Transcription
I recently read a fantastic book about effective communication titled Made to Stick. This book will help you to organize your thoughts with clarity, talk with such precision that the other person clearly understands your message, not only that, but also motivate them to do what you want them to do because you were so persuasive and impactful.
The book consists of six principles. In this video, I'll summarize five of them that I personally found helpful.
First principle: Unexpected. The first requirement of effective communication is getting attention. The second is keeping it. In order to get attention, you need to introduce your message in an unexpected way. Humans think in patterns. Our brain is a guessing machine, always trying to predict what is going to happen next. The key is to break that pattern and then fix it. For example, according to statistics, every year deer kill more people than sharks in the United States. Right now, you might say, "What? How's this possible? How can such a nice animal kill more people than sharks?" This information is unexpected because it is against the image in your mind. Most probably, you'll want to hear the rest of the story. Well, the rest of the story is that deer really do kill more people because they cause a lot of traffic accidents. So, to apply this principle to your message, you need two things: first, identify the core of your message; second, figure out what is counterintuitive about this core message and communicate it in a way that breaks your audience's pattern. The most difficult part is finding the core of your message. In the second lesson, I will explain how to do that.
The second principle: Simplicity. The formula for simplicity is this: simple equals core plus compact. Simple doesn't mean dumbing down your message. It means determining the essence of your message and compactly delivering it. Let me first explain how you can find the core of your message, then I will explain how to make it compact.
Finding the core: Journalists have a method for this called the inverted pyramid, where they deliver the most essential part of their message first and only then add supporting details. Journalists know that the first 5 to 10 seconds are all they have to catch their audience's attention, so they deliver the core of their message first, and then the rest of the details are added. Another way to find the core is using a method called Commander Intent. Imagine you're in the middle of a war and you can teleg only one single message before the line gets cut. What would it be? Inverted pyramid and Commander Intent are great methods because they force you to eliminate everything and focus on the single most important thing and nothing else.
Once you've found the core, the next step is to make it compact. Here are two tactics to make your message compact:
First, use memory flags and tap into the existing memory of your audience. For example, let's say you do a survey on your team and find out that only 37% know the goal you're trying to achieve. You get very upset with this and decide to meet with your team and explain the seriousness of the situation. When you're presenting, instead of saying that only 37% of our team knows our target, you can say, "We are a soccer team with 11 players. However, seven players, including the goalkeeper, don't know which side they are attacking. Only four players know it. The remaining seven players have no idea." Using the soccer game as a flag makes a more significant impact because employees can easily understand how terrible a team can look with seven players not knowing which side to attack and which to defend.
Second tactic: Analogies. Dean Sherman was an algebra teacher who would often get the question, "When are we really going to use this in real life?" Dean says, "First, I was really annoyed and would bring different justifications why they should take algebra seriously. But now I say, 'Never. You'll you'll never use this in your life.' But here's the thing: you don't go to the gym and lift weights because one day someone might lie you down in the middle of the street and put a barbell on your chest and ask you to bench press. You lift weights because you want to be strong and healthy. You do it so that one day you can lift your grandchildren without being sore. You do it so that you can carry your groceries. Math is the same. You do math exercises to improve your ability to think logically so that you can become a lawyer, a doctor, or an architect." This analogy is quite effective because it makes you understand why you are studying math. Besides that, if you noticed, the opening sentence was unexpected and breaks the pattern: "Never. You will never use this in your life."
So, to summarize, simple equals core plus compact. Use the inverted pyramid or Commander Intent methods to find the core, and to make the core message compact, use analogies or memory flags.
Third principle: Concrete. Concrete means the more people can see it, feel it, smell it, and hear it, the more something feels real. Experts tend to get more abstract because they have so much knowledge. Abstract ideas are hard to understand and remember, and because of that, they are open to different interpretations. Which one do you think is easier to remember: bicycle or injustice? If I tell you that movie popcorn contains 20g of fat, this doesn't mean a lot to you. But instead, if I say that movie popcorn has more fat than bacon and eggs for breakfast, a Big Mac and fries for lunch, and a steak for dinner, all combined, you're more likely to avoid popcorn in the future, which is the essence of effective communication: making people act. You don't just want them to understand your message; you also want them to take action. You don't want your kids to just understand the importance of math; you also want them to study math.
If you are working in a corporate environment, you've probably heard the phrases such as "mission statement," "vision," "synergies," "strategic initiatives," etc. Many experts in the companies use these types of fancy words in their presentations, which puts the audience to sleep. Experts suffer from a phenomenon called The Curse of Knowledge. According to this phenomenon, once we know something, we forget how hard it was not to know it. We forget how hard it was to be a beginner. Our knowledge has cursed us, and we can't put ourselves into our listener's shoes.
There's a famous experiment called Tapper and Listener. In this experiment, they took a group of people and divided them into two: tappers and listeners. Tappers received a list of well-known songs, such as "Happy Birthday to You." Each tapper was asked to tap the rhythm of the song to a listener by knocking on a table. The listener's job was to guess the song based on the rhythm being tapped. Before the listeners guessed the song's name, the experimenter asked the tappers to predict the odds that the listeners would guess correctly. Tappers predicted the odds were 1 out of 2 (50%). However, in reality, listeners guessed the song correctly only 1 out of 40 (2.5%). This is the curse of knowledge. This is one of the reasons your teachers think that she's done an excellent job at explaining the subject, but in reality, she hasn't. This experiment repeats itself daily between managers and employees, teachers and students, marketers and customers, writers and readers.
