Brief

Make a Bigger Impact by Saying Less

Joseph McCormack
Wiley 2014
256 pages
[@] getab.li/27517
Book:

Rating

8 Applicability
7 Innovation
8 Style

Focus
Leadership & Management
Strategy
Sales & Marketing
Finance
Human Resources
IT, Production & Logistics
Career & Self-Development
Small Business
Economics & Politics

Take-Aways
People wont read or listen to lengthy messages, so make yours short, sweet and to
the point.

Short attention spans grow shorter daily, and distractions divert people quickly.
Learn to communicate briefly as a habit.
Dont equate brevity with superficiality. Provide smart, savvy deep brevity.
Seven capital sins work against brevity: cowardice, confidence, callousness,
comfort, confusion, complication and carelessness.

Lean, clean communications rest on four practices:

Map it. Outline what you plan to share.
Tell it. Tell a story to get your points across.
Talk it. Avoid monologues. Make your discussions controlled conversations instead
so you involve others and discover what matters to them.

Show it. Illustrate your tale with photos, graphics and other visuals.

Industries
Global Business
Concepts & Trends

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Relevance

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What You Will Learn
In this summary, you will learn:r1) Why brevity is important, 2) What seven capital sins work against
brevity, 3) What four practices support lean, clean communications, and 4) What methods you can use to communicate
succinctly.
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Review
Communications consultant Joseph McCormack presents valuable tips on how to convey information leanly and
meanly. Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche wrote: It is my ambition to say in 10 sentences what others say in a whole
book. Or take an almost perfect example of a telling message that is short, sweet and to the point: champion boxer
Muhammad Alis short-short poem, Me? Whee! Amid todays information overload, lean messaging is essential if
you want people to get your point. getAbstract recommends McCormacks manual to anyone seeking to communicate
concisely and clearly.
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Summary

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When you want to
get more, decide to say
less. Those who want to
succeed even thrive
in an attention-deficit
economy are masters of
lean communication.
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Blah, Blah, Blah

Todays constant barrage of information leaves you totally exhausted. Many people
claim to feel as if they suffer attention-deficit disorder. Roger Bohn and James Short
of the University of California at San Diego report that Americans collectively manage
approximately 1.3 trillion hours of information above the information they manage at work.
The average American consumed 100,500 words on an average day.
If you have something to communicate, be brief. Get to the point immediately and get your
message across quickly in the clearest, most cogent way before something distracts your
overloaded readers or listeners.
Deep Brevity
As you practice brevity, dont equate it with superficiality. Your goal should be deep brevity
being succinct and savvy. If youre not efficient, people wont hear what you want
to communicate. Despite the importance of brevity, few people speak directly, clearly and
concisely.
Besides just liking to talk, this failing stems from the seven capital sins that sabotage
brevity:

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When you think you
have an hour and you
wait to deliver the
good stuff until the end,
youre too late.
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1. Cowardice You need to communicate about a subject involving numerous

perspectives and ramifications. You feel you must fully explain each of these aspects.
You are afraid to leave anything out.
2. Confidence You know the subject so well you could easily go on for hours.
3. Callousness You fail to consider others needs or to respect their time. You drone
on, which is the last thing people want.
4. Comfort Once you begin to speak, you feel so at home that you dont shut up.
5. Confusion Your mind juggles umpteen diverse details. Trying to blurt out all of this
information at the same time is a mistake.
6. Complication You believe your subject is too complex to explain briefly.

