallible.” Corporate cultures and incentives reward the kind of decision making where you take risks and show confidence and decisiveness, even if sometimes it’s really overconfidence. Recognizing uncertainty and doubt—it’s not the style many executives have when they get to the top.

Chip Heath: Yes, but we’re never really sure when we’re being overconfident and when we’re being appropriately confident. That’s where we go back to processes.

Olivier Sibony: It’s a lot easier to say, “Let’s build a good process so your direct reports have better recommendations for you” than “Let’s come up with a process for you to be challenged by other people.”

Chip Heath: I love that emphasis: “We’re going to help others get you the right recommendations.” We all tend to believe “I’m not subject to biases.” But we can easily believe that others are. I’m curious about your batting average, Olivier. Suppose you walk into an executive group and start talking about the behavioral research and how they could change their processes to overcome biases. Are a third of the people interested? Five percent?

Olivier Simony: If we tell the story like that, it’s zero. But exactly as you just suggested, a lot of executives are open to discussing how their teams could help them make better decisions. So we will say, for example, “Let’s talk about what works and what doesn’t work in your strategic-planning process.” We don’t talk about biases, because no one wants to be told they’re biased; it’s a word with horrible, negative connotations. Instead, we observe that people typically make predictable mistakes in their planning process—for instance, getting anchored on last year’s numbers. That’s OK because we are identifying best practices. We end up embedding this thinking into processes that generate better strategic plans, R&D choices, or M&A decisions.

Chip Heath: The process changes don’t have to be very big. Ohio State University professor Paul Nutt spent a career studying strategic decisions in businesses and nonprofits and government organizations. The number of alternatives that leadership teams consider in 70 percent of all important strategic decisions is exactly one. Yet there’s evidence that if you get a second alternative, your decisions improve dramatically.

One study at a medium-size technology firm investigated a group of leaders who had made a set of decisions ten years prior. They were asked to assess how many of those decisions turned out really well, and the percentage of “hits” was six times higher when the team considered two alternatives rather than just one.

Notes

1 See, for example, Dan Lovallo and Olivier Sibony, “The case for behavioral strategy,” mckinseyquarterly.com, March 2010; and Daniel Kahneman, Dan Lovallo, and Olivier Sibony, “Before you make that big decision,” Harvard Business Review, June 2011, Volume 89, Number 6, pp. 50–60.

2 See Chip Heath, Richard Larrick, and Joshua Klayman, “Cognitive repairs: How organizational practices can compensate for individual shortcomings,” Research in Organizational Behavior, 1998, Volume 20, pp. 1–37.

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To read the complete transcript of this conversation, please click here.

This discussion was moderated by Allen Webb, editor in chief of McKinsey Quarterly, who is based in McKinsey’s Seattle office.

Lee LeFever: An interview by Bob Morris

Lee LeFever is the founder of Common Craft and author of The Art of Explanation- Making Your Ideas, Products and Services Easier to Understand. In 2007 he saw an opportunity to explain technology using short animated videos. Starting with the video RSS in Plain English, he and Common Craft produced a series of videos and created a visual style that has inspired communicators around the world. Today, videos that use paper cut-outs and a whiteboard are known as “Common Craft Style” and are often made by students as classroom projects.

Since 2007 his company has worked with the world’s most respected brands, inspired the explainer video industry and earned over 50 million online views. The video Common Craft produced with Dropbox.com has resided on the company’s home page for over three years and generated 30 million views.

Today his focus is helping others become better explainers through the book and Common Craft Membership, which offers ready-made videos, cut-outs and know-how. He lives in Seattle, WA with his wife and business partner Sachi and their dog Bosco, a fine swimmer.

Here is an excerpt from my interview of him. To read the complete interview, please click here.

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Morris: Before discussing The Art of Explanation, a few general questions. First, who has had the greatest influence on your personal growth? How so?

LeFever: This is very clear to me. It is my wife, Sachi. She is a constant source of motivation and perspective. She has taught me the meaning of excellence and helped me see small ways I can improve every day. We mold and teach each other in every part of our lives.

Morris: Years ago, was there a turning point (if not an epiphany) that set you on the career course you continue to follow? Please explain.

LeFever: Yes, I can remember a specific instance when I saw the problem that I would spend years trying to solve. I was at a small conference in Silicon Valley in 2004 and a tech CEO was speaking to a group of 50 people. The CEO mentioned RSS, the technology that makes it easy to subscribe to a website. When a gentleman asked “What is RSS?” the CEO replied with an answer I’ll never forget: “It’s an XML-based content syndication format.” His answer was technically correct and mostly incomprehensible. It was at this point that I saw the explanation problem for the first time. The big thing limiting the adoption of RSS was not necessarily design, price or availability, but explanation. The technologists were doing the explaining and doing it poorly. I thought I could do better.

Morris: What do you know now about the business world that you wish you knew when you when to work full-time for the first time? Why?

LeFever: There’s a quote I’ve heard that I think about sometimes. It goes something like “Don’t spend your time working on someone else’s dreams – go work on your own.”

Morris: The greatest leaders throughout history (with rare exception) were great storytellers. What do you make of that?

LeFever: I accept it as truth, but I have a twist on it. Storytelling is a general term that has broad meaning and value. But stories do not, by default, solve problems or make things easy to understand. I think great leaders are often great explainers who use storytelling as one means of making their communication more interesting and understandable.

Morris: In recent years, there has been criticism, sometimes severe criticism of M.B.A. programs, even those offered by the most prestigious business schools. In your opinion, in which area is there the great need for immediate improvement? Any suggestions?

LeFever: Communication. From my perspective, there is a single thread that runs through nearly every part of professional life – the ability to communicate clearly. Without it, one can accomplish very little.

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To read the complete interview, please click here.

Lee cordially invites you to check out the resources at these websites:

Watch Common Craft videos here.

Find The Art of Explanation at its Amazon page here.

Lee’s personal website is here.

Getting the Basics Right (Like Communication, and Team Building) – It is Still, and Always, Hard To Do

Getting the steps right is proving brutally hard, even if you know them.
Atul Gawande, The Checklist Manifesto

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This week, I am presenting synopses of Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath and Tribal Leadership:  Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization, both to law enforcement professionals.  (And my colleague Karl Krayer is presenting another book on communication at the same gathering).

Why?

Because, these professionals, like so many others in practically every arena, deal with these two problems:

#1 – how to build, and maintain, effective teams.

#2 – how to communicate, clearly and effectively, to everyone on the team (and to those outside the team).

The more I speak, the more I listen, the more I “consult,” the more I realize this challenge.  It is not a new challenge, it is not a modern challenge.  It is an old challenge.

We don’t get the basics right.

Team building, communication – these are basics.  And after countless books and training seminars on both, we still have unclear communication and ineffective, dysfunctional teams.

My counsel to you – keep working on both of these.  Pay attention to your team members.  Pay careful attention to your spoken and written communications.  Do you listen, and encourage, and include, and support each one of your team members?  Are your e-mails clear – do you put your sentences together effectively?  Do you speak clearly?

Build Teams.  Communicate clearly and effectively.  These are two of the basics we just have to get right.

Overload! A book review by Bob Morris

Overload! How Too Much Information Is Hazardous to Your Organization
Jonathan B. Spira
John Wiley & Sons (2011)

How and why more information usually means less information has impact

Chip and Dan Heath are the co-authors of two brilliant books, Made to Stick and Switch. In the first, they explain (as its subtitle suggests) “why some ideas survive and others die.” In his book, Overload!, Jonathan B. Spira addresses a much larger issue: Why too much information is “hazardous” to an organization’s health and also to the health of many among its workforce. As he explains, “Information Overload is killing us. It is death by a thousand paper cuts in the form of e-mail messages, documents, and interruptions…While there is relatively little we can do about Information Overload, we don’t have to grin and bear it. What does help reduce Information Overload and lessen its impact is 1.) raising awareness and 2.) presenting context and history as to why the problem is occurring.”

He goes on to observe, “Raising awareness helps because most people are simply unaware of the root causes of Information Overload, such as poor search techniques, unnecessarily copying dozens if not hundreds of colleagues on an e-mail, or calling someone two minutes after sending an e-mail simply to tell the recipient of its presence. Providing context and history puts things into perspective.” Spira organizes his material within two Parts: “How We got Here” and then “”Where We Are and What We Can Do.”

My own rather extensive experience supports Spira’s assertion that Information Overload is both the result of several serious problems that are its root causes, and, is itself the root cause of countless other serious problems. For example, in an organization in which senior management has determined that collaboration must be increased and improved, people will be under severe pressure be become much more involved in communication and cooperation between and among associates. This will create an Information Overload that, in turn, consumes time and energy that should have been allocated elsewhere.

I presume to offer four suggestions to those who read this brief commentary. First, decide whether or not you and/or your organization now suffers from Information Overload. If so, pin down precisely what the most serious problem is (e.g. too many non-essential emails to send and/or read, too many non-essential reports to complete or read). Next, carefully check Spira’s coverage of that specific problem in the book. Finally, read Part I and then only the material relevant to the most serious in Part II. All or even most of the problems cannot be solved simultaneously.

I have no quarrel with any of his advice but do think he calls prey to the perils of Information Overload his book was intended to reduce. The more information, insights, and recommendations he provides throughout the 21 (count `em, 21) chapters within 237 pages, the less impact his most important ideas have. I think a much different format that includes reader-friendly devices such as checklists, self-diagnostic exercises, and end-of-chapter summaries of key points would have better served his purposes. One man’s opinions.

That said, I commend Jonathan Spira on the quality of content and the scope and depth of his analysis of serious problems that cause or result from Information Overload. I now urge him to consider an Overload! Fieldbook (with a workbook format), one that correlates with this book’s sequence of subjects but also enables people to interact with the material by completing exercises that accomplish two important objectives: They help the respondent to define the nature and extent of a given problem — in its context — within her or his own situation and/or organization; also, they emphasize the most important points, thus facilitating, indeed expediting frequent review of both those points and responses later.

As I said, one man’s opinions.

As We Speak: A book report by Bob Morris

As We Speak: How to Make Your Point and Have It Stick
Peter Meyers and Shann Nix
Atrria Books (2011)

Here in a single volume, just about all you need to know about high-impact communication

In Chapter 3, Peter Meyers and Shann Nix acknowledge their appreciation of Chip and Dan Heath and especially of what the Heaths share in their masterwork, Made to Stick. I share their high regard for this book and its co-authors. The Heaths’ book and As We Speak complement each other almost seamlessly. For example, the Heaths provide a brilliant explanation of the “what” and “why” of stickiness whereas Meyers and Vann provide an equally brilliant explanation of the “how” as well as of why their recommendations can be so effective.

Here in a single volume is just about all you need to know about high-impact communication, especially after checking out the Heaths’ book and reviewing the Six Principles that all sticky ideas demonstrate. (Please see Pages 16-18.) They are Simplicity, Unexpectedness, Concreteness, Credibility, Emotions, and Telling Stories. Meyers and Nix have decades of experience helping people whose ability to think exceeds their ability to express themselves. “We develop the language and content, put them on their feet, rehearse them, and give them the tools they need to rise to the occasion.” However, and it is impossible for me to exaggerate the importance of this one point: their book offers more – FAR MORE – than “how to do it” advice for public speaking.

They carefully organize their material within five Parts: Content, Delivery, State (i.e. presence), High-Stakes Situations, and Finding Your [own] Voice and Making It Heard. They are determined to help each reader’s thinking gets the expression it deserves, “that the quality of the ideas is matched by the vitality of the [reader’s] presence. The potential applications of what Meyers and Nix hare are almost unlimited because there are so many opportunities to achieve high-impact communication. The audience could be a single person or members of a governing board or several thousand people. The same principles apply: outstanding content + compelling delivery = high impact. As Warren Beatty suggests, “They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.”

After explaining in the first chapter how to ensure that a speech is outcome-focused, relevant, and on point, Meyers and Nix note that when taking the next step, “you can’t just start slapping bricks together. First, you need to know where they go. You need a design. So now it’s time to put together the architecture of ideas.”

The architecture consists of three parts: Ramp (the beginning), Discovery (the middle), and Dessert (the end).

Meyers and Nix suggest three “Master Tips”:

• Get the I/You ratio right: Use ten “You’s” for every “I.”
• You have only seven seconds at the beginning in which the audience decides whether or not they’re going to pay attention.
• Don’t bury the lead. If you don’t hook them right up front, you’ve lost them forever. There are no second chances.

Here are the opening strategies they recommend:

1. Open with the word “You”
2. Use a powerful statistic (i.e. a “sexy number”)
3. Ask an intriguing question.
4. Shock them.
5. Make a confession.
6. Use the word “imagine” to serve as an invitation.
7. Tell an historical anecdote that is relevant to your key point.
8. Tell a story: setting, characters, conflicts, tension, key developments, resolution, etc.

This book is a “must read” for those who want to develop the mindset and the skills to communicate with high impact, whatever the circumstances may be. That assumes, of course, that the content is of a very high quality and appropriate for the given audience. Hence the importance of rigorous preparation. I agree with Peter Meyers and Shann Nix: Ultimately,   “It’s not about you. It’s all about them.”

Clear; Simple; Concrete; Unexpected; Credible; Story; To the Point – Communicating 101

Do you have any idea how much time is wasted trying to figure out just what that other person is trying to say to you?  Do you have any idea how much time is wasted by that other person trying to figure out what you are trying to say?

Unclear messages, whether verbal or written, are massive time wasters.  They create uncertainty, tentativeness, confusion…  If you have something to say, you do everyone a favor if you say it clearly:  get to the point – get it said!

This is the message behind the Heath brothers’ principles of communication, in which they suggest that all speakers/writers communicate using principles such as simplicity and concreteness.

What JFK didn't say: "Our mission is to become the international leader in the space industry..."

Here is the way they put it in their book, Made to Stick:  Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die.

Had John F. Kennedy been a CEO, he would have said:  ”Our mission is to become the international leader in the space industry through maximum team-centered innovation and strategically targeted aerospace initiatives.”
Here’s what he actually said:
“I believe this nation should commit itself, to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.”

Simple?  Yes.  Unexpected?  Yes.  Concrete?  Amazingly so.  Credible?  The goal seemed like science fiction, but the source was credible.  Emotional?  Yes.  Story?  In miniature.

The moon mission was a classic case of a communicator’s dodging the Curse of Knowledge.  It was a brilliant and beautiful idea – a single idea that motivated the actions of millions of people for a decade.

2 Ways to Guarantee a Failed Presentation

(note:  I live in multiple worlds. I read and present synopses of business books, and other nonfiction books;  I speak and consult; and I teach speech, and study speech pretty seriously.  This is a post from that part of my life).

Every failed presentation fails in one of two ways:  the presentation had little or nothing worthwhile to say, or, even if the content was worthwhile, then it was delivered very, very poorly.

Would you like to deliver successful presentations?  It is simple (not easy – just simple) – just have something really worthwhile and useful to say, and then say it very, very well.

That’s it.  Every other tip (and step and piece of advice) simply elaborates on these two.

Aristotle said it first

If you want the academic terms for these two elements, they go all the way back to Aristotle’s canons.  He had five (invention; arrangement; style; memory; delivery — read about all five here), but I think these two really are the whole ball game:

Invention: invention involves finding something to say.  HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY!

Delivery: Delivery concerns itself with how something is said.  SAY IT VERY WELL!

The Invention Part requires a host of elements:  good, genuine, deep preparation; checking out opposing viewpoints and deciding why your view is correct and the other views are incorrect.  Have more to say than the time allotted, thus forcing you to edit effectively; fill your time with great and useful content.  Choose the most effective order for your main points, the right illustrations, the best stories, the right words.  Follow the principles set forth in such books as Made to Stick by the Heath brothers and Words that Work by Frank Luntz.  (see this earlier blog post for a summary of the key content from these two excellent books).  And be sure to select the best possible topic – one that you care deeply about, one that really does matter to your specific audience, one that is born of this time and these circumstances, one that is manageable in the time allotted.

And don’t forget the techniques of the great speakers.  Use repetition – a lot of repetition – on purpose.  In a written essay, repetition can be your enemy.  In a presentation, repetition can be your friend.  Try your best to use parallel structure, especially with your main points.  Don’t have too many main points!

And start in a way that compels the audience to pay attention. And end in a way that sends them forth with a clear understanding of “what next? – now that I’ve heard this presentation, I know the what’s next!”

In other words, before you ever get up to speak, you’ve got your work cut out for you.  It takes a lot of serious, focused preparation to have something worthwhile to say.

The Delivery Part requires a lot of practice (rehearsal) with deliberate practice/work on specific elements.  Start with your posture.  Then your voice.  Then your eye contact.  Then your gestures.

When you actually deliver your presentation, make sure these things happen:

• come across as knowledgeable, but not arrogant
• come close to electrifying the room with your energy
• be perceived as deeply caring about this topic, and these people
• genuinely connect with this audience

Whatever else, don’t fail.  Succeed.  Have something to say, and say it very well.

Book Review: Switch

Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard
Chip Heath & Dan Heath
Broadway Books (2010)

Today, Chip and Dan Heath published their latest book and have once again summoned a lively writing style to present a series of compelling insights that make this book even more interesting as well as more valuable than its predecessor, Made to Stick. As they explain in the first chapter, “In this book, we argue that successful changes share a common pattern. They require the leader of change to do three things at once: To change someone’s behavior, you’ve got to change that person’s situation…[to cope with the fact that change] is hard because people wear themselves out. And that’s the second surprise about change: What looks like laziness is often exhaustion…If you want people to change, you must provide crystal clear direction [because what] looks like resistance is often a lack of clarity.” Throughout their narrative, the Heaths work within this narrative, one best viewed as a “three-part framework,” as they provide countless real-world (as opposed to hypothetical or theoretical] examples and – to their great credit – they provide a context or frame-of-reference for each.

I am especially impressed by how skillfully the Heaths invoke a few extended metaphors and the most important of these are the Rider (i.e. our rational side), the Elephant, (i.e. our emotional and instinctive side) and the Path (i.e. the surrounding environment in which change initiatives will be conducted). The challenge is to direct the Rider, motivate the Elephant, and shape the Path to make change more likely, “no matter what’s happening with the Rider and Elephant…If you can do all three at once, dramatic change can happen even if you don’t have lots of power or resources behind you.”

Consider the example of Donald Berwick. In 2004, in his position as a doctor and the CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), he had developed some ideas as to “how to save lives – massive numbers of lives” and his ideas were so well-supported by research that they were indisputable and yet “little was happening” until he spoke at a professional meeting and proposed six very specific interventions to save lives. Within two months, more than 1,000 hospitals had signed up. Eighteen months later, to the day (June 14, 2006) he had previously announced that he’d promised to return, he announced the results: “Hospitals enrolled in the 100,000 Lives Campaign have collectively prevented an estimated 122,300 avoidable deaths and, as importantly, have begun to institutionalize new standards of care that will continue to save lives and improve health outcomes into the future.” He had directed his audience’s Riders (i.e. hospital administrators), he had motivated his audience’s Elephants by making them feel the compelling need for change, and he had shaped the Path by making it easier for the hospitals to embrace the change. The Heaths offer more than a dozen other prime examples (e.g. Jerry Sternin in Vietnam, the Five-Minute Room Rescue, “Fataki” in Tanzania) that also demonstrate how the same three-part framework
resulted in the achievement of major changes elsewhere despite great difficulty.

Near the end of the book, the Heaths summarize the key points they have so thoroughly made while explaining to their reader how to make a switch. “For things to change, somebody somewhere has to start acting differently. Maybe it’s you, maybe it’s your team. Picture the person (or people). Each has an emotional Elephant side and a rational Rider side. You’ve got to reach both. And you’ve also got to clear the way for them to succeed.” By now, the Heaths have explained how others have directed the Rider, motivated the Elephant, and shaped the Path. They conclude their book with a Q&A section during which they advise how to resolve twelve problems that people encounter as they fight for change. They suggest, and I agree, that this advice “won’t make sense to anybody who hasn’t read the book.” The same can probably be said about much of what I have shared in this review.

One man’s opinion, Switch is one of the most informative, hence one of the most valuable books published in recent years. Heartiest congratulations to Chip and Dan Heath on their latest brilliant achievement!

The Disappearing University Education and the Rise of the Trade School Education — a serious, festering problem (w/reading suggestions)

It’s tough for college graduates out there, thus it is tough for current college students.  What should today’s student major in?  In today’s NY Times, one of the top e-mailed articles wrestles with this question: CAREER U. — Making College ‘Relevant’ by Kate Zerniuke.

After discussing the decline of/loss of philosophy majors, and the ascendancy of business majors, here is a key excerpt:

There’s evidence, though, that employers also don’t want students specializing too soon. The Association of American Colleges and Universities recently asked employers who hire at least 25 percent of their workforce from two- or four-year colleges what they want institutions to teach. The answers did not suggest a narrow focus. Instead, 89 percent said they wanted more emphasis on “the ability to effectively communicate orally and in writing,” 81 percent asked for better “critical thinking and analytical reasoning skills” and 70 percent were looking for “the ability to innovate and be creative.”
“It’s not about what you should major in, but that no matter what you major in, you need good writing skills and good speaking skills,” says Debra Humphreys, a vice president at the association.

Here’s my opinion.  I understand that people need jobs, and that the jobs are tougher to get with a humanities/philosophy/English degree.  But I have heard my share of mediocre presentations, read my share of mediocre business writings, and seen my share of ethical lapses.  The humanities matter.  And I think that business will rediscover a need for such thinking/training.  And for those who did not take enough of such subjects, they have some remedial work to do.  And, yes, I know that it is tough to do this with a “catch-up” approach.  (I wrote about this earlier, based on an article from Harper’s: Dehumanized — A Cause for Alarm in Education, and in the World of Business Books).

You can’t read a book or two to make up for lost years of foundational learning.  But, let’s use the paragraph above as providing to set an agenda for some reading in 2010.  Here are some suggestions:

If you need to work on:	Then you might want to read:
“the ability to effectively communicate orally and in writing,”	Words that Work by Frank Luntz; and Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
“critical thinking and analytical reasoning skills”	Big Think Strategy: How to Leverage Bold Ideas and Leave Small Thinking Behind by Bernd H. Schmitt; and The Opposable Mind: How Successful Leaders Win Through Integrative Thinking by Roger L. Martin.
“the ability to innovate and be creative.”	The Creative Habit:  Learn It and Use It for Life by Twyla Tharp and The Art of Innovation (Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America’s Leading Design Firm) by Tom Kelley

This is a subject worth following.

Here’s A Four Step Process For Effective Communication

I have posted earlier about some excellent communication advice from the Heath brothers (Made to Stick), and from Frank Luntz. (Words that Work).  They each have terrific suggestions for effective communication strategies.

But if you are like me, you can always use a few reminders.  And I am constantly wrestling with just how a person can learn to communicate clearly.  Part of this comes from one of the arenas of my life – I teach speech as a member of the adjunct faculty in the Dallas County Community College system.  And so I try to explain/demonstrate/teach the basics to entry level college students.  This is not as easy as it sounds.

Here’s my current summary to a four step process for an effective communication encounter/message/presentation:

1)            Get their attention.
All effective communication starts with an effective “hook,” an engaging way to get your audience to say, “Yes, this is something I want to hear and understand.”  Fail at this step, and nothing else you say will be heard at all.

2)            Have something important/worthwhile/useful to say.
If you do not have anything worth hearing/reading, it is best to keep your mouth shut and your pen still.  We are all overwhelmed with too many messages.  So, if you want me to pay attention to your message, please make it worth my time.  I do not have any time to waste on any message that is not teaching me/challenging me/helping me.  Have something to say that is worth saying!

3)            Say it very well, very clearly.
In a verbal presentation, this includes such issues as organization and enunciation.  A good, effective organization (here are my main points; here are action items for you to implement; here is information you can use…  the list is long, the possibilities many) makes it easier for the recipient of your message to grasp what you have in mind.  Remember, no hassles! If someone has to strain to understand your message, you have failed to begin with.

4)            Conclude with a very clear next step.
Call this what you want:  a call to action, a request for a decision, the closing of the deal.  But effective communication always ends with, “and this is what you can/should do next, now that you have heard and understood this message.”  Or, in infomercial/advertising speak, “call now!”

Remember these four, practice them with increasing skill, and you will get your message across.  Ignore them, and you might discover that nobody is listening.