So, to sum up this third principle: to make your message concrete, use words or phrases that are easy to feel, see, or hear. Always keep the curse of knowledge in mind and avoid using abstract words.
The fourth principle: Stories. A boy named Jared had a serious weight problem. By his junior year in college, Jared had ballooned to 425 lbs (192 kg). He wore 6XL size shirts, which is the largest size. His life's decisions were controlled by his weight. When he registered for a class, he didn't base his choice on the professor or class time like most students; he based his classes to register on whether he could fit into the classroom seats. When most folks worried whether they could find a parking spot close to campus, Jared worried whether he could find a parking spot without a car already parked nearby because he needed the extra room in order to fully open the door so that he could get out. His father, a general practitioner, warned him that his weight might not let him live past 35.
But by spring break, Jared had decided to change his life by following a strict diet that he invented himself. He once ate a Subway sandwich and liked it so much that he decided to create a diet based on Subway sandwiches only. By following the Subway diet, he lost almost 100 lbs (45 kg) in three months, and he kept losing more and more weight. After losing significant weight, his body allowed him to start his fitness routine. He started walking as much as he could and avoided the use of public transportation and escalators.
When an article was published about Jared, his transformation story became a national phenomenon in America. The article described how being obese had affected Jared's daily life and how Subway, a fast-food restaurant, had helped him transform his life. The article ended with a quote from Jared saying, "Subway helped save my life and start over. I can't ever repay that." This was the first time a fast-food chain was credited with positively transforming someone's life in such a profound way. Jared's story got so viral that everyone wanted to talk about him on their platform. In 1999, Subway's sales were flat. In 2000, sales jumped 18%, and they jumped another 16% in 2001. Just for comparison, at the time, other fast-growing smaller fast-food chains were growing only at a rate of 7% per year.
Jared's story serves as an inspiration to people who are struggling to lose weight. It's a story of perseverance and determination and shows how this huge guy lost 245 lbs (111 kg) on a diet that he invented himself. The story provides good motivation for anyone who has been struggling to lose just a few pounds and is in need of a boost of inspiration.
If you are skeptical about using stories to deliver your message, then here are four key reasons that will change your mind:
Number one: The success of the Jared campaign serves as a reminder that people are often more interested in hearing about real-life inspiring stories than statistics or marketing campaigns. A story has the power to connect with people on a personal level, making it more impactful.
Number two: When we hear a story, we are not just hearing it; we are also reliving it. The story doesn't just transmit the information; it also draws us in and makes us feel what the main character is feeling, such as fear, insecurity, courage, etc. We almost feel like the things happening to the character are also happening to us.
Number three: The message you deliver through a story lives much longer. People remember stories even after years have passed. For example, after this video has ended, you will not remember most of the things you heard, but Jared's story will probably stay with you.
Number four: You don't have to have your own stories, or you don't have to invent stories. You just need to be able to detect good stories that already exist around you. For example, Jared's story was detected by one of the managers.
Fifth principle: Emotional. Mother Teresa once said, "If I look at the mass, I will never act. If I look at one, I will." Researchers wanted to test this idea and see how people responded to charitable contributions to an abstract cause versus a single person. They offered participants $5 to complete a survey, and they received an envelope with the charity request letter, giving them the opportunity to donate some of their money to Save the Children, a charity focused on the well-being of children worldwide.
The researchers tested two versions of the request letter. The first version featured statistics about the problems faced by children in Africa, such as food shortages in Malawi affecting more than 3 million children. The other version was about a single young girl, Rokia, from Mali. Rokia is desperately poor and faces the threat of severe hunger and starvation. The letter in detail explained how her life will be changed for the better if they donate. On average, people who read about Rokia's story contributed $2.38, which was more than twice as much as the people who read the statistics, who contributed $1.14. It seems that most people have something in common with Mother Teresa: one individual trumps the masses.
But the study doesn't end here. The researchers gave both groups of people Rokia's story, but this time, before reading her story, they asked one group to do some calculations, and another group was asked to describe some feelings, such as describing the feeling when they hear the word "baby." When people were primed to feel before reading the story, they gave $2.34, the same as before. However, the other group, who read the same Rokia story but was primed to calculate, gave only $1.26. These results are shocking. The simple act of doing random calculations reduced people's charity donations, despite the fact that they read the same emotional Rokia story. It seems like once we put on our analytical hat, we react differently, even if the story is emotional.
So, the conclusion for you is this:
Number one: When delivering your message, create empathy for specific individuals. Don't address the masses.
Number two: Help people to take off their analytical hats and put on their emotional hats before you deliver your message. What you do or say before you deliver your message can be more impactful than the message itself.
Psychologist Robert Cialdini has a great book on this topic titled *Influence*. In the book, Robert concludes that if I can shift your attention to, let's say, helpfulness, fairness, or romance before I deliver my message, then at that moment, you become a helpful, fair, or romantic person. In other words, by using persuasion tactics, I can change your identity in that particular situation. I can change who you are. I can change how you perceive yourself, and I can change how you perceive me and my message.
If you'd like to learn more about persuasion tactics, then check out the video you see on your screen. It's the summary of the book I just mentioned. Thanks for watching.