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7. Carelessness You are intemperate in your commentary and say something you
shouldnt say. That wastes time.
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If you are giving
people progress reports,
being brief requires that
you give them what they
are looking for not all
of the other details and
information they really
dont care about.
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Whereas we remember
only 10 % of what we
hear and 30% of what
we read, we remember
a whopping 80% of
what we see.
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Narrative mapping
synthesizes volumes
of information into
a visual outline that
produces a logical,
strategic, highly
contextual and relevant
story.
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From blogs and
microblogs to Twitter,
Instagram and beyond,
there has been a
growing emphasis to
make communication
easier and shorter to
produce and share
content online.
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Strategies For Brevity

Make brevity second nature. Make your communications short and sweet. Make habitual
brevity part of your mental muscle memory. You can use four proven strategies to make
brevity the signature element of your communications style:
1. Map It
Before you communicate, plan your approach. Never improvise. Outline your primary ideas
on paper. Mapping helps you to be succinct. Plan the way your ideas will connect. This
works for any type of communication even a telephone call. Write out your four most
important points.
Outlining delivers important benefits. It fully prepares you to communicate effectively. It
also organizes your thoughts, which will help you get all of your points across. If you make
a roadmap, youll have a clear understanding of what you want to communicate. Youll be
ready to provide needed context, and youll feel confident that you can share a compelling,
complete story.
2. Tell It
Everyone loves to hear a good story. People remember stories, in marked contrast to the
corporate speak that characterizes many business communications today, and which
doesnt engage people at all. Rather than boring people and turning them off, use narrative
storytelling as a primary component of your communications strategy.
Storytelling helps you be clear, concise and compelling. It conveys your points quickly
and in the most commanding fashion. In 2007, Steve Jobs debuted the inaugural iPhone
at MacWorld in 2007 by telling a story. He began by saying, Every once in a while,
a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything, Today, Apple is going to
reinvent the phone.
Jobs explained that Apple was a special company that developed products to meet peoples
most fundamental need. All stories require a villain or a conflict. In Jobss story,
the villains were Apples competitors who manufactured hard-to-use cellphones. Jobs
finished his story by explaining that the iPhone would prove to be one of the worlds most
groundbreaking products.
For effective storytelling, keep your story short. Long stories bore listeners. And dont
fall in love with fables. For an effective communication, Once upon a time wont cut
it. Instead, quickly communicate your subjects core information, why, how, who, when,
where and what in a compelling, universal tale.
Your associates may want to use a narrative storytelling technique, but they might not know
just how it works. To help your team, dont just instruct them to use narratives. Instead,
help them learn how to tell stories.
Start by teaching them the elements of the narrative map:
Focal point This is your headline, or main narrative element.
Setup This explains the main marketplace challenge that your organization plans

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Like Apple, businesses
that embrace stories
can make quick
connections that last.
Those that feel stories
arent appropriate
leave people hungry,
confused and irritated.
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People are eager
for stories. Not
dissertations.
Not lectures.
Not informative
essays. (Kendall
Haven, Story Proof )
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Brevity is your
weapon and it starts
with the rsum. Trim
it, highlight your
successes and put them
in context.
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to address.
Opportunity This is the aha moment when you make things change by explaining
how your organization is responding to this moment in the market.
Approach How does the tale develop? List the people involved or explain the who,
why and when.
Payoff Begin and conclude your story by explaining how your audience or company
will benefit.
3. Talk It
People dislike long monologues. A light, conversational, to-the-point style engages people
more than formal speechmaking. Your job is to keep the people on the other side of the
conversation actively involved. This is an uphill struggle when you are the only speaker.
Set out to establish controlled conversations in which both parties willingly engage in
an exchange.
Avoid three commonplace conversational mistakes:
1. Passive listening You allow the other party to expound without saying anything.
2. Waiting my turn The other person says something and, without really hearing, you
say something. This common practice is rude, and it leads to having two people talking
past each other in two separate conversations,
3. Impulsively reacting A single word sets you off, and you immediately respond.
4. Show It
Dynamic images can help you deliver your message in the most powerful way. Visual
communications are always stronger than unadorned text. This is particularly true in todays
high-tech world, where computer screens and monitors dominate. Pictures, graphics and
other visuals engage readers and command their attention. Visuals deliver more information
than words in a compelling, efficient editorial package. Efficiency is a signal characteristic
of brevity.
The USA Today approach, which has had a profound effect on editorial communications
and is directly responsible for the burgeoning field of infographics provides a sound
example of the power of graphics and visuals. By incorporating strong graphic elements
into its editorial format, USA Today makes its stories shorter while delivering maximum
impact and information.
Truths, Implications, Plans/Practices (TIPS)
Refer to these less is more tips to keep your communications brief, clear and to the point.
They will help you engage your audience, whether its one person or 10,000:

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Good interviewsare
short and to the point.
You make it easy for
your potential employer
to understand who you
are, where youve come
from and why youve
been successful.
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Brevitys basic requirements You need plenty of planning, preparation and discipline.
Respect your audience members and never waste their time.
The elusive 600 Humans can speak at a rate of around 150 words per minute, and
the mind can process around 750 words a minute. A listeners mind can wander while
you speak. With any distraction, your audience members focus can drift. To command
their attention, be brief and direct.
Why Why Why Communicate with a why, why, why approach. Get to the point
immediately. Hit it hard and revisit it throughout your presentation. Why is the core of
your message. Your audience will find it impossible to understand what you are trying
to say if you dont supply reasons. Solidify your why by including the phrase And

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To be brief is to create
a compact quality of
expression.
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I think that ideas
have to be extremely
brief. Three words are
better than four, or four
words are better than
six. Kristi Faulkner,
president and founder,
Womenkind
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When we fail to be
clear and concise, the
consequences can be
brutal: wasted time,
money and resources;
decisions made in
confusion; worthy ideas
rejected; people sent
off in wrong directions;
done deals that always
seem to stall.
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this is important because

Use headlines Dont make people guess what you are trying to communicate. Take a
tip from the newspapers and include a big, up-front headline that makes everything clear.
Trim, trim and trim You never want to just spill every thought that enters your mind.
Edit, and then edit some more.
Shape what you communicate by listening to others Make sure your message will
be relevant to your audience.
The power of three The best way to organize your material and to secure the
attention of your audience is to group everything into threes. This gives your audience
an easy way to manage the information you present.
Cut it in half No matter how much speaking time is allotted to you, use only half
of it. This is a great practice for all your communications, but especially for meetings.
Be authentic You will never go wrong when you speak in your true voice.
Paint a picture People think visually. Your audience will respond better to what you
say when you use anecdotes and stories to get your idea across.
Dont be a motor mouth Many speakers dont know when to shut up. Introduce
intelligent pauses into your delivery.
Skip the written notes They make you seem artificial.
Dont get too comfortable Youre fooling yourself if you think that the longer you
are in front of your audience members, the more they will hang on your every word.
Nobody cares unless you do Be passionate about your message. If you dont have
emotional involvement with your material, dont expect your audience to care.
PowerPoint Keep your slides to an absolute minimum (10 or less). Dont stuff each
slide with a lot of dense information. Include images to spice up your text.
Make sure no assembly is required The more comprehensible you make your
information, the more successful you will be. Today, people cant focus; they find it hard
to pay attention for more than 10 seconds at a time.
Put it on a cracker Serve a brief summary up front, like an snack on a cracker, by
explaining what you intend to communicate. This gives you an opportunity to determine
if your audience is ready, willing and able to digest the verbal meal you plan to serve.
Whats in it for me? People wont invest their attention unless they receive some
kind of payoff. Tell your audience right away what they will gain by listening.
Presentations When you begin, most of your audience thinks, How long is this going
to last? Take a tip from TED Talks: Keep your presentation to 18 minutes or less.
Meetings Dont fritter away the valuable time of the people who work with you or for
you. Establish strict meeting time limits.
Emails Just as you must do with meetings, keep your emails short. This demonstrates
respect for your colleagues.
Sales pitches Involve your prospects right from the start. To get a discussion going,
stay away from monologues. When its time to deliver your pitch, be ready to present
it in two minutes or less.
Commit to being clear and concise You will always have a more positive impact
on your audience if you show them you respect their time. The best way to do that is
to keep it short.

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About the Author

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Joseph McCormack is founder of the BRIEF Lab and consults with executives on how to disseminate their
messages.